Tag Archives: Goethe

The Veil of Isis and the Black Madonna: the Mysteries of Nature

Posted on September 9, 2023 by Symbol Reader

I. “The mother is the first world of the child and the last world of the adult. We are all wrapped as her children in the mantle of this great Isis.” Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9 (Part 1): … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Madonna | Tagged archetypes, Black Madonna, blackness, C.G. Jung, Chaos, darkness, goddess, Goethe, Hadot, hidden, isis, light, lumen naturae, mystery, nature, Nietzsche, Orpheus, Plutarch, Proclus, Prometheus, Sais, sphinx, symbolism, symbols | 7 Comments

Symbolist Art: The Mysteriarch (The One Who Presides over Mysteries)

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Symbol Reader

In volume V of Collected Works (Symbols of Transformation, par. 299) Jung quotes a passage from Goethe’s Faust, in which he hero must descend to the realm of the Mothers: “MEPHISTOPHELES: This lofty mystery I must now unfold.Goddesses throned in … Continue reading →

Posted in Mysteriarch | Tagged archetypes, art, C.G. Jung, Faust, George James Frampton, Goethe, mothers, Mysteriarch, psyche, sculpture, symbolism, symbolist art, symbols, unconscious, Underworld | 8 Comments

Jung on Alchemy (9): the Coniunctio – part 3 – the Red Stone

Posted on September 9, 2018 by Symbol Reader

“We must sleep with eyes open, we must dream with our hands, we must dream the active dreams of a river seeking its course, the dreams of the sun dreaming its worlds, we must dream out loud, we must sing … Continue reading →

Posted in Alchemy, Uncategorized | Tagged albedo, alchemy, analytical psychology, C.G. Jung, coniunctio, depth psychology, Faust, feeling, feminine, Four elements, Goethe, green lion, hermaphrodite, intuition, masculine, philosopher’s stone, psyche, red stone, Rosarium Philosophorum, rubedo, sensation, Soul, thinking, white stone | 6 Comments

Shakespeare and Goethe on Love: from Despair to Hope

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Symbol Reader

“She had a wildness in her eyes and into it I plunged.” Goethe, “Sorrows of Young Werther” In January 1778 Christel von Lassberg drowned herself in the river Ilm, the reason most probably being unrequited love. A copy of Goethe’s … Continue reading →

Posted in love, Uncategorized | Tagged bear, freezing, Goethe, hibernation, literature, love, passion, rebirth, regeneration, Romanticism, Shakespeare, spring, suffering, symbolism, symbols, trauma, Werther, Werther effect, winter, Winter's Tale | 10 Comments

Wordless Moments of Being

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Symbol Reader

Throughout my life I have been a collector of memorable moments. If I decide I want to capture a certain moment, I stop in my tracks and tell myself to register the impression. I do not have an eidetic sense, … Continue reading →