"The deepest core of life is poetry and symbol." - Dane Rudhyar
Tag Archives: Greek myth
The Symbolism of the Dragon
“Dragons are subterranean, winged, smoke- and fire-breathing creatures, hybrid go-betweens in a magical bond between heaven and the underworld, where they guard secret treasures and reign over fires and concealed palaces.” A description found on Dragon Path on Mount Pilatus … Continue reading
Posted in Dragons
Tagged Agathis Daimon, alchemy, archetypes, Bilbo, C.G. Jung, Cadmus, Campbell, China, depth psychology, dragon, Dragons, drakaina, drakon, drakontes, etymology, fantasy, Gaia, goddess, gold, golden apples, Greek myth, guardian, Hermes, hero, Hesperides, James Hillman, Krakow, Ladon, Mercurius, Mysterium Coniunctionis, mythology, Nagas, Pilatus, ring, river, shadow, Shesha, Smaug, Soul, Stilbon, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, treasure, Typhon, uoroboros, Vishnu, water, Yggdrasil
10 Comments
Hekate: World Soul, Cosmic Bridge and a Liminal Goddess
“Ever since the ‘Timaeus’ it has been repeatedly stated that the soul is a sphere. As the anima mundi, the soul revolves with the world wheel, whose hub is the Pole. … The anima mundi is really the motor of … Continue reading
Posted in Hekate
Tagged anima mundi, Apuleius, archetypes, boundaries, C.G. Jung, cave, Chaldean Oracles, cosmic harmony, daimones, dogs, goddess, Greek myth, Hekate, Helios, Hellenistic era, Hesiod, iynx, Karians, keyholder, keys, kourothropos, liminality, limits, magic, Moon, Olympians, Persephone, Plato, Plutarch, Porphyry, Sibyl, sun, sunthemata, symbola, symbolism, symbols, sympathy, Theogony, theurgy, Titans, torches, Underworld, world soul, Zeus
3 Comments
Reading The Red Book (40) – The Seven Sermons to the Dead
“One, two, three, but where, my dear Timaeus, is the fourth?” Plato, “Timaeus” We have now reached the fourth Sermon to the Dead, in which the dead demand of Philemon: “Speak to us about Gods and devils, accursed one.” The … Continue reading
Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung
Tagged archetypes, C.G. Jung, devil, Eros, four, Greek myth, Leviticus, Liber Novus, Pan, Philemon, psyche, quaternio, Satan, scapegoat, scapegoating, Septem Sermones, Seven Sermons to the Dead, Soul, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, unconscious
5 Comments
The Sirens as Psychopomps and Muses of the Underworld
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
Hermes in the Forest of Symbols
I. “…Hermesian reading is an open, in-depth reading, one that lays bare the metalanguages for us, that is to say, the structures of signs and correspondences that only symbolism and myth make it possible to conserve and transmit. To read, … Continue reading
Posted in Hermes, Uncategorized
Tagged Adocentyn, alchemy, archetypes, Argus, Botticelli, C.G. Jung, caduceus, Carl Jung, Corpus Hermeticum, crossroads, dead, esotericism, Faivre, God, Greek myth, Greek mythology, guide, herma, hermaion, Hermes, Hermes Trismegistus, Hermetica, hermeticism, Hermopolis, magic, Marcilio Ficino, Mercury, messenger, myth, mythology, peacock, Picatrix, Primavera, psychopompos, Soul, symbolism, symbols, Thoth, Zeus
6 Comments
The Underworld in Finnish and Greek Myth
I have been reading The Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane, which is a dazzling exploration of the author’s daring travels into the bowels of the earth. He devotes space to mining, caving, cave painting, Parisian catacombs, glaciers … Continue reading
Posted in "The Underland" by Robert MacFarlane, Uncategorized
Tagged "The Dead", Acheron, Ancient Greece, archetypes, Cocytus, descent, five rivers of Hell, Greek myth, Greek mythology, Hades, Kalevala, katabasis, Lethe, myth, mythology, Phlegethon, Robert MacFarlane, Styx, symbolism, symbols, The Underland, the underworld, Tuonela
7 Comments
Symbolism of the Labyrinth
The myth of Minotaur tells the story of greed and tyranny, which led Minos to deny a sacrificial bull to Poseidon. The angry god punished the king by making his wife fall in love with the bull. The fruit of … Continue reading
Posted in Labyrinth, Uncategorized
Tagged Ancient Greece, archetypes, bull, C.G. Jung, cathedral, Chartres, Crete, depth psychology, double axe, ego, Greek myth, instincts, labrys, Labyrinth, Mary, maze, Minoan civilization, Minotaur, mystic rose, myth, mythology, rose, Self, symbolism, symbols, Taurus, The Red Book, zoe
13 Comments
Chaos, Harmony and the Birth of Alphabet
One of the most beautiful Greek myths, which fascinated Carl Gustav Jung because of its alchemical underpinnings, is the story of Cadmus and Harmony. It is beautifully retold in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso, who begins … Continue reading
Posted in Cadmus, Uncategorized
Tagged alchemy, alphabet, Cadmus, Carl Gustav Jung, Dionysos, Greek myth, Greek mythology, harmony, Mercurius, Phoenicians, Roberto Calasso, snake, Thebes, trickster, Typhon
11 Comments
Jung on Alchemy (5): Hermes, the Arcane Interpreter of All
“Mercurius is an adumbration of the primordial light-bringer, who is never himself the light, but…who brings the light of nature, the light of the moon and the stars which fades before the new morning light.” C.G. Jung, Alchemical Studies, par. … Continue reading
Posted in Alchemy, Hermes, Uncategorized
Tagged alchemy, archetypes, Blavatsky, goddess, Greek myth, Greek mythology, hermaphrodite, Hermes, Hermes Trismegistus, hermeticism, Maia, maya, number four, psychopomp, symbols
13 Comments
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