The universe as aesthetic experience – Jung’s “archetype of the storm”
A Jungian view of my astrophotography ‘The Veil Nebula‘, the universe interpreted though Maxim Gorky’s famous poem and the philosopher Kant. Immanuel Kant saw the universe as a profound source of aesthetic experience, especially through the concept of the sublime—like…
Faust and C.G. Jung – What holds the world together at its core
Goethe and C.G. Jung “Faust I”, the Germans’ favorite drama is about a scholar who wants the impossible, who wants to know what keeps the world together at heart. Goethe’s Faust failed on this worldly question, which ultimately leads either…
“The Monk by the Sea” – infinity and mortality
Two of the most famous paintings from Germany’s Romantic period are back on display at a central Berlin museum after a two-year restoration. I recently visited that exibition and appreciated the famed landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich. The Monk is…
Al-Andalus – a failed Renaissance
Last fall, I travelled all over Al-Andalus in the footsteps of philosophers, poets, warriors and great mystics Sufi’s like Ibn-Arabi. If you are interested in philosophy, science history and intercultural transmission of knowledge, Al- Andalus is your place and I…
Who were the Gnostics?
Who were the Gnostics? Christian commentators described them as dualists who pitted ‘divine spark or ‘light’ against the of the material world. Christianity painted many Gnostics as heretics for claiming to be Christ’s true followers while denying his singular divinity…
Following the traces of Esclarmonde de Foix
I just came back again from the haunted and magic Languedoc-Roussillon, where I followed the footsteps of the Esclarmonde de Foix and the heretic Cathars. This essay will focus on Esclarmonde de Foix. Cathars, Catharism and its connection to the…
Dante’s Divine Comedy – symbolism and archetypes
Dante is not just any poet. With his epic poem “Commedia”, in English “Divine Comedy” he created an Italian cultural Monument, a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise full of symbols, archetypes, historical and allegorical references. The article wants to…
The Story of Osiris, Isis and Horus: The Egyptian Myth of Creation
Set killing Osiris From Geb, the sky god, and Nut, the earth goddess came four children: Osiris, Isis and Horus, Set and Nepthys. Osiris was the oldest and so became king of Egypt, and he married his sister Isis. Osiris…
A Jungian journey through a land of heretics and Mary Magdalene
I followed the footsteps of the Templars and the heretic Cathars. This essay will focus on their similarity with early Christian and Jewish Gnostic thoughts, in which C.G. Jung was very interested. Where did the Cathars came from and what…