Tag Archives: goddess

The Erotic Watery Dreamland of Henri Rousseau

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“In 1910, the year of his death, Rousseau gave the world his last dream, his extraordinary painting Le Rȇve. In a moonlit jungle clearing, a naked woman lies on a brown velvet-covered couch. In attendance are she-lions, birds of paradise, … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged anima, art, dream, Dreaming, goddess, Henri Rousseau, lotus, painting, symbolism, symbols | 24 Comments

Symbolism of the Dove

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Symbol Reader

A. Andrew Gonzalez, “Unio Mystica” 1. “In the myths of Babylonia and Judaism, a dive circles the subsiding waters of the primal flood and returns with the olive branch, sign of renewal after inundation.” “The Book of Symbols” 2.“Be ye … Continue reading →

Posted in The Dove | Tagged Animal Speak, Aphrodite, archetypes, Christianity, Dodona, Dodona oracle, Dove, goddess, Hera, Holy Spirit, Juno, oracle, paganism, Pentecost, prophecy, Sophia, Soul, symbolism, symbols, Ted Andrews, Venus, yoni, Zeus | 30 Comments

Bird Goddess

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out to sea. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were delicate as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged archetypes, bird, goddess, James Joyce, literature, myth, susan seddon boulet, symbolism, symbols | 7 Comments

The Secrets of the Odyssey (7): Circe and the Underworld

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Symbol Reader

J.W. Waterhouse, “Circe Invidiosa” As his journey progresses, Odysseus gradually loses all his ships and companions, all of his spoils of war, until he becomes solitary at the very end of the epic. Right after the disaster with contrary winds, … Continue reading →

Posted in The Odyssey | Tagged astrology, Circe, goddess, Greek mythology, Hades, Homer, Ishtar, lady of the beasts, Leo, Odysseus, Odyssey, Soul, the underworld | 16 Comments

The Secrets of the Odyssey (4): A Tribute to Penelope

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Penelope While Odysseus, cursed by Poseidon, cannot find his way home and lives through a series of fantastical adventures, his wife Penelope is experiencing a deep wound of longing and despair. She is left to run the kingdom of Ithaca … Continue reading →

Posted in The Odyssey | Tagged archetypes, bird, Fates, goddess, Greek myth, Greek mythology, Greek myths, Homer, Homer’s Secret Odyssey, Moirai, Odysseus, Penelope, Pleiades, Rene Guenon, symbolism, symbols, weaver, weaving | 22 Comments

Images of the Zodiac: Contemplating Pisces

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Johfra Bosschart, “Pisces” One of the best novels I have read in my whole life is without any shadow of a doubt Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in 12 Fish by Richard Flanagan. Its narrator, William Buelow Gould, is … Continue reading →

Posted in Johfra Bosschart | Tagged Age of Pisces, archetypes, astrology, Dane Rudhyar, divine feminine, Egyptian mythology, fish, goddess, Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in 12 Fish, Johfra, myth, mythology, ocean, Osiris, Pisces, redemption, Richard Flanagan, symbolism, symbols, synthesis, water, wholeness, Zodiac | 27 Comments

The Secrets of the Odyssey (3): Calypso and Phaecians

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Symbol Reader

According to a well-known saying by Whitehead, all Western philosophy is a footnote to Plato. Philosophy may have begun with Plato but storytelling and literature began with minstrel poets such as Homer. Our cultural womb and cradle is ancient Greece; … Continue reading →

Posted in The Odyssey | Tagged archetypes, Calypso, depth psychology, epic poetry, Eva Brann, Florence and Kenneth Wood, goddess, goddesses, gods, Greek myth, Homer, Homer’s Secret Odyssey, Homeric moments, James Hillman, literature, mythology, Nausicaa, Odyssey, Ogygia, Robert Fitzgerald translation, Scheria, symbols, symptoms | 16 Comments

Iris: the Goddess of the Rainbow as the Harbinger of a New Era

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Symbol Reader

There is a well-known saying that the rainbow comes only after the storm. In the Bible, after the Deluge, God places a rainbow in the sky and pledges solemnly not to send another flood upon the earth: “I have set … Continue reading →

Posted in Iris | Tagged Aquarius, archetypes, asteroid, astrology, covenant, deluge, depth pychology, Electra, flood, goddess, Greek mythology, Iris, James Hillman, mythology, Pleiades, pothos, Rainbow, seven, symbolism, symbolism of number seven, symbols | 42 Comments

If Love Be Blind, It Best Agrees with Night

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Edmund Dulac, “Night, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” Act III, scene II of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet begins with a breathtaking monologue of Juliet in which she beckons the night to come faster so that she can start her “amorous … Continue reading →

Posted in The Night | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, Christmas, darkness, goddess, Hymns to the Night, Modranect, night, Novalis, Nut, Nyx, paganism, Rilke, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, winter solstice | 32 Comments

Artemis: the Goddess of Primal Instincts

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Symbol Reader

In this time of the year many of us run after the perfect gifts for our loved ones. A gift I chose for myself this week was a small silver box with an engraved stag. I saw it at a … Continue reading →