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Tag Archives: death
Hamnet and Tutankhamun
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
Gilgamesh: He Who Saw the Deep
If you happen to have some time on your hands, I strongly recommend that you take a look at Ancient Masterpiece of World Literature (https://www.edx.org/course/ancient-masterpieces-of-world-literature), a course which Harvard University is currently offering online free of charge. You can also … Continue reading
Posted in Gilgamesh, Uncategorized
Tagged archetypes, Carl Gustav Jung, cedar, culture, death, deluge, depth psychology, Divine, Enkidu, epic, flood, Gilgamesh, goddess, human, humbaba, immortality, Inanna, Ishtar, Mesopotamia, myth, mythology, nature, Rilke, Sumer, Sumerian, symbolism, symbols, Underworld, Uruk, Utnapishtim
12 Comments
Reading The Red Book (19)
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
Egyptian Pyramids as a Symbol of Rebirth
“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
A Reedeming Darkness of The Black Madonna
“Underneath all our conditioning, hidden in the crypt of our being, near the waters of life, the Black Virgin is enthroned with her Child, the dark latency of our own essential nature, that which we were always meant to be.” … Continue reading
Posted in The Black Madonna, The Dark Goddess, Uncategorized
Tagged alchemy, archetypes, Artemis, Black Madonna, body, Buddha, Buddhism, C.G. Jung, Chartres, Christianity, Cybele, Dark goddess, darkness, death, Einsiedeln, enlightenment, Ephesus, fertility, Gnosticism, goddess, isis, Lyons, Mary Magdalene, Montserrat, nothingness, paganism, Paris, Shulamite, shunyata, Songs of Songs, Sophia, Soul, spirituality, symbolism, symbols, tantra, Tara, Underworld, wisdom, womb
7 Comments
Symbolism of the River
“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
13 Comments
Odysseus’ Return from the Dead in the Vision of Tadeusz Kantor
Cricoteca, the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990), a Polish avant-guarde artist, stage designer and, above all, a celebrated theatre director, is a striking addition to the unique architecture of Krakow, Poland. I found their … Continue reading
Posted in Tadeusz Kantor, The Theatre
Tagged anxiety, archetypes, art, Cricot 2, cricoteca, death, fear, Odysseus, reality of the lowest rank, symbolism, symbols, Tadeusz Kantor, theatre, War
6 Comments
Like the Rainbow on the Waterfall: the Mystical Aura of Consumption
While the fourteenth century was ravaged by the Black Death, the nineteenth century belonged to tuberculosis, or the White Death, a disease much more insidious and widespread. John Keats died of it at the age of twenty-six, and so did … Continue reading
Posted in Tuberculosis
Tagged art, consumption, Davos, death, disease, Edgar AllanPoe, Hans Castorp, illness, John Keats, life, literature, Magic Mountain, myth, Romanticism, sanatorium, symbolism, TB, Thomas Mann, Tuberculosis, White Death
6 Comments
David Bowie’s Blackstar
The video to David Bowie’s “Blackstar” overpowered me immediately when it was released on 19 November last year. It is a visual poem and a symbolic feast. Despite the iconic yellow smiley face flashed at the viewer at the very … Continue reading
Posted in David Bowie, Uncategorized
Tagged alchemy, archetypes, Blackstar, Chaos, David Bowie, death, nigredo, suffering, symbolism, symbols, video
16 Comments
Asclepius: Earth-Walking Healer, Son of Apollo
“Coronis was pregnant by Apollo when she found herself attracted to a stranger. He came from Arcadia, and his name was Ischys. A white crow watched over her. Apollo had told the bird to guard the woman he loved, ‘so … Continue reading
Posted in Asclepius
Tagged adyton, Apollo, Asclepius, Asklepios, C.G. Jung, cock, Coronis, death, Demeter, depth psychology, dog, dream, Dreaming, Eleusis, Epidaurus, Greek myth, Greek mythology, healing, Hermes, incubation, medicine, Medusa, Ophiuchus, rebirth, rite, Ritual, rod of Asclepius, serpent, snake, symbolism, symbols
21 Comments