PHANES [Phanes was the Protogenos — the primeval god– of procreation in the Orphic cosmogony. He was the primal generator of life, the driving force behind reproduction in the early cosmos. Phanes was hatched from the world egg (the primordial mixture of elements) when it was split into its constituent parts by the ancient gods…
Mythology as a projection of the Collective Unconscious “The collective unconscious-so far as we can say anything about it at all-appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents. In fact, the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort…
The Gilgamesh cylinder seal, Assyria, ca.7th c. BC. A second time Gilgamesh said to his mother: Mother, I have had another dream: At the gate of my marital chamber there lay an axe, and people had collected about it. The Land of Uruk was standing around it, the whole land had assembled about it,…
Jung and Hercules When a Jungian hears about tasks that some mythical or fairy-book character has to do, they get pretty excited. There must be some good psychological reasons for these tasks– some analogies, metaphors, similes and parallels to examine. Amplification is the name of the game. So what is the deal with…
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…
The River Styx Luca Giordano 1684-1686. Fresco in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi From: The Golden Asse by Lucius Apuleius Adlington’s translation, 1566 THE FIFTH BOOKE THE TWENTY-SECOND CHAPTER The most pleasant and delectable tale of the marriage of Cupid and Psyches … Then Venus spake unto Psyches againe saying: Seest thou the toppe of yonder great…
Psyche at the Throne of Venus Jungian analysts
Jung and the stone carving of Telesphorus In 1950, Jung carved this stone, partially in celebration of his 75th birthday. The translation: This is Telesphorus, who roams through the dark regions of this cosmos and glows like a star out of the depths. He points the way to the gates of the sun and to…
The Tao begets One One begets Two Two begets Three Three begets the myriad things Tao-te-Ching, Chapter 42 Yesterday’s post was about the three roots of Yggdrasil (to Asgard, Jotunheim, Nifhelm) and the three norns (Urd, Verdani, Skuld), and a quotation by Jung about the number three : One is the first from which all…