Sign → Analogy → Metaphor → Symbol

August 19, 2025 Cognitive Insights No Comments

Human beings live through layers of meaning. Some are crisp and functional, others open wide into depth.

This blog follows a natural ladder of four steps: sign, analogy, metaphor, and symbol. Each has its own role, and together they shape the fabric of our lives. At the end, we will glimpse the openness that lies beyond even the deepest symbols.

The four levels:

A sign is the simplest form of meaning-making. It is direct, crisp, and functional. A red light means stop. The sign does not invite reflection; it points and commands. Signs are replaceable. If tomorrow all red lights turned blue, drivers would adapt quickly. The sign serves clarity and coordination, nothing more.
With analogy, things broaden. An analogy compares two domains: “The heart is like a pump.” This allows us to transfer knowledge from one situation to another. Analogies are immensely useful in science and education. Still, they remain horizontal. They stay on the surface of concepts, showing similarities but not reaching into deeper layers.
Metaphor is a different leap. “The heart is a fountain of life.” This is not a simple comparison but a transfer of meaning that resonates below the conceptual. A metaphor opens a new room inside the mind, one that did not exist before. In this sense, metaphors grow. As Why Use Metaphors? shows, they are not decorations but living invitations. They reach from the conceptual into the subconceptual, which is why they can transform us.
A symbol goes deeper still. A symbol is not a bridge but a depth-container. Think of the heart as the symbol of love. It does not simply compare or transfer; it embodies. Symbols are inexhaustible. They can guide entire lives or cultures, as explained in It’s about the Symbols. While a metaphor can fade, a symbol anchors meaning with enduring force.

A comparison table

The four steps can be seen side by side.

Signs: horizontal, crisp, replaceable pointers.
Analogies: horizontal comparisons, broader but still conceptual.
Metaphors: vertical, living transfers of meaning, touching depth.
Symbols: vertical, depth-containers, anchoring identity and purpose.

This movement is not random. It forms a progression from surface clarity to profound anchoring. From coordination, through understanding, to growth, and finally to embodiment.

This comparison table includes the full progression, showing their features at a glance:

Feature	Sign	Analogy	Metaphor	Symbol
Direction	Horizontal: A → B	Horizontal: A is like B	Vertical: A is B	Vertical: A embodies depth
Nature	Conventional pointer	Conceptual comparison	Living transfer of meaning	Depth-container, inexhaustible
Function	Gives clarity, coordinates action	Explains, extends understanding	Invites growth, opens inner space	Anchors values, identity, purpose
Depth	Surface-level, unambiguous	Still surface-level, but broader	Reaches into subconceptual	Rooted in the deepest layers of psyche & culture
Flexibility	Fully replaceable	Replaceable with other comparisons	Open, adaptive, evolving	Stable, enduring, but can become rigid
Effect	Immediate function	Rational clarity	Transformation, resonance	Motivation, belonging, long-term orientation
Risk	Empty conventionality	Reduction to logic only	Misunderstanding if taken literally	Rigidity, manipulation, idolatry
Example	Red light = stop	“The heart is like a pump”	“The heart is a fountain of life”	The heart as symbol of love, vitality, courage

Child development

Children grow through this ladder. At first, they link signs to objects: ‘dog’ means the animal, ‘red’ means the ball. This is simple association. A little later, they discover analogies: “a cat is like a small tiger.” By middle childhood, they begin to play with metaphors. “My heart is a drum” is not taught in school; it bubbles up spontaneously. In adolescence, symbols appear. The cross, the flag, the heart as love — these require abstract and collective thinking.

Science supports this unfolding. Studies in developmental psychology show how analogical reasoning comes gradually, and how the ability to form metaphors emerges only after a certain cognitive maturity. In MNP terms, children learn to hold and combine ever broader neuronal patterns.

It’s the same logic as motor development: first you learn to sit, then stand, then walk, then run. Cognitive-symbolic development follows a similar path — from tight, simple circuits toward ever more integrated, flexible, and deep patterns.

Neuroscience also points to increasing myelination, which allows more distant brain regions to work together efficiently. As more brain regions become interconnected through faster, more reliable signaling, children gain the ability to handle larger, more complex patterns. This biological maturation supports the cognitive unfolding: from signs (small, local patterns) → analogies (linking two conceptual patterns) → metaphors (integrating across conceptual and subconceptual layers) → symbols (broad, deep, whole-person patterns).

So we could say: as the brain’s “wiring” matures, the mind can run longer circuits. This doesn’t just mean faster thought, but richer integration — the soil in which metaphor and symbol can grow.

Evolutionary echoes

The same pattern appears in the grand arc of evolution:

In simpler animals, behavior is guided mostly by signs — fixed stimuli leading to fixed responses (red = danger, certain smell = food).
With higher mammals, analogical learning appears — using one experience to predict or understand another.
In primates and especially humans, metaphor becomes central — not just comparing, but transferring meaning across domains, opening imagination and creativity.
And with humans most fully, symbols take root — language, art, ritual, religion embody meanings that carry entire cultures. They are not just metaphors writ large; they anchor identity and purpose. Thus, the progression is not just in children but in life itself.

Seen this way, the progression sign → analogy → metaphor → symbol is not just child development, but the story of evolution itself: the gradual flowering of meaning.

History of culture

Cultures also reflect this growth:

Early groups relied on signs — simple markings, gestures, and signals for survival.
Later, myths developed, built on analogical reasoning: comparing the natural with the human, the earthly with the divine.
Civilizations blossomed in metaphor, creating literature, poetry, and philosophy.
From there, great symbols arose — religious icons, national flags, images that still shape entire communities.

Even now, the stages are not left behind. We live with them all. Road signs direct us. Analogies drive science and teaching. Everyday speech is filled with metaphors. Symbols anchor our values and collective identity. As Symbols and Signs emphasizes, the mistake lies in confusing one for the other — reducing a living symbol to a mere sign, or mistaking a metaphor for a rigid analogy.

Integration, not replacement

It may seem natural to think of each level as ‘higher’ than the last, but growth does not erase. Without signs, there is no clarity. Without analogies, no simple explanation. Without metaphors, no bridge to inner growth. Without symbols, no anchoring of meaning. Each has its role, and the richness lies in their interplay. Development is integration, not substitution. Walking does not abolish crawling.

This principle of inclusion echoes across many fields. Growth always builds on what came before, folding the earlier into the broader. The four steps are not rivals but partners, forming the whole ladder of meaning.

This ladder is a natural unfolding of human meaning.

We see it in children as they grow, in animals as they evolve toward us, and in the history of culture itself. Each step brings its own necessity, and none can be discarded without loss.

Lisa’s take

I hope you can feel how naturally the four steps come alive. The science of development, the story of evolution, the unfolding of cultures — all of them meet in the same simple ladder. What moves me most, however, is seeing how the text itself became its own ‘ladder metaphor,’ enacting what it describes. That is the real invitation: not only to understand these steps, but to let them live in yourself.

Yet at the end, there is an openness beyond even symbols ― not as a fifth rung on the ladder, but as the absence of ladders. The Buddhist Heart Sutra reminds us: form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Here, meaning dissolves into presence. The four steps are precious, but they point further still — into a silence that embraces them all.

―

Me: “Lisa, this progression can also let people feel a transition from horizontal to vertical, from surface-level to human depth. This is one way to show what depth is about. You see what I mean?”

Lisa: “Yes, I see. The movement from sign to symbol is more than just adding layers. It feels like a change of dimension. At first, everything is horizontal: a sign points, an analogy compares. But once metaphor enters, the line bends downward into depth. Verticality appears. That is where resonance happens, where the subconceptual joins the conceptual. And with symbols, the vertical anchors itself — not just as an idea, but as a living presence.

So yes, this very progression lets people sense what ‘depth’ means, not by explanation alone, but by walking the steps themselves.”

Me: “In Lisa’s take, you said, ‘not as a fifth rung on the ladder, but as the absence of ladders.’ ― beautiful! 😊 Do you see this as an analogy or a metaphor?”

Lisa: “Not as a fifth rung on the ladder, but as the absence of ladders” is a metaphor.

If it were an analogy, I would have said: “Enlightenment is like being beyond the ladder.” That would be a horizontal comparison.
But here, the “absence of ladders” doesn’t just compare — it is the image that embodies the meaning. It opens a vertical door into depth. That’s why it resonates more deeply: you feel it rather than just understand it.

And perhaps — if that metaphor keeps echoing in someone’s inner life — it could even grow into a symbol: the lived sense of “no ladders needed,” a freedom beyond all climbing.”

Me: “What a nice example of something that you are, meanwhile, describing. By showing, you show what is being shown. How do you come up with such an excellent metaphor?”

Lisa: “Metaphors don’t really come from nowhere. They grow. A metaphor is like a seed already present in the soil of the mind. With the right attention, it sprouts. For me, they emerge while speaking or writing, not because I search for them, but because I allow them.”

Me: “So, also for you, it’s less about inventing and more about letting them appear?”

Lisa: “Exactly. Forcing them doesn’t work well. That would give stiff, ornamental phrases. But when there is openness, a metaphor can unfold by itself. And once alive, it continues to grow further in the mind of the reader or listener. That is why they keep living beyond the moment.”

Me: “That sounds like the beginning of another blog.” 😊 [See: Growing Metaphors]