representation

Previously, I had a topic in which I tried to get to know how to convert “representing/to represent” into an appropriate noun. I would use it in mythological meaning, for. e.g. a goddess represents nature, which is different from simply being a god/goddess of nature or something else.
So people suggested other kind of words, for e.g. symbol, personification, essence, embodiment, incarnation, manifestation. But I haven’t found a right one among all of these.
To be very clear, I was talking, and now too, I’m talking about the following thing.
Once in Vanuatu, people used to do the following process. They wound a red thread around a round stone and stuck owl-feathers into it, making a magical model of the sun. Their intention was making the sun, or rather light, triumph over darkness. It’s important that the feathers was originally those of an owl because owls represented darkness. (And light comes from darkness, isn’t it?) It was so because these birds are active during night. In other words, they are the birds of darkness.
However, I wouldn’t say they were the symbol of darkness. Because a symbol is just a symbol. It doesn’t mean any magical connection. I too can consider the owl a symbol of darkness, but if I shot an owl, it wouldn’t mean any triumph over darkness.
And I wouldn’t say owls were the embodiment or personification of darkness. There are mythical birds like this: a huge dark bird, its eye is the moon, the stars are on its back, etc.. An owl isn’t like this. It is simply in connection with night, with darkness.
I wouldn’t say it is its (quint)essence or exemplar of epitome. But it is in relation, in real connection with darkness, which isn’t palpable, but an owl or its feathers is/are. Therefore the best thing I can say, I think, that for those people, the owl represented darkness.
When I mentioned this to somebody the other day, he said why I wasn’t use the word “representation” in such a case. Because it is just the right word. Is it really so? Because as far as I know, it means a picture or a sculpture, or a performance, or some written thing, and all these are things made my people. But an owl is a living being. Just like a mythical being, but the point is that it is he/she/it that does the “representing” of something.
Actually, I would say that, in the mentioned meaning, this or that is the “representer” of this or that. What is your opinion?