Opeth symbol?

[Albatros]

The truth is that the "O" is taken from the expresion h"O"ly shit!
Most people think that opeth is shit, but only the few know that its holy.

 

[Jester-Race]

This thread makes me think too hard, although Arasmas' observation is great

 

[affinityband]

lololololololololololololol

 

[jonnypeters0]

Thanks you very much Arasmas and symphonyXjapan... that makes a lot of sense. It's really good to know things like that before you get it inked into your body. I know people are going to ask what it means.

 

[myndcrym370]

HAHAHA this is priceless

 

[Eternalnow]

well if you look at the "bowtie" looking thing in the lower-left quadrant of the O, it symbolizes a dragonfly flying northeast. if you examine it closely, the large shape in front of it is a large bird (probably an albatross), flying away from the dragonfly, almost like it's being chased. this symbolizes the concept of the smaller conquering the larger, which is a consistent theme in opeth's lyrics (i.e. godhead's lament, karma, nectar, etc...) but the whole "O" actually surrounds both of them, representing the fact that as far as they fly, they will never escape the simple frame of their small reality. this concept is very nietschean and crops up in a few songs as well, most obviously "by the pain i see in others".

and of course, i've saved the most obvious theme for last - what is the most prominent symbol throughout the whole logo? spirals! the theme of spiraling down is a HUGE thread in the band's music and lyrics. even in the cover art! for example, spirals appear in the smoke on the cover of ghost reveries. the logo is a huge network of symbolism and is really important to a proper understanding of opeth's music.

Ocean deep:zombie:

 

[NeverIsForever]

 

[noura]

excellent observations.

at last, a better mind-frame for this dastardly english essay!

 

[Salsais]

Someone call Robert Langdon!

 

[c0hen]

ok i was thinking about doing this tattoo, i googeld this subject and found this forum.
and i have some questions about the "O"
i didnt really realize what is the meaning of the spirals in the symbol, i'll be glad if someone will explain it...
and i think that the fact the "O" is not entirely closed got some meaning, but i can't come up with an idea, it looks like the yin&yang symbol is'nt stuck in the circel or at least the bird side..
please help me, i realy need to know more about the symbol before i puts him on my skin.

btw soory if i made this page jump but i realy need it.

 

[Ninfix]

Oh my god!

It's a fucking "O" letter with foresty effects!
This symbolism of you putting it on your skin is the most important. Unless there's some distinct up-side-down cross, I wouldn't worry too much about it symbolizing anything else than the band itself...

 

[Necropeth]

I'm pretty certain that there is absolutely no symbolism in the O. Just a kick ass logo.

 

[Luann]

Ôpeth

 

[Nehal]

Originally Posted by Arasmas:
well if you look at the "bowtie" looking thing in the lower-left quadrant of the O, it symbolizes a dragonfly flying northeast. if you examine it closely, the large shape in front of it is a large bird (probably an albatross), flying away from the dragonfly, almost like it's being chased. this symbolizes the concept of the smaller conquering the larger, which is a consistent theme in opeth's lyrics (i.e. godhead's lament, karma, nectar, etc...) but the whole "O" actually surrounds both of them, representing the fact that as far as they fly, they will never escape the simple frame of their small reality. this concept is very nietschean and crops up in a few songs as well, most obviously "by the pain i see in others".

and of course, i've saved the most obvious theme for last - what is the most prominent symbol throughout the whole logo? spirals! the theme of spiraling down is a HUGE thread in the band's music and lyrics. even in the cover art! for example, spirals appear in the smoke on the cover of ghost reveries. the logo is a huge network of symbolism and is really important to a proper understanding of opeth's music.

Originally Posted by symphonyXjapan:
Also noticeable is the thicker line that looks to kind of be a part of the "O" that is kind of curving down the middle splitting the dragonfly with the albatross. It seems to turn the "O" into a yin-yang symbol. This symbol is the epitome of Taoist belief/philosophy and represents the importance of balance in life and nature.

Everything in reality has some sort of opposite to it, it is actually the fact that things have opposites that allow us to define and understand them. Would "hot" have any kind of meaning to us without the existence of "cold"? Of course not, and this fact shows us that both sides of the spectrum are needed in life and must be equally balanced. For example, since "good" cannot have meaning (or rather exist) without "evil", then it is not a good thing for "evil" to be wiped away. Even so, they must be equal in balance; however, there are so many things in the world of our existence that are of unequal balance, in which need to be rebalanced. It seems that the one who brought up earlier the dragonfly and albatross representing the smaller and larger respectively is definately on to something.

As you may notice, this yin-yang symbol is a little bit altered, or rather "unbalanced". The side of the albatross is too big; however, the side of the dragonfly is making pursuit in an attempt to make the balance equal again. You could probably correlate the duality of the smaller and larger with anything in life and nature, rich/poor, powerful/weak, peace/war, the list could go forever. The main idea here is that these two sides also generally represent qualities of masculinity and femininity, with the state of the world right now being in control by these masculine qualities. There is no balance in this world we live in currently, and since the dragonfly "naturally" flies northeast, it could as well show meaning in that balance is a part of our "natural" world.

It's funny how I had never really looked closely at the "O" symbol of Opeth, and now that I have seen an up close picture in a thread about symbolism I could point out all of this. For all we know maybe Mikael didn't even mean for it to have any type of meaning at all, and one day he sees this thread and is like "wow, I just came up with a neato lookin' symbol and accidentally stumbled upon all this!". Although, knowing Mikael, and thinking about the types of ideas throughout Opeth's music, I would highly doubt the symbolism is a mere coincidence.

BRILLIANT!!

 

[Jackehh]

hilarious (and brilliant) thread, sticky plz

 

[BwA Ethereal]

ok i was thinking about doing this tattoo, i googeld this subject and found this forum.
and i have some questions about the "O"
i didnt really realize what is the meaning of the spirals in the symbol, i'll be glad if someone will explain it...
and i think that the fact the "O" is not entirely closed got some meaning, but i can't come up with an idea, it looks like the yin&yang symbol is'nt stuck in the circel or at least the bird side..
please help me, i realy need to know more about the symbol before i puts him on my skin.

btw soory if i made this page jump but i realy need it.

It is just an "O." I really don't think there was any multi-layered, convoluted reason behind every line and curve. It's just a decoration..enjoy it bro! I myself am getting this O tied together with a B of the same design on my arm to represent my twin Daughters' initials. It's obviously a tribute to Opeth as well but it is a nice peice of art and will use it to pay tribute to my unltimate love..my children.

 

[BwA Ethereal]

Also noticeable is the thicker line that looks to kind of be a part of the "O" that is kind of curving down the middle splitting the dragonfly with the albatross. It seems to turn the "O" into a yin-yang symbol. This symbol is the epitome of Taoist belief/philosophy and represents the importance of balance in life and nature.

Everything in reality has some sort of opposite to it, it is actually the fact that things have opposites that allow us to define and understand them. Would "hot" have any kind of meaning to us without the existence of "cold"? Of course not, and this fact shows us that both sides of the spectrum are needed in life and must be equally balanced. For example, since "good" cannot have meaning (or rather exist) without "evil", then it is not a good thing for "evil" to be wiped away. Even so, they must be equal in balance; however, there are so many things in the world of our existence that are of unequal balance, in which need to be rebalanced. It seems that the one who brought up earlier the dragonfly and albatross representing the smaller and larger respectively is definately on to something.

As you may notice, this yin-yang symbol is a little bit altered, or rather "unbalanced". The side of the albatross is too big; however, the side of the dragonfly is making pursuit in an attempt to make the balance equal again. You could probably correlate the duality of the smaller and larger with anything in life and nature, rich/poor, powerful/weak, peace/war, the list could go forever. The main idea here is that these two sides also generally represent qualities of masculinity and femininity, with the state of the world right now being in control by these masculine qualities. There is no balance in this world we live in currently, and since the dragonfly "naturally" flies northeast, it could as well show meaning in that balance is a part of our "natural" world.

It's funny how I had never really looked closely at the "O" symbol of Opeth, and now that I have seen an up close picture in a thread about symbolism I could point out all of this. For all we know maybe Mikael didn't even mean for it to have any type of meaning at all, and one day he sees this thread and is like "wow, I just came up with a neato lookin' symbol and accidentally stumbled upon all this!". Although, knowing Mikael, and thinking about the types of ideas throughout Opeth's music, I would highly doubt the symbolism is a mere coincidence.

I remember reading somewhere that Mikael didn't design the current logo but he did design the previous one.

 

[Necropeth]

^That is true. The current logo was drawn by Timo Ketola.

 

[Lightbulb Sun]

I didn't really care about this until stumbling upon this thread. All this intended or unintended symbolism makes sense.

 

[grey knight]

For all we know maybe Mikael didn't even mean for it to have any type of meaning at all, and one day he sees this thread and is like "wow, I just came up with a neato lookin' symbol and accidentally stumbled upon all this!". Although, knowing Mikael, and thinking about the types of ideas throughout Opeth's music, I would highly doubt the symbolism is a mere coincidence.

Well I once wrote a song and titled it randomly "0011001" and about a year later I noticed that it's binary code for "y".