Tag Archives: passion

Shakespeare and Goethe on Love: from Despair to Hope

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Symbol Reader

“She had a wildness in her eyes and into it I plunged.” Goethe, “Sorrows of Young Werther” In January 1778 Christel von Lassberg drowned herself in the river Ilm, the reason most probably being unrequited love. A copy of Goethe’s … Continue reading →

Posted in love, Uncategorized | Tagged bear, freezing, Goethe, hibernation, literature, love, passion, rebirth, regeneration, Romanticism, Shakespeare, spring, suffering, symbolism, symbols, trauma, Werther, Werther effect, winter, Winter's Tale | 10 Comments

Rose Red: Symbolism of Blood

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Symbol Reader

1.“White and red combined are the colour of the mysterious rose, the whiteness of milk and the redness of blood, the white of light and the redness of fire.” Eliphas Levi, “The Book of Splendors” 2.“Blood is the first incarnation of … Continue reading →

Posted in Blood | Tagged alchemy, bleeding, blood, body, Carl Gustav Jung, color, Dark goddess, dark moon, depth psychology, family, fate, flesh, goddess, Kali, menstruation, passion, red, rose, rubedo, Sekhmet, symbolism, symbols, ties, whore of Babylon | 17 Comments

The Flames of Passion in Bellini’s “Norma”

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Symbol Reader

While learning Latin in high school, we were supposed to memorize parts of Julius Ceasar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War. The first sentence has been forever etched in my memory: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, … Continue reading →

Posted in Norma | Tagged archetypes, Bellini, betrayal, Druids, emotions, ethics, love, Maria Callas, morality, music, Norma, opera, passion, religion, sacrifice, symbolism, symbols | 17 Comments

Cultivating the Dark Core of Passion

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Psyche | Tagged culture, discipline, Dostoevsky, Japanese tea ceremony, Kafka, method, obsession, passion, psychology, reason, Seiza, Soul | 31 Comments

Thinking of Love

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Symbol Reader

This malady which Swann’s love had become had so proliferated, was so closely interwoven with all his habits, with all his actions, with his thoughts, his health, his sleep, his life, even with what he hoped for after his death, … Continue reading →