Shofar
"The shofar is like an alarm that calls on us to examine our deeds and correct our ways, as we return to G‑d." Mordechai Lightstone
The Cross
"The myth of the dying god is the key to both universal and individual redemption and regeneration; and those who do not comprehend the true nature of this supreme allegory are not privileged to consider themselves either wise or truly religious." Manly P. Hall
Ankh
"It is the emblem of life, and the great desire of the justified soul was to lay hold of the Ankh, which promised redemption from the grip of death." Sir E. A. Wallis Budge
Four Sacred Medicines
"One of the most sincere core values throughout all of the indigenous cultures is using the Creator’s gifts to connect us as people, and to connect us to the spirit world. There are four sacred medicines that were given to us to aid in spiritual, mental, physical, and familial wellbeing. These medicines are tobacco, cedar, sage, and sweetgrass. Each serves a different purpose, and is associated with one of the four cardinal directions."
-Avery Ross, of Muscogee Creek Nation
Trees & Ascension
Bodhi, Ash, Banyan, Palm
"A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life... I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail."
Hermann Hesse
Ouroboros
"Serpens nisi serpentem comederit non fit draco".
"A serpent must have eaten another serpent before he can become a dragon."
Latin Proveb used by Francis Bacon
Four Alchemical Stages
“In Alchemy ancient books and teachings birds were used to represent the the different stages of the alchemical process: the black crow or raven, then the rainbow-colored peacock, then the white swan or dove, and then the red phoenix." Giulia Maria Miscioscia
The Rose
"But the Soul hereupon sinketh down into the Hope of the Grace of God, and standeth like a beautiful Rose in the Midst of Thorns, until the Kingdom of this World shall fall from it in the Death of the Body; And then the Soul first becometh truly manifest in the Love of God, and in His Kingdom, which is the Kingdom of Love; having henceforth nothing more to hinder it".
Jakob Boehme Of Heaven and Hell
Cardinal Constellations
"The cardinal signs are the generators of energy, the initiators of all cosmic action. For the evolving soul, the Cardinal Cross is the path of dynamic redemption. It demands that the sleeping spirit awaken and actively work out its destiny. It is through the friction of these four great cosmic forces that the dense, lower personality is shattered, allowing the redeemed Christ-light within the soul to burst forth and triumph over the grave of physical matter." Max Heindel, "The Message of the Stars"
The Green Lion
The "green lion devouring the sun" is a famous Hermetic and alchemical symbol. At its core, it represents transformation: raw, untamed primal nature (the green lion) consuming the purified ego or spirit (the sun) to dissolve impurities and ultimately create a higher, spiritually perfected state.
The Black Sun
"The Sol niger would be the dark shadowy aspect of consciousness... The luminescence of the sun is so brilliant that it often 'forgets' it has a shadow. This is the blindness and the hubris of the conscious aspect of psyche that 'forgets' there is a shadow side... One must endure this darkness in order to discover the hidden light within it." Marie-Louise von Franz, Alchemical Active Imagination
The Sun
"The Sun, which was before dark and hidden, now breaks forth with great brightness... It is the King who has returned from the dark waters of death, his masculine virtue now perfectly joined with the feminine soul, shining as a crown of life." Attributed to Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis
Amaterasu
"Previous traditions identify the sun as feminine and the moon as masculine, common to early Bronze Age cultures—traces of which linger... in Amaterasu, the sun goddess of the Shinto nature religion native to ancient Japan. When she is threatened, she puts on masculine armor, but her ultimate victory and return to the world is entirely feminine, achieved through the mirror—forcing a realization of the inner light, where the masculine ego-drive must look into and accept the reflection of the deep feminine soul." Joseph Campbell
The White Sun
"The White Sun represents a state of silver clarity—it is the daybreak of the mind where the ego, having survived the night of the Black Sun, is washed clean and prepared for the final, red gold of integration." Carl Jung, Collected Works Vol. 14 (Mysterium Coniunctionis)
The Red Sun
"In the alchemy of both East and West, the final goal is the same transformation of the mortal into the immortal. The Western alchemist looks for the Red Sun of the Rubedo to seal the Stone, while the Eastern Taoist watches for the Red Sun to rise from the dark waters of the lower abdomen. In both systems, this redness denotes life, fire, and the successful coagulation of spirit with physical form." Richard Wilhelm
The Four Noble Truths
"It is through not understanding and not penetrating Four Noble Truths that we have had to wander so long in this weary path of rebirth... But when these are realized and penetrated, the craving for existence is rooted out, that which leads to renewed existence is destroyed, and there is no more rebirth. This is the supreme liberation." The Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya 56.11
The Moon
"Beside him stands the Moon, cleansed of all earthly spots and shadows. She has received the solar gold into her silver heart, and in this state of redemption, she rules the night not with fear or shadows, but as the completed queen of the soul." Attributed to Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis
Yata No Kagami Mirror
"When Amaterasu retreats into the cave, the world is plunged into total darkness—the mythological equivalent of the psychological nigredo, the eclipse of the soul. The gods do not lure her out with weapons or demands, but with a dance of joy and a mirror. When she peers out and asks what could cause such joy in her absence, they show her the mirror, the Yata no Kagami. What she sees is her own radiant reflection, yet she does not recognize it at first as herself; she sees it as a greater divinity.This is the supreme symbol of the mirror in myth: it is the breakthrough of consciousness. The mirror does not flatter the ego; it forces the individual to look past the wounded, temporary self and confront the eternal, primordial light within. To look into the sacred mirror is to have the ego shattered by the reflection of the absolute Self. By loving what she saw in that reflection, the goddess accepted her cosmic role, stepped out of her isolation, and restored light to the universe." Joseph Campbell
The Phases of the Moon
"The moon secretly absorbs the rays of the sun and nurtures them in her bosom. She is the passive polarity, dark and cold by herself, yet through her changing phases, she gathers the outpouring, expansive spirit of the masculine sun. She transforms his searing, destructive fire into a gentle, silver light—proving that the feminine principle does not fight the masculine, but captures, reflects, and gives form to its divine energy." Fulcanelli, "The Mystery of the Cathedrals"
Yasakani no Magatama
"The Yasakani no Magatama is the vital corrective to patriarchal rigidity. In many mythologies, when the feminine is violated, it either turns into a devouring monster or retreats into absolute, depressed isolation—as Amaterasu did. The jewel is the medicine. Its role is the redemption of the feminine principle from its state of defensive hardening. By embodying gentleness, yielding, and compassion, the jewel acts as the psychological link to the instinctual unconscious. It is the reminder that true feminine power does not lie in adopting the masculine sword, but in the sovereignty of the heart and the indestructible value of life itself." Jean Shinoda Bolen, "The Ring of Power and the Sacred Feminine"
Kusanagi no Tsurugi(The Grass-Cutting Sword)
"When the sword is returned to the Goddess, its nature is entirely transfigured. It is no longer an aggressive weapon of the conquering ego, but the supreme defender of the sacred matrix. The sword embodies the active, solar willpower of the feminine principle brought into the physical world. It carves out the boundary lines within which life can safely flourish. In this unified state, the blade and the chalice are one: the sword protects the vessel, and the vessel gives the sword its divine purpose." Joseph Campbell
The Chalice Well
"Marah, the Bitter Sea, the primordial deep from which all life emerges. Her symbolic repositories in the material world are the chalice, the cup, and the Vesica Piscis. The Vesica is the occult cipher for the receptive feminine matrix. It is the cosmic envelope that captures the outgoing, masculine spark of life and holds it in darkness until it can be successfully organized, clothed in form, and birthed into reality."Dion Fortune
Thoth
"There sits Thoth, the eternal scribe, who registers the cosmic ledger of the soul's journey. The redemption of the soul is found when the divine intelligence within man completely masters the animal instincts of the lower world. Thoth records this magnificent evolution; his tablet is the proof that the divine spark has broken through the heavy veil of matter and earned its right to immortality." Édouard Schuré, "Les Grands Initiés" (The Great Initiates)
Bees
"Among the peasantry of the Celtic fringe, the bee is treated with a reverence usually reserved for the priesthood. They are believed to possess a spark of the divine intelligence and are privy to the movements of the dead. To 'tell the bees' is a sacred ritual of cosmic reporting. By informing the hive of a death, the family aligns the domestic hearth with the great wheel of fate, relying on the bees to carry the heavy news across the veil into the underworld." W.Y. Evans-Wentz, "The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
Seven Grandfather Teachings
"The Seven Grandfathers looked down upon the Earth and saw that human beings were losing their way... So they sent a messenger to bring a child to them, and they filled this child with the sacred gifts of Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth. They told the child: 'Each of these teachings must be used with the others. You cannot have wisdom without humility; you cannot have truth without love. To walk with all seven is to walk in balance with the Creator and to live a good, complete life.'" Edward Benton-Banai, "The Mishomis Book"
Locusts
"In the divine economy, nothing is wasted, not even the devourer. The locust is the expression of the dark, volcanic fire of nature breaking forth into form. Its function is the tearing down of the old structure. When the soul or a nation becomes proud and forgets its source, the dark wind rises and the locusts are unleashed to eat away the false greenness of earthly illusion. They leave behind a desert of pure humility. Only when the outer kingdom has been completely eaten away can the inner, incorruptible kingdom of the spirit finally be revealed." Jacob Boehme, "Mysterium Magnum"
Nyame nwu na mawu
"Nyame nwu na mawu" (often written as Nyame nnwu na mawu) is a profound Akan proverb and sacred Adinkra symbol from Ghana. It literally translates to "God does not die, therefore I cannot die" or "God won't die for me to die."
"Since God will not die, a person, that is, his or her soul, conceived as an in-dwelling spark of God, will not die either. In other words, the eternity of God implies the immortality of the human soul which is a part of the divine essence." Kwame Gyekye, quoted in Theological Reflections on Selected Adinkra Symbols
Shiva Lingam
"Parvati and Shiva are often portrayed as the Shiva linga, the conjoined yoni and lingam that represent the interdependence of the male and female forces in the regenerative process of life. Parvati's prakriti (feminine nature) joins Shiva's purusha (male consciousness). This is identical to the ancient Greek Zugón, the yoke or horizontal crossbeam of the balance, which connects things together in wedlock, binding the spirit to the body." T.S. Elliot
Butterfly
"The butterfly was accepted not only as the emblem of immortality but also of resurrection." Manly P. Hall
The Swastika
"The Swastika is the oldest cross in the world, representing the evolution of the universe and the continuous movement of the cosmic wheel. It is the symbol of the Absolute Brahman in action, spinning the matrix of creation. Its four arms represent the four cardinal directions, the four Vedas, and the four stages of human life. It is entirely an emblem of peace, blessing, and universal well-being, serving as a reminder that the divine presence is constantly rotating and sustaining all of existence." Swami Vivekananda
Mercury
"Know that all things consist of three substances: Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury. Salt is the body, which is fixed and stable; Sulfur is the soul, which burns and grows; but Mercury is the spirit, which is volatile, invisible, and the keeper of life itself. Without Mercury, the body and soul cannot hold together, for it is the invisible glue, the fluid air that flows through the veins of creation. To know the mystery of Mercury is to know how the spirit enters the clay and makes it a living soul." Paracelsus, "De Natura Rerum" (On the Nature of Things)
Daffodils
"The daffodil is called 'The Herald of Spring' because of the golden, trumpet shape of its flower, and because it is amongst the first to break free. It acts as a revealer of harmony—a golden horn blowing a declaration of resurrection across the landscape, shattering the frozen stillness of the underworld." Ted Hughes, Poetry and Magic Studies
Dalet
"The Dalet is a door. It is the boundary line between the inside and the outside, between the material world we build and the spiritual world we seek. The Sages note that Dalet is also the poor man, dal, who has nothing of his own. Why is the door called poor? Because a door owns no space; it only exists to connect two separate realities. To become a Dalet is to realize that you are a gateway for the Divine. When you empty your hands and stand in total humility before the One, you yourself become the open door through which the Holy Spirit enters the world." Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, "The Book of Letters"
Anubis
"Anubis is the Guardian of the Gates and the Master of the Balance. His role is to ensure that no corrupted matter enters the kingdom of Osiris. When he weighs the heart against Ma'at, he is measuring the degree of truth that the soul has integrated during its earthly incarnation. Truth is the only currency that carries weight in the unseen world. It acts as the literal antidote to the gravity of death. When Anubis finds the scales perfectly level, it is this perfect alignment with truth that triggers the alchemical rebirth of the spirit, allowing the initiate to break the chains of mortality and ascend as a living being of light." G.R.S. Mead, "Thrice-Greatest Hermes"
The Heart
"The Mind is the slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple slay the Slayer. For when the mind is full of its own magnitude, it creates a web of illusions. It is in the quiet chamber of the heart alone that the true soul speaks, and it is by the vibrational purity of the heart that the spiritual progress of the initiate is measured in the unseen world." H.P. Blavatsky, "The Voice of the Silence"
Ma'at's Feather
"The feather of Ma'at is the unyielding metric of the invisible world. It is the absolute standard of truth, cosmic order, and divine rectitude against which the human heart must be weighed by Anubis. This feather possesses no mass of its own; it is the emblem of weightlessness. To equal it, the soul must have stripped away all the heavy dross of material passions, deceit, and earthly ego-fixation during its life. When the heart balances perfectly with this single plume, it signifies that the human life has been brought into complete, rhythmic harmony with the law of the universe, and it is this exact equilibrium that commands the gates of death to open into the resurrection of eternal light." G.R.S. Mead, "Thrice-Greatest Hermes" (Volume 1)
Pisces: Aphrodite & Eros
"The myth of Aphrodite and Eros as the two fish tied by a ribbon is the ultimate symbol of water-bonded love and psychological integration. One fish swims upward toward the spiritual heavens, and the other swims downward toward material, instinctual reality. Typhon represents the raw, devouring shadow that shatters our superficial structures. The redemptive act occurs in the binding cord: Alrescha, the knot-star. It forces the human soul to acknowledge that its highest spiritual aspirations (Aphrodite) cannot exist without its deep, instinctual drives (Eros). To be redeemed in Pisces is to surrender the ego to the great ocean of life, trusting that the bond of love will hold the dualities of the psyche together until they are raised into celestial light." Liz Greene, "The Astrology of Fate"
Typhon
"Psychologically, Typhon represents the volcanic onslaught of the unconscious that completely shatters the rigid, cohesive boundaries of the ego. It is a terrifying state of mental dismemberment, a total collapse of one’s identity into the dark, chaotic waters. Yet, this destructive act is a hidden necessity. The higher spiritual self cannot be born until the lower, artificial structure of the ego has been utterly broken apart by the Typhonian fire." Edward F. Edinger, "The Aion Lectures"
Odin's Ravens:Mind & Memory
"Odin's ability to send out his 'thought' (Huginn) and 'mind/memory' (Muninn) maps precisely onto the trance-state journey of the shaman. The famous stanza where Odin confesses his terrifying worry that his ravens might not return is entirely consistent with the acute spiritual danger that the shaman faces when crossing between worlds. To send one's consciousness into the unseen realms requires a deliberate fragmentation of the self. If the ravens do not fly back across the threshold, the physical body is left empty, catatonic, or dead." John Lindow, "Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs"
Odin
"The Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, represents the universe itself. Odin hanging upon it, wounded by his own spear, is the divine spirit crucified within the bonds of matter, suffering the agony of limitation in order to extract the ultimate, eternal wisdom of existence."
Madame Helena Blavatsky
The Two Wolves
"If you choose to feed only the good wolf, the other one will be hiding around every corner waiting for you to become distracted, and he will jump to get the attention he craves. He will always be angry and will always fight the good wolf.But if you feed them both, they both win. You see, the dark wolf has important qualities—tenacity, courage, fearlessness, strong will, and great strategy—which you need at times, but which the good wolf lacks. The good wolf has compassion, caring, strength, and the ability to recognize what is in the best interest of all.When you feed them both, there is no internal war. When there is no war, you can listen to the voice of deeper knowing, the voice of the Great Spirit. A man who has peace inside has everything. A man who is torn apart by war inside himself has nothing." Johnny Moses
Zen's Ten Oxherding Pictures
“The pattern of Jesus’ life is essentially similar to that of the ideal sage, whose career is traced in the ‘Oxherding Pictures,’ so popular among Zen Buddhists. The wild ox, symbolising the unregenerate self, is caught, made to change its direction, then tamed and gradually transformed from black to white. Regeneration goes so far that for a time the ox is completely lost, so that nothing remains to be pictured but the full-orbed moon, symbolising Mind, Suchness, the Ground. But this is not the final stage. In the end, the herdsman comes back to the world of men, riding on the back of his ox." Aldous Huxley
Checkerboard Floor
"The chequered floor... denotes the dual quality of everything connected with terrestrial life and the physical groundwork of human nature—the mortal body and its appetites and affections. The web of our life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together." W.L. Wilmshurst
Chakra Ladder
"The transformation of character that is prerequisite for living in the light of a transformed world is symbolized in the imagery of the yogic lotus ladder by a final triad of chakras—numbers 5, 6, and 7—which are of the head and mind pursuing aims and ends beyond range of the physical senses. [...] The intermediate, fourth, 'heart chakra' is the point of transformation; of movement from the purely animal to the genuinely human..." Joseph Campbell, "The Inner Reaches of Outer Space"
Seven Natural Laws
"The principles of truth are seven; he who knows them, understandingly, possesses the magic key before whose touch all the doors of the temple fly open. [...] The master does not escape these laws, but he polarizes himself at the point he desires, neutralizing the rhythmic swing of the pendulum. By mastership, he uses the higher laws against the lower, and escapes the operation of the lower planes by vibrating on a higher. The master dominates his moods, characters, qualities, and polarity, as well as the environment surrounding him, becoming a mover instead of a pawn. This is the true meaning of spiritual redemption and mental alchemy."The Kybalion, Three Initiates
The Ladder
"The Ladder of Jacob is the symbol of the Great Work (Magnum Opus)... By it, we ascend from the lowest matter of the earth to the ultimate purity of the heavens, where the spirit is refined. The alchemist must climb rung by rung, for he who skips a step will plunge into the chaos of the prima materia."
Altus, Mutus Liber
THE ROSE CROSS EXPERIENCE
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Transcript
Shofar
"The shofar is like an alarm that calls on us to examine our deeds and correct our ways, as we return to G‑d." Mordechai Lightstone
The Cross
"The myth of the dying god is the key to both universal and individual redemption and regeneration; and those who do not comprehend the true nature of this supreme allegory are not privileged to consider themselves either wise or truly religious." Manly P. Hall
Ankh
"It is the emblem of life, and the great desire of the justified soul was to lay hold of the Ankh, which promised redemption from the grip of death." Sir E. A. Wallis Budge
Four Sacred Medicines
"One of the most sincere core values throughout all of the indigenous cultures is using the Creator’s gifts to connect us as people, and to connect us to the spirit world. There are four sacred medicines that were given to us to aid in spiritual, mental, physical, and familial wellbeing. These medicines are tobacco, cedar, sage, and sweetgrass. Each serves a different purpose, and is associated with one of the four cardinal directions." -Avery Ross, of Muscogee Creek Nation
Trees & Ascension
Bodhi, Ash, Banyan, Palm "A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life... I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail." Hermann Hesse
Ouroboros
"Serpens nisi serpentem comederit non fit draco". "A serpent must have eaten another serpent before he can become a dragon." Latin Proveb used by Francis Bacon
Four Alchemical Stages
“In Alchemy ancient books and teachings birds were used to represent the the different stages of the alchemical process: the black crow or raven, then the rainbow-colored peacock, then the white swan or dove, and then the red phoenix." Giulia Maria Miscioscia
The Rose
"But the Soul hereupon sinketh down into the Hope of the Grace of God, and standeth like a beautiful Rose in the Midst of Thorns, until the Kingdom of this World shall fall from it in the Death of the Body; And then the Soul first becometh truly manifest in the Love of God, and in His Kingdom, which is the Kingdom of Love; having henceforth nothing more to hinder it". Jakob Boehme Of Heaven and Hell
Cardinal Constellations
"The cardinal signs are the generators of energy, the initiators of all cosmic action. For the evolving soul, the Cardinal Cross is the path of dynamic redemption. It demands that the sleeping spirit awaken and actively work out its destiny. It is through the friction of these four great cosmic forces that the dense, lower personality is shattered, allowing the redeemed Christ-light within the soul to burst forth and triumph over the grave of physical matter." Max Heindel, "The Message of the Stars"
The Green Lion
The "green lion devouring the sun" is a famous Hermetic and alchemical symbol. At its core, it represents transformation: raw, untamed primal nature (the green lion) consuming the purified ego or spirit (the sun) to dissolve impurities and ultimately create a higher, spiritually perfected state.
The Black Sun
"The Sol niger would be the dark shadowy aspect of consciousness... The luminescence of the sun is so brilliant that it often 'forgets' it has a shadow. This is the blindness and the hubris of the conscious aspect of psyche that 'forgets' there is a shadow side... One must endure this darkness in order to discover the hidden light within it." Marie-Louise von Franz, Alchemical Active Imagination
The Sun
"The Sun, which was before dark and hidden, now breaks forth with great brightness... It is the King who has returned from the dark waters of death, his masculine virtue now perfectly joined with the feminine soul, shining as a crown of life." Attributed to Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis
Amaterasu
"Previous traditions identify the sun as feminine and the moon as masculine, common to early Bronze Age cultures—traces of which linger... in Amaterasu, the sun goddess of the Shinto nature religion native to ancient Japan. When she is threatened, she puts on masculine armor, but her ultimate victory and return to the world is entirely feminine, achieved through the mirror—forcing a realization of the inner light, where the masculine ego-drive must look into and accept the reflection of the deep feminine soul." Joseph Campbell
The White Sun
"The White Sun represents a state of silver clarity—it is the daybreak of the mind where the ego, having survived the night of the Black Sun, is washed clean and prepared for the final, red gold of integration." Carl Jung, Collected Works Vol. 14 (Mysterium Coniunctionis)
The Red Sun
"In the alchemy of both East and West, the final goal is the same transformation of the mortal into the immortal. The Western alchemist looks for the Red Sun of the Rubedo to seal the Stone, while the Eastern Taoist watches for the Red Sun to rise from the dark waters of the lower abdomen. In both systems, this redness denotes life, fire, and the successful coagulation of spirit with physical form." Richard Wilhelm
The Four Noble Truths
"It is through not understanding and not penetrating Four Noble Truths that we have had to wander so long in this weary path of rebirth... But when these are realized and penetrated, the craving for existence is rooted out, that which leads to renewed existence is destroyed, and there is no more rebirth. This is the supreme liberation." The Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya 56.11
The Moon
"Beside him stands the Moon, cleansed of all earthly spots and shadows. She has received the solar gold into her silver heart, and in this state of redemption, she rules the night not with fear or shadows, but as the completed queen of the soul." Attributed to Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis
Yata No Kagami Mirror
"When Amaterasu retreats into the cave, the world is plunged into total darkness—the mythological equivalent of the psychological nigredo, the eclipse of the soul. The gods do not lure her out with weapons or demands, but with a dance of joy and a mirror. When she peers out and asks what could cause such joy in her absence, they show her the mirror, the Yata no Kagami. What she sees is her own radiant reflection, yet she does not recognize it at first as herself; she sees it as a greater divinity.This is the supreme symbol of the mirror in myth: it is the breakthrough of consciousness. The mirror does not flatter the ego; it forces the individual to look past the wounded, temporary self and confront the eternal, primordial light within. To look into the sacred mirror is to have the ego shattered by the reflection of the absolute Self. By loving what she saw in that reflection, the goddess accepted her cosmic role, stepped out of her isolation, and restored light to the universe." Joseph Campbell
The Phases of the Moon
"The moon secretly absorbs the rays of the sun and nurtures them in her bosom. She is the passive polarity, dark and cold by herself, yet through her changing phases, she gathers the outpouring, expansive spirit of the masculine sun. She transforms his searing, destructive fire into a gentle, silver light—proving that the feminine principle does not fight the masculine, but captures, reflects, and gives form to its divine energy." Fulcanelli, "The Mystery of the Cathedrals"
Yasakani no Magatama
"The Yasakani no Magatama is the vital corrective to patriarchal rigidity. In many mythologies, when the feminine is violated, it either turns into a devouring monster or retreats into absolute, depressed isolation—as Amaterasu did. The jewel is the medicine. Its role is the redemption of the feminine principle from its state of defensive hardening. By embodying gentleness, yielding, and compassion, the jewel acts as the psychological link to the instinctual unconscious. It is the reminder that true feminine power does not lie in adopting the masculine sword, but in the sovereignty of the heart and the indestructible value of life itself." Jean Shinoda Bolen, "The Ring of Power and the Sacred Feminine"
Kusanagi no Tsurugi(The Grass-Cutting Sword)
"When the sword is returned to the Goddess, its nature is entirely transfigured. It is no longer an aggressive weapon of the conquering ego, but the supreme defender of the sacred matrix. The sword embodies the active, solar willpower of the feminine principle brought into the physical world. It carves out the boundary lines within which life can safely flourish. In this unified state, the blade and the chalice are one: the sword protects the vessel, and the vessel gives the sword its divine purpose." Joseph Campbell
The Chalice Well
"Marah, the Bitter Sea, the primordial deep from which all life emerges. Her symbolic repositories in the material world are the chalice, the cup, and the Vesica Piscis. The Vesica is the occult cipher for the receptive feminine matrix. It is the cosmic envelope that captures the outgoing, masculine spark of life and holds it in darkness until it can be successfully organized, clothed in form, and birthed into reality."Dion Fortune
Thoth
"There sits Thoth, the eternal scribe, who registers the cosmic ledger of the soul's journey. The redemption of the soul is found when the divine intelligence within man completely masters the animal instincts of the lower world. Thoth records this magnificent evolution; his tablet is the proof that the divine spark has broken through the heavy veil of matter and earned its right to immortality." Édouard Schuré, "Les Grands Initiés" (The Great Initiates)
Bees
"Among the peasantry of the Celtic fringe, the bee is treated with a reverence usually reserved for the priesthood. They are believed to possess a spark of the divine intelligence and are privy to the movements of the dead. To 'tell the bees' is a sacred ritual of cosmic reporting. By informing the hive of a death, the family aligns the domestic hearth with the great wheel of fate, relying on the bees to carry the heavy news across the veil into the underworld." W.Y. Evans-Wentz, "The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
Seven Grandfather Teachings
"The Seven Grandfathers looked down upon the Earth and saw that human beings were losing their way... So they sent a messenger to bring a child to them, and they filled this child with the sacred gifts of Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth. They told the child: 'Each of these teachings must be used with the others. You cannot have wisdom without humility; you cannot have truth without love. To walk with all seven is to walk in balance with the Creator and to live a good, complete life.'" Edward Benton-Banai, "The Mishomis Book"
Locusts
"In the divine economy, nothing is wasted, not even the devourer. The locust is the expression of the dark, volcanic fire of nature breaking forth into form. Its function is the tearing down of the old structure. When the soul or a nation becomes proud and forgets its source, the dark wind rises and the locusts are unleashed to eat away the false greenness of earthly illusion. They leave behind a desert of pure humility. Only when the outer kingdom has been completely eaten away can the inner, incorruptible kingdom of the spirit finally be revealed." Jacob Boehme, "Mysterium Magnum"
Nyame nwu na mawu
"Nyame nwu na mawu" (often written as Nyame nnwu na mawu) is a profound Akan proverb and sacred Adinkra symbol from Ghana. It literally translates to "God does not die, therefore I cannot die" or "God won't die for me to die." "Since God will not die, a person, that is, his or her soul, conceived as an in-dwelling spark of God, will not die either. In other words, the eternity of God implies the immortality of the human soul which is a part of the divine essence." Kwame Gyekye, quoted in Theological Reflections on Selected Adinkra Symbols
Shiva Lingam
"Parvati and Shiva are often portrayed as the Shiva linga, the conjoined yoni and lingam that represent the interdependence of the male and female forces in the regenerative process of life. Parvati's prakriti (feminine nature) joins Shiva's purusha (male consciousness). This is identical to the ancient Greek Zugón, the yoke or horizontal crossbeam of the balance, which connects things together in wedlock, binding the spirit to the body." T.S. Elliot
Butterfly
"The butterfly was accepted not only as the emblem of immortality but also of resurrection." Manly P. Hall
The Swastika
"The Swastika is the oldest cross in the world, representing the evolution of the universe and the continuous movement of the cosmic wheel. It is the symbol of the Absolute Brahman in action, spinning the matrix of creation. Its four arms represent the four cardinal directions, the four Vedas, and the four stages of human life. It is entirely an emblem of peace, blessing, and universal well-being, serving as a reminder that the divine presence is constantly rotating and sustaining all of existence." Swami Vivekananda
Mercury
"Know that all things consist of three substances: Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury. Salt is the body, which is fixed and stable; Sulfur is the soul, which burns and grows; but Mercury is the spirit, which is volatile, invisible, and the keeper of life itself. Without Mercury, the body and soul cannot hold together, for it is the invisible glue, the fluid air that flows through the veins of creation. To know the mystery of Mercury is to know how the spirit enters the clay and makes it a living soul." Paracelsus, "De Natura Rerum" (On the Nature of Things)
Daffodils
"The daffodil is called 'The Herald of Spring' because of the golden, trumpet shape of its flower, and because it is amongst the first to break free. It acts as a revealer of harmony—a golden horn blowing a declaration of resurrection across the landscape, shattering the frozen stillness of the underworld." Ted Hughes, Poetry and Magic Studies
Dalet
"The Dalet is a door. It is the boundary line between the inside and the outside, between the material world we build and the spiritual world we seek. The Sages note that Dalet is also the poor man, dal, who has nothing of his own. Why is the door called poor? Because a door owns no space; it only exists to connect two separate realities. To become a Dalet is to realize that you are a gateway for the Divine. When you empty your hands and stand in total humility before the One, you yourself become the open door through which the Holy Spirit enters the world." Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, "The Book of Letters"
Anubis
"Anubis is the Guardian of the Gates and the Master of the Balance. His role is to ensure that no corrupted matter enters the kingdom of Osiris. When he weighs the heart against Ma'at, he is measuring the degree of truth that the soul has integrated during its earthly incarnation. Truth is the only currency that carries weight in the unseen world. It acts as the literal antidote to the gravity of death. When Anubis finds the scales perfectly level, it is this perfect alignment with truth that triggers the alchemical rebirth of the spirit, allowing the initiate to break the chains of mortality and ascend as a living being of light." G.R.S. Mead, "Thrice-Greatest Hermes"
The Heart
"The Mind is the slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple slay the Slayer. For when the mind is full of its own magnitude, it creates a web of illusions. It is in the quiet chamber of the heart alone that the true soul speaks, and it is by the vibrational purity of the heart that the spiritual progress of the initiate is measured in the unseen world." H.P. Blavatsky, "The Voice of the Silence"
Ma'at's Feather
"The feather of Ma'at is the unyielding metric of the invisible world. It is the absolute standard of truth, cosmic order, and divine rectitude against which the human heart must be weighed by Anubis. This feather possesses no mass of its own; it is the emblem of weightlessness. To equal it, the soul must have stripped away all the heavy dross of material passions, deceit, and earthly ego-fixation during its life. When the heart balances perfectly with this single plume, it signifies that the human life has been brought into complete, rhythmic harmony with the law of the universe, and it is this exact equilibrium that commands the gates of death to open into the resurrection of eternal light." G.R.S. Mead, "Thrice-Greatest Hermes" (Volume 1)
Pisces: Aphrodite & Eros
"The myth of Aphrodite and Eros as the two fish tied by a ribbon is the ultimate symbol of water-bonded love and psychological integration. One fish swims upward toward the spiritual heavens, and the other swims downward toward material, instinctual reality. Typhon represents the raw, devouring shadow that shatters our superficial structures. The redemptive act occurs in the binding cord: Alrescha, the knot-star. It forces the human soul to acknowledge that its highest spiritual aspirations (Aphrodite) cannot exist without its deep, instinctual drives (Eros). To be redeemed in Pisces is to surrender the ego to the great ocean of life, trusting that the bond of love will hold the dualities of the psyche together until they are raised into celestial light." Liz Greene, "The Astrology of Fate"
Typhon
"Psychologically, Typhon represents the volcanic onslaught of the unconscious that completely shatters the rigid, cohesive boundaries of the ego. It is a terrifying state of mental dismemberment, a total collapse of one’s identity into the dark, chaotic waters. Yet, this destructive act is a hidden necessity. The higher spiritual self cannot be born until the lower, artificial structure of the ego has been utterly broken apart by the Typhonian fire." Edward F. Edinger, "The Aion Lectures"
Odin's Ravens:Mind & Memory
"Odin's ability to send out his 'thought' (Huginn) and 'mind/memory' (Muninn) maps precisely onto the trance-state journey of the shaman. The famous stanza where Odin confesses his terrifying worry that his ravens might not return is entirely consistent with the acute spiritual danger that the shaman faces when crossing between worlds. To send one's consciousness into the unseen realms requires a deliberate fragmentation of the self. If the ravens do not fly back across the threshold, the physical body is left empty, catatonic, or dead." John Lindow, "Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs"
Odin
"The Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, represents the universe itself. Odin hanging upon it, wounded by his own spear, is the divine spirit crucified within the bonds of matter, suffering the agony of limitation in order to extract the ultimate, eternal wisdom of existence." Madame Helena Blavatsky
The Two Wolves
"If you choose to feed only the good wolf, the other one will be hiding around every corner waiting for you to become distracted, and he will jump to get the attention he craves. He will always be angry and will always fight the good wolf.But if you feed them both, they both win. You see, the dark wolf has important qualities—tenacity, courage, fearlessness, strong will, and great strategy—which you need at times, but which the good wolf lacks. The good wolf has compassion, caring, strength, and the ability to recognize what is in the best interest of all.When you feed them both, there is no internal war. When there is no war, you can listen to the voice of deeper knowing, the voice of the Great Spirit. A man who has peace inside has everything. A man who is torn apart by war inside himself has nothing." Johnny Moses
Zen's Ten Oxherding Pictures
“The pattern of Jesus’ life is essentially similar to that of the ideal sage, whose career is traced in the ‘Oxherding Pictures,’ so popular among Zen Buddhists. The wild ox, symbolising the unregenerate self, is caught, made to change its direction, then tamed and gradually transformed from black to white. Regeneration goes so far that for a time the ox is completely lost, so that nothing remains to be pictured but the full-orbed moon, symbolising Mind, Suchness, the Ground. But this is not the final stage. In the end, the herdsman comes back to the world of men, riding on the back of his ox." Aldous Huxley
Checkerboard Floor
"The chequered floor... denotes the dual quality of everything connected with terrestrial life and the physical groundwork of human nature—the mortal body and its appetites and affections. The web of our life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together." W.L. Wilmshurst
Chakra Ladder
"The transformation of character that is prerequisite for living in the light of a transformed world is symbolized in the imagery of the yogic lotus ladder by a final triad of chakras—numbers 5, 6, and 7—which are of the head and mind pursuing aims and ends beyond range of the physical senses. [...] The intermediate, fourth, 'heart chakra' is the point of transformation; of movement from the purely animal to the genuinely human..." Joseph Campbell, "The Inner Reaches of Outer Space"
Seven Natural Laws
"The principles of truth are seven; he who knows them, understandingly, possesses the magic key before whose touch all the doors of the temple fly open. [...] The master does not escape these laws, but he polarizes himself at the point he desires, neutralizing the rhythmic swing of the pendulum. By mastership, he uses the higher laws against the lower, and escapes the operation of the lower planes by vibrating on a higher. The master dominates his moods, characters, qualities, and polarity, as well as the environment surrounding him, becoming a mover instead of a pawn. This is the true meaning of spiritual redemption and mental alchemy."The Kybalion, Three Initiates
The Ladder
"The Ladder of Jacob is the symbol of the Great Work (Magnum Opus)... By it, we ascend from the lowest matter of the earth to the ultimate purity of the heavens, where the spirit is refined. The alchemist must climb rung by rung, for he who skips a step will plunge into the chaos of the prima materia." Altus, Mutus Liber