Archive

More than three-quarters of the way through this extraordinary biography (though that label barely captures this book’s breadth and richness) of the scholar of religion Huston Smith …

A visit to Havana, a priceless discovery

Memorable encounters with an extraordinary being

Continuing Orthodox monasticism’s oldest unbroken tradition, Sinai monks still liturgize, shoeless, over the roots of the Burning Bush. On the holy ground where Moses was commanded to remove his sandals—together with all earthly logic—monks turn diversity’s polarizing forces to unity: some of the ways St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai (Egypt) brings Byzantium’s patristic spirit…

How the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca created a fiesta of music.

The Very Rev. James Parks Morton (1930-2020). Photo: stjohndivine.org Parabola regrets the passing of James Parks Morton. He served for many years on the Board of the Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, which publishes the magazine, and so was a great friend to us as well as to the…

Despite acclaim, even adulation, garnered from his theater and film work, including such classic films as The Holy Mountain and El Topo, the author found himself in a state of doubt—of spiritual questioning. …

Stephanie Unger is a writer who lives in Buffalo, NY. She has studied poetry at workshops led by Martha Heyneman and others at the Rochester Folk Art Guild in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.

A leap of faith into an “intentional” community

Tsunemasa, Attributed to Zeami Motokiyo / Japanese Noh. Retold by Kenneth E. Lawrence, translated by Edward Kai Lawrence. Art by Kumiko Lawrence

An anonymous Hindu tale retold by Rama Devagupta.

Lucifer is the most compelling character in Milton’s Paradise Lost. He is the most dazzling angel. In Hebrew his name means “to shine” or “to bear light.” In Latin it means “morning star.” […]

Going to the movies, mindfully

Close encounters with a student of Gurdjieff

On my college campus in the late Spring of 1970, I witnessed the events surrounding the deaths of four Kent State students from National Guardsmen’s bullets. Something changed in me.

The Sufi master on meeting the inner and outer challenges of our time

How the Golden Rule can be the Golden Path

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.

The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi: Illustrated Edition by William C. Chittick. Foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos.

What makes the Wizard of Oz an iconic American tale that has entered into the language? Some expressions are so well known they need no further explanation, as for example “You’re not in Kansas anymore”.

On Adin Steinsaltz and the power of hope

Cezanne, Fruit and Jug on Table, Detail (1890-94). “Before she could speak, my daughter taught me the language of silent things: fruits, flowers, an oaken chair. I came to understand, through my relationship to this small being, why the word adult forms the root of adulteration and adultery. Watching her, it became…

The fluidity of who and what we are reflected in embodied transformation

A universe of meaning in a small Parisian abode

Marion Woodman “The true feminine is the receptacle of love. The true masculine is the spirit that goes into the eternal unknown in search of meaning. The great container, the Self, is paradoxically both male and female and contains both. If these are projected onto the outside world, transcendence ceases to…

A life-changing encounter with spiritual authority

A hopeful report from the 2021 Parliament of the World’s Religions

Amma, 2009 The Hindu spiritual teacher known as Amma (“Mother”), or Mata Amritanandamayi, was born to a family of fishermen in southern India in 1953. Today she is popularly known as the “hugging saint” for her practice of embracing all who approach her as she gives darshan, or an “auspicious sight”…

Forgiveness in the work of Martin Scorsese

Mark Nepo on welcoming the life-force.

What the bees—and the Bushmen—know

The special power of classic films

Hammarskjöld, Havel, Mandela, Thunberg

Bön monks flee the invaders of Tibet

A conversation with former prisoner and Buddhist practitioner Edwin Paragas

Discovering the divine in her own backyard

“Give it one week of hard frost,” my new husband says, “and all the green will be gone.” He has slowed the car to let two adolescent does cross the road, and we watch them vanish neatly into the ditch on the other side. […]

Tracking J.R.R. Tolkien’s Keeper of the Forest

The summer after I graduated from college, days before I moved to New York City to launch a real adult life, I saw a ghost—an apparition, a spirit, an angel.

Story editor Betsy Cornwell looks at our Summer 2014 Issue, EMBODIMENT, in Parabola Magazine’s monthly podcast.

Mike Licht, Cydippe with Acontius’s Apple iPhone, after Paulus Bor The toy company Mattel has announced the release in Fall 2015 of “Hello Barbie,” the first Barbie doll to feature artificial intelligence. Through the toy’s wireless transmission of a child’s voice (“Hello, Barbie!”) to offsite computers, which will wire back a…

A conversation with deep psychologist Michael Penn

This episode shares excerpts from Parabola‘s current issue, “Mercy and Forgiveness.”

How the goddess of creation became the goddess of death

Opening ceremonies, Cherokee pow-wow, North Carolina, 2011 Reading about Black Elk, Sitting Bull, Geronimo and countless other Indian tribal elders and chiefs made me regret that I would never know them. They had vanished and with them a way of relating to others we can call emotional intelligence. Not the intelligence…

The trouble with goats

Previously unpublished commentary from Alan Watts, a pioneer of East-West spirituality.

The first issue of Stopinder: A Gurdjieff Journal for Our Time appeared in the year 2000. […]

A haunted inn inspires deeper questions

Brian first studied the history of photography and Black & White printing in 1985 with Teacher and Mentor William Abranowicz at Parsons New York City. …

Stephanie Unger is a writer who lives in Buffalo, NY. She has studied poetry at workshops led by Martha Heyneman and others at the Rochester Folk Art Guild in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State.

Mary Oliver was an astonishing poet beloved by many and also a frequent contributor to PARABOLA over the years.

Joshua Boettiger, “Alone, with Others”

Why God is a verb, not a noun

Giving and receiving in a Bolivian marketplace

Waken, Wala!
Wala! Awake!
From thy long sleep,
Slumberer, wake at my call! […]

Betsy Cornwell shares Josh Boettiger’s essay on King David and Leonard Cohen, “The Poet and the Shepherd,” and Susan McCaslin’s meditation on spiritual journeys, “Guidance,” in this episode.

Meeting death with dignity

A tale of snake handlers, faith healers, and speakers in tongues.

A  Palestinian rapper and the music of hope

Little Gidding has been described as a “thin place” where there is only a slim veil between time and eternity.

Newton’s inward search for hidden truth

I was determined not to let dialysis take over my life. But it already had. […]

The science and spirit of awareness

“All the world’s a stage.”

Connecting with the cosmic through the grace, hardship, and gifts of a garden.

A conversation with Italian priest and spiritual guide Father Guidalberto Bormolini

The remarkable story of A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson

Impressions from the land of Rumi

learning mindfulness and connection from a dog named George Lucas

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…

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 guided meditation on being gentle with yourself when things are hard, with Parabola’s editorial director Tracy Cochran. To support Parabola’s mission, please consider donating. 

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…

A conversation with Sufi master Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

A Sufi master on finding balance in an unstable world

Remembering the sacred mother animal

Seeking the divine.

THE STILLNESS OF THE LIVING FOREST: A Year of Listening and Learning by John Harvey. Reviewed by Jan Cheripko

“Some men believe in the power and value of suffering,” writes Thomas Merton. “But their belief is an illusion. Suffering has no power, no value of its own.”

A lively report from the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions

How can religious tradition be literally true when language is symbolic, intrinsically?

Fire Creates. Fire Cooks. Fire Kills. Fire also kisses. It kisses death from life and life from death.

Imagination itself may be our best resource for experiential recovery of a vibrant, participatory, and wildly sacred Earth.

From the Christian esoteric tradition, a path beyond the mind

King Salomon seeks paradise with the help of an eagle

The ultimate practice?

All it takes is one blue rowboat tied to a buoy,
and its reflection, and this moment
for me to go remembering everything. …

Many things in the Philokalia are said about “passions.” This word has not quite the same meaning as it has in ordinary language […]

The gift of fear and awe from a beast cold as the earth

I have a suitcase
Packed with many things. …

A visitation in the night

This song comes from a place where the angels are present, where light is born, where the future is written.

Saint Anthony Abbot Tempted by a Heap of Gold, Tempera on panel painting by the Master of the Osservanza Triptych, ca. 1435, Metropolitan Museum of Art “As I commute to work every day, I leave behind a quiet country road for a highway that takes me to the city. Nature still…

A Dutch Village, ‘Guernica’, and the power of remembering

An interview with Keith Buzzell

Anonymous / Aboriginal

Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, A Native American sends smoke signals in Montana, June 1909, National Geographic Creative. The sacred pipe of the Native Americans is a potent symbol of relationship. Through it the human breath sends to all the six directions the purifying smoke that connects the person to the divine and…

Chatting with America’s favorite saint