Author Archives: Symbol Reader

Sublime Music in the Face of Tragedy

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Symbol Reader

“Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings begins softly, with a single note, a B flat, played by the violins. Two beats later the lower strings enter, creating an uneasy, shifting suspension as the melody begins a stepwise motion, like the hesitant … Continue reading →

Krishnamurti on Suffering

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Symbol Reader

“Questioner: I seem to have suffered a great deal all my life, not physically, but through death and loneliness and the utter futility of my existence. I had a son whom I greatly loved. He died in an accident. My … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations, Uncategorized | Tagged attachment, conflict, Krishnamurti, pain, self-understanding, sorrow, suffering | 21 Comments

The Black Madonna of the Darker than Dark Forest

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Symbol Reader

The place closest to my heart in the whole of Switzerland is the Monastery of Einsiedeln. “Einsiedeln” is a German word for “hermitage.” Surrounded by a dark, mysterious forest, situated near a scenic lake, adjacent to glorious mountain peaks, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Madonna | Tagged alchemy, Black Madonna, Dark goddess, Einsiedeln, Mary, nigredo, ravens, Saint Meinrad, symbolism, symbols | 22 Comments

“Perfect Woman” by William Wordsworth

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Symbol Reader

She was a phantom of delight When first she gleam’d upon my sight; A lovely apparition, sent To be a moment’s ornament; Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; Like twilight’s, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized | Tagged "Perfect Woman", poem, poetry, William Wordsworth | 11 Comments

Shakespeare and Goethe on Love: from Despair to Hope

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Symbol Reader

“She had a wildness in her eyes and into it I plunged.” Goethe, “Sorrows of Young Werther” In January 1778 Christel von Lassberg drowned herself in the river Ilm, the reason most probably being unrequited love. A copy of Goethe’s … Continue reading →

Posted in love, Uncategorized | Tagged bear, freezing, Goethe, hibernation, literature, love, passion, rebirth, regeneration, Romanticism, Shakespeare, spring, suffering, symbolism, symbols, trauma, Werther, Werther effect, winter, Winter's Tale | 10 Comments

Shadow Inhales and Illumination Exhales Light

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Symbol Reader

In his book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, Juhani Pallasmaa argues that our culture privileges the senses of vision and hearing as the most sociable, while the sense of smell, touch and taste are deemed archaic … Continue reading →

Posted in darkness and light, Uncategorized | Tagged body, chiaroscuro, darkness, Juhani Pallasmaa, Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, light, senses, The Eyes of the Skin | 6 Comments

No Such Thing as Woman

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Symbol Reader

“What I saw, with jarring clarity, was that there is no such thing as woman. Woman, I realised, is a thing of legend, a phantasm who flies through the world, settling here and there on this or that unsuspecting mortal … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged archetypes, femininity, goddess, woman | 4 Comments

Black Holes: A Silent, Secret Essence

Posted on January 30, 2016 by Symbol Reader

I.“He had begun by speaking of mines and metals, of gold and diamonds and all precious elements buried deep in the earth, but now, without my knowing how, he had ranged out into the depths of space, and was … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Holes, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, Big Bang, black hole, Edgar Allan Poe, emptiness, Eureka, form, gravity, heart sutra, mysticism, science, singularity, spirituality, symbolism, symbols, universe | 19 Comments

Chaos, Harmony and the Birth of Alphabet

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Symbol Reader

One of the most beautiful Greek myths, which fascinated Carl Gustav Jung because of its alchemical underpinnings, is the story of Cadmus and Harmony. It is beautifully retold in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso, who begins … Continue reading →

Posted in Cadmus, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, alphabet, Cadmus, Carl Gustav Jung, Dionysos, Greek myth, Greek mythology, harmony, Mercurius, Phoenicians, Roberto Calasso, snake, Thebes, trickster, Typhon | 11 Comments

David Bowie’s Blackstar

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Symbol Reader

The video to David Bowie’s “Blackstar” overpowered me immediately when it was released on 19 November last year. It is a visual poem and a symbolic feast. Despite the iconic yellow smiley face flashed at the viewer at the very … Continue reading →