The Diamond & the Star An Exploration of Their Symbolic Meaning in an Insecure Age

by Warden, John

• ISBN13: 9780856832550
• ISBN10: 0856832553
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-01
• Publisher: Shepheard-Walwyn

Summary

With the world and the human race facing serious problems ranging from global warming, environmental despoliation, terrorism, war and a major economic downturn, many writers are trying to goad mankind into action. The author argues they 'are written in an evangelical or rhetorical way, as though society can somehow be swayed into adopting some new or improved consciousness'. His aim is to 'open some eyes' so that responsible action may follow. To do this, he draws on his own experience, both as a chemist working as a patent agent, and as having undergone two years of analysis at the Jung Institute in Zurich. From this came the realization that, as Jung put it, for 'the whole to change, the individual must change himself'. It is too easy to make politicians, scientists and big business the scapegoats for the failings of the world. As Schumacher, author of "Small is Beautiful", wrote, the problems 'lie too deep in the heart and soul of every one of us. It is there that the main work of reform has to be done'. In a quest for understanding, the author, like Jung, turned to the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism and began to appreciate the significance of symbols as a subtle way of conveying understanding. Contemplating 'The Diamond Body', a Self symbol described in Richard Wilhelm's "The Secret of the Golden Flower", led him, as a chemist, to recognize the important nature of the tetrahedron, both as the simplest form of solid with four corners and faces and its crystalline expression in the Chinese Self symbol of the Diamond Body. He also realized the huge symbolic importance of the quaternity represented by the four valences of carbon in the structure of all living matter. 'The diamond and the star', writes the author, 'are such wonderful symbols that I have tried to observe them in a variety of contexts, so that their magic may stimulate the imagination'.

Author Biography

John Warden is a chemist and a former patent agent who retired early to enroll at the Jung Institute in Switzerland and study the symbolism of organic chemistry in Eastern and Western thought and Jungian psychology.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Author's Preface	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
The Quality of Mystery	p. 13
The Mystery of Being	p. 18
The Mystery of Consciousness	p. 34
The Diamond and the Star in Poetry	p. 41
Heaven and Earth	p. 41
Male and Female	p. 42
Fire and Water	p. 43
Good and Evil	p. 44
Towards a Symbolic Attitude	p. 47
The Symbol in Psychology	p. 47
The Symbol in Western Experience	p. 50
The Symbol in Eastern Thought	p. 61
The Nature of the Unconscious	p. 71
Dreams and Myths	p. 82
Human Differences	p. 97
Two-Dimensional Symbolism: The Star	p. 108
Three-Dimensional Symbolism: The Diamond 1 Psychology	p. 118
Three-Dimensional Symbolism: The Diamond 2 Chemistry	p. 131
Twilight	p. 139
In Search of the Soul	p. 147
The Final Sin	p. 152
'Participation Mystique' and Mysticism	p. 163
Excerpts from the original essay Foreword	p. 172
Drawing the Mandalas	p. 172
The Diamond Mandala	p. 173
The Star Mandala	p. 177
The Creation of the Text	p. 178
Bibliography of Sources	p. 183
Index	p. 185
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