Tag Archives: James Hillman

Roma: Movie of the Year

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Symbol Reader

The movie Roma is a beautiful hymn to women. It tells the story of Cleo, an indigenous (Mixtec) woman who works as a maid to an upper-middle-class Mexican family. She is wonderfully portrayed by Yalitza Aparicio, who had never acted … Continue reading →

Posted in Movie Review | Tagged Alfonso Cuaron, anima mundi, archetypes, domestic work, film, goddess, Hestia, housework, humility, James Hillman, Mixtec, movie, Power, review, Roma, servant, service, serving, Soul, symbolism, symbols, water, woman, women | 17 Comments

Transcending Toxic Masculinity

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Symbol Reader

There is a deep collective need to rewrite the scripts of masculinity. “Dig deeply into any man and one would find not only the lake of tears but a mountain of rage, layers of anger accumulated since childhood, slowly pushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Masculinity, Uncategorized | Tagged Adam Sommer, analytical psychology, archetypes, astrology, C.G. Jung, Cancer, Capricorn, Franz Kafka, healing, inner child, James Hillman, James Hollis, Jungian psychology, Kafka's father, Mark Jones, masculine, Masculinity, planetary nodes, puer and senex, symbols, the father complex, the mother complex, trauma, Under Saturn's Shadow, wound | 13 Comments

Insects: Smaller-Than-Small in Appearance, Bigger-Than-Big in Effect

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Symbol Reader

Jainism, an Indian religion prescribing a path of nonviolence towards all living beings, professes a doctrine of Ahimsa (non-injury, absence of desire to harm), one expression of which is sweeping the ground with very small brushes before stepping on it … Continue reading →

Posted in Insects | Tagged ahimsa, Animal Presences, animals, archetypes, Breaking Bad, bugs, C.G. Jung, Crime and Punishment, depth psychology, Dostoevsky, dung beetle, evil, Hades, insects, Jainism, James Hillman, khepri, Pluto, Raskolnikov, symbolism, symbols, vermin, Walter White | 29 Comments

A Few Thoughts on Power

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Paul Kane, “Mount St Helens Erupting at Night” “Business has defeated everything in its path. Its last enemies are the oldest: it is still defied by the ancient Gods of blood revenge, territorial tribalism and the strangely recurrent death struggles … Continue reading →

Posted in Power | Tagged archetypes, depth psychology, equality, inequality, James Hillman, justice, Power, psychology, symbolism, symbols, tao te ching | 24 Comments

Haunting Paintings: “Wind from the Sea” by Andrew Wyeth

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Symbol Reader

I saw this painting today and became transfixed by it. The wind has brought the smell of the sea and the birds on the old and frail lace curtain have momentarily caught wind in their wings. I felt nostalgia, melancholia, … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged Andrew Wyeth, archetypes, art, “Christina’s World”, “Wind from the Sea”, Iris, James Hillman, painting, pothos, symbolism, symbols, Zephyrus | 17 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

Of Mountains and Valleys

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Kashmir valley, image credit “Call the world if you please ‘the vale of soul-making.’ Then you will find out the use of the world.” John Keats, in a letter Mountain valleys can be breathtakingly beautiful. Lusciously green, nested between high … Continue reading →

Posted in Psyche | Tagged archetypes, James Hillman, mountain, mountains, Soul, spirit, symbolism, symbols, Valley | 19 Comments

Senex and Puer

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Symbol Reader

image credit The turn of the year is ruled by the senex/puer archetypal polarity. In the most popular allegorical depictions, the old man gives way to a young boy. This happens when the Sun is in Capricorn: the sign of … Continue reading →

Posted in Senex and Puer | Tagged archetypes, depth psychology, James Hillman, puer, senex, symbolism, symbols | 22 Comments

Musings on Great Symbols: Money

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Margin Call, an independent movie about the initial stages of the financial crisis of 2008, took me by surprise. It was hard to believe I could actually enjoy a film set at a Wall Street investment bank. The film is, … Continue reading →