Author Archives: Symbol Reader

Hamnet and Tutankhamun

Posted on October 13, 2020

Shakespeare’s life is a great mystery but we do know that he had a son, Hamnet, who died at the age 11, possibly from the plague. Four years after his son’s death, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, maybe his greatest masterpiece. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged afterlife, ancient Egypt, archetypes, art, burial, death, fiction, grave, Hamnet, Howard Carter, literature, Maggie O'Farrell, mask, Osiris, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, tomb, truth, Tutankhamun, Tutankhamun's mask | 2 Comments

Reading The Red Book (25)

Posted on September 25, 2020

“I know your shadow and mine, that follows and comes with us, and only waits for the hour of twilight when he will strangle you and me with all the daimons of the night.” “The Red Book,” chapter XII “Hell” … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged analytical psychology, anima, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Carl Jung, depth psychology, evil, evil eye, good, Liber Novus, psyche, shadow, Soul, symbolism, symbols, the eye, The Red Book | 4 Comments

Reading The Red Book (24)

Posted on September 6, 2020

Chapter XI of Liber Secundus is called The Opening of the Egg. Having sung his incantations, Jung kneels on the rug and carefully opens the egg. Completely healed, Izdubar appears in front of him. The god relates what his experience … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged archetypes, C.G. Jung, darkness, depth psychology, Divine, egg, evil, Gilgamesh, God, good, Izdubar, Liber Novus, Liber Secundus, life, light, Medusa, snake, solar, solar hero, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, the sun | 8 Comments

Lilith

Posted on August 24, 2020

On the ceiling of the Sistine chapel we can see an atypical depiction of the serpent of Paradise. Michelangelo chose to portray the snake as a red-headed woman, undoubtedly Lilith. Why did Michelangelo decide to include Lilith in his biblical … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adam, Adam Kadmon, alchemy, Aramaic magic texts, archetypes, Black Madonna, Burney relief, C.G. Jung, Dark goddess, depth psychology, desert, Elijah, evil, Genesis, Gnosticism, huluppuh tree, Inanna, Ishtar, Kabbalah, Lamashtu, Lilith, lilitu, Mandaean Gnosis, materia prima, Mesopotamia, myth, nigredo, paradise, patriarchy, red, sephiroth, serpent, Shekhinah, Sumer, symbolism, symbols, Talmud, the Bible, The Dark Goddess, The Red Sea, Tree of Life, whore of Babylon | 14 Comments

The Black Madonna of Hergiswald

Posted on August 7, 2020

One of the most stunning Black Madonna chapels in Switzerland is located near Lucerne on a hill with a view of the mountains and Lake Lucerne. It was built in the seventeenth century after a Capuchin Friar Ludwig von Wyl … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Madonna, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, art, Baroque, Black Madonna, chapel, emblems, Hergiswald, Mary, pilgrimage, Switzerland, symbolism, symbols | 8 Comments

Reading The Red Book (23)

Posted on August 4, 2020

Chapter X of Liber Secundus is called Incantations. God (Izdubar) is now enclosed in the maternal egg. Jung sings “the incantations for his incubation.” If we are the children of Gods, perhaps Gods can also be our children, he says: … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged analytical psychology, Apep, archetype, archetypes, Brahma, C.G. Jung, Carl Gustav Jung, coincidentia oppositorum, depth psychology, fire, gods, golden egg, incantations, incubation, Izdubar, Liber Novus, life, meditation, opposites, solar, Soul, sun, symbol, symbols, The Red Book, unity | 3 Comments

Michelangelo’s Immortality

Posted on July 29, 2020

“Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like … Continue reading →

Posted in Michelangelo, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, architecture, art, biography, dome, Florentine Pieta, Freud, Mary Magdalene, Michelangelo, Moses, Pan, Rome, sculpture, St Peter's, symbolism, symbols, the unconscious | 9 Comments

Reading The Red Book (22)

Posted on July 19, 2020

We have reached chapter IX of Liber Secundus, entitled “Second Day.” God Izdubar (Gilgamesh) is resigned to dying; Jung, however, is determined not to let him perish. A thought occurs to him, as he watches Izdubar’s suffering: “And this speech … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged amulet, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Carl Gustav Jung, divinity, egg, fantasy, God, gods, imagination, Izdubar, Know thyself, Liber Novus, psyche, religion, science, Soul, symbols, The Red Book | 4 Comments

Symbolism of the Wetlands

Posted on July 5, 2020

“I enter a swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum. … My temple is the swamp.” *** “Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious … Continue reading →

Posted in The Marsh | Tagged alligator, ancient Egypt, archetypes, Carl Jung, crocodile, Field of Reeds, goddess, Great Mother, James Hollis, London, marsh, marshes, moor, New Orleans, Nile, Pan, paradise, Paris, Soul, swamp, swamps, symbolism, symbols, Syrinx, Thoreau, unconscious, Venice | 12 Comments

On Removing Racially Charged Images

Posted on June 21, 2020

The white domination – this tectonic plate that underlies the Western culture – is shifting radically, steering for a massive earthquake. I do not feel I possess the right to express my opinion on the subject; I would rather quote … Continue reading →