Tag Archives: ancient Egypt

Hamnet and Tutankhamun

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Symbol Reader

Shakespeare’s life is a great mystery but we do know that he had a son, Hamnet, who died at the age 11, possibly from the plague. Four years after his son’s death, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, maybe his greatest masterpiece. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged afterlife, ancient Egypt, archetypes, art, burial, death, fiction, grave, Hamnet, Howard Carter, literature, Maggie O'Farrell, mask, Osiris, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, tomb, truth, Tutankhamun, Tutankhamun's mask | 4 Comments

Symbolism of the Wetlands

Posted on July 5, 2020 by Symbol Reader

“I enter a swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum. … My temple is the swamp.” *** “Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious … Continue reading →

Posted in The Marsh | Tagged alligator, ancient Egypt, archetypes, Carl Jung, crocodile, Field of Reeds, goddess, Great Mother, James Hollis, London, marsh, marshes, moor, New Orleans, Nile, Pan, paradise, Paris, Soul, swamp, swamps, symbolism, symbols, Syrinx, Thoreau, unconscious, Venice | 12 Comments

Reading The Red Book (19)

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Symbol Reader

I. “… opening The Red Book seems to be opening the mouth of the dead.” James Hillman in James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani, “Lament of the Dead: Psychology After Jung’s Red Book” II. “We need the coldness of death to … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged "The Dead", analitycal psychology, ancient Egypt, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Carl Jung, death, depth psychology, James Hillman, Liber Novus, opening of the mouth, rebirth, Shonu Shamdasani, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book | 7 Comments

Symbolism of the Door

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Symbol Reader

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” V. Woolf, A Room of One’s Own My favourite master of symbolism, J.E. Cirlot … Continue reading →

Posted in The Door, Uncategorized | Tagged ancient Egypt, archetypes, Bachelard, door, doors, doorway, false door, Poetics of Space, religion, safety, security, shelter, symbolism, symbols, the new, threshold, torii | 7 Comments

Egyptian Pyramids as a Symbol of Rebirth

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Symbol Reader

“Ancient Egypt was an agrarian society, and the Egyptians’ view of the world was determined in part by agricultural life along the Nile. Each year, spring rains in the Ethiopian highlands fed the source of the Nile and eventually raised … Continue reading →

Posted in Osiris, Quotations, Uncategorized | Tagged ancient Egypt, benben, death, Duat, Egyptian mythology, Nefertum, Nut, Osiris, pyramids, rebirth, seed, the Nile, the sun | 7 Comments

Reading The Red Book (18)

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Symbol Reader

“The stars whisper your deepest mysteries to you, and the soft valleys of the earth rescue you in a motherly womb.” C. G. Jung, Liber Novus We have reached chapter V of Liber Secundus, which is the second part of … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, ancient Egypt, anima mundi, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Christianity, darkness, depth psychology, Egyptian mythology, Helios, khepri, Liber Novus, light, paganism, Philosophical Tree, scarab, shadow, sun, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, tree, world soul | 5 Comments

Symbolism of the River

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Symbol Reader

“I do not know much about gods, but I think that the river is a strong brown god,” so begins the third of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. The divinity of rivers has been recognized by all mythologies since the beginning … Continue reading →

Posted in The River | Tagged ancient Egypt, archetypes, banks, Buddhism, C.G. Jung, Christianity, death, Four Rivers of Paradise, Ganga, Hapi, Hinduism, Kumbh Mela, life, myth, mythology, Nile, nirvana, paradise, rebirth, religion, Rene Guenon, river, Shiva, Source, symbolism, symbols, Upanishads, World Axis | 14 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

Osiris, Master of Silence and Renewal

Posted on August 16, 2017 by Symbol Reader

Three giant statues of Osiris, Isis and Hapi, the Nile god of fertility, have been placed at the entrance to Museum Rietberg in Zurich. They were recovered from the sea bed by Franck Goddio, a French underwater archaeologist, who directed … Continue reading →

Posted in Osiris, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, ancient Egypt, earth, Egypt, Frankc Goddio, inundation, Nile, Osirian mysteries, Osiris, Rietberg Museum, Seth, Thonis-Heracleion | 12 Comments

The Sublime Silence of Stonehenge

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Symbol Reader

“Pile of Stone-henge! so proud to hint yet keep Thy secrets, thou that lov’st to stand and hear The Plain resounding to the whirlwind’s sweep, Inmate of lonesome Nature’s endless year.” William Wordsworth’s , “Guilt and sorrow; or incidents upon … Continue reading →