Spirituality & soul
Reflections on the soul, will, love, pain and rebirth.
Body and Spirit: The Body as a Temple in the Traditions
Body and spirit across the traditions: from Platonic dualism to the body as temple, from yoga to mysticism. Why the inner path passes through the body.
Compassion Beyond Feeling: Karuna, Mercy, Rahma
Compassion in the traditions: Buddhist karuna, Christian mercy, Islamic rahma. Why compassion is neither pity nor mere emotion, but lived wisdom.
The Dark Night of the Soul: The Darkness That Prepares the Light
The dark night of the soul according to John of the Cross: what it means, how to tell it apart from ordinary sadness, and why it is a passage of growth.
Desire and Its Transfiguration on the Spiritual Path
Desire in the spiritual traditions, from Augustine to Buddhism and the Symposium: why it should not be quenched but turned towards what truly satisfies.
Faith and Doubt: Why Doubt Belongs to the Spiritual Path
Faith and doubt are not enemies: Thomas, Pascal, Kierkegaard and the mystics show how honest doubt can purify faith and help it grow into maturity.
Forgiveness on the Spiritual Path: What It Is and What It Is Not
Forgiveness in the spiritual traditions, without rhetoric: why it is neither forgetting nor excusing, and how it frees the one who forgives first.
Free Will and Responsibility: Freedom as a Trial
Free will in spiritual thought: from Augustine to Pico della Mirandola, why freedom is both burden and gift, and how to turn it into real responsibility.
Gratitude as a Spiritual Path: From Gift to Relationship
Gratitude as a spiritual path: the Eucharist, Jewish blessings, Sufi shukr. Why recognising the gift changes your whole relationship with reality.
Initiation as Transformation: The Meaning of the Passage
Initiation as inner transformation: rites of passage, ancient mysteries and esoteric traditions. What truly changes in one who crosses a threshold.
Inner Light and Shadow: Integrating What We Refuse to See
Inner light and shadow in myth, alchemy and Jung: what the shadow is, how it shows up in daily life and why it must be integrated rather than denied.
Karma Across Traditions: Beyond Reward and Punishment
Karma in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism: what it really means, why it is not cosmic punishment, and which common Western misreadings to avoid.
Know Thyself: The Delphic Maxim and the Way of Knowledge
The Delphic maxim know thyself: from Socrates to mysticism, from Hermeticism to psychology. Why self-knowledge is the gateway to the inner path.
Love as a Spiritual Force: Eros, Philia, Agape
Love as a spiritual force across traditions: Platonic eros, philia, agape and Sufi mystical love, and why loving is a path that transforms the soul itself.
Master and Disciple: The Relationship That Passes On Wisdom
Master and disciple across traditions: guru, shaykh, desert father. What is passed on in this bond, and the signs of an authentic spiritual guide.
Pain and Inner Growth: The Spiritual Meaning of Suffering
Pain in the spiritual traditions: Job, the first noble truth, Greek tragedy. Why suffering should be neither sought nor denied, but passed through.
The Sacred in Everyday Life: Recognising the Extraordinary
The sacred in everyday life: from Eliade's hierophany to the mysticism of simple gestures, how ordinary life can become genuine spiritual ground.
Sacred Time and Profane Time: Living Time Differently
Sacred and profane time after Eliade: chronos and kairos, feasts, cycles and the Sabbath. How life changes when time is not merely consumed.
Silence in the Mystical Traditions: Where Words Come to an End
Silence in the mystical traditions: apophatic theology, Pythagoreans, hesychasm and Zen. Why silence is not absence but a high form of knowledge.
The Soul in the Great Traditions: Psyche, Atman, Nefesh
How Greece, India, the Hebrew world and Egypt conceived the soul: psyche, atman, nefesh and ba compared, and what they teach every seeker today.
Spiritual Pride and Humility: The Subtlest Trap on the Path
Spiritual pride is the subtlest trap of the inner path: how to recognise it, what the traditions say, and why humility is never self-contempt.
Spiritual Solitude: From Isolation to Presence with Oneself
Spiritual solitude among hermits, desert fathers and retreats: why it differs from isolation, and how solitude can become fruitful for the soul.
Symbolic Death and Rebirth: Dying to Oneself to Be Reborn
Symbolic death and rebirth in myth and tradition: Osiris, Persephone, the phoenix, and dying to oneself as the key to deep inner transformation.
The Self and the Ego: Two Centres of Identity on the Inner Path
What separates the Self from the ego? Mysticism, Vedanta, Buddhism and Jung compared, and why the ego should be put in its place, not destroyed.
Vocation: Recognising the Inner Calling
Vocation in spiritual traditions: from the call of the prophets to Socrates' daimon, how to tell an authentic calling apart from ambition and expectation.
Will and Destiny: How the Traditions Think About Fate
Greek Moira, Stoic amor fati, Indian dharma and providence: will and destiny compared, to see how much of your life you choose and how much you accept.