Author Archives: Symbol Reader

A Hymn to Plant Life

Posted on July 4, 2021 by Symbol Reader

While listening to a talk of Alan Watts recently, I was struck by one of his observations. He said that in Daoist inspired landscape painting was a statement against anthropocentrism, which sees humans as the crown of creation. In a … Continue reading →

Posted in plants | Tagged Alan Watts, archetypes, breath, C.G. Jung, dao, death, desire, East, Emanuele Coccia, ideas, life, logos, nature, Olafur Eliasson, philosophy, plants, prana, psyche, rebirth, seasons, Soul, symbolism, symbols, tao, unconscious, West | 2 Comments

Reading The Red Book (35)

Posted on June 20, 2021 by Symbol Reader

“I have united with the serpent of the beyond. I have accepted everything beyond into myself.” C.G. Jung, The Red Book, Liber Secundus, chapter XXI This is a continuation of the discussion of the final twenty-first chapter of Liber Secundus … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged analytical psychology, ancestors, anima, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Cabiri, crown, death, depth psychology, grass, Liber Novus, life, love, moisture, Mother, opposites, Philemon, plants, psyche, Salome, Satan, serpent, solitude, symbolism, symbols, the dead, The Red Book, the unconscious, the Way, tower, vegetation | Leave a comment

Reading The Red Book (34)

Posted on May 24, 2021 by Symbol Reader

“We need magic to be able to receive or invoke the messenger and the communication of the incomprehensible.” C.G. Jung, The Red Book, Liber Secundus, chapter XXI We have reached the final twenty-first chapter of Liber Secundus – the second … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged analytical psychology, archetypes, Baucis, C.G. Jung, Carl Jung, chariot, depth psychology, doubt, Faust, kingfisher, Liber Novus, magic, magician, Philemon, psyche, reason, Satan, serpent, Soul, symbolism, symbols, the dead, The Red Book, the unconscious, unreason, unreasonable, wisdom | 5 Comments

The Sirens as Psychopomps and Muses of the Underworld

Posted on May 1, 2021 by Symbol Reader

I came across this beautiful description of the Sirens in Karl Kerenyi’s Gods of the Greeks (first published in 1951). It seems that far form being the evil seductresses often portrayed in literature, they were in fact guides of the … Continue reading →

Posted in sirens | Tagged Acheloos, archetypes, death, Greek myth, Greek mythology, guide, Kerenyi, muse, music, psychopomp, sirens, Soul, sphinx, symbolism, symbols, Underworld | 6 Comments

Gender and the Cosmic Shift

Posted on April 18, 2021 by Symbol Reader

Natural History Museum of Bern, Switzerland is currently running an exhilarating, colourful exhibition called “Queer – Diversity is in our Nature.” The thesis of the curators seems to be that the animal kingdom is rich and diverse with numerous examples … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ+ | Tagged androgyne, archetypes, Chaos, gender, gender bending, gender fluid, Greek myth, Hermaphroditus, identity, LGBT, love, Metamorphoses, nature, non-binary, Ovid, Plato, quantum entanglement, Salmacis, shifting identities, symbolism, symbols, Symposium | 9 Comments

Reading The Red Book (33)

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Symbol Reader

“One can certainly gain outer freedom through powerful actions, but one creates inner freedom only through the symbol.” C.G. Jung, The Red Book, Liber Secundus, chapter XX Chapter XX of Liber Secundus, the middle part of Jung’s Red Book, has … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged analytical psychology, archetype, C.G. Jung, Christ, Christianity, cross, Hermes, Jesus, Liber Novus, Liber Secundus, magic, Moses, Nehushtan, prisca theologia, psyche, serpens mercurialis, serpent, snake, Soul, symbolism, symbols, the way of the cross, transcendent function, unconscious, unity of opposites | 3 Comments

Reading The Red Book (32)

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Symbol Reader

Chapter XIX of Liber Secundus (part II of The Red Book) is called The Gift of Magic. The Soul wants Jung to accept the gift of magic represented by “a black rod, formed like a serpent-with two pearls as eyes-a … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged archetypes, C.G. Jung, Carl Gustav Jung, depth psychology, feeling, four functions, intuition, Kabbalah, Kether, Liber Novus, magic, magician, psyche, ring, sacrifice, sensing, serpent, solitary, Soul, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, thinking, unconscious | 5 Comments

Master Arnold Böcklin

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Symbol Reader

Arnold Böcklin (born in 1827) was a Swiss symbolist painter, whose work The Plague (1898) has recently emerged as the emblem of our moment in time. It seems that through his symbolist lens he managed to capture the timeless terror … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, Arnold Böcklin, art, death, Dodona, Mermaids at Play, oracle, painting, symbolism, symbolist art, symbols, The Isle of the Dead, The Plague, The Sacred Grove, Zeus | 8 Comments

Reading The Red Book (31)

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Symbol Reader

“Little good will come to you from outside. What will come to you lies within yourself. But what lies there!” C.G. Jung, The Red Book, chapter XVIII (Liber Secundus) Chapter XVIII of Liber Secundus is called The Three Prophecies. The … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged analytical psychology, Aquarius, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Chaos, eternity, Liber Novus, magic, mysticism, opposites, prophecy, psyche, psychology, religion, Rudolf Steiner, science, Soul, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, timeless, truth, unconscious, vision, War | 6 Comments

The Power of Wildness in the Times of Dystopia

Posted on February 14, 2021 by Symbol Reader

At least for me, it has been a season for dystopian novels. After finishing Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel The Testaments, I moved on to rereading 1984. When a cruel new law was recently passed in Poland forbidding abortion in … Continue reading →