The Secret Language of Symbols: The River

Photo by Daniel Arroyo on Unsplash

A river rarely moves in a straight line.

It begins somewhere hidden, as a spring, a source, a small stirring beneath the earth. Then it gathers itself. It widens, deepens, bends, rushes, slows, floods, dries, and somehow keeps finding its way.

Rather like us, really.

Symbolically, the river can speak of feeling, change, grief, longing, surrender, and the deeper current of the unconscious. We may like to think we are in charge of our lives, sitting neatly at the steering wheel with a sensible packed lunch and a five-year plan. Then life happens, and we discover there is another current moving underneath us. Older. Deeper. Less interested in our diary.

A river can soothe and nourish. It can cleanse, carry, restore and bring life to dry places. But it can also feel frightening. Too much feeling can be like water rising. We may fear being swept away by sadness, anger, love, loss, or the sheer force of change.

In therapy, the image of a river might invite us to wonder:

Where am I flowing freely?

Where have I become dammed or blocked?

What am I trying to hold back?

And where might life be asking me to loosen my grip on the bank, even if only by one finger?

The river also reminds us that change is not always dramatic. Water wears away stone by returning, again and again. In the same way, healing often happens slowly, through repeated acts of attention, honesty and compassion.

That patient movement through difficulty toward growth is also at the heart of my book, The Seeds of Change: How Therapists Cultivate Personal Growth.

As with all symbols, the river will mean something different to each of us. For one person, it may feel peaceful. For another, dangerous. For another, full of memory.

So perhaps the question is not, what does the river mean?

But:

What is moving in me?

What needs to flow?

And what might happen if I trusted the current a little more?

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