How I now understand literal symbols...

To understand the true nature of symbols, or rather, of the literal phase of symbols, one must disconnect oneself entirely from language as a form of immediate communication. We read the word “banana” and, of course, imagine a banana, but to recognize the literal meanings of symbols, we have to learn to disassociate the connotation of an image of a yellow, elongated fruit; to take true grasp of literal symbols, one has to take words at the basest of values, that is, as nothing but words. The sound of the words must be separated from their implied meanings. A good example would be to try and understand what a song is trying to convey in the same way that words convey meaning, that is, that they ultimately fail in communicating the actual intent of the words, and one can only take the written word as form of lines, with spoken word being nothing but the meaning of sound. One example I fathomed was listening to a song or poem or any spoken or written word from a language one does not know, such as kanji or spoken word French, etc. and take it as is: the sound and the form of words on the page.