Reflections on the Spiritual Significance of the Winter Solstice

Today is December 21, a highly significant date here in Scandinavia and in other places in the world far to the north. The reason is, of course, that this is the date of the Winter Solstice, or of “Vinter-sol-verv”, as it is called in Norwegian, and of all the ancient traditions and celebrations associated with…

Porphyry’s revealing tribute to Plotinus

Have you ever read Porphyry’s beautiful tribute to his Master and Guru, the wonderful Plotinus; the Platonic Philosopher-Mystic of whom the famous ancient literary critic Longinus admiringly said «set the principles of Pythagoras and of Plato in a clearer light than anyone before him» (and who may have been a close friend of Origen)? You…

On my thesis research into the thought of St. Augustine of Hippo

As I am going through my master’s thesis, four years after its completion, in order to make some minor corrections, and recalling the for me momentous, and at times almost ecstatic experience the process of composing it was, I would reiterate that some of the most striking discoveries I made when doing the research on…

The enigmatic Huqoq Mosaic – whom does it really depict?

Discovered in the ruins of an ancient synagogue in Galilee in 2012/2013, this stunning scene, part of a series of unusually well-preserved mosaics adorning the floors of a synagogue dated to the 400s A.D., has been surmised to depict a meeting between Alexander the Great and the High Priest of Jerusalem, many centuries before, but…