Tag Archives: Orpheus

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

Persephone, Lady of the Mysteries

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Symbol Reader

“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 Soul after Death: Hermes and Eurydice

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Symbol Reader

The transitional, in-between state of the soul after death was believed to be the domain of Hermes by ancient Greeks. They worshiped Hermes as the one god who will guide them to the right place of exit after they die. … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Tagged death, Eurydice, Greek myth, Hermes, liminality, Orpheus, poetry, psychopompos, Reiner Maria Rilke, Soul, transition | 15 Comments

Orpheus and the Taming of the Wild

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Orpheus, a Roman mosaic I have recently read a fascinating article by Liz Locke, under the title “Orpheus and Orphism: Cosmology and Sacrifice at the Boundary” (Folklore Forum 28:2, 1997). Orpheus is a figure that hides many mysteries. He was … Continue reading →