The mysterious symbol in this story is seen as a prefiguration of future events.

prefiguration 是由前缀 pre-（表示“在...之前”）和词根 figura（拉丁语，意为“形状、形象”）加上名词后缀 -tion 构成的名词，字面意思是“预先形成的形象”，引申为“预示、预兆”。