When Dostoevsky said, “Beauty will save the world,” he didn’t mean surface beauty. He meant poetic beauty. Or as James Hillman said: “the way in which the Gods touch our senses, reach the heart and attract us into life.” THAT kind of beauty will save the world. No matter what you do, focusing on beauty [ Read more … ]
james hillman
Beauty will save the world
Dostoevsky said “Beauty will save the world.” He didn’t mean surface beauty. He meant poetic beauty. Or as James Hillmans says: “the way in which the Gods touch our senses, reach the heart and attract us into life.” That kind of beauty will save the world.
What is your key image?
I’ve worked directly with metaphor for 30 years, both professionally and personally, and there’s one image that has never let me go: I’m a plant rooted in rich, fertile soil. On a personal level, when I don’t know what to do or something in life is troubling me, all I need is to open myself [ Read more … ]
What is aesthetic space and why is it important?
Philosophers throughout history have asserted that “the fundamental nature of the world is aesthetic” (Alfred North Whitehead, Gregory Bateson,James Hillman, Martin Foss,Donald Winnicott to name a few.) That said, it’s interesting that the word aesthetics comes from the Greek word “aisthenesthai” which is the ability to perceive. When he was alive, archetypal psychologist James Hillman [ Read more … ]
The doorway to your genius
In a meeting in late December 2006, the President of a small university asked me what course I wanted to teach in their Ph.D. Psychology program. Instead of responding with the curricula that I was already prepared to teach, to my surprise I found myself blurting out… “metaphor.” The topic was right there; there was [ Read more … ]