"Our vision will become clear only when you look into your heart . . . Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."

                                                                                    ~Carl Jung (1875-1961)
 

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

~Steven Weinberg, Freethought Today, April, 2000

How much of your gold have you given to others to bear?  Did they keep it for themselves, throw it away or reveal their own gold by encouraging you to take yours back so you might dare to radiate your own brilliance?  

"The exchange of gold is a mysterious process. It’s our gold, but it’s too heavy for us, so we need someone to carry it for a time, and he becomes synonymous with meaning. We follow him with an eagle eye wherever he goes. His smile can raise us to heavenly heights; his frown hurls us to hellish depths, so great is the power of meaning."

From Alchemy and Inner Gold, a post at the blog Inner Work by Jungian speakers and co-authors Robert A. Johnson and Jerry M. Ruhl, who invite us to "gather round the cyber campfire, share a dream from last night or your waking dreams for a more meaningful life." 

In this case, Climbing Pinkie.

In a field on a backroad between Madison and Milledgeville, Georgia, stones were discarded in a manner creating a stack.  There is something very appealing about the configuration, and it has an oddly sacred feel to it.  Notice the leaf falling in the air on the left. 

At a farmer's market in Chilton County, Alabama, a tattered flag waves.  It should have been destroyed, but I am glad it was left in place so I could take this shot of a fatigued flag that kept her red stripes, the symbol for blood, war, and courage.

Dante described the second step to pergatory as "a deeper hue than perse." According to E. G. Cuthbert and F. Atchley in "On English Liturgical Colours" contained in the 1904 Essays on Ceremonial, Dante's perse was a color mixed of purple and black, with black dominant.

"I have found malaise in the midst of plenty and stirring hope in circumstances that should have produced despair. I have found evil in the most unexpected places, and also God."

~Philip Yancey, Finding God In Unexpected Places