The motif of transcendental mysticism
Julian of Norwich explains the inciting incident for this book, which is that she believes she has broken into higher planes of human consciousness by attaining visions of the true God, the creator of reality. She feels that by meditating on good and evil, she was able to transcend the limitations of this realm of reality, and by praying to Jesus Christ and worshipping him as God. Julian's point of view is strange, but what is stranger still is this fact: Many of her religious ideas have striking similarities to the mystics of all other religions, like the mystic Buddhists who would say she has attained a kind of enlightenment. This motif is very popular in literature in film, from Tom Sawyer to The Matrix.
Symbols of paradox
There are two very important symbols for paradox in Julian's religious confession: there is the dilemma of evil, held in tension with what she describes to be a perfectly loving God who is somehow perfectly demonstrated in reality, but in a way that contains no anger or evil whatsoever. This is a striking philosophical portrait of reality, and an encouraging idea to consider. The other set of paradoxical symbols is the union of male and female in Julian's portrait of Jesus Christ as her divine mother.
The crown of thorns
The first image associated by Julian to the true Love of God, as she calls it, is Jesus's crowning. The scene is part of the Passion sequence of the four gospels in the Bible, and it is a portrait of a hellish crown being placed on top of Jesus's head before he is crucified. The crown was made with thorns that punctured Jesus's head covering him in blood. This image is offered as a metaphor for God's love in the very first chapter of the Revelations of Divine Love. It is the first image.
White hair
Julian says that Jesus's white hair in the portraits of the Messiah from the Revelation of John (in the Bible) is a symbol for his true authority and wisdom, like a white haired elder might have a natural authority over a young man for instance. The color white is symbolic because it is used as a symbol throughout Christian scripture for divinity. She is mentioning his divine authority through symbol.
Narrative as an allegory
Julian says that the symbolism of the Bible's narrative is itself a metaphor and symbol for God's love, because the good guys win. This expression of faith in the "defeat of the Fiend" is Julian's way of saying, "God is evident in human narratives when because Jesus is a deus ex machina." She is using Jesus's conquering of the devil as a portrait of human literature itself, and human tradition. In other words, she feels Jesus is a narrative God, like an author, and this beautiful scene is proof of that for her.
