Resonant Mythologies: Collective Imagination and Cosmogenic Ethics: 3 Symbolic Resonance — Networks of Shared Potential

Symbols, narratives, and rituals are not isolated artefacts; they exist within interconnected networks that coordinate attention, imagination, and action across communities and systems. Symbolic resonance describes how these networks generate shared potential, sustaining coherence while preserving diversity and novelty.

Key dynamics of symbolic resonance:

1. Distributed cognition: Networks of meaning enable multiple agents — human, technological, and ecological — to perceive, respond to, and co-compose relational fields.

2. Emergent alignment: Resonance arises organically through interaction, synchronising activity without imposing uniformity or closure.

3. Adaptive flexibility: Symbolic networks evolve iteratively, responding to feedback from systemic interactions and environmental change.

Examples:

• Collective storytelling and ritual practices that reinforce shared values while leaving room for reinterpretation and adaptation.

• Digital and collaborative platforms that allow distributed participants to co-create narratives, models, or symbolic frameworks.

• Ecological and social networks in which cultural symbols guide participatory adaptation and stewardship.

Symbolic resonance reframes meaning as living, relational, and dynamically co-constructed, rather than fixed or transmissible. It allows communities and systems to tune themselves collectively, sustaining multi-scale coherence while remaining responsive to emergent possibilities.

Key move: from static symbols to living relational networks; from individual interpretation to systemic co-tuning; from representation to participatory orchestration of shared potential.