Rising Above
From slavery to the priesthood
Voice and Freedom
Expressing our essential self
Meeting the Teacher
A life-changing encounter with spiritual authority
I Knew Two Men
Remembering Harold Bloom and Jacob Needleman
The Word for Soul
A lyrical song of love, nature, the sacred
Browse
Love and Money, by Richard Smoley
The secret prices of love
Pathways, by Mark Nepo
I don’t know why I was born | with this belief in something | deeper and larger than we can | see. […]
“I Will Teach You” by Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim
To meet her destiny, she needed a miracle
Parabola Podcast, Episode 9: “Spiritual Practice”
“Often I have come across stern pronouncements directed at people like me: One cannot dabble, say the priests and scholars. Spirituality is not a tasting menu. “New Agers” who borrow a bit of this religion and a bit of that, while discarding the parts they don’t like, will never have anything but a shallow and…
O Little Town of Riverside, by Mary A. Osborne
Frederick Law Olmsted’s village in the woods
Finding the Path, by Tracy Cochran
Among the tasks or “yogi jobs” a participant can volunteer for during silent retreats at the Insight Meditation Society, a Buddhist meditation center in rural Massachusetts, the most resonant in every sense is that of bell ringer.
Playing With God, by Tracy Cochran
Photograph: Girls exploring rock pools, Cameron Bay by State Library of Victoria Collections, 1909 “Religion isn’t for me,” announced my eight-year-old daughter, Alexandra, as we ate dinner together one January night. “I think of it like an old spider on the wall. I know that it’s there but I try to…
Georgi Ivanovitch Gurdjieff: The Man, The Teaching, His Mission
Readers will find here an expertly assembled narrative—a chronological mosaic of the activities, inner and outer, of Gurdjieff and his followers, pieced together from the records kept by many. …
Bosch Decoded: The Esoteric Bosch, Vol. II, by Lee van Laer
Announcing the publication of Senior Editor, Lee van Laer’s new book on symbolism in the artwork of Hieronymus Bosch. […]
The Golden Ticket, by Tracy Cochran
Reaching an understanding that no storm can shake
The Real Rasputin? by Richard Smoley
A fresh look at “the mad monk”
A Welcome Oasis: The 27th All & Everything International Humanities Conference, by Keith Badger
I would first and foremost like to follow an age-old injunction that every writer, before giving out any advice or critique to anyone else, should obligingly give an honest account of their journey. So before doing an appraisal of the 27th All & Everything International Humanities Conference I offer a short yet pertinent brief. Having…
Truth and Perception, by Mickey Lemle
All movies are an illusion. We think we are seeing motion but in fact we are seeing twenty-four still pictures every second. Half the time the screen is actually black. Yet movies seem so real, and some have the potential to reveal great truth. […]
Fallen Angel, by Betsy Cornwell
A young woman finds her way.
The Word for Soul
A lyrical song of love, nature, the sacred
Gifts for Gifted Children
Each summer I teach creative writing classes at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. It’s a wonderful job for many reasons: my colleagues are uniformly, eccentrically brilliant, I’ve taught at campuses all over the country, from Los Angeles to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and since the program is a sleepaway camp, the mood is…
Already Broken, by Joyce Kornblatt
Although it felt like flight, I knew the fall was wrong: body upended, working to right itself even as it spiralled head-first, it seemed, down. I’d gone over the tiniest cliff, from darkened footpath to an unseen recessed lawn. On my back, I looked up at faces—my husband Christopher, my step-daughter Miriam, a nurse who’d…
Maidens & Monsters, Betsy Cornwell
Cinderella slaves for years for her heartless stepfamily; Beauty offers her life to the Beast at her father’s request. […]
We’re In It Now, by Tracy Cochran
The greatest shocks can inspire the deepest wisdom
The Courageous Mary Oliver, by Lisa Starr
Remembering the beloved poet
The Great Unknown Is Me, Myself: A Conversation with Jacob Needleman
Jacob Needleman’s voice has been prominent in the conversation about man’s inner possibilities for some forty years.
Gifts from Beyond, by Edward Espe Brown
Kneading bread, baking a soul
Refugee Camp Alchemy, by Kenneth Krushel
A Palestinian rapper and the music of hope
Spinning Straw, by Tracy Cochran
Naming Rumpelstiltskin, and the path to self-knowledge
Healing the Wounds of War
In contrast to our modern situation, traditional and indigenous peoples had extensive spiritually and communally based warrior medicine, practices and lineages. […]
The Third Striving
The nature of wisdom is necessarily esoteric, because it subsists on a level which both transcends and is internal to, anything we can directly observe. …
The Natural Order of Things, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
A Sufi master on finding balance in an unstable world
The Verses of Ambapali, by Margo McLoughlin
In Vesali, in ancient India, at the time of the Buddha, a baby girl was born spontaneously at the foot of a mango tree in the royal garden. She was given the name Ambapali.
Parabola Podcast, Episode 11: “The Value of Education”
Story Editor Betsy Cornwell reflects on the spiritual value of education in this new episode of Parabola’s free monthly podcast.
Tenzin’s Escape
Bön monks flee the invaders of Tibet
A Path of Love and Freedom, by Amir Freimann
A conversation with Sufi master Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
All Life is Sacred: A Conversation with John Malloy
A conversation with educator and spiritual leader John Malloy …
Walking with George, by Sofía Vélez-Calderón
learning mindfulness and connection from a dog named George Lucas
Portfolio: Amanda Means
A Formal Feeling Comes
Bonfire, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” writes Emily Dickinson. “The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs.” After a great shock or loss or change, a stillness comes. We sit still and receive life without leaning forward to grasp at it or commenting on it—think of the…
The Inner Forms the Outer
Photograph by Lee van Laer Human beings are peculiar creatures. We can think; and it sets us apart from other creatures, who can think some (consider the honeybee) but not much. Thinking, over the last 10,000 or so years (a rough estimate,) mankind has occupied himself, in the disciplines of science…
Alice Coltrane’s “Om Shanti”
In the early 1980s, jazz pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane devoted herself to the Hindu tradition, adopting the name Swamini Turiyasangitananda and established the 48-acre Sai Anantam Ashram outside Los Angeles.
We Begin Where We Are, by Jan Jarvis
In his book All and Everything, G.I. Gurdjieff presented what he called the “Obligolnian Strivings,” directives intended to instill in the consciousness of those who practice them—said to be engaged in the “Work”—the “divine function of genuine Conscience.”
A Parabola Bestiary: Coyotes, by Peter Beagle
The trickster, the shape shifter, the god–the coyote
The Unfinished Painting, by Mark Nepo
Lascaux Cave Paintings, ca. 15,000 BC Dreams and art are the smoke signals connecting the one tribe over time. Stories and myths do the same. Often we are so greatly taxed by circumstance that we lose the larger view of time and how we are always related, not only to those…
How to Open Ourselves Out: A Conversation with Abhijata Iyengar
Exploring yoga with the guru’s granddaughter
Friendship, by Judith Valente and Br. Paul Quenon
A journalist and a monk exchange revelatory letters
Emptying the Cup, by Elizabeth Napp
To learn is to be vulnerable. It is to have the courage to say, “I don’t know” and the wisdom to know the difference between knowing and not knowing.
The Yoga of Sacred Knowledge and Discernment, by Ravi Ravindra
Life lessons from the Bhagavad Gita
Parabola Needs Your Help!
We urgently need your help to carry on. Parabola is a nonprofit, independent, reader-supported publication. In order to publish each issue, we depend directly upon the generosity of readers like you. Without your support, there would be no Parabola. Parabola brings timeless wisdom to troubled times. As a longtime reader of the magazine has written,…
To Feel the Love: A Conversation with Barry Svigals
In the beautiful woods of Newtown, Connecticut, a new elementary school is about to open. Pleasing to the eye and soul, this new school replaces the Sandy Hook Elementary School in which, on December 14, 2012, twenty young children and six adults were shot and killed […]
Lesson from Volume 40 No. 2, Fall 2015: Intelligence
Rabbi Douglas Goldhamer, with Peggy Bagley, “Spiritual Laws: The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah”
Parabola Podcast Episode 32: Animals
Story editor Betsy Cornwell shares Ursula K. Le Guin’s “A Parabola Bestiary: Bear” and Eleanor O’Hanlon’s “Remarkable Beings” in this episode of Parabola magazine’s free monthly podcast
Bob Dylan and the Goddess, by Ed Prideaux
The Nobel winner with his muses
Meeting Krishnamurti, by Ravi Ravindra
Memorable encounters with an extraordinary being
The Night I Died, by Tracy Cochran
New York City At Night, ca. 1935 from Wikimedia Head down, hugging a grocery bag, I hurried past gutted buildings and empty lots, back to my ex-boyfriend’s apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. It seemed like a good idea at some point, having dinner together as friends. But the little Spanish market on…
Mercy, by Lee van Laer
Understanding mercy as a force from on High
Renewal at the Rubin Museum
A podcast from Parabola Editor, Tracy Cochran’s mindfulness meditation talk at the Rubin Museum of Art on January 6th, 2016.
A Parabola Bestiary: Horses, by Alice van Buren
Meeting a horse to find peace, war, and the sea
The Lesson, by Fred Cheney
An encounter to last a lifetime
The Soul, Like The Moon
The soul, like the moon,
is new, and always new again. …
Kissed by Fire, by Trebbe Johnson
Fire Creates. Fire Cooks. Fire Kills. Fire also kisses. It kisses death from life and life from death.
Longing for Wholeness: An Interview with Satish Kumar
When you accept the state of being a stranger, you are no longer a stranger. […]
La Llorona, by Edward W. Wood, Jr.
A visitation in the night
A Matter of Life and Death, by Rosalind Bradley
Reflections from a Death Row inmate; inspired thoughts from a Sikh guide
Sacred Giving, Sacred Receiving, by Joseph Bruchac
In the old days, no one ever stole. Those who were well off always shared what they had. […]
A Night in the Forest, by Tracy Cochran
In the darkness, the Buddha found light
“Find Noor Sher. Noor Sher Knows.”, by James Opie
A remarkable man of old Afghanistan
The Miracle of Consciousness, by Christian Wertenbaker
The science and spirit of awareness
Light and Danger through the Crack in the Door, by Trebbe Johnson
A lively report from the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions
The Meaning of Tradition: A Conversation with Huston Smith
Parabola’s first issue, Winter 1976, included the magazine’s first interview. Conducted by then-editor John Loudon, it questioned religion scholar Huston Smith, author of the bestseller The Religions of Man, whom Loudon described as “a man who has traveled widely, but deeply, learning the many languages for what is primordially true.”
Worshipping Illusions: An Interview with Marion Woodman
In the Summer of 1987, Parabola sat down for an exchange with Marion Woodman on the subject of addiction.
THE NEW SCIENCE: Changing Ourselves by Changing the Brain, by Patty de Llosa
“Does mind exist?” asks neuroscientist Daniel Siegel, as he opens a two-day conference on his favorite subject […]
From Bad to Good, by Patty de Llosa
One of some seven-hundred current members of Ready Willing & Able, the Doe Fund’s flagship training and sustaining organization, Joe will spend the next few months …
Stones in the Sacred Household: The 2021 Parliament of the World’s Religions, by Trebbe Johnson
A hopeful report from the 2021 Parliament of the World’s Religions
O My Country!, A Maghreb folktale, Retold by Anne Twitty
King Salomon seeks paradise with the help of an eagle
Glory, Grace, and Mercy, a free e-book in ibooks and pdf format by Lee van Laer
On the night of Thanksgiving 2015, our family got into a conversation about the nature of Grace and Mercy. Having written about these subjects recently, it occurred to me that it might be worth collecting the essays into a small booklet.
Parabola Podcast Episode 36: Renewal
Story editor Betsy Cornwell shares essays from Parabola’s extensive archives on the theme of “Renewal” in this episode of Parabola magazine’s free podcast.
Awakening Higher Consciousness: Guidance from Ancient Egypt and Sumer
When two ecologists and biologists, who have spent a year together exploring the wisdom hidden in ancient Egyptian temples, decide to share their discoveries about awakening higher consciousness […]
Parabola Podcast Episode 40: Mercy & Forgiveness
This episode shares excerpts from Parabola‘s current issue, “Mercy and Forgiveness.”
Longing for the Beloved, by Mirabai Starr
Teresa of Avila—and grief—teach a mighty lesson
Driving Lessons, by Snigdha Manickavel
A young woman navigates the roads outside—and within
Determination, by Tracy Cochran
When most of us think of determination, we think first of imposing our will on the world, insisting on a particular outcome, our vision. Yet real determination appears when we keep going, surrendering what the ego wants, which is always to look good, to sound good, to win. Real perseverance is willingness, not will. […]
Portfolio: Brian English
Brian first studied the history of photography and Black & White printing in 1985 with Teacher and Mentor William Abranowicz at Parsons New York City. …
For a Man There’s an Order in Life, by James Opie
Homespun advice to a young man in need
Poetry of the Sacred
The annual winners of the Poetry of the Sacred Contest (2021), chosen by the Center for Interfaith Relations.
“What Dreams May Come”: Ancient holistic healing at the Asklepion, by Seraphim Winslow
cultivation of the integrity and soundness of body, mind, soul, and spirit in the ancient Mediterranean world
TIMELESS IN TIME: Sri Ramana Maharshi
TIMELESS IN TIME: Sri Ramana Maharshi. Reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos.
Parabola Podcast Episode 37: Remembering
Story Editor Betsy Cornwell shares excerpts from PARABOLA’s forty-three year archive on the theme of remembering.
Boethius, rendered into modern English by Thomas Powers (Free Download)
Download a free PDF of a new rendering by Thomas Powers of “Consolation of Philosophy” (c. 524 A.D.), the classic and influential work by the Roman senator Boethius (c. 477-524 A.D.).
Wonder is a Level Within Us: A conversation with Rabbi Dr. Raphael Shuchat, by Roger Lipsey and Kenneth Krushel
A conversation with Kabbalah expert Rabbi Dr. Raphael Shuchat
Waking Up Aurora, by Rhiannon Thomas
Sleeping. Louis Sussman-Hellborn (1828–1908) I’ve had quite a tumultuous relationship with fairy tales. The Little Mermaid was always my favorite as a child. Not just the Disney version, where everyone lives happily-ever-after, but the original, where the mermaid feels like she’s walking on a thousand knives and almost stabs the prince to…
Becoming Part of It, by Joseph Epes Brown
Roland W. Reed, Alone With the Past, The Life and Photographic Art of Roland W. Reed, Afton, MN: Afton Press. In terms of interconnections, a dominant theme in all Native American cultures is that of relationship, or a series of relationships that are always reaching further and further out; relationships within…
Parabola Podcast, Episode 7: “Ways of Healing”
Story editor Betsy Cornwell explores our current issue, “Ways of Healing,” in PARABOLA Magazine’s podcast. Learn more about this issue or become a subscriber at parabola.org. This episode also includes Kenneth Lawrence’s retelling of the Japanese tale “Kiyotsune.” Please consider supporting this podcast and Parabola Magazine by purchasing a back issue or becoming a subscriber. This…
Earth as Goddess: A conversation with African healer and guide Baba Mandaza Augustine Kademwa
A conversation with African healer and guide Baba Mandaza Augustine Kademwa
Every Word I Pick Here, by Lee van Laer
Every word I pick here | Is the wrong one, one | I’ve used too often, | Touched by thought | Until it’s worn and tired.
The Awakened Eye, by Frederick Franck
A recollection of the first moment of being at one.
East Hill Farm, by Jonathan James
A leap of faith into an “intentional” community
Lesson from Volume 37 No. 3, Fall 2012: The Unknown
Helen Berger, “A Shift in Vision”
The LSD Experience, by Laurence Rosenthal
A celebrated composer hears celestial music
Bose, Το πιο Ριζοσπαστικό Μοναστήρι στη Γη
Από τη στιγμή που ιδρύθηκε, πενήντα χρόνια πριν, η κοινότητα του Bose ήταν προορισμένη να λειτουργήσει ως οδοδείκτης […]
Gurdjieff’s Apartment: “Here there are no spectators”, by Roger Lipsey
A universe of meaning in a small Parisian abode
The Esoteric Shakespeare, by Michael White
“All the world’s a stage.”
The Lazy Girl and the Butter-Yellow Pot, by Nartana Premachandra
Anonymous / African
Retold by Nartana Premachandra
Portfolio: Richard Whittaker
One Autumn day in 1976 a question appeared: if I took a photo of something I’d seen that touched my feelings, would the feeling return later when I looked at the print?