Salt represents matter devoid of spirit. Salt of the earth. Salt is used in religious ceremonies and rituals in this sense, to stand for pure matter, the clay of which Adam was fashioned before God breathed life into Adam's nostrils. When Lot's wife turned to salt, it means that everything alive, everything God gave her, was taken away, leaving only her physical body behind, which became salt to symbolize its lifelessness. By looking back, Lot's wife engaged with the process of purgation going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. She identified with those being cleansed by fire, and was herself cleansed and purged. She disobeyed God, she disobeyed her husband, she emotionally connected with the damned souls of the cities in the plains, and she dared to look upon that which is too holy and powerful for human eyes to endure. There are really several aspects to what she did: * she disobeyed God * she connected emotionally with the damned in the cities * she saw with her naked eyes the fire of God's wrath As we know from *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, it is death to look upon the wrathful fire of God. Lot's wife was punished for her disobedience, her faithlessness, and her audacity.