Tag Archives: life

Reading The Red Book (29)

Posted on January 10, 2021 by Symbol Reader

I. “Your sun will rise from muddy swamps.” II. “The lowest in you is the source of mercy.” III. “But the lowest in you is also the eye of the evil that stares at you and looks at you coldly … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged analytical psychology, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Chaos, crucifixion, depth psychology, evil, good, language, Liber Novus, life, madness, Neo-Platonism, Nous, Phanes, psyche, shadow, Soul, symbolism, symbols, system, The Red Book, unconscious, words | 5 Comments

Reading The Red Book (27)

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Symbol Reader

The title of Chapter XIV of Liber Secundus, the second part of The Red Book, is Divine Folly. Jung* finds himself in a library, where he engages in a dialogue with a librarian. He summarizes the atmosphere as “troubling-scholarly ambitions-scholarly … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged analytical psychology, archetypes, beatitudes, blessings, C.G. Jung, Christ, Christianity, depth psychology, Eugen Drewermann, imitation, individuation, Jesus, Liber Novus, librarian, life, Nietzsche, psyche, Soul, symbolism, symbols, The Imitation of Christ, The Red Book, the unconscious | 4 Comments

Reading The Red Book (24)

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Symbol Reader

Chapter XI of Liber Secundus is called The Opening of the Egg. Having sung his incantations, Jung kneels on the rug and carefully opens the egg. Completely healed, Izdubar appears in front of him. The god relates what his experience … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung | Tagged archetypes, C.G. Jung, darkness, depth psychology, Divine, egg, evil, Gilgamesh, God, good, Izdubar, Liber Novus, Liber Secundus, life, light, Medusa, snake, solar, solar hero, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, the sun | 8 Comments

Reading The Red Book (23)

Posted on August 4, 2020 by Symbol Reader

Chapter X of Liber Secundus is called Incantations. God (Izdubar) is now enclosed in the maternal egg. Jung sings “the incantations for his incubation.” If we are the children of Gods, perhaps Gods can also be our children, he says: … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged analytical psychology, Apep, archetype, archetypes, Brahma, C.G. Jung, Carl Gustav Jung, coincidentia oppositorum, depth psychology, fire, gods, golden egg, incantations, incubation, Izdubar, Liber Novus, life, meditation, opposites, solar, Soul, sun, symbol, symbols, The Red Book, unity | 3 Comments

Symbolism of the River

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Symbol Reader

“I do not know much about gods, but I think that the river is a strong brown god,” so begins the third of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. The divinity of rivers has been recognized by all mythologies since the beginning … Continue reading →

Posted in The River | Tagged ancient Egypt, archetypes, banks, Buddhism, C.G. Jung, Christianity, death, Four Rivers of Paradise, Ganga, Hapi, Hinduism, Kumbh Mela, life, myth, mythology, Nile, nirvana, paradise, rebirth, religion, Rene Guenon, river, Shiva, Source, symbolism, symbols, Upanishads, World Axis | 13 Comments

The Holiness of Trees

Posted on October 22, 2016 by Symbol Reader

“Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings.” C.G. Jung, … Continue reading →

Posted in trees, Uncategorized | Tagged C.G. Jung, communication, environment, life, nature, Peter Wohlleben, psychology, Soul, symbolism, Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life, trees | 43 Comments

Like the Rainbow on the Waterfall: the Mystical Aura of Consumption

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Symbol Reader

While the fourteenth century was ravaged by the Black Death, the nineteenth century belonged to tuberculosis, or the White Death, a disease much more insidious and widespread. John Keats died of it at the age of twenty-six, and so did … Continue reading →

Posted in Tuberculosis | Tagged art, consumption, Davos, death, disease, Edgar AllanPoe, Hans Castorp, illness, John Keats, life, literature, Magic Mountain, myth, Romanticism, sanatorium, symbolism, TB, Thomas Mann, Tuberculosis, White Death | 6 Comments

Two Different Kinds of Soul

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Symbol Reader

I. “The dual fate of Heracles after death, dwelling simultaneously on high with the gods and below in Hades, reflects the Greek notion that we have two different kinds of soul. Thymos is warm, emotional and red-blooded; while psyche is … Continue reading →

Posted in Psyche | Tagged Ancient Greece, archetypes, death, depth psychology, Dionysus, Greek myth, Greek mythology, Hades, life, Pluto, psukhe, psyche, reality, Soul, symbols, thumos | 13 Comments

“Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines” by Dylan Thomas

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“Light breaks where no sun shines; Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart Push in their tides; And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads, The things of light File through the flesh where no flesh decks the … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, blood, body, darkness, death, Dylan Thomas, life, light, Light breaks where no sun shines, poetry, rebirth, symbolism, symbols | 16 Comments

Dragons and Princesses

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Fear of the Inexplicable But fear of the inexplicable has not alone impoverished the existence of the individual; the relationship between one human being and another has also been cramped by it, as though it had been lifted out of … Continue reading →