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“Blessed is he who leaves”–“Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk
This year’s Man Booker international prize went to a Polish author, Olga Tokarczuk for Flights. It is an absorbing tale, or rather a collection of tales, devoted to the nomad in everyone of us. More...
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“Nocturne” by Octavio Paz
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, “Nocturne in Black and Gold” Octavio Paz, “Nocturne”, translated by Eliot Weinberger “Shadow, flickering shadow of voices. The black river drags its sunken marbles. How...
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Turin like a Dream
Turin, twin churches at Piazza San Carlo “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears,” wrote Italo Calvino in Invisible Cities. Though Turin is not the first Italian city I have fallen in love...
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The Black Madonna of the Luminous Mountain
The Shrine of Our Lady of Jasna Góra (Luminous Mountain or Clarus Mons) in Częstochowa, Poland, houses a most unique image of the Black Madonna. It is a Byzantine icon of the Hodegetria type (from...
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Odysseus’ Return from the Dead in the Vision of Tadeusz Kantor
Tadeusz Kantor Cricoteca in Krakow Cricoteca, the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990), a Polish avant-guarde artist, stage designer and, above all, a celebrated...
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Inanna at the Ground of Being
“Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect. They may not be questioned.” “Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer,” translated by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel...
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The Reality of Dreams in Henry Fuseli’s Art
Henry Fuseli’s portrait painted by James Northcote Henry Fuseli’s paintings fire up the soul. What is special about this eighteenth-century artist is that he never painted from “nature” but rather he...
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Symbolism of the Egg
I. “Set the egg before you, the God in his beginning. And behold it. And incubate it with the magical warmth of your gaze.” II. “And I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in me.”...
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Roma: Movie of the Year
The movie Roma is a beautiful hymn to women. It tells the story of Cleo, an indigenous (Mixtec) woman who works as a maid to an upper-middle-class Mexican family. She is wonderfully portrayed by...
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The Bembine Table of Isis
“I am all that has been and is and shall be; and no mortal has ever lifted my veil.” (the words inscribed on the statue of Isis of Sais) Museo Egizio, Bembina Tablet of Isis The Bembine Table of Isis,...
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The Tree of Life in the Vision of W. B. Yeats
One of the most beautiful poems ever written is “The Two Trees” by William Butler Yeats. The poet was a favourite of his beloved Maud Gonne, an Irish revolutionary and his muse. The visual richness of...
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The Seeds of the Sixties
“His disciples said to him, ‘When will the kingdom come?’ ‘It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Rather, the Father’s kingdom is spread out upon the...
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Moments experienced intensely: photography of Sebastião Salgado
“All my photos correspond to moments that I have experienced intensely.” Sebastião Salgado, “From my Land to the Planet,” Kindle edition The movie Salt of the Earth (2015) directed by Wim Wenders and...
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The Musical Hamilton and its Symbolism
The musical Hamilton is not only brilliant musically but it is also ingenious in the way it breaths life and energy into often lifeless historical and political themes. Its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda...
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Symbolism of the River
J.M.W. Tuner, “Haridwar Kumbh Mela” “I do not know much about gods, but I think that the river is a strong brown god,” so begins the third of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. The divinity of rivers has been...
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Reflections on Narcissism: The Feminine and Masculine Experience of Sexual Love
“I love myself…I love you. I love you…I love myself.” Rumi You have probably seen this image – the illustration to a short story by Kristen Roupenian’s entitled “Cat Person,” which was published in...
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Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame,1881 by Theodor Hoffbauer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUrULTifMPc In “Civilization,” a classic TV series of 1969, standing in front of Notre-Dame, Kenneth Clark asked: “What is...
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Symbolism of the Labyrinth
The myth of Minotaur tells the story of greed and tyranny, which led Minos to deny a sacrificial bull to Poseidon. The angry god punished the king by making his wife fall in love with the bull. The...
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Moon Art
I saw an exhibition today devoted to the history of artists’ engagement with the Moon, from the Romantic era to the post-war period. My attention was captured by numerous works of art – some of them...
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The Scapegoat
Francisco Goya, “The Witches’ Sabbath” Chapter 16, verses 20-22 of Leviticus, the third book of the Old Testament, speaks of the scapegoat ritual: “When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most...
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