Tag Archives: symbolism

Land Art by Andy Goldsworthy

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Symbol Reader

“I believe in the practice and philosophy of what we have agreed to call magic, in what I must call the evocation of spirits, though I do not know what they are, in the power of creating magical illusions, in … Continue reading →

Posted in Andy Goldsworthy, Uncategorized | Tagged Andy Goldsworthy, archetypes, art, documentary, earth art, land art, Leaning Into the Wind, nature, stone, symbolism, symbols | 16 Comments

The Black Madonna

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Symbol Reader

A striking poster advertises an exhibition dedicated to the history of 1000 years of pilgrimage to Einsiedeln Abbey, the seat of the Black Madonna. We see her red robe and the crown but the statue is not there. A veil … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Madonna, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, Black Madonna, Czestochowa, Dark Forest, Dark goddess, divine feminine, Einsiedeln, Loreto, symbolism, symbols | 9 Comments

Jung on Alchemy (7): The Coniunctio – part 1 – The Mercurial Fountain

Posted on November 26, 2017 by Symbol Reader

“And just as the cosmos is not a dissolving mass of particles, but rests in the unity of God’s embrace, man must not dissolve into a whirl of warring possibilities and tendencies imposed on him by the unconscious, but must … Continue reading →

Posted in Alchemy | Tagged alchemy, C.G. Jung, coniunctio, depth psychology, Mercurial Fountain, Mercurius, Psychology of Transference, Rosarium Philosophorum, Soul, spirit, symbolism, symbols, The Fountain of Mercurius | 9 Comments

Two Symbols of the Jewish Warsaw: the Wall and the Palm Tree

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Symbol Reader

I. THE WALL “In Rome on the Campo dei Fiori baskets of olives and lemons, cobbles spattered with wine and the wreckage of flowers. Vendors cover the trestles with rose-pink fish; armfuls of dark grapes heaped on peach-down. On … Continue reading →

Posted in The Jews, Uncategorized, Warsaw | Tagged ghetto, Jews, Poland, Polin, Simon Schama, symbolism, symbols, the ghetto wall, the Holocaust, the palm tree, Warsaw | 11 Comments

Redeeming the World by the Mystique of Words: Tibetan Prayer Flags

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Symbol Reader

“The cairns of piled stones that mark the high passes are spiked with poles where prayer flags fly. Who hung them in these lonely defiles we cannot tell. As the wind funnels through the passes, their inscriptions stream in faded tatters. … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations, Uncategorized | Tagged symbolism, symbols, Tibetan prayer flags | 3 Comments

The Sublime Silence of Stonehenge

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Symbol Reader

“Pile of Stone-henge! so proud to hint yet keep Thy secrets, thou that lov’st to stand and hear The Plain resounding to the whirlwind’s sweep, Inmate of lonesome Nature’s endless year.” William Wordsworth’s , “Guilt and sorrow; or incidents upon … Continue reading →

Posted in Stonehenge | Tagged ancient Egypt, blue stones, healing, Heelstone, isis, light, Lugh, Lughnasadh, numinous, Orion, Osiris, pagan, Paul D. Burley, religion, Romanticism, Rudolf Otto, Stonehenge, summer solstice, sun, symbolism, Winter Hexagon | 20 Comments

Let Your Beauty Manifest Itself

Posted on May 20, 2017 by Symbol Reader

I. “Let your beauty manifest itself without talking and calculation. You are silent. It says for you: I am. And comes in meaning thousandfold, comes at long last over everyone.” Reiner Maria Rilke, “Initial,” translated by Edward Snow, in: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations, Uncategorized | Tagged chakras, crown chakra, Initial, poetry, Rilke, symbolism | 11 Comments

Only Symbols or Silence

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Symbol Reader

I “The anthropologist Paul Radin points out that … ‘it must be explicitly recognized that in temperament and in capacity for logical and symbolical thought, there is no difference between civilized and primitive man,’ and as to ‘progress,’ that none … Continue reading →

Posted in The Symbol, Uncategorized | Tagged Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, mystery, mysticism, symbolism, symbols | 15 Comments

Unchanging Waves of Time

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Symbol Reader

The distinction between past, present and future is the most persistent illusion of all, said Einstein. From the perspective of quantum physics, the past, present and future exist simultaneously in time-space. Time is static, it is us who are flowing … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Arrival, enso, film review, heptapods, linguistic relativity, logograms, movie, quantum physics, relativity, seven, Soul, symbolism, Time, Zen | 19 Comments

Lakshmi – the Goddess of Worldly Enjoyment and Spiritual Liberation

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Symbol Reader

Lakshmi, the most widely worshiped Indian goddess, emerged on a lotus out of the primeval ocean of milk. In the pantheon of goddesses she is a soothing and gentle presence. In her book Awakening Shakti, Sally Kempton includes compelling words … Continue reading →