Tag Archives: death

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 →

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

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

Gilgamesh: He Who Saw the Deep

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Symbol Reader

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)

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

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 →