The Orphic Egg The egg is a germ of life with a lofty symbolical significance. It is not just a cosmogonic symbol — it is also a “philosophical one”. As the former it is the Orphic Egg, the world’s beginning; as the latter, the philosophical egg of the medieval natural philosophers, the vessel from which,…
Charon carries souls across the River Styx Alexander Dmitrievich Litovchenko 1861 Russian Museum, St. Petersburg From the Encyclopedia Brittanica: Charon, in Greek mythology, the son of Erebus and Nyx (Night), whose duty it was to ferry over the Rivers Styx and Acheron those souls of the deceased who had received the rites of burial. In…
Crossing the River Styx Joachim Patinir 1521 Transitions as Liminal and Archetypal Situations From a lecture delivered by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. at the Mythic Journeys Conference June 2004, Atlanta, Georgia The fourth step is the first time that Psyche will end up accomplishing the task herself. As her very last task, Aphrodite commands that…