100th Monkey Books

Archetypal Inspiration & Symbols



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Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation
E.H.Gombrich (1960) 466pages

This book is directed to all who seek for a meeting ground between science and the humanities. Written by a scholar of humanist training, its temper is scientific. Professor Gombrich is concerned with theories of visual perception, information, and learning, and he uses these in scrutinizing the history and psychol0gy of pictorial representation. Searching for a rational explanation of the changing styles of art, the author is led to reexamine many ideas on the imitation of nature, the function of tradition, and other problems. In testing his arguments he ranges wide over the history of art, noticing particularly the accomplishments of those inventors of artistic illusion, the ancient Greeks, and the visual discoveries of such masters as Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt, as well as the impressionists and the cubists. Yet his main concern is less with the artists than with ourselves, the beholders, and here he seeks to profit from an analysis of humbler pictorial documents and the tricks and inventions of humorists and commercial artists. Art and Illusion contains over 300 text illustrations in half-tone and line, of which 18 are in color. With notes and index. (Princeton / Bollingen)



Art and Symbols of the Occult: Images of Power and Wisdom
James Wasserman (1993) 128pages

This full-color lexicon of occult imagery draws from the traditions of Alchemy, Astrology, Tarot, Kabbalah, Magic, Tantric Sexuality, and Visionary Art. A chapter on Initiation traces the Western Mysteries from the earliest surviving artwork to that of the present day. Chosen for their intrinsic beauty and powerful symbolism, the illustrations in this book span thousands of years and include images from Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, as well as later works by great artists and occultists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Hieronymous Bosch, Raymond Lull, Robert Fludd, and Manly P. Hall. All 22 paintings of the medieval alchemical masterpiece Splendor Solis are published here in color for the first time, as are the Tree of Life in the Four Worlds and the Eye of the Mysteries by modern occultist Harry Smith. The illustrations are accompanied by thought-provoking text on the various aspects of the Wisdom teachings from which they derive. This book provides an excellent introduction to the timeless and hidden dimensions of occult practice, while stimulating the imagination and the quest for intuitive knowledge. (Destiny Books)



Creating Mandala: for Insight, Healing, and Self-Expression
Susanne F. Fincher (1991) 192pages

This book is a practical and inspiring guide to creating the circular drawings known as mandalas. The author introduces the history and ritual use of mandalas in cultures all over the world; offers guidance in choosing art materials, techniques, and colors for the creation of personal mandalas; and discusses the symbolism of colors, numbers, shapes, and motifs such as birds and flowers. She also presents several illustrated case histories of people who successfully used her techniques. The author writes in her Preface: "The mandala is a living presence in my life...Mandalas have been an anchor for me at times of darkness, pain, and confusion. Through mandalas I have reached a deeper understanding of myself and my place in the cosmos. They have been a gentle - and sometimes not so gentle - reminder that life goes on, and that the greatest celebration of life is wholehearted living. In this book I share what I know about mandalas. May this knowledge prove as useful for you as it has for me." (Shambhala)



A Dictionary of Symbols
J.E.Cirlot (1962) 419pages

Symbolism was an essential part of the ancient art of the Orient and of the medieval tradition in the West. It has been revived in the study of the unconscious, both directly in the field of dreams, visions and psychoanalysis, and indirectly in art and poetry. At the same time, the Gestalt theory of Kohler and Koffka, in pointing out the autonomy of 'facts and expression' and the parallel between the physical and the spiritual, has given renewed significance to the ancient principle of the Tabula smaragdina, 'What is above is what is below'. The basic aim of this book is to create a 'centre' of the unvarying essential meaning of every symbol. The author uses the comparative method, specifying the precise sources of information taken from a great number of widely varying fields. (Routledge)



Empty and Full: The Language of Chinese Painting
Francois Cheng (1991) translated by Michael H. Kohn (1994) 158pages

It is well known that Chinese aesthetics, being based on an organicist conception of the universe, proposed an art that would strive to re-create a total microcosm, in which the unifying action of breath-spirit plays the leading role, and in which emptiness, far from being synonymous with vagueness or arbitrariness, is the inner focus where the network of vital breaths is established. We see a system that proceeds by the integration of successive additions rather than by discontinuity. The art of the brushstroke, which painters raised to the utmost level of refinement, by giving form to the one and the many through identification with the original breath and all its metamorphoses, contributed to the continuity of this tirelessly pursued discipline of meaning. Painting, which is thought in action, thus became one of the highest expressions of Chinese spirituality. Through painting, the Chinese have sought to reveal the mystery of creation and to create for themselves an authentic way of life. From this perspective, the present study perhaps has ultimately to do with something that goes beyond the mere concerns of art. - from the author's Preface (Shambhala)



The Eye: The Seer and the Seen
Francis Huxley (1990) 96pages

The eye sees light, but it is by its own light that it knows what it looks at. The eye is a fire, is the sun, the centre of origination and the light of reason; and again, it is the Evil Eye, full of jealousy, cunning and menace. It is the window of the soul. Myths abound that tell of eyes being exchanged or lost, of an eye being sacrificed in order to gain second sight, and of the powers of vision, knowledge and command coming together into the Third eye. In nature, in dreams, in art, in legends from around the world and in many forms of mysticism, the eye - mirror of divinity - reflects our gaze inwards in search of the self and the Great Being who sees all. A title in the Art and Imagination series, with 129 illustrations, 16 in colour. (Thames & Hudson)



Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art
Wassily Kandinsky. edited by Kenneth Lindsay & Peter Vergo (1982) 924pages

Of all the giants of twentieth-century art, Wassily Kadinsky (1866-1944) was the most prolific writer. The editors have taken their translations directly from Kandinsky's original texts, and have included selected interviews, lecture notes, and newly discovered items along with his more formal writings. The pieces range from one-page essays to the book-length treatises On the Spiritual in Art (1911) and Point and Line to Plane (1926), and are arranged in chronological order from 1901-1943. The poetry, good enough to stand on its literary merits, is presented with all the original illustrations. And the book's design follows Kandinsky's intentions, preserving the spirit of the original typography and layout. Not only do his ideas and observations make us rethink the nature of art and the way it reflects the aspirations of his era, but they touch on matters vital to the situation of the human soul. (Da Capo, 1994)



Man and His Symbols
Edited by Carl Jung & Marie-L.von Franz (1964) 415pages

Man and His Symbols owes its existence to one of Jung's own dreams. The great psychologist dreamed that his work was understood by a wide public, rather than just by psychiatrists, and therefore he agreed to write and edit this fascinating book. Here, Jung examines the full world of the unconscious, whose language he believed to be the symbols constantly revealed in dreams. Convinced that dreams offer practical advice, sent from the unconscious to the conscious self, Jung felt that self-understanding would lead to a full and productive life. Thus, the reader will gain new insights into himself from this thoughtful volume, which also illustrates symbols throughout history. Completed just before his death by Jung and his associates, it is clearly addressed to the general reader. Contents:



Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing
Judith Cornell (1994) 154pages ( including color illustrations)

This book is a convergence of Eastern and Western thought - merging the meditative practice of sacred art, the insights of quantum physics in to the nature of light, and the ancient wisdom. Each chapter is a blend of spiritual philosophy, transpersonal psychology, and exercises designed to promote healing of mind, body, and soul. This approach results from a time many years ago when I created mandalas when I had cancer and experienced a spiritual awakening. This creative process helped me to integrate the reductionism of the scientific worldview with my intuitive experiences of wholeness and luminous states of consciousness. The sacred symbol of the mandala enabled me not only to find the healing power within myself but also to recover from a sense of psychological fragmentation. During the healing process, I came to experience and express mystical states of consciousness. - from the author's Introduction (Quest Books)



Mandalas of the World: A Meditating & Painting Guide
Rudiger Dahlke (1985/1992) Drawings by Rudiger Dahlke & Katharina von Martius, 286pages

This book that you just opened is not even a finished book yet! In contrast to most other books, it needs your collaboration and willingness to find its true form. Yes, this time instead of reading a book, you actually entered on a path. Neither will you find a structure at the beginning - that structure or order will become evident on your path. This path also does not lead straight from the beginning to the end, but rotates in circles and spirals around the center - that center that is also your own. The path of this book will come close to the center and then withdraws from it - it will touch and let go again - it will travel around in a circle, according to the Mandala... This book wants to become the Adriadne -thread to guide you through your personal labyrinth: a guide to your own Mandalas, to the experience of the universe as Mandala. - from the author's Preface (Sterling)



The Mission of Art
Alex Grey (1998) 255pages

This is art in its original and highest meaning: the subjective revelation of the Spirit. When an artist is alive to the spiritual domains, he or she can depict and convey those domains in artistic rendering, which wrestles Spirit into matter and attempts to speak through that medium. When great artists do so, the artwork then reminds us of our own higher possibilities, our own deepest nature, our own most profound ground, which we are all invited to rediscover. The purpose of truly transcendent art is to express something you are not yet, but that you can become. - from the Foreword by Ken Wilber (Shambhala)



Navajo & Tibetan Sacred Wisdom: The Circle of the Spirit
Peter Gold (1994) 334pages

The similarity between Navajos and Tibetans has often been noted by scholars - chiefly because of the mandala sand paintings common to both cultures and their profound ideas about matter and spirit. In this book, Peter Gold, documents basic principles of universal wisdom shared between these geographically disparate people by drawing extensive parallels between their creation myths, cosmology, geomancy, psychology, visionary arts, and healing and initiation rituals. Through this sensitive comparison of Navajo and Tibetan sacred ways and wisdom, Gold encourages us to reconsider our own cultural paradigm and shows us how we might begin to recover a sense of the sacred in our lives. (Inner Traditions)




Picasso's Mask

Following Pablo Picasso's death in 1973, Andre Malraux was summoned by Jacqueline Picasso, the artist's widow, to her home at Mougins in the South of France. There, surrounded by Picasso's powerful last paintings "painted face to face with death," and his art collection destined for the Louvre, Malraux recollected Picasso's rebellious life and the matamorphosis of his art. In Picasso's Mask, Malraux's memories, at once personal and historical, evoke Picasso as a private man and as a legendary artistic genius. (Da Capo)



Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey
Alex Grey with Ken Wilber & Carlo McCormick (19 ) pages

This unique series of paintings takes the viewer on a graphic, visionary journey through the physical and metaphysical anatomy of the self. In his exploration into the nature of man/woman, Alex Grey portrays the nervous, vascular, skeletal, and other bodily systems with a disarming, anatomically exact realism. He then passes to spiritual/energetic systems with images such as Universal Mind Lattice, envisioning the sacred and esoteric symbolism of the body and the forces that define its living field of energy. Essays by Ken Wilber and Carlo McCormick explore the spiritual element in art from the vantage point of the Perennial Philosophy and trace the development of Grey's work - including his performance art - along the path of the artist/shaman. Grey's own essay explains the inception, construction, and the symbolism of the Sacred Mirrors and describes numerous other paintings (also reproduced in the book) from his rich and varied body of work, including Gaia: The World Soul, pictured as the tree or web of life taking part in the continuous cycle of birth, sustenance, and death; and Journey of the Wounded Healer, depicting the shamanic descent, disintegration, and transmutation of the self. (Inner Traditions)



Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them
Angeles Arrien (1992) 93pages

The meaning ascribed to each of the five shapes (the circle, the square, the triangle, the cross, and the spiral) symbolizes and demostrates an individual's or a culture's world view; the qualities, characteristics, belief structures, actions, and forms of expression used by one person or shared by the members of a society. The Preferential Shapes Test allows a person to discover one's own current world view. The information in this book can also lead to a greater understanding of the world view of other individuals, of one's own culture, and of other cultures. Individuals can use this book on their own to discover and focus on their personal processes. Parents, teachers, employers, managers, therapists and others can work with their children, students, colleagues, employees, and clients to better understand how human beings live through and experience the universal processes of change embodied in these five symbols. - from the author's introductory chapter (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998)



Visual Thinking
Rudolf Arnheim (1969) 345 pages

Rudolf Arnheim asserts that all thinking (not just thinking related to art or other visual experiences) is basically perceptual in nature - and that the dichotomy between seeing and thinking, between perceiving and reasoning, is false and misleading. He shows that even the fundamental processes of vision involve mechanisms typical of reasoning, and he describes problem-solving in the arts as well as imagery in the thought-models of science. Far from being a "lower" function, our perceptual response to the world is the basic means by which we structure events, and from which we derive ideas and therefore language. The materials used in Arnheim's argument come from philosophers ancient and modern; from work on perception and art-work of children; from scientific writings in physics and astronomy. Arnheim's cogent observations keep the discussion tangible and relevant to human experience in real situations. (University of California Press)


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