Epicycles

Izanagi and Izanami, a Japanese myth, Retold by Paul Jordan-Smith

May 27, 2018By Paul Jordan-Smith

How the goddess of creation became the goddess of death

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Ring of Wisdom, a Sufi Parable, Retold by Anne Twitty

May 19, 2018By Anne Twitty

A Sufi king seeks a ring of great power.

The First Tears, an Eskimo folktale, Retold by Anne Twitty

May 10, 2018By Anne Twitty

How the First People learned to cry.

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45723

O My Country!, A Maghreb folktale, Retold by Anne Twitty

April 29, 2018By Anne Twitty

King Salomon seeks paradise with the help of an eagle

The Awakened Eye, by Frederick Franck

April 2, 2018By Frederick Franck

A recollection of the first moment of being at one.

Hagoromo, Retold by Kenneth Lawrence, translated by Kai Lawrence. Art by Kumiko Lawrence

January 31, 2018By Kenneth E. Lawrence

A fisherman, a celestial maiden: a fateful decision

The Unasked Question, Retold by Paul Jordan-Smith

June 9, 2017By Parabola Editors

A classic quest seen anew

The Demands of the Way, by Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch

May 17, 2017By Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch

A spiritual master on what it takes

Tsunemasa, Retold by Kenneth Lawrence with Artwork by Kumiko Lawrence

April 29, 2017By Kenneth E. Lawrence

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

Kuzunoha

February 26, 2017By Parabola Editors

Kuzunoha is a popular figure in Japanese folklore

What is the miraculous? Our first thought may be that it concerns a supernatural and sensational event. And yet this Summer 2018 issue of Parabola reveals that the most ordinary action—digging a garden or cooking a meal or making art—becomes sensational when it is performed with mindful awareness of what we are doing. Any action may be automatic or creative, repetitious or truly alive, participating in the life that is happening in the instant: “The situation is completely different when my action is not a repetition but something new, an action that can only take place in the present moment to respond to a need that I recognize right now,” writes Jeanne de Salzmann in this issue. Read more>

Stephen Weiss, MD, portrait of Brother David Steindl-Rast, Mt. Saviour Monastery, Elmira, NY

Learning to Die, by Brother David Steindl-Rast

The only point where one can start to talk about anything, including death, is where one finds oneself. And for me this is as a Benedictine monk. In the rule of St. Benedict, the momenta […]

The Art of Cleaning, by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee and Hilary Hart

Housework as spiritual practice, from a Sufi master

Marion Woodman and the Search for the Conscious Feminine, by Patty de Llosa

“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 […]

Hearing the Cries of the World, by Mark Nepo

This story is so old we don’t know who told it or who it’s about, except that it speaks to all of us. We no longer know if it was a “he” or “she” at the center of the story. […]

To Go Beyond Thought, an Interview with Karen Armstrong

One bright spring day, Parabola met with Karen Armstrong in her suite at the Parker Meridian hotel in Manhattan. The petite, friendly 62-year-old British ex-nun, arguably the most influential commentator on religion in the English-speaking […]

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