The Archives

The Cauldron of the Otherworld

If we take into account the Celtic tradition of the descent to the underworld, we also have another level of our quest: the Great Prisoner. As in the labyrinthine journey of the Grail quest, the hero who enters into the faery fortress of Caer Sidi to gain the...
Sidh-Chailleann

Clues to unlock the Otherworld mysteries of Scotland

In Celtic Scotland there exist plenty traditions of sacred locations, places and folklore about people crossing into the Otherworld, a number of which are identified with sorcha (pronounced “sahkhaa”). This is an ancient phrase that means both ‘paradise’ and ‘illuminated being.’ Once again there’s a similarity with Egypt....
Tristan and isolde painting Rogelio

Romantic love means a path to initiation

Romantic love means a path to initiation, which leads through suffering and enlightenment. “Romantic love,” as described by the myth, is a mistake according to Robert A. Johnson―in fact it is the Occidental mistake par excellence. The levels of the anima on the one hand and of ego-awareness...

The Holy Grail Secret finally deciphered?

The Grail secret and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Secret of the Holy Grail. The most significant of all the Grail romances is “Parzival”. The Bavarian knight, Wolfram von Eschenbach composed this master piece between 1195 and 1216. In his version, the Grail is uniquely a stone. And referencing a...

The Rose of the World

The Rose of the world Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream? For these red lips, with all their mournful pride, Mournful that no new wonder may betide, Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam, And Usna’s children died. We and the labouring world are passing...

Hamingja and the supernatural guardians of the North

Hamingja, as used in the sagas, stands for an abstract conception, that of something belonging to an outstanding person which is partly a matter of character and partly of personality, and partly something more than either—that strange quality of ‘luck’ or luck-lessness’ which attaches itself to certain individuals...

Ether and the electromagnetic theory of light

Ether or AEther (from Greek and probably from I burn,) a material substance of a more subtle kind than visible bodies, supposed to exist in those parts of space which are apparently empty. So begins the article, ” Ether,” written for the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica,...

What is Cosmic Matter? Is outer space not empty?

Physical space may itself be curved, contain antimatter, house a sea of neutrinos, and be related to the invisible realm of the psyche. Nevertheless, physical space is also made up of something else.  That something else has been called, for generations, the ether. With the discovery of holography...
mirror

What’s so fascinating about a mirror?

Mirrors have always both mesmerized and scared humans. All in all, if it can capture and expose our likeness so properly, what else could it reveal about ourselves, or the world around us? What other mystical powers may it have? Some ridicule, others swear there is far more...
laurin rosengarten

Laurin ‘s marvels and his enchanted Rose garden

Laurin ‘s marvels. Are you worthy to enter the Rosengarten? King Laurin ’s greatest marvel is his understanding of day and night, which is also that of life and death. Oh, how we would like to possess that knowledge! It is in these terms that men lament, but...

The case of the benandanti, good walkers

Benandanti. Carlo Ginzburg,  is a noted Italian historian and proponent of the field of microhistory and medieval culture. In 1966, he published The Night Battles, an examination of the benandanti visionary folk tradition found in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Friuli in northeastern Italy. He returned to looking at the visionary...

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