Articles
On the Bestiary and its Symbolism: An Introduction, Pt. I
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...
Mythic Patterns in Mario Games Pt 1: The Arcade Origins
The early Mario Games: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Mario Brothers, present the basic mythological pattern which will later lay get developed in the history of video games. This is the first part of a two part series. In the next part, we will look at Super Mario Brothers and how it brings together the different symbolic meanings into one game.
The Symbolism of Sword & Shield
Within the panoply of Western mythic imagery, perhaps few things excite the imagination like that picture of a brave knight, armed with sword and shield, fighting and defeating a scaled dragon while rescuing a damsel in distress or liberating a town terrorized by...
The Horror and Hope of Bluebeard
You know a story is good if people write new versions of it over, and over again. Given this metric, Charles Perrault’s Bluebeard must be the grand-daddy of all stories. Or it is at least a really popular uncle. There have been dozens of re-writes and variants over...
Hold Your Ground To Be Crowned
One of the central subjects addressed within the Symbolic World community is the symbolism of garments of skin, layers of death, protective veils, and trampling down death by death. The gist is this: the outside world is full of things that harm or kill us, but by...
Coronavirus: The Symbolism of Epidemics (transcript)
(This post is the transcript for a Youtube video published March 19th and reflects the situation at the time. Link to video at the end of article.) During the past few weeks we have seen major disruptions in our lives. Everything is cancelled. Everyone is hunkered...
Rediscovering Forms
You ultimately have to immerse yourself in symbolism to really “get it”. You have to read stories, and furthermore read about their interpretations. As you start to see the recurring patterns, you will also start to notice them in your own life. Before long, you...
A New Laboratory for Symbolic Thinking
The world is starving for beauty, for patterns and for meaning. In gaining its power for the calculation and reproduction of phenomena, in developing technical proficiency and material comfort, the modern world has often sacrificed meaning and engagement with the deep...
The Joker and Cancel Culture
The opening scene of the Dark Knight movie by Christopher Nolan is one of the best examples of revolution and can help us understand contemporary phenomena like cancel culture.