A Color Called Bleu

“I took one companion on my journey—an old French gentleman poodle known as Charley. . . . He is a very big poodle, of a color called bleu, and he is blue when he is clean.”

—John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley, 1962.

a star from heaven

“Maya the queen . . .
Dreamed a strange dream; dreamed that a star from heaven—
Splendid, six-rayed, in colour rosy-pearl,
Whereof the token was an Elephant
Six-tusked, and white as milk of Kamadhuk—
Shot through the void; and, shining into her,
Entered her womb upon the right.”

—Buddha’s conception, Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia, 1879; Symbols of
Transformation, C.G. Jung, 1956.

Babylon the Great

“I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
    And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
    And upon her forehead was a name written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.”

—The New Testament, Revelations (17:1); Symbols of Transformation, C.G. Jung, 1956.

A Presidential Reunion

the star-strewn seas

“Look up:
There roll the star-strewn seas,
Night, stillness, deathly silent roar!
Behold, a sign:
Slowly, from endless space.
A glittering constellation floats towards me.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, “Glory and Eternity”; Symbols of Transformation,
C.G. Jung, 1956.

the living light

“But the light I see is not local, but is everywhere, and brighter far than the cloud which supports the sun. I can in no way know the form of this light, just as I cannot see the sun’s disc entire. But in this light I see at times, though not often, another light which is called by me the living light, but when and in what manner I see this I do not know how to say. And when I see it all weariness and need is lifted from me, and all at once I feel like a simple girls and not like an old woman.”

—Hildegarde of Bingen (1100–1178); Symbols of Transformation, C.G. Jung, 1956.