Fish

Fishes are among the earliest theriomorphic symbols. Fish was anciently among the sacred foods and this recognition of its symbolic value continued to modern times as the recent fish-on-Friday obligation of Roman Catholics. The sacred fish also appears in the Jewish Passover meal.

In the natural sphere, fishes are symbols of fecundity. In the cognitive sphere they represent the contents of the deep: knowledge and those that acquire knowledge. In the spiritual sphere Christ has been symbolized as a fish, while in Buddhism the fish-drum board calls people to religious practice. Enormous fishes are among mythical animals which have symbolical associations with the world's creation. The archetypal fish that symbolizes spiritual development is the Salmon, who goes against nature in swimming upwards to its source.