Author Archives: Symbol Reader

Lyon

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Symbol Reader

You may have heard of two magical triangles, one of black, the other of white magic. The origins of that legend are impossible to fathom. The white magic triangle is said to include Lyon, Prague and Turin, while the black … Continue reading →

Posted in Lyon | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Celts, Cybele, dark, Fourvière, France, Gaul, Hermes, light, Lion, Lugdunum, Lyon, magic triangle, Marianne, Mercurius, Mercury, Romans, shadow, Soul, symbolism, symbols, traboules | Leave a comment

Reading The Red Book (43) – Seven Sermons to the Dead

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Symbol Reader

We have now reached the seventh and final Sermon to the Dead, which you will find in the third section of The Red Book called Scrutinies. The dead come to Philemon and ask him to “teach us about men.” This sermon addresses the most … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged Agrippa, archetypes, Binah, Black Madonna, C.G. Jung, depth psychology, God, goddess, Great Mother, Liber Novus, matter, Meister Eckhart, Nut, Philemon, psyche, Seven Sermons to the Dead, Soul, star, symbolism, symbols, synchronicity, The Red Book, world soul | Leave a comment

Between Hermes and Mnemosyne: Jung and Warburg

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Symbol Reader

In the part of Homeric Hymn to Hermes, in which Hermes and Apollo exchange gifts, Hermes sings about the origins of the gods: “And the first of the gods that he commemorated with his song was Mnemosyne, Mother of Muses, … Continue reading →

Posted in Aby Warburg | Tagged Aby Warburg, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Hermes, image, Kerenyi, Mnemosyne, Mnemosyne Atlas, psyche, Soul, symbolism, symbols | Leave a comment

Painting the Sun

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Symbol Reader

I. “Turner’s favourite colour was yellow. He spent hours studying its myriad iterations, using more yellow pigments than any other … … Turner admired yellow’s optical power. Bright and warm, it jumps out at us from a distance and forces … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged archetypes, art, colour, insoluminant, light, lightness, luminance, luminosity, Monet, sun, symbolism, symbols, Turner | 7 Comments

Matar Kubileya (Cybele)

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Symbol Reader

I. “Numinous sites of the preorganic life, which were experienced in participation mystique with the Great Mother, are mountain, cave, stone, pillar, and rock – including the childbearing rock – as throne, seat, dwelling place, and incarnation of the Great … Continue reading →

Posted in Cybele | Tagged Anatolia, archetypes, beasts, Christianity, Cybele, Galli, goddess, Hermes, Kubileya, Kybele, Lion, lions, Magna Mater, meteor, mother goddess, mountains, naiskoi, Pessinus, Phrygia, Rome, symbolism, symbols, Virgin Mary | 2 Comments

Reading The Red Book (42) – Seven Sermons to the Dead

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Symbol Reader

“… what they rejected will be most valuable to them.” Philemon’s words uttered after the sixth sermon to the dead We have now reached the sixth Sermon to the Dead, which you will find in the third section of The Red … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, C.G. Jung, daimon, depth psychology, Dove, enantiodromia, feminine, goddess, Liber Novus, light of nature, masculine, matter, Mercurius, Paracelsus, psyche, Septem Sermones, Seven Sermons to the Dead, snake, Socrates, Soul, spirit, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book | 3 Comments

The Spellbinding Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

Posted on May 7, 2022 by Symbol Reader

“The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, looked like something out of an alien hallucination—a swirling collage of warped metallic forms that appeared to have been propped up against one another in an almost random way. Stretching into the distance, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Guggenheim, Bilbao, Museum | Tagged archetypes, architecture, art, Bilbao, Frank O. Gehry, Guggenheim, modern art, Museum, symbolism, symbols | 2 Comments

The Three Black Madonnas of the Basque Country

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Symbol Reader

In the north of Spain lies a mysterious Basque country with its language Euskera, which has no relation to any other language in the world. The people of that region are descendants of the oldest indigenous population of Europe. Some … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Madonna | Tagged archetypes, Black Madonna, Camino, Camino de Santiago, Euskera, goddess, Guadalupe, Irun, pilgrimage, San Sebastian, Spain, symbolism, symbols, witchcraft | 4 Comments

Symbolism of Walls

Posted on April 10, 2022 by Symbol Reader

“Our love was born outside the walls, in the wind, in the night, in the earth, and that’s why the clay and the flower, the mud and the roots know your name” Pablo Neruda, “Epithalamium”, translated by Donald D. Walsh … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, civilization, symbolism, symbols, wall, walls | 4 Comments

Durga

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Symbol Reader

I. “Salutations to Thee, O giver of blessings! Dark Virgin, observant of the vow of chastity, Whose form is beauteous as that of the rising sun, And Thy face as that of the full moon; … Thy body is like … Continue reading →