Tag Archives: Shakespeare

On the Permeability of Borders

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Symbol Reader

Although scholars differ in their estimation of the number of words and phrases that Shakespeare introduced into English, they all agree that he transformed the language tremendously. He referred to himself as “a man on fire for new words.” As … Continue reading →

Posted in Language | Tagged borders, language, loan words, permeability, Shakespeare | 9 Comments

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

The Wild Abandon of the Vine Month

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Symbol Reader

1.“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk roses and with eglantine. There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lulled in these flowers with … Continue reading →

Posted in Summer, The Vine | Tagged blood, Celtic calendar, Christ, communion, Dionysus, fairies, Maenads, Midsummer Night's Dream, sacrifice, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, vine, vine month, vineard, wine | 12 Comments

If Love Be Blind, It Best Agrees with Night

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Edmund Dulac, “Night, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” Act III, scene II of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet begins with a breathtaking monologue of Juliet in which she beckons the night to come faster so that she can start her “amorous … Continue reading →

Posted in The Night | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, Christmas, darkness, goddess, Hymns to the Night, Modranect, night, Novalis, Nut, Nyx, paganism, Rilke, Shakespeare, symbolism, symbols, winter solstice | 32 Comments

Images of the Zodiac: Contemplating Gemini

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- it’s everything except what it is! ” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet I. Romeo and Juliet as an alchemical work Many years ago … Continue reading →

Posted in Johfra Bosschart | Tagged "Tlön, Alan Oken, archetypes, astrology, Bakhtin, Boaz, Borges, C.G. Jung, caduceus, dialogue, dualism, duality, fire, Gemini, hermaphrodite, Jachin, Johfra, Johfra Bosschart, language, Mercurius, Mercury, mind, Orbis Tertius", reptilian brain, Romeo and Juliet, Self, Shakespeare, Soul, spirituality, symbolism, symbols, the unconscious, Thoth, transformation, trickster, Uqbar, Venus | 26 Comments

The Knight’s Feet in Soft Slippers

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Keanu Reeves, seems perfect to have played Hamlet Hamlet is such a famous and celebrated play that it was dubbed a ‘collection of quotes.’ Who has not heard: “This above all: to thine own self be true,” or “There is … Continue reading →

Posted in Hamlet | Tagged art, forgiveness, Fortinbras, Hamlet, Kenneth Chan, literature, mysticism, Pisces, poetry, Shakespeare, spirituality, symbolism, theatre, violence, Zbigniew Herbert | 20 Comments

In Heraclitus’ River: The Mystery of Time

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Symbol Reader

1. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes … Continue reading →