Lightning, lightning bolts, thunderbolts, or bolts of lightning - however you wish to describe it - are the electrical discharges that we are all familiar with during thunderstorms. There are few displays of the power of nature more spectacular than the electrical fireworks that accompany a thunderstorm - a brilliant flash of blue-white light that seems to arc out of the heavens as if by magic and with it, the incredible, near deafening thunderclap that comes mere seconds later. In a cold, dark, rainy night, a bolt of lightning would make it seem like daylight for a moment. What a concept for a tattoo design! What a potent symbol.
Early men had many explanations for the sights and sounds of lightning and thunder, and most of the myths involved elaborate tales of Gods and Goddesses and incredible mythological creatures who used lightning as weapons. Early men could not have helped but be impressed by the power and magic of lightning because the places where lightening struck trees or the earth were scenes of enormous destruction. Lightning split trees and set them on fire, caused rocks to explode and melted sand, and if any poor human was too close, probably resulted in their death. Lightning has long been used to symbolize the power and might of the Gods.
The Romans saw lightning as the symbol of the their principal God Jupiter.
In the Bible, lightning accompanies the appearance of God in Exodus. Lightning symbolizes the light of truth.
