This post is In response to a “challenge” on to name 10 influential books. The primary criterion used in this selection is that the book provoked a fundamental change in world view. That is why I have seldom been able to reread any of these books, since a change like … Continue reading →

When we plunge into those mute and motionless depths in which the muddy stream of our actuality has its source, we come into inward contact with the source of the universal life. Continue reading →

Father John Welch is a member of the Carmelite Order and a Jungian who has lectured and written extensively on the meaning and practice of St. Teresa d’Avila’s Interior Castle in tandem with Jungian psychology, especially where it concerns the process of Individuation.  Father Welch’s lectures and writings serve equally … Continue reading →

Nobility, the quality which I call true aristocracy, requires of a man the recognition of his guilt. In its depths, conscience, which is frequently covered up and suppressed, is always a consciousness of guilt. The necessary thing is to take upon oneself as much guilt as possible and to put … Continue reading →

Modern civilized man cannot endure cruelty, pain and suffering and is more merciful than men of the past, but this is not because he is morally and spiritually higher than they. He fears pain and suffering more than they did; he is more effeminate, less firm, patient and courageous than they. Continue reading →

when pagan polytheism flourished, monotheism was regarded as an esoteric truth to be hidden from the masses who were unable to reach such a high level ~ Nicolas Berdyaev Continue reading →

To exalt the romantic, tragic, anxious soul, always in search of new “truths”, is essentially something of a civilization sick and damaged in its race. Calmness, style, clarity, command, discipline, power, and the Olympic spirit are instead the points of reference for every formation of character and life. Continue reading →

we are always guided by Augustine’s maxim that the truth lies in the interiority of man. This we shall do by following our earlier analysis of the various faculties of the soul. The forces of thymos and epithymia (or eros) channeled toward higher values, and are dominated by the rational or intellectual soul. Hence, from thymos he experiences the energy or force to strive for transcendence. Epithymia acts as the attractive force. Continue reading →

Man, in order to feel himself free and individual, will overcome isolation and egoism, and will return to an organic, living, religious connection with the totality, realizing the mystical meaning of history as the reciprocal self-revelation and self-generation of man to God. Continue reading →

We Hyperboreans Let us face ourselves. We are Hyperboreans; we know very well how far off we live. “Neither by land nor by sea will you find the way to the Hyperboreans” … Beyond the north, ice, and death – our life, our happiness. We have discovered happiness, we know … Continue reading →