Contrary to the relatively modern theme that the Heart is the seat of our feelings, traditionally it symbolized one’s “center”. Within it rests the intellect and intuition. With “intuition” it’s important to understand it as a knowing that comes neither through feeling, as we use the term now, like our “gut” feeling, nor reason.

This significance is found in many cultures;

In India for example it was regarded as the Brahmapura, or abode of Brahmā, the center between Vishnu and Shiva.

In Islam it is called “Qalb”, it is “the throne of God”, and is the cause of all humans’ intuitive deeds. While the brain handles physical impressions, Qalb is responsible for deep understanding, where True knowledge is received.

In the Christian world the heart is said to contain “the kingdom of God”, all this is because this center of individuality, to which the personality returns in its spiritual pilgrimage, embodies the primordial state and hence the place of God’s instrumentality.

In the Chinese Huangdi Neijing, the heart, “xīn”, is a royal organ, home of the Spirit.
This goes on as well for the ancient Egyptians, named “ib”. It is significant in its weighing in the underworld, and its relationship with the god Ptah.
And so on around the world.

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As said, what is meant by “intuition” and also intellect is true knowledge that is above feeling, empiricism and rationalism. The heart, geometrically associated with an inverted triangle, is the cup, or grail, that contains this. Its association with divine “Love” quite naturally leads to its association with worldly love and its strong respective emotions, thus leading to the heart’s association with feelings, a reflection in a perspective that prioritizes corporeal things rather than spiritual.

Instead of imagining a physical location of one’s Spirit, it is through the symbolism of the heart that we acknowledge that where it truly resides is in the center, above all contingencies, above all mere feeling, thought and reason.

Without this center, that all around its circumference depends on, our Spirit would perish, like a body without its heart.

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“Great thoughts come form the heart.”
~ Blaise Pascal.