Author Archives: Symbol Reader

“The Guardian Angel” by R.M. Rilke

Posted on August 27, 2017

“You are the bird whose wings came when I wakened in the night and called. Only with my arms I called, because your name is like a chasm, a thousand nights deep. You are the shadows in which I quietly … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Osiris, Master of Silence and Renewal

Posted on August 16, 2017

Three giant statues of Osiris, Isis and Hapi, the Nile god of fertility, have been placed at the entrance to Museum Rietberg in Zurich. They were recovered from the sea bed by Franck Goddio, a French underwater archaeologist, who directed … Continue reading →

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In Defense of the Primeval Forest

Posted on August 6, 2017

“The edge of the cancer Swells against the hill-we feel a foul breeze-And it sinks back down. The deer winter here A chainsaw growls in the gorge. Ten wet days and the log trucks stop, The trees breathe. Sunday the … Continue reading →

Posted in Bialowieza, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Redeeming the World by the Mystique of Words: Tibetan Prayer Flags

Posted on June 17, 2017

“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 →

Posted in Quotations, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Sublime Silence of Stonehenge

Posted on June 11, 2017

“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 →

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Let Your Beauty Manifest Itself

Posted on May 20, 2017

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 , , , , , | 11 Comments

The Swelling Sound of Beauty Arriving: The Writing of Elena Ferrante

Posted on April 27, 2017

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 →

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Greed and Minimalism

Posted on April 16, 2017

“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 , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Living the Question: the Voynich Manuscript

Posted on April 8, 2017

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 , , , | 23 Comments

Only Symbols or Silence

Posted on March 23, 2017

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 , , , , | 15 Comments