The equations of math, the notations on a musical score, and the personifications of myth cross the limbo land between two worlds. They offer a seductive front that seems to present the unknown other side, a seduction that leads to the delusional conviction that math, music, and myths are the other side. We tend to believe that the real truth of th

We cannot know what exactly we are referring to because its nature remains shadowy, revealing itself mainly in hints, intuitions, whispers, and the sudden urges and oddities that disturb your life and that we continue to call symptoms.

This book prefers to connect pathology with exceptionality, exchanging the term “abnormal” for “extraordinary” and letting the extraordinary be the vision against which our ordinary lives are examined.

the snake is perhaps the most ancient and universal carrier of the genius spirit, the figure of a protective guardian, the “genius” itself. Had she already made friends with her acorn?

One always learns one’s mystery at the price of one’s innocence. —Robertson Davies, Fifth Business

The other side is that you can’t be both mortal and an immortal star. You need two names because they reflect the two persons, an inherent duplicity operating between the acorn and its bearer.

Fatalism answers: Everything is in the hands of the gods. Teleological finalism says: It all has a hidden purpose and belongs to your growth. Heroism says: Integrate those shadows or slay them; put disaster behind you and get on with your life. In each of these replies, the accidental as category dissolves into the larger philosophy of fatalism, fi

Mythological language composes in images what conceptual language states in sentences.

Extraordinary people display calling most evidently. Perhaps that’s why they fascinate. Perhaps, too, they are extraordinary because their calling comes through so clearly and they are so loyal to it. They serve as exemplars of calling and its strength, and also of keeping faith with its signals.