"The deepest core of life is poetry and symbol." - Dane Rudhyar
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Author Archives: Symbol Reader
“The Canticle of the Void” by Paul Murray
“Smaller than the small I am that still centre within you that needle’s eye through which all the threads of the universe are drawn. Perhaps you think you know me but you do not know me. Of everything that is, … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Canticle of the Void, darkness, God, goddess, nothingness, Paul Murray, poetry, void
17 Comments
The Scent of Autumn Earth
“September 13, 1907 (Friday) . . . never has heather so touched and almost thrilled me as recently, when I found those three twigs in your sweet letter. Since then they have been lying in my Book of Pictures and … Continue reading
Posted in Quotations
Tagged autumn, earth, fall, Letters on Cezanne, Reiner Maria Rilke, scent
12 Comments
Struggle for Love in a Dream
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Poliphilo’s Strife of Love in a Dream or Poliphilo’s Struggle for Love in a Dream), more than just a book but rather a milestone in depth psychology, was published in Venice in 1499. It featured beautiful woodcut illustrations and … Continue reading
Icy Lechery: Art by Tamara de Lempicka
“Was it true that, according to her final wishes, the ashes of the Polish-Russian artist Tamara de Lempicka were dropped from a helicopter by her daughter Kizette into the crater of the Mexican volcano Popocatépetl? What an Olympian, cataclysmic, magnificent … Continue reading
Posted in Painting, Quotations
Tagged archetypes, art, eroticism, nude, painting, sensuality, sex, symbolism, symbols, Tamara de Lempicka
10 Comments
Apollo and the Pythia: the Oracle of Delphi
1.“I count the grains of sand on the beach and measure the sea; I understand the speech of the dumb and hear the voiceless.” The Pythia “Tell the king, the fair-wrought house has fallen. No shelter has Apollo, nor sacred … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo, The Oracle of Delphi
Tagged Ancient Greece, Apollo, archetypes, Clea, Delphi, Dionysos, Dionysus, divination, ethylene, Greek myth, Greek mythology, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, omphalos, oracle of Delphi, Plutarch, pneuma, prophecy, Pythia, Socrates, subterranean gas, symbols, vapors, William Broad
17 Comments
Poetry and Mystery: “Women” by Evelyn Scott
“Crystal columns, When they bend they crack; Brittle souls, Conforming, yet not conforming– Mirrors. Masculine souls pass across the mirrors: Whirling, gliding ecstasies– Retreating, retreating, Dimly, dimly, Like dreams fading across the mirrors. Then the mirrors, Stark and brilliant in … Continue reading
To Apollo: The Averter of Evil, the Bringer of Harmony (part 1)
1.“I am the eye with which the Universe Beholds itself, and knows it is divine; All harmony of instrument or verse, All prophecy, all medicine, is mine, All light of art or nature; – to my song Victory and praise … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo
Tagged Ancient Greece, Apollo, archetypes, art, bow, civilization, Daphne, Delos, depth psychology, Greek myth, Greek mythology, Homeric hymn to Apollo, Leto, lyre, muses, music, nymphs, paean, possession, sun god, symbolism, symbols, the Self, Zeus
21 Comments
The Attraction to the Divine Unknown
“I find it relevant to quote here a formulation devised by Dio of Prusa (‘Dio Chrysostom’), a Greek thinker who lived in a period straddling the first and the second centuries CE. In what I am about to quote, taken … Continue reading
Posted in Quotations
Tagged daimon, daimonion, Dio of Prusa, divinity, gods, Greek myth, myth, mythology, theos
13 Comments
Light and Matter: the Perseid Meteor Shower
This year has been announced to be perfect to watch the Perseid meteor shower because the moon will be dark. This shooting star feast usually peaks around 10-13 August (http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide#perseids). I am reposting my own writing about the symbolism of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
3 Comments
“Epilogue” by D.H. Lawrence: Poetry for Hot, Sultry Dog Days of the Summer
“PATIENCE, little Heart. One day a heavy, June-hot woman Will enter and shut the door to stay. And when your stifling heart would summon Cool, lonely night, her roused breasts will keep the night at bay, Sitting in your room … Continue reading
