Finger

The finger is a pointing device and, as such, a kind of instrument of power. One can point out a direction with a finger, and if one points a finger at someone, that person may feel exposed, “designated.” One can raise a finger like a threatening sword when scolding someone, signal someone to come here, or show disdain with a finger. It could be said that our fingers are like magical little wands.  

Consciousness

The fingers allow us to grasp things, manipulate objects, write texts, and so forth, and are important tools for our consciousness and our ability to use it in the physical world according to our wishes. (Cf. Hand.) We gently touch unfamiliar objects with them, exploring and getting acquainted with them; they are like “sensation antennas,” a way to connect with the world and other people. If one cannot touch the outside world, one loses contact with it. (Cf. Glass.) If one examines the wrong thing, one might get slapped on the fingers or be caught “with one's fingers in the cookie jar.”  

Fingers as tools of consciousness reveal our competence. For example, one might have green fingers, have one's finger on the pulse, put a finger on something, etc.; or on the other hand have sticky fingers, be all fingers and thumbs, not lift a finger, and so on; while its magical qualities are suggested in expressions such as crossing one's fingers.

Dwarfs

Fingers (and not least the thumb) are associated, as in the dactyls, with dwarfs, creative little beings that, like fingers, are phallic. (The word “finger” was dáktylos in Greek.)

Creativity

As suggested under both “Consciousness” and “Dwarfs” above, fingers can more specifically refer to creativity. Whether we are engaged in handicrafts, carpentry, painting a picture, or writing a poem, we depend on our fingers. To injure one’s fingers in a dream can refer to difficulties in being creative.

Holy Fingers

From the fingers of saints spread light and fire. A modern variant of this is the saint-like alien E.T. (in Steven Spielberg’s film) who had a magical, healing finger; a well-known historical depiction of the magical power of the finger is Michelangelo's painting of God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel. Fingers can be nurturing, or at least seem to be so, for children who rest with a finger in their mouth. These magical qualities recur in various religious contexts, such as in the Gospel of Luke, 16:24: “... dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.”

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