IT’S AN UNCANNY FEELING, WHICH I SUSPECT MOST OF US HAVE from time to time, to wonder whether you belong, to wonder whether you might not be a stranger in a strange land. In fact, it’s a timeless and universal feeling, one that has left traces in our literary history as far back as the …
Mother and Child – Part 2
IMAGINE YOU’RE IN THE AUDIENCE AT A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT and the oh-so-familiar story is unfolding before you. It’s nighttime in Bethlehem, where a wondrous star hangs overhead. Angels watch over the birth. Because there was no room at the inn, the baby Jesus lies in a manger, in the stable, under the loving gaze of …
Confronting a Cosmic Revenge Fantasy
IMAGINE WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE TO DIE AND DISCOVER YOU’VE BEEN SENT TO HELL. Never mind the fact that in the cosmos, as we now understand it to be, there’s no “below” for hell (and no “above” for heaven). In the Western tradition, hell is believed to be an infernal, fiery place for eternal, …
Images Come Trailing Clouds of Mystery
THIS YEAR, I’M WORKING TO BRING A GROUP OF ORIGINAL SONGS TO LIFE, recording them with my band, BlueStoneMojo, and sharing the recordings online. Although organizational challenges have tended to dominate the project, it’s still a fundamentally creative process in which mysterious influences can manifest in unexpected ways. Here’s an example of what I mean. …
The Trouble with Following “the Leader”
THE PROBLEM IS PROJECTION — AND THE DARK SHADOWS IT CASTS. For anyone to ascend to the heights of popular power in a society, he (or, rarely, she) must provide an adequate “hook” on which the mass of people can hang their archetypal projections. The primary archetypal image at play here is the Sovereign. Like …
Just an Ordinary Woman, She Transforms the World
WITH ONLY A FEW EXCEPTIONS, THE EPISODES IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN ARE NOT found in any of the other three gospels. One episode that does also appear in the other gospels is the so-called “Anointing at Bethany” — and in each gospel, it’s a story that turns the status quo on its head. Each …
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Oh, the Symbols You’ll See, the Stories You’ll Tell
OUR WORLD IS AWASH IN SYMBOLS, VIBRATING WITH MEANING. In order to grasp the meaning, of course, you have to be able to recognize a symbol, when you see one. Everyone knows “fine art” is full of symbols. The meaning in a painting, a drawing, a print, a piece of sculpture unfolds when you engage …
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Peeking Behind the Mask
WHAT DO IVY, GRAPE VINES, LIONS, BEARS, BULLS, AND MASKS HAVE IN COMMON? They’re all associated with Dionysus in ancient myth, literature, and art. Dionysus is not simply the god of wine. He cannot be reduced to the jovial, tipsy Bacchus immortalized in the Disney treatment of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” in Fantasia — although that is …
Transcendence – Going Deep to Gain Height
WHILE HEIGHT IS A METAPHOR FOR THE SPIRIT, DEPTH IS A METAPHOR FOR THE SOUL. Might it be possible to reach the transcendent heights of the spirit by diving deep into the soul? Could the “ascent of Mt. Carmel,” advocated by St. John of the Cross, be a soulful descent? The answer in both cases, …
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Event Announcement
Discover a Side of Jesus You've Never Seen Before “Jesus and the Feminine in John” — a 5-week course on Zoom In mythology, a deity who dies and rises on the third day is a moon god, a son of the Great Mother. The good news of Christ says Jesus died and rose on the …
Soul Spirit Wisdom 