The archetype of the Wanderer appears as a figure of profound loneliness, who drifts through life without a fixed home or direction, restless in the search for purpose and belonging. He has far-sickness, a deep longing for distant places and the hope of eventually finding a place on earth where he truly feels at home.
Category Archives: Philosophy
The Fool Dances with Death
The Danse Macabre (or Dance of Death) is a late medieval motif that illustrates the universality of death. The constant famines, wars, and especially the Black Death in Europe showed how fragile and fleeting life truly was. Death was not a distant fate but a sudden, ever-present companion. This grim reality intensified the religious desireContinue reading “The Fool Dances with Death”
Philosophy: The Love of Wisdom | A Guide to Life
Philosophy is a mode of life, an act of living, and a way of being. Modern philosophy has forgotten this tradition, and philosophical discourse has all but overtaken philosophy as a way of life. Philosophy is not just an intellectual discipline, which can get abstract and divorced from the real world, but is most importantlyContinue reading “Philosophy: The Love of Wisdom | A Guide to Life”
Journey to Hell – The Path to Self-Knowledge
Mankind has speculated about the afterlife since the dawn of civilisation. In Duat, the Egyptian underworld, the hearts of the dead were weighed against a feather. The heart was considered as the most important of the internal organs, and the source of human wisdom, which could reveal the person’s true character. If the heart weighedContinue reading “Journey to Hell – The Path to Self-Knowledge”
Why Modern Society Feels So Empty, Lonely, and Anxious
Loneliness, emptiness, and anxiety – these are the main complaints American existential psychologist Rollo May encountered over and over from his patients. In 1953, May published Man’s Search for Himself, in which he explores these problems – that are perhaps more relevant than ever in our modern age. When society can no longer give usContinue reading “Why Modern Society Feels So Empty, Lonely, and Anxious”
The Dark World of Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka is one of the major figures of 20th century literature who received little public attention during his lifetime. He dealt with existentialist themes such as alienation, anxiety, disorientation and the absurd. It is hard to put Kafka into a box. Many people have tried to read his work in the lens of psychoanalysis,Continue reading “The Dark World of Franz Kafka”
The Dark Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German Philosopher born in 1788 who is known as the philosopher of pessimism. He is among the first thinkers to bring eastern philosophical ideas into western philosophy. Schopenhauer’s father was a wealthy merchant and his mother was a popular author and is among the first German women to publish books withoutContinue reading “The Dark Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer”
How Facing Nothingness Can Transform Your Life
Nothingness is generally considered to be analogous with death and extinction which every healthy living instinct wants to avoid. Many find the notion of nothingness unfathomable. The following thinker, however, was convinced that the way out of nihilism, that which renders meaningless the meaning of life, could only be reached by gazing into the abyssContinue reading “How Facing Nothingness Can Transform Your Life”
The 3 Hidden Anxieties That Control Your Life
Paul Tillich was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher born in 1886 and is considered as one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. He is best known for his works The Courage to Be (1952), Dynamics of Faith (1957), and the three-volume work Systematic Theology (1951–63). At the age of 8, Tillich wouldContinue reading “The 3 Hidden Anxieties That Control Your Life”
The Dark Philosophy of Cosmicism – H.P. Lovecraft
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature Fear of the unknown is something that has been with mankind from the very beginning. Man’s first instincts and emotions formed his response to the environment inContinue reading “The Dark Philosophy of Cosmicism – H.P. Lovecraft”