The Hidden Meaning of Christmas
Imagine our surprise when, on our recent trip to Indochina, our group of travelers arrived in Saigon to find it decorated for Christmas! Windows of one major department store were topped with thick mounds of carved styrofoam snow. Our hotel lobby held a giant blue Christmas tree and a life-sized Santa Claus who swiveled his hips while he sang “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
Whispering Symbols: Dot and Circle
Both logos and mythos contribute to our spiritual development. Children use mythos thinking automatically. This is why they respond to life with spontaneity, enthusiasm, joy and wonder. But once the “masculine” phase of external striving begins, logos and the ego tend to dominate our thinking and spirituality and life begins to lose its savor.
Remind Me of What I Know
Suffering that is not understood is hard to bear, while on the other hand it is often astounding to see how much a person can endure when he understands the why and the wherefore. A philosophical or religious view of the world enables him to do this, and such views prove to be, at the very […]
Stepping out of the Mist
I lived the first half of my life in a mist. I thought I could see but was blind to the sacred. At 17 a spiritual awakening turned me into an avid seeker. My ideas about God came from other people and the Bible. I read a chapter every night. At 27 I experienced a […]
The Mediatrix Archetype in Dreams
It is your Mediatrix who wants to understand and learn from your dreams, and when the time is right, she will show up to provide guidance. Occasionally, her appearance can have the life-changing impact of a mysterious supernatural experience, but more often it’s very subtle, so you will have to be on the watch for her.
Why Do We Need The Feminine Side of God?
One of the most significant outcomes of the left hemisphere’s development was the emergence of the ego from the maternal matrix of primordial unconsciousness. Until the ego showed up we were unaware of ourselves as a separate species, as beings who could choose not to act on our every instinct.
Seeing Through the Mist
I spent the first half of my life in a mist, blind to all that is truly sacred. A spiritual seeker from the age of 17, I had plenty of ideas about what was sacred, but they came from other people.
Flexing Our Mythos Muscles
You may have noticed by now that the imaginative and symbolic way I perceive dreams and ordinary life is somewhat different from the way we are normally taught to think in school. I assure you this is not just sloppy thinking, but a conscious choice I’ve made to use more of my brain’s potential.
The Art of Tending the Fire
Ultimately, the symbols and motifs of every work of art are manifestations of the artist’s compulsion to understand and express him/herself, evolve into greater consciousness, and share what s/he has learned with others. Some artists know this; others don’t have a clue. Yet every artist grapples with these themes in one way or another simply because they are the core concerns of every soul.
Flexing Our Mythos Muscles
In his book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, vascular surgeon Leonard Shlain writes about the brain’s role in the evolution of our species. His research suggests that historically there has been a cause-and-effect relationship between an obsessive left-hemisphere orientation and the ascendency of the separate, abstract, male Sky God, the dominator mode of governance, and the repression of women and minorities.
