Tag Archives: symbols

Gilgamesh: He Who Saw the Deep

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Symbol Reader

If you happen to have some time on your hands, I strongly recommend that you take a look at Ancient Masterpiece of World Literature (https://www.edx.org/course/ancient-masterpieces-of-world-literature), a course which Harvard University is currently offering online free of charge. You can also … Continue reading →

Posted in Gilgamesh, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, Carl Gustav Jung, cedar, culture, death, deluge, depth psychology, Divine, Enkidu, epic, flood, Gilgamesh, goddess, human, humbaba, immortality, Inanna, Ishtar, Mesopotamia, myth, mythology, nature, Rilke, Sumer, Sumerian, symbolism, symbols, Underworld, Uruk, Utnapishtim | 12 Comments

“Epidemics and Society” by Frank M. Snowden

Posted on April 19, 2020 by Symbol Reader

We all feel the portentousness of the current moment in history. I was struck recently by a short passage from The Guardian article, which said: “… whenever crisis visits a given community, the fundamental reality of that community is laid … Continue reading →

Posted in Epidemics, Uncategorized | Tagged archetypes, bacteria, Black Death, bubonic plague, cholera, coronavirus, COVID, disease, epidemic, Epidemics, forty, health, Italy, pandemic, Plague, purification, quarantine, solidarity, symbolism, symbols, Virgin Mary, virus | 14 Comments

Reading The Red Book (19)

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Symbol Reader

I. “… opening The Red Book seems to be opening the mouth of the dead.” James Hillman in James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani, “Lament of the Dead: Psychology After Jung’s Red Book” II. “We need the coldness of death to … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged "The Dead", analitycal psychology, ancient Egypt, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Carl Jung, death, depth psychology, James Hillman, Liber Novus, opening of the mouth, rebirth, Shonu Shamdasani, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book | 7 Comments

Symbolism of the Door

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Symbol Reader

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” V. Woolf, A Room of One’s Own My favourite master of symbolism, J.E. Cirlot … Continue reading →

Posted in The Door, Uncategorized | Tagged ancient Egypt, archetypes, Bachelard, door, doors, doorway, false door, Poetics of Space, religion, safety, security, shelter, symbolism, symbols, the new, threshold, torii | 7 Comments

Reading The Red Book (18)

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Symbol Reader

“The stars whisper your deepest mysteries to you, and the soft valleys of the earth rescue you in a motherly womb.” C. G. Jung, Liber Novus We have reached chapter V of Liber Secundus, which is the second part of … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, ancient Egypt, anima mundi, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Christianity, darkness, depth psychology, Egyptian mythology, Helios, khepri, Liber Novus, light, paganism, Philosophical Tree, scarab, shadow, sun, symbolism, symbols, The Red Book, tree, world soul | 5 Comments

Jung on the Light of the Darkness

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Symbol Reader

The following passage from Jung’s Alchemical Studies (volume 13 of CW, par. 197) struck me today: “They [alchemists, seekers after truth] discover that in the very darkness of nature a light is hidden, a little spark without which the … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations, Uncategorized | Tagged alchemy, archetypes, C.G. Jung, Democritus, depth psychology, disease, healing, light of nature, lumen naturae, nature, paganism, Paracelsus, symbols, transformation | 8 Comments

The Danaids, the Lernaean Hydra and Heracles

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Symbol Reader

According to the Greek myth, the Danaids, fifty daughters of Danaus, were forced to marry fifty sons of Aegyptus, a ruler of Egypt. Forty-nine of them killed their husbands on the wedding night. The forty-nine heads of the men were … Continue reading →

Posted in The Danaids and Hydra, Uncategorized | Tagged archetype, archetypes, arrow, Bachofen, Chiron, Danaides, Danaids, Greek mythology, Hercules, Hydra, Lernean Hydra, magic, matriarchy, patriarchy, priestess, Robert Graves, symbolism, symbols, twelve labours, wounded healer | 6 Comments

The Feminine and the Masculine Revisited

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Symbol Reader

I have always believed that the concepts of anima and animus need to be updated for our times. According to Jung, the anima is the image of the woman in a man’s psyche, while the animus is the image of … Continue reading →

Posted in Male and Female, Uncategorized | Tagged analytical psychology, anima, animus, archetypes, C.G. Jung, depth psychology, female, feminine, initiation, male, masculine, opposites, psyche, symbols, the Self | 21 Comments

Reading The Red Book (17)

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Symbol Reader

Chapter IV of Liber Secundus is called “The Anchorite. Dies 1” and relates the first day of Jung’s encounter with a hermit monk, who lives in the Libyan desert. While reading The Red Book I was particularly struck by all … Continue reading →

Posted in The Red Book by C.G. Jung, Uncategorized | Tagged Alexandria, analytical psychology, anchorite, archetypes, C.G. Jung, darkness, depth psychology, Heraclitus, hermit, Jesus, Jung, Liber Novus, logos, night, Philo of Alexandria, silence, symbols, The Red Book, words | 9 Comments

Hermes in the Forest of Symbols

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Symbol Reader

I. “…Hermesian reading is an open, in-depth reading, one that lays bare the metalanguages for us, that is to say, the structures of signs and correspondences that only symbolism and myth make it possible to conserve and transmit. To read, … Continue reading →