In good sooth, my masters, this is no door. Yet it is a little window, that looks upon a great world. – the opening words of Phantastes George MacDonald is well known to many for his longer works, such as Phantastes, Lilith, or The Princess and the Goblin. ...
We tend to forget that the advent of the Atomic Age, with the destruction of Hiroshima in a single bomb blast 75 years ago on August 6, 1945, was not greeted with dread so much as with wonder at mankind’s near-divine power over matter. For it was thought that man was...
Be astonished: a beautiful woman, beheaded 1,700 years ago, still lives. She is the patron of miners, tunnellers, armourers, military engineers, artillerymen, gunsmiths and those who handle explosives. People put up her effigy at the entrance to tunnels and mines, and...
Maximilian Robespierre was the leader of the French Revolution, which promised to free France from the tyranny of despots. For centuries, the French people had lived under a system where the peasants carried the burden of the tax load. And while the monarchy did...
“Whatever shadow may fall on your life–maybe you are worried about the fate of your country, or perhaps dark thoughts visit you concerning your own future, or maybe your entire life seems an unbearable wound–remember the fairy tale. Listen to her quiet, ancient, wise...
This is part I in a two-part article, and the first article in a series of posts that discuss the symbolism of a particular and peculiar literary tradition within Western Europe. Collectively, this body of works is called “the Bestiary.” To reduce this mysterious...
