"The deepest core of life is poetry and symbol." - Dane Rudhyar
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Author Archives: Symbol Reader
The Black Madonna of the Luminous Mountain
The Shrine of Our Lady of Jasna Góra (Luminous Mountain or Clarus Mons) in Częstochowa, Poland, houses a most unique image of the Black Madonna. It is a Byzantine icon of the Hodegetria type (from Greek “She who shows the … Continue reading
Posted in Black Madonna
Tagged archetypes, Black Madonna, Czestochowa, Dark goddess, Einsiedeln, goddess, heart chakra, hermit, isis, Jasna Góra, Jerzy Duda Gracz, Mary, Paulines, religion, St Paul of Thebes, symbolism, symbols, way of the cross
3 Comments
Jung on Alchemy (9): the Coniunctio – part 3 – the Red Stone
“We must sleep with eyes open, we must dream with our hands, we must dream the active dreams of a river seeking its course, the dreams of the sun dreaming its worlds, we must dream out loud, we must sing … Continue reading
Posted in Alchemy, Uncategorized
Tagged albedo, alchemy, analytical psychology, C.G. Jung, coniunctio, depth psychology, Faust, feeling, feminine, Four elements, Goethe, green lion, hermaphrodite, intuition, masculine, philosopher’s stone, psyche, red stone, Rosarium Philosophorum, rubedo, sensation, Soul, thinking, white stone
5 Comments
Turin like a Dream
“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears,” wrote Italo Calvino in Invisible Cities. Though Turin is not the first Italian city I have fallen in love with, what I experienced there had not happened to me before. I … Continue reading
Posted in Turin, Uncategorized
Tagged 45th parallel, alchemical caves, alchemy, Angelic Fountain, Apis, archetypes, art, “White Magic”, black magic, black magic triangle, Castor, Church of the Great Mother of God, cities, coniunctio oppositorum, darkness, duality, Egyptian Museum of Turin, first capital of Italy, Frejus monument, Giorgio de Chirico, Holy Grail, isis, Italo Calvino, Italy, light, magic, Nietzsche, Nostradamus, occultism, Osiris, Palazzo Madama, Piazza Solferino, Piazza Statuto, Pillars of Hercules, Pollux, shroud of Turin, symbolism, symbols, Torino, Turin, union of opposites, white magic triangle
4 Comments
“Nocturne” by Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz, “Nocturne”, translated by Eliot Weinberger “Shadow, flickering shadow of voices. The black river drags its sunken marbles. How to speak of the assassinated air, of the orphaned words, how to speak of the dream? Shadow, flickering shadow of … Continue reading
Transcending Toxic Masculinity
There is a deep collective need to rewrite the scripts of masculinity. “Dig deeply into any man and one would find not only the lake of tears but a mountain of rage, layers of anger accumulated since childhood, slowly pushing … Continue reading
Posted in Masculinity, Uncategorized
Tagged Adam Sommer, analytical psychology, archetypes, astrology, C.G. Jung, Cancer, Capricorn, Franz Kafka, healing, inner child, James Hillman, James Hollis, Jungian psychology, Kafka's father, Mark Jones, masculine, Masculinity, planetary nodes, puer and senex, symbols, the father complex, the mother complex, trauma, Under Saturn's Shadow, wound
13 Comments
“Blessed is he who leaves” – “Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk
This year’s Man Booker international prize went to a Polish author, Olga Tokarczuk for Flights. It is an absorbing tale, or rather a collection of tales, devoted to the nomad in everyone of us. More than that, a large part … Continue reading
Posted in Novel review, Uncategorized
Tagged Bieguni, body, book review, Flights, International Man Booker Prize, literature, nomads, Olga Tokarczuk, relics, symbolism, symbols, wanderers
11 Comments
The Suffering of Perseus and Medusa
“I wasn’t hurt enough when I should have been, Kino admitted to himself. When I should have felt real pain, I stifled it. I didn’t want to take it on, so I avoided facing up to it. Which is why … Continue reading
Posted in Medusa, Uncategorized
Tagged archetypes, Cellini, Gorgon, Greek mythology, healing, Jungian psychology, Medusa, Men Without Women, monster, Murakami, myth, patriarchy, Perseus, shadow, suffering, symbolism, symbols, trauma, wound
2 Comments
On Play
The vision of the world as an unfolding game is a very alluring idea. Once you start viewing all reality through that lens, it is quite hard to step back into ordinary perception. In Hinduism, the concept of Lila, divine … Continue reading
Posted in Play, Uncategorized
Tagged archetypes, Brahman, child, consciousness, dice, Eric Berne, gambling, Game, Hinduism, homo ludens, Huizings, Kairos, leela, lila, number seven, Parvati, Play, prakriti, purusha, Shiva, Smoley, symbolism, symbols, transactional analysis
16 Comments
Native Americans: Stories in Stone
I. “Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt, the red hunter comes upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful or sublime–a black thundercloud with the rainbow’s glowing arch above the mountain; a white waterfall in the heart of a … Continue reading
“Stone” by Charles Simic
“Go inside a stone That would be my way. Let somebody else become a dove Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth. I am happy to be a stone. From the outside the stone is a riddle: No one knows how … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
5 Comments
