"The deepest core of life is poetry and symbol." - Dane Rudhyar
Tag Archives: Greek mythology
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
The Nymphs
I. To Nereids “O lovely-faced and pure nymphs,daughters of Nereus, lord of the deep,at the bottom of the seayou frolic and dance,fifty maidens revel in the waves, maidens riding on the backs of Tritons,delighting in animal shapes,bodies nurtured by the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Ancient Greece, Apollo, archetypes, beekeeping, Calypso, cave, Cave of the Nymphs, Chariklo, childbirth, Chiron, civilization, Crete, Daphnis, Delphi, Dionysos, divination, Dryads, fertility, Greek mythology, healing, Hera, Hermes, Ida, Ithaca, Maia, marriage, mountain, mythology, Naiades, Nereids, nostos, numpholeptos, nymphs, Oceanids, Odyssey, oracle, Pan, Pleiades, Porphyry, psyche, Soul, symbolism, symbols, Syrinx, water, Zeus
3 Comments
The Danaids, the Lernaean Hydra and Heracles
According to the Greek myth, the Danaids, fifty daughters of Danaus, were forced to marry fifty sons of Aegyptus, a ruler of Egypt. Forty-nine of them killed their husbands on the wedding night. The forty-nine heads of the men were … Continue reading
Posted in The Danaids and Hydra, Uncategorized
Tagged archetype, archetypes, arrow, Bachofen, Chiron, Danaides, Danaids, Greek mythology, Hercules, Hydra, Lernean Hydra, magic, matriarchy, patriarchy, priestess, Robert Graves, symbolism, symbols, twelve labours, wounded healer
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
5 Comments
Persephone, Lady of the Mysteries
“Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.” William Blake, Proverbs of Hell Is one even allowed to talk about the gods of the underworld? For Rudolf Otto, a twentieth-century theologian, the holy or the numinous … Continue reading
Posted in Persephone, Uncategorized
Tagged abaton, analytical psychology, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Cancer, Capricorn, Carl Jung, cave, dark moon, Demeter, Demetra George, Dionysos, dismemberment, Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusis, grain, Greek mythology, mysteries, myth, mythology, Orpheus, Orphism, Persephone, Peter Kingsley, pomegranate, Porphyry, religion, sacred, solstitial gate, sphinx, symbolism, symbols, well, Zeus
13 Comments
The Suffering of Perseus and Medusa
“I wasn’t hurt enough when I should have been, Kino admitted to himself. When I should have felt real pain, I stifled it. I didn’t want to take it on, so I avoided facing up to it. Which is why … Continue reading
Posted in Medusa, Uncategorized
Tagged archetypes, Cellini, Gorgon, Greek mythology, healing, Jungian psychology, Medusa, Men Without Women, monster, Murakami, myth, patriarchy, Perseus, shadow, suffering, symbolism, symbols, trauma, wound
2 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
11 Comments
