SYMBOLS OF FAITH AND FIRE

⭐ Symbol as a Religious Language

Drawing from Clifford Geertz’s theory of religion as a cultural system, symbols in Game of Thrones shape moral imagination. They do not simply represent ideas — they produce emotional meaning.

1. Fire

Symbolizes revelation, truth, divine judgment, and potential rebirth.For the followers of R’hllor:

• Fire reveals visions (divination)

• Fire destroys impurity (purification)

• Fire signals the presence of divine will
  

This aligns closely with Zoroastrian fire symbolism and Christian Pentecostal imagery.

2. Ice

Represents fatal order, ancient inevitability, and cosmic stillness.The White Walkers embody:

• the fear of spiritual emptiness

• an apocalyptic worldview

• the collapse of moral agency
  

In symbolic anthropology, this echoes the concept of anti-culture — forces that unmake social order.

3. The Iron Throne

Serves as a secular altar, a site where ambition becomes ritualized.

• People die for it

• People sacrifice for it

• People confess for it

• People justify violence through it
  

It operates exactly like a sacred object of civil religion — a symbol of unity and division simultaneously.