Category Archives: Uncategorized

Notre-Dame de Paris

Posted on May 12, 2019 by Symbol Reader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUrULTifMPc In “Civilization,” a classic TV series of 1969, standing in front of Notre-Dame, Kenneth Clark asked: “What is civilization? I don’t know. I can’t define it in abstract terms — yet. But I think I can recognize it when … Continue reading →

Posted in Notre-Dame, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, architecture, C.G. Jung, cathedrals, chimeras, Christianity, civilization, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, fire, Fulcanelli, gargoyles, goddess, Gothic, isis, light, Mary, masons, Notre-Dame, Our Lady, Ouspensky, Paris, spirituality, stained glass, Stryge, symbolism, symbols, the Middle Ages, Vasari, Virgin | 27 Comments

The Musical Hamilton and its Symbolism

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Symbol Reader

“Sometimes the right person tells the right story at the right moment, and through a combination of luck and design, a creative expression gains new force. Spark, tinder, breeze.” Lin Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter, “Hamilton the Revolution” “Revolution is … Continue reading →

Posted in Hamilton (The Musical), Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, astrology, Cancer, Capricorn, diversity, Founding Fathers, gender, Hamilton, hip-hop, history, inclusivity, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Jones, music, musical, Obama, politics, psychology, race, symbolism, symbols, USA | 12 Comments

The Bembine Table of Isis

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Symbol Reader

“I am all that has been and is and shall be; and no mortal has ever lifted my veil.” (the words inscribed on the statue of Isis of Sais) The Bembine Table of Isis, also known as Mensa Isiaca, is … Continue reading →

Posted in The Bembine Table of Isis, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, ancient Egypt, archetypes, Bembina Table, Bembina Tablet, C.G. Jung, Egyptian mythology, esoteric, esotericism, isis, Manly P. Hall, materia prima, Mensa Isiaca, Museo Egizio, neoplatonism, Plato, symbolism, symbols, Turin | 9 Comments

Symbolism of the Egg

Posted on December 9, 2018 by Symbol Reader

I. “Set the egg before you, the God in his beginning. And behold it. And incubate it with the magical warmth of your gaze.” II. “And I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in … Continue reading →

Posted in The Egg, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, C.G. Jung, Carl Jung, Cosmic Egg, cosmogony, egg, incubation, myth, mythology, Orphics, Orphims, Phanes, Protogonos, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, World Egg | 20 Comments

Jung on Alchemy (9): the Coniunctio – part 3 – the Red Stone

Posted on September 9, 2018 by Symbol Reader

“We must sleep with eyes open, we must dream with our hands, we must dream the active dreams of a river seeking its course, the dreams of the sun dreaming its worlds, we must dream out loud, we must sing … Continue reading →

Posted in Alchemy, Uncategorized | Tagged albedo, alchemy, analytical psychology, C.G. Jung, coniunctio, depth psychology, Faust, feeling, feminine, Four elements, Goethe, green lion, hermaphrodite, intuition, masculine, philosopher’s stone, psyche, red stone, Rosarium Philosophorum, rubedo, sensation, Soul, thinking, white stone | 6 Comments

Turin like a Dream

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Symbol Reader

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears,” wrote Italo Calvino in Invisible Cities. Though Turin is not the first Italian city I have fallen in love with, what I experienced there had not happened to me before. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Turin, Uncategorized | Tagged 45th parallel, alchemical caves, alchemy, Angelic Fountain, Apis, archetypes, art, “White Magic”, black magic, black magic triangle, Castor, Church of the Great Mother of God, cities, coniunctio oppositorum, darkness, duality, Egyptian Museum of Turin, first capital of Italy, Frejus monument, Giorgio de Chirico, Holy Grail, isis, Italo Calvino, Italy, light, magic, Nietzsche, Nostradamus, occultism, Osiris, Palazzo Madama, Piazza Solferino, Piazza Statuto, Pillars of Hercules, Pollux, shroud of Turin, symbolism, symbols, Torino, Turin, union of opposites, white magic triangle | 7 Comments

Transcending Toxic Masculinity

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Symbol Reader

There is a deep collective need to rewrite the scripts of masculinity. “Dig deeply into any man and one would find not only the lake of tears but a mountain of rage, layers of anger accumulated since childhood, slowly pushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Masculinity, Uncategorized | Tagged Adam Sommer, analytical psychology, archetypes, astrology, C.G. Jung, Cancer, Capricorn, Franz Kafka, healing, inner child, James Hillman, James Hollis, Jungian psychology, Kafka's father, Mark Jones, masculine, Masculinity, planetary nodes, puer and senex, symbols, the father complex, the mother complex, trauma, Under Saturn's Shadow, wound | 13 Comments

“Blessed is he who leaves” – “Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Symbol Reader

This year’s Man Booker international prize went to a Polish author, Olga Tokarczuk for Flights. It is an absorbing tale, or rather a collection of tales, devoted to the nomad in everyone of us. More than that, a large part … Continue reading →

Posted in Novel review, Uncategorized | Tagged Bieguni, body, book review, Flights, International Man Booker Prize, literature, nomads, Olga Tokarczuk, relics, symbolism, symbols, wanderers | 11 Comments

The Suffering of Perseus and Medusa

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Symbol Reader

“I wasn’t hurt enough when I should have been, Kino admitted to himself. When I should have felt real pain, I stifled it. I didn’t want to take it on, so I avoided facing up to it. Which is why … Continue reading →

Posted in Medusa, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, Cellini, Gorgon, Greek mythology, healing, Jungian psychology, Medusa, Men Without Women, monster, Murakami, myth, patriarchy, Perseus, shadow, suffering, symbolism, symbols, trauma, wound | 2 Comments

On Play

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Symbol Reader

The vision of the world as an unfolding game is a very alluring idea. Once you start viewing all reality through that lens, it is quite hard to step back into ordinary perception. In Hinduism, the concept of Lila, divine … Continue reading →