Nirvana
In Utero Symbols













Home

Updates and Non Related Shit | The Timeline | Meanings? | Covered Artists | Frances Bean | Nirvana Hotel | Kurt Cobain | Nirvana Songs | In Utero Symbols | Live Performances | The First Poem Kurt Ever Wrote | The Gear | So-Called Suicide Note | Liner Notes | Bleach Tabs | Incesticide Guitar Tabs | Nevermind Tabs | In Utero Tabs | Unplugged In NY Tabs | Pics | Msg Board / Guest Book




















**Alchemical Rose - symbol of sacred womb - symbol of virgin daughter within mother - applied to images like **Kore/Demeter and Mary/Eve.
**Baubo - [I think you could easily read this as Baubo representing Courtney and Demeter representing Kurt] - female clown who managed to draw laughter from Demeter in the midst of her grief. Baubo induced the Great Mother to forget her anger long enough to take a little nourishment.
**Diameter - symbol for water, salt, and sea - related to the primordial Mother Goddess, who mingled all elements to create life from flesh (earth), blood (water), breath (air), and fire (vital heat)
**sea: Temu, Egyptian name for maternal deep, or uterine abyss, where universe was born from, associated with the moon, love, birth, beauty, sexual fire mingling with waters
**Symbol for planet Pluto - female Pluto deity who was despised and discredited by Greeks + was combined w. Demeter in a triple form (Virgin, Mother, and Crone)
**Poppy - "since opium and its derivatives--morphine, heroin--are extracted from the opium poppy, it is hardly surprising to find the flower associated w. sleep, inertia, numbness, and death. Demeter as a death Goddess was often shown with poppies [like the Heart-Shaped Box video]....Thebaine yields an important narcotic antagonist, naloxone, which is given to infants born of heroin addicts, to help soften the sock of withdrawl that such infants must go through"

SYMBOLS FROM BOTTOM RIGHT TO BOTTOM LEFT:
**Sub Pop logo
**Geffen logo
**moon: There are so many connections and meanings connected to a moon symbol it'd be hard to summarize anyway.
**Bee - greatly prized because they gave valuable honey - Demeter addressed as "the pure mother bee" - identified w. mortality in folklore - "bee was symbol of feminine potency of nature"
**Infinity sign - [another interesting one] - sexual union and sense of perfection - two becoming one (two uniting circles, one representing man and the other woman)

SYMBOLS FROM BOTTOM LEFT TO TOP LEFT:
**cowrie - this is the only one I'm not 100% sure on what it is. I thought it was a lemon or something, but no picture of a lemon was in the book. So the closest I could find was a cowrie shell, which is said to resemble female genitalia, revered in India to avert evil eye, rebirth symbol, also for healing, fertility, magic power, good luck.
**Sulfer - sacred to Athene - associated w. purification - also symbolized angry aspect of Athene (Goddess Brimo), which was also identified w. Demeter.
**Labrys (axe) - stood for Amazons and their Goddess (Demeter / Artemis / etc.) - has been adopted by lesbians as their amuletic symbol.
**Corn dolly - embodiment of the harvest - one of its many alternate names was the Demeter.
**Symbol for Ceres, Roman title of Great Goddess as Mother of the Harvest and ruler of all grains - indicated planting of male seed in earth's womb.
**Sistrum - used to worship Egyptian Great Goddess - sacred rattle - its sound dispelled evil spirits.