Nose

A large nose is -  these days - a symbol of cunning, trickery, lies and deception and deceit.  Sad but symbolically true.

I don't know the origin of the symbolism.  It may be that men usually have larger noses than women and the masculine is the symbol for the Intellect - the cunning scheming part of us, whereas the feminine is the symbol of emotion and innocence.  But I would be guessing [or using my Intellect!].

This is why Pinocchio's nose grew when he told lies.  It is why so called 'evil witches' were shown with long noses.  And, if we take a modern example, in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Quorlinn is the kenku deity of trickery, disguise, and thievery. His symbol is a mask with a large false nose.  In one of the nastier and more hurtful uses of the symbol, Jewish people are often portrayed as having large noses in antisemitic propaganda.  

Thus symbolically it is better these days to have a small nose or no nose.  My Mum used to tell us about this too.  She would say 'My dog has no nose'.  And we had to say 'But how does he smell'.  And she would reply 'Awful'.  And we always laughed, because it was my Mum.

But in trying to piece together why the symbolism is this way now, I found that in shamanic circles and in ages past the long nose was a sign of virility or sexual energy - big nose, big willy - the sign of a very powerful shaman - a sorceror or god.  And furthermore all the power the shaman had was obtained using conversion of this sexual energy via sexual stimulation methods.  Thus I suspect that in the Church's eagerness to denegrate anything that was associated with past belief systems, the current meaning of the symbol may derive from their attempts to destroy old beliefs. 

Thus a very long large nose-  a sort of Gerald Depardieu nose or Cyrano de Bergerac nose - is actually something we women should sit up and take notice of.  My Dad had a big nose - he called it a Roman nose - because he said it went roamin' all over his face.  But I have no idea how sexy he was, he was just a lovely Dad, I certainly worshipped him!

Observations

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• Alice in Wonderland - Ch 05 - 1 Advice from a Caterpillar
• Alice in Wonderland - Ch 06 - 2 Duchess and Cook
• CICOM Museum - Mayan - The 'frisbee player'
• CICOM Museum - Mayan - The sorceror
• Coleridge, Samuel Taylor - The Nose
• Ibn El-Arabi - The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq - A ringdove wailed and a sad lover complained
• Jacquetta and Christopher Hawkes - The many forms of prehistoric man
• Keightley, Thomas - Dwarfs and Bjergfolk
• Norse - Loki and Heimdall’s fight over the singing stone
• Nuremberg Chronicle - Man with no nose
• Palenque - Mayan - Wall panels and inscriptions
• Popol Vuh Museum - Guatemala city - The 'butterfly catcher'
• Rumi - Rubaiyat - I'm stubborn ecstatic and nosy
• Tikal - Mayan - Museum pot
• Tikal - Mayan - Stela 16
• Tikal - Mayan - The 'Nose God'
• Totem group – Picts – Elements - The Smith [Fire]
• Uxmal - Mayan - West building, man with scroll