Tag Archives: death

Symbolism of the Cave

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Symbol Reader

A well-known passage from Plato’s Republic describes how a group of people, chained to the wall of a deep cavern, spend their entire lives looking at the shadows dancing on the cave wall in front of them. The captives are oblivious to … Continue reading →

Posted in cave | Tagged archetypes, C.G. Jung, cave, Cave of the Nymphs, death, Egypt, gnas, goddess, Hermes, incarnation, Plato, Porphyry, Power, rebirth, Soul, symbolism, symbols, tomb, transcendence, transformation, womb | 6 Comments

Durga

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Symbol Reader

I. “Salutations to Thee, O giver of blessings! Dark Virgin, observant of the vow of chastity, Whose form is beauteous as that of the rising sun, And Thy face as that of the full moon; … Thy body is like … Continue reading →

Posted in Durga, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, conch, death, demons, Durga, Durga Puja, eight arms, fortress, Great Goddess, Hindu myth, India, invincible, Kali, Lakshmi, lotus, mace, Mahisha, rebirth, regeneration, Saraswati, seed, sword, symbolism, symbols, Time, trident, universal goddess, War | 7 Comments

Wheat and War

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Symbol Reader

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, еxcept a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”(John 12: 24) Out of the numberless reasons why we are all so … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, death, Demeter, Eleusinian Mysteries, life, sacrifice, symbolism, symbols, Ukraine, Ukrainian flag, War, wheat | 4 Comments

Frida Kahlo’s Symbolism of Life

Posted on February 5, 2022 by Symbol Reader

Frida Kahlo stands today for much more than art; she is a symbol and an icon of feminism, a heroine of the disability rights movement, anti-racism movements and LGBT communities. Her boundless creativity drew no lines between life and art; … Continue reading →

Posted in Ambition, frida kahlo | Tagged accident, archetypes, art, Casa Azul, death, Diego Rivera, ex-votos, fashion, feminism, fertility, frida kahlo, healthabortion, infertility, jewellery, life, miscarriage, pain, painting, religion, retablos, suffering, symbolism, symbols, Tehuana | 11 Comments

Hermopolis: the City of Beautiful Renewal

Posted on November 27, 2021 by Symbol Reader

“Let us praise Thoth, the exact plummet of the balance,from whom evil flees,who accepts him who avoids evil,the Vizier who gives judgement,who vanquishes crime,who recalls all that is forgotten,the remembrancer of time and eternity,who proclaims the hours of the night,whose … Continue reading →

Posted in Hermes, Hermopolis | Tagged archetypes, being, creation, death, Egypt, Egyptian myth, Eye of Horus, hare, heart, Hermes, Hermetica, Hermopolis, ibis, Khmnu, life, lotus, maat, Moon, Ogdoad, oneness, Seshat, Set, symbolism, symbols, Thoth, Udjat, Wedjat | 3 Comments

The House of the Black Madonna

Posted on September 26, 2021 by Symbol Reader

One of the most important Black Madonna shrines in Europe is The Basilica della Santa Casa (Basilica of the Holy House) in Loreto, Italy. Catholics believe that it enshrines the authentic house, where Mary lived, where she heard the Annunciation … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Madonna | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, black, Black Madonna, blackness, butterfly, cave, Dark goddess, death, feminine, fire, goddess, hearth, Hestia, kitchen, Loreto, Mary, medlar, Persephone, psyche, rebirth, sacred, Solothurn, Soul, symbolism, symbols, the underworld, tomb, vessel, womb | 10 Comments

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

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

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 →