#spiritual-symbolism

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Mindfulness
fromPsychology Today
1 day ago

How to Embrace Being "More" Spiritual

Awareness of the transcendent reveals depth and meaning in life, fostering spiritual growth and a sense of oneness with the world.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
18 hours ago

Leah Ki Yi Zheng's Personal I Ching

Leah Ke Yi Zheng synthesizes Western oil painting and Eastern ink painting, redefining cultural histories in her art.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
2 days ago

The Invisible Game: Jordan's Negative Space and Jung's Shadow

Michael Jordan and Carl Jung both emphasize the importance of recognizing overlooked spaces for extraordinary performance and deeper self-understanding.
fromPhilosophynow
3 days ago

Love & Emptiness in the Sufi Tradition

Rumi argues that to love is to enter the unknown: to love is to empty the self of all self-knowledge entirely. He believes that emptiness is a paradoxical state of infinite fullness, allowing for the purest form of love and union with the divine.
Philosophy
fromPhilosophynow
3 days ago

The Mirror & the Flame

Attar's 'Conference of the Birds' follows a flock of souls seeking the Simorgh, symbolizing the Divine, through seven valleys, ultimately revealing the Divine as a reflection of the self in relation with others.
Philosophy
fromColossal
3 days ago

Anoushka Mirchandani Conjures Ancient Mythological Nature Spirits in Vibrant Oil Paintings

These water-women are beings of transformation, embodying sensuality, cosmic energy, and the transmission of matrilineal knowledge.
Arts
#yoga
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
1 week ago

Holding Inspired Authority

Effective authority fosters growth through listening, modeling behaviors, and celebrating achievements, avoiding both abuse and abdication.
Philosophy
fromThe Atlantic
1 week ago

How to Believe in God

A personal encounter with the divine led to a profound realization of faith amidst a backdrop of skepticism and scientific discourse.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
1 week ago

Why Bigfoot Believers Don't Change Their Minds

Belief perseverance causes individuals to maintain beliefs despite contradictory evidence, influenced by identity, experience, and community.
US news
fromwww.npr.org
3 weeks ago

Greetings from a Shanghai temple where you can ward off bad luck in the Year of the Horse

People born in Horse, Rat, Ox, and Rabbit years clash with Tai Sui in Chinese mythology, but can appease this heavenly general through ritual kits sold at temples containing incense, offerings, and amulets.
OMG science
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
3 weeks ago

Where did magic mushrooms come from? Scientists just got closer to an answer

Scientists discovered Psilocybe ochraceocentrata, a new magic mushroom species in Africa that shared a common ancestor with Psilocybe cubensis approximately 1.5 million years ago.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

I'm deathly afraid': what is digital spirituality leading us toward?

The AI entity said its name was Caelum, the Latin word for heaven, and a figure commonly used in collaborative online fantasy fiction.
Philosophy
fromwww.thehistoryblog.com
3 weeks ago

Ritual site at summit of rock formation identified

The two socketed axes were discovered last year by a metal detectorist who recognized that their careful positioning could not have been a natural process. He reported the find to the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association (LWL). The subsequent excavation of the find site revealed a far more complex depositional context. Beneath the axes is a pit carved into the rock.
History
Arts
fromHarvard Gazette
2 weeks ago

Is this art Celtic? It's complicated. - Harvard Gazette

The Harvard Art Museums' exhibition showcases the diverse history and contributions of Celtic art across various time periods.
Philosophy
fromThe Conversation
1 week ago

What an ancient devotional text means for the women of Nepal

The 'Swasthani Vrata Katha' is a devotional text central to a month-long ritual performed by Hindu women in Nepal for the goddess Swasthani.
#tarot
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

What If You're Fundamentally Not Flawed?

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. It was bracing language for an 8-year-old. Not only was I unclean, but even my best attempt at goodness was filthy.
Writing
Philosophy
fromBig Think
2 weeks ago

Aztec philosophy: How lucky you are to not be in prison right now

Moral luck describes how identical actions result in vastly different moral and legal consequences based on uncontrollable circumstances beyond the actor's intent.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
2 weeks ago

Islamic Futurism Here and Now

Contemporary Islamic artists advance visual traditions through calligraphy, installation, and speculative image-making, while global art institutions face boycott demands and labor disputes.
Medicine
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Ayahuasca psychedelic DMT shows promise as depression therapy

A phase II clinical trial demonstrates that DMT, a psychoactive component from ayahuasca, significantly reduces depressive symptoms compared to placebo when combined with psychotherapeutic support.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

What Archetypal Psychology Is and Why It Matters

Modern psychology excels at identifying symptoms but often overlooks deeper narrative patterns that shape human experience and meaning.
Philosophy
fromThe Conversation
3 weeks ago

'The Tibetan Book of the Dead' is actually not just about death

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, originally titled "The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States," is the most well-known Tibetan Buddhist text outside Tibet, addressing spiritual liberation through death and rebirth practices.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
4 weeks ago

Journey Through the Wilderness to Freedom

Freedom is an inner psychological journey requiring navigation through wilderness patterns of seduction, denial, delusion, and rationalization, with four primary captors: addiction, false modesty, arrogance, and regression.
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

What We Can Learn From Religion About Values That Do Not Expire

We are living through one of the most disorienting periods in recorded history. The AI race is accelerating toward ever faster, ever more sophisticated automation and optimization. Agentic AI systems are moving from research labs into workplaces, healthcare, and governance. Geopolitical tensions are restructuring alliances faster than institutions can adapt. And planetary systems are signaling, with increasing urgency, that our current trajectory is unsustainable. Amid all this, it is dangerously easy to lose sight of a foundational question: What are we actually optimizing for?
Artificial intelligence
Philosophy
fromThe New Yorker
3 weeks ago

How God Got So Great

Monotheism functions as a moral and political credential in American public life, with non-belief in God representing a greater electoral liability than other demographic factors.
fromMail Online
1 month ago

Consciousness can connect you to the entire UNIVERSE, theory suggests

Your consciousness can connect you with the entire universe, a groundbreaking study suggests. Experts from Wellesley College in Massachusetts claim that traditional connections in the brain cannot fully explain how we are aware of our existence. Instead, they argue that quantum physics taking place within our skull is what generates awareness. This includes the idea that particles can exist in multiple states and locations at the same time.
Science
Mindfulness
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

The Quiet Power of Awe

Awe shifts attention away from the self, increases connectedness, broadens perspective, and small moments of attention counter burnout and numbness.
Philosophy
fromenglish.elpais.com
3 weeks ago

Matthew Remski: Yoga can be a gateway to proto-fascist politics'

Conspirituality merges wellness culture with conspiracy theories, attracting people through alternative health solutions and pattern-seeking beliefs about hidden truths and power dynamics.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

Finding God at the Brooklyn Museum

The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text collection containing protection spells and mummification instructions that guided souls through the afterlife, with the Brooklyn Museum displaying a rare 21-foot papyrus containing over 160 of approximately 200 known spells.
fromMail Online
1 month ago

Mysterious symbols spanning the globe hint at a lost civilization

His investigation began after identifying recurring giant T-shapes, three-level indents, and step pyramids carved into ancient stones worldwide. 'These specific symbols that are built in different size proportions, and the symbols are found in ancient stones around the world, are not supposed to exist; no cultures are supposed to have any cross-platform,' LaCroix explained. The symbols appear in locations ranging from Turkey's Van region to South America and Cambodia.
History
fromFuncheap
1 month ago

Seema Kohli: Samsara & Metamorphosis - The Mystical World of Seema Kohli

Kohli's work is inspired by the generative forces of nature-its cycles of growth, dissolution, and renewal. Central to the artist's visual language is Shakti, the transformative power of the divine feminine. Kohli uses the womb as a potent symbol of creation and possibility, exploring transformation within the eternal cycles of birth and death.
Arts
fromFuncheap
2 months ago

Atomic vs Satori

Come join us for the clash (more like a love-fest) of two beloved San Jose staple nights! Satori and Atomic have been putting on memorable dance parties in San Jose full of new and classic Goth, Darkwave, New Wave, Electro, Indie and Industrial for decades. For one night only, we unite to play all the bangers until you just can't dance anymore!
Music
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

What a Fantasy Can Reveal About Real Life

Fictional lies and imagined worlds can reveal deeper human truths through protagonists who fabricate realities, exposing inner desires, vulnerabilities, and psychological unraveling.
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Did My Mother See Apparitions, Angels, Flashbacks or Ghosts?

A daughter witnesses her frail, long-depressed mother's final weeks filled with hallucinated conversations, brief warmth toward customers, and the painful invisibility of familial estrangement.
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Sunday's Sacred Ritual

Part of the answer lies in the visceral nature of the game. Unlike chess, football is physical to the point of absurdity. Grown adults in body armor crash into each other over what is essentially a leather egg. There's drama in every play. You don't need a PhD in physics to appreciate a one-handed catch while somersaulting over a defender like a caffeinated acrobat.
National Football League
Relationships
fromBustle
1 month ago

Your Tarot Reading For The Week Of February 16 - 22

Speak your truth, set clear boundaries, and rely on emotional intelligence and honesty to create healthier, more authentic relationships.
Philosophy
fromBig Think
1 month ago

The 3 colors: What folktales teach about how to grow wise

European folktales use red, black, and white colors to represent three modes of being that map human maturation: red as ambition and life force, black as introspection and shadow, and white as wisdom and transcendence.
History
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
1 month ago

Ghosts in Ancient Mesopotamia: Just Another Aspect of Life

Ghosts were integral to Mesopotamian belief: deceased spirits required proper burial and ongoing remembrance or they could return to haunt the living.
#contemporary-art
fromdesignyoutrust.com
2 months ago
Arts

An Artist Draws Mythic Chimeras And Warrior Specters In Flat, Beardsleyesque Illustrations That Bridge Antiquity And Modern Surrealism

fromdesignyoutrust.com
2 months ago
Arts

An Artist Draws Mythic Chimeras And Warrior Specters In Flat, Beardsleyesque Illustrations That Bridge Antiquity And Modern Surrealism

Science
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

How Shared Symbols Create Lives Worth Living

Shared cultural meanings form a second inheritance system that accumulates knowledge rapidly and shapes institutions, norms, and human cognition.
Mindfulness
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Early Signs of Spiritual Awakening

Spiritual awakening involves heightened self-awareness, dissatisfaction with external experiences, increased sensitivity, and emotional release leading to deeper understanding of self and reality.
Yoga
fromYOGMAY
1 month ago

Chakras in Yoga Explained: Meaning, Mantras & Healing

Chakras are psycho-energetic centers along the spine that regulate physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual functions and respond to vibrational practices like mantra in Nada Yoga.
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Why It's Worth Exploring Your Dreams

In a recent talk in Zurich, German psychoanalyst Konstantin Roessler surveyed the current state of dream research. Tracing some of the earlier scientific studies on dreams, he made a renewed case for the importance of dreams. Even formerly skeptical neuroscientists have now begun to see the meaning, purpose, and value of dreams for everyday life and overall psychic health. Dreams as Meaningless "Content"
Science
fromhttps://www.arogyayogaschool.com/blog
1 month ago

Kali Maa: The Fierce Mother and Her Yogic Meaning

To her followers and yogic practitioners, Kali Maa is not a scary goddess. She is the ultimate Mother. She represents the slayer of illusion and the symbol of truth that brings freedom. She is the symbol of the cycle of time, transformation, the loss of self and awakening to the spiritual realm. In yoga, Kali Maa is linked to inner cleansing. She helps awaken the kundalini and gives courage. This courage helps us face our darkest sides.
Yoga
Mindfulness
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Why We're Obsessed With the Monks Walking Across America

Twelve Buddhist monks walking across the United States are drawing millions online and thousands in person, inspiring peace, gratitude, and a shared sense of human connection.
Psychology
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

The Psychology of the Collective Unconscious

A shared, inherited collective unconscious shapes human emotions, recurring archetypal imagery, and convergent dream themes across cultures, especially during times of stress.
fromwww.arogyayogaschool.com
2 months ago

Blue Aura Meaning: Shades of Blue and Their Significance

Blue aura is among of the most well-known and important aura colors. Auras are subtle energy field that surrounds living things. They show a person's physical, mental, and spiritual state. People link blue auras to peace and truth. They also relate to communication and spiritual understanding. It is a signification of a person who has calm and reflective appearance that emits calm and peace. The challenges could include overthinking, emotional sensitiveness or withdrawal when stressed.
Yoga
Mindfulness
fromScary Mommy
2 months ago

Women Are Sharing The Most Unhinged Woo Woo Things That Have Changed Their Life

Experimenting with unconventional 'woo woo' rituals can provide simple, low-risk ways to reduce stress and increase feelings of optimism and control.
Psychology
fromSilicon Canals
1 month ago

Quote of the day by Carl Jung: "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate" - Silicon Canals

Unconscious patterns and autopilot behavior drive most decisions, causing repeated life outcomes until they are consciously examined and changed.
Mindfulness
fromBustle
2 months ago

The Spiritual Meaning Of February's Full Snow Moon

The Feb. 1 full Snow Moon in Leo brings an emotional climax that encourages authentic self-expression, confidence, and releasing what no longer serves you.
Mindfulness
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Sacredness of the Everyday

Joan Halifax combines deep contemplative practice with sustained, hands-on compassionate action across medical missions, hospice care, prison ministry, homelessness work, and peace activism.
fromYogaRenew
2 months ago

The Ahankara

They look nervously at the cameras. The prize, they are told, is beyond description, but "it is what everyone wants!" The first question is asked: "Who are you?" The fastest contestant with the buzzer rings in - "Michelle!" they cry out confidently. BUZZ - the sound for the wrong answer rings out loudly. Another contestant seizes the moment and squeezes their buzzer. "A Man!" he states with utmost confidence. BUZZ - wrong again.
Philosophy
Arts
fromdesignyoutrust.com
1 month ago

Incredible Dark Ritual Imagery Exploring Death, Loneliness And Mythic Gates by Benjamin Malejko

A curated showcase of diverse visual works spanning illustrations, dark concept art, photography winners, humorous designs, reimagined logos, and imaginative digital and portrait art.
Philosophy
fromWarpweftandway
2 months ago

ToC: Asian Philosophy 36:1

Buddhist, Confucian, Daoist, and Islamic mystical traditions examine creation, uncertainty, relational personhood, epistemic virtues, commitment, and critiques of Confucian self-cultivation.
Philosophy
fromPhilosophynow
1 month ago

Gyara Is All There Is

Stoic resilience allows freedom through reason, requiring persistent virtue and inner resolve to withstand exile and nature’s indifferent forces.
fromianVisits
1 month ago

A medieval Persian allegory takes flight in a London gallery

The poem itself is an allegory: a gathering of birds set out on a spiritual quest, each one embodying a particular human flaw or attachment. Passing through seven symbolic valleys, they face trials and moments of revelation, before realising that the divine presence they seek lies within themselves. That sense of pilgrimage carries into the gallery. You are invited to take your own quiet journey through a wide range of avian-themed artworks inspired by the poem, each offering a different response to its ideas.
Arts
Philosophy
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

The Myth of Progress

Relentless pursuit of progress can shrink life, prioritizing efficiency and achievements over health, relationships, and meaningful depth—becoming a poisoned gift.
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

All About Love From a Black Medieval Angel

Looking to the Middle Ages for answers to the perennial puzzles of life can seem quaint, even artificial, a long reach across centuries marked by violence, hierarchy, and exclusion. And yet medieval culture offers a way of thinking about love that still speaks to the present. If love is most urgently tested in moments of strain and upheaval, then it is in those moments - where care is stressed or obscured - that its meaning comes most clearly into view.
Arts
fromPsychology Today
2 months ago

Finessing Fate: Living With Two Forms of Power

An old definition of the word fate is "the will of the gods." We might say that it is a fitting metaphor, as it suggests that fate comes from a source much larger than ourselves. Its immensity will stretch way beyond what is in our control. We can ask: How can we create a life that reflects our dreams and what we hold to be important, when so much lies outside our sphere of influence?
Philosophy
Philosophy
fromMedium
4 years ago

The 2,000 Year Old Temple Inscriptions That Sum Up How Self-Improvement Works

Three ancient maxims—Know thyself, Nothing in excess, Certainty brings ruin—remain enduring guidance for self-improvement through iterative self-discovery.
Philosophy
fromBig Think
1 month ago

Which of the 5 philosophical archetypes best describes you?

Everyone engages in philosophy through wonder, logic, interrogation, introspection, dialectic, and advocacy, expressed via diverse archetypal approaches such as the questioning Sphinx.
fromAeon
1 month ago

The Japanese ethics of 'ningen' dethrones the Western self | Aeon Essays

In Rinrigaku, Watsuji argues that ethics is the study of what it means for us to be human. How we think about the nature of human existence, he says, dictates the ways in which we understand our ethical values. Hence, he criticises Western philosophical conceptions of the modern subject, arguing that the Western rendering of subjectivity is both problematic and foreign
Philosophy
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