"The deepest core of life is poetry and symbol." - Dane Rudhyar
Wilhelm Kotarbinski, "Water Nymph"
Author Archives: Symbol Reader
Redeeming the World by the Mystique of Words: Tibetan Prayer Flags
“The cairns of piled stones that mark the high passes are spiked with poles where prayer flags fly. Who hung them in these lonely defiles we cannot tell. As the wind funnels through the passes, their inscriptions stream in faded tatters. … Continue reading
The Sublime Silence of Stonehenge
“Pile of Stone-henge! so proud to hint yet keep Thy secrets, thou that lov’st to stand and hear The Plain resounding to the whirlwind’s sweep, Inmate of lonesome Nature’s endless year.” William Wordsworth’s , “Guilt and sorrow; or incidents upon … Continue reading
Posted in Stonehenge
Tagged ancient Egypt, blue stones, healing, Heelstone, isis, light, Lugh, Lughnasadh, numinous, Orion, Osiris, pagan, Paul D. Burley, religion, Romanticism, Rudolf Otto, Stonehenge, summer solstice, sun, symbolism, Winter Hexagon
19 Comments
Let Your Beauty Manifest Itself
I. “Let your beauty manifest itself without talking and calculation. You are silent. It says for you: I am. And comes in meaning thousandfold, comes at long last over everyone.” Reiner Maria Rilke, “Initial,” translated by Edward Snow, in: The … Continue reading
Posted in Quotations, Uncategorized
Tagged chakras, crown chakra, Initial, poetry, Rilke, symbolism
11 Comments
The Swelling Sound of Beauty Arriving: The Writing of Elena Ferrante
Two girls grow up in an impoverished neighbourhood in Naples. To merely describe them as friends would be an understatement, for they share a ferocious bond. It all started while they were playing with their dolls alongside each other: “We … Continue reading
Posted in Elena Ferrante, Uncategorized
Tagged book review, Elena Ferrante, literature, My Brilliant Friend
3 Comments
Greed and Minimalism
“Take greed. Do you know what greed is? It is eating more food than you need, wanting to outshine others at games, wanting to have more property, a bigger car than someone else. Then you say that you must not … Continue reading
Posted in Minimalism, Uncategorized
Tagged C.G. Jung, consumerism, enantiodromia, greed, Krishnamurti, Minimalism, Minimalists
15 Comments
Living the Question: the Voynich Manuscript
It is astonishing how ideas often appear in our awareness in curious juxtapositions. While working doggedly and hopelessly on fathoming the mystery of Stonehenge, my mind was sidetracked by an article on The Voynich Manuscript – an enigmatic medieval volume … Continue reading
Posted in The Voynich Manuscript, Uncategorized
Tagged experience, mystery, Voynich manuscript, Wilfrid Voynich
21 Comments
Only Symbols or Silence
I “The anthropologist Paul Radin points out that … ‘it must be explicitly recognized that in temperament and in capacity for logical and symbolical thought, there is no difference between civilized and primitive man,’ and as to ‘progress,’ that none … Continue reading
Posted in The Symbol, Uncategorized
Tagged Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, mystery, mysticism, symbolism, symbols
15 Comments
Unchanging Waves of Time
The distinction between past, present and future is the most persistent illusion of all, said Einstein. From the perspective of quantum physics, the past, present and future exist simultaneously in time-space. Time is static, it is us who are flowing … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Arrival, enso, film review, heptapods, linguistic relativity, logograms, movie, quantum physics, relativity, seven, Soul, symbolism, Time, Zen
19 Comments
Museums: Bridging the Gap between the Visible and the Invisible
“The trucks and locomotives lined up in the railway museum carry neither freight not passengers. Nobody is slain by the swords, cannons and guns on display in the military museum, and not one single worker or peasant uses the utensils, … Continue reading
Posted in Museum
Tagged Alexandria, collections, history, history of museums, Krzysztof Pomian, Museum, sacrum, the visible and the invisible
11 Comments
Lakshmi – the Goddess of Worldly Enjoyment and Spiritual Liberation
Lakshmi, the most widely worshiped Indian goddess, emerged on a lotus out of the primeval ocean of milk. In the pantheon of goddesses she is a soothing and gentle presence. In her book Awakening Shakti, Sally Kempton includes compelling words … Continue reading
