1
"The personal center of the individual is essentially the Self (atman), which is beyond the particularities of physical-psychic-mental life or of any changeable things or of change as such."
The Unity of Reality
2
"Since consciousness has always been described in terms derived from the behavior of light, it is in my view not too much to assume that these multiple luminosities correspond to ..conscious phenomena. If the luminosity appears in monadic form as a single star, sun, or eye, it readily assumes the shape of a mandala and must then be interpreted as the self…The symbols of the self have a uniting character." 'On The Nature of the Psyche', CW 8
Basic Writings of C G Jung
3
"Actually there is no merging with the Center. We are always merged with the Center. It is rather an understanding of this eternal union now, and not a manufacture of it tomorrow."
Spectrum of Consciousness
4
"There is a root or depth in you from whence all these faculties come forth as lines from a centre, or as branches from the body of a tree. The depth is called the centre, the fund, or bottom of the soul. This depth is the unity, the Eternity, I had almost said the infinity of your soul, for it is so infinite that nothing can satisfy it, or give it any rest, but the infinity of God." William Law (1688-1761), English clergyman, 'The Spirit of Prayer'
Mysticism
5
"To say that God is Infinite is to say that He may be apprehended and described in an infinity of ways. That Circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere, may be approached from every angle with a certainty of being found."
Mysticism
6
"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." Empedocles (490-430 BCE), fragment
The Quotable Spirit
7
"The image of the triune God is in the sphere, namely of the Father in the center, of the Son in the outer surface and of the Holy Ghost in the uniformity of connection between point and intervening space or surroundings." Johannes Kepler, 'Mysterium Cosmographicum', quoted by Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) in 'Embracing the Rational and the Mystical'
Quantum Questions, Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists
8
"Many paths lead to the central experience. But the nearer one gets to the centre the easier it is to understand the other paths that lead there."
C. G. Jung: Letters, 1951-1961
9
"The centre is the indivisible monad of the self, the unity and wholeness of the experiencing subject."
C. G. Jung: Letters, 1951-1961
10
"The centre of a circle is regarded as the indivisible source of all the radii extending from it;…pre-existing in God are all the inner essences of created things." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology'
The Philokalia, volume 2
11
"All things proceed from God, who is at once the centre and the circumference from which all existing lines proceed and at which all end up." Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-1695), Mexican nun, poet and scholar
The Lion Christian Quotation Collection
12
"The entire universe is a great theater of mirrors, a set of hieroglyphs to decipher; everything is a sign, everything harbors and manifests mystery. The principles of contradiction, of excluded middle, and of linear causality are supplanted by those of resolution, of included middle, and of synchronicity."
Esoteric Psychology II
13
"The word goes forth from soul to form. 'Both sides are one. There is no war, no difference and no isolation. The warring forces seem to war from the point at which you stand. Move on a pace. See truly with the opened eye of inner vision and you will find, not two but one; not war but peace; not isolation but a heart which rests upon the center. Thus shall the beauty of the Lord shine forth. The hour is now.'"
Esoteric Psychology II
14
"Even on this level, at animal depths, there is a desire for God. Does not St Thomas tell us in his Treatise on the Angels, that it is natural for every creature whatsoever, intelligent or not, living or inanimate, to love God more than itself and to tend to its proper good by virtue of this love of its transcendent Whole? Thus, the hen not only loves its chicks and not only loves itself; it loves God more than itself. The plant tends towards God before tending towards the Light and air. The stone gravitates towards the centre only by virtue of its natural tendency towards God, of its natural 'love' of God. And our eyes crave for light and our smallest physical fibres crave for life, by virtue of their profound tendency towards God, and of their ontological desire for God." Jacques Maritain, 'Scholastics and Politics'
Scholastics and Politics
15
"By 'composing the unstable,' by bringing order into chaos, by resolving disharmonies and centering upon the mid-point, thus setting a 'boundary' to the multitude and focusing attention upon the cross, consciousness is reunited with the unconscious, the unconscious man is made oned with his center, which is also the center of the universe, and in this wise the goal of man's salvation and exaltation is reached."
Collected Works
16
"Sickness is healed by the action of the true and Universal Center upon the body. This Center is the One in which we are rooted. If, therefore, you are to recover from bodily and spiritual sickness, study to know and to understand exactly this Center, and apply yourself wholly thereto, and you will be freed from imperfections and diseases." Gerhard Dorn, Medieval Alchemist and Philosopher
Collected Works
17
"The dualities are, at bottom, Yes and No, the irreconcilable opposites, but they have to be held together if the balance of life is to be maintained. This can only be done by holding unswervingly to the centre, where action and suffering balance each other. It is a path 'sharp as the edge of a razor.' A climax like this, where universal opposites clash, is at the same time a moment when a wide perspective often opens out into the past and future. This is the psychological moment when, as the consensus gentium has established since ancient times, synchronistic phenomena occur - that is, when the far appears near." (A Study in the Process of Individuation)
Collected Works
18
"God fashioned the sphere of light round himself. 'God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere'(cf. St. Bonaventure, Itinerarium, 5). The point symbolizes light and fire, also the Godhead in so far as light is an 'image of God' or an 'exemplar of the Deity.' This spherical light modelled on the point is also the shining or illuminating body that dwells in the heart of man."
Collected Works
19
"The point is identical with the scintilla, the 'little soul-spark' of Meister Eckhart. We find it already in the teachings of Saturninus. Similarly Heraclitus is said to have conceived the soul as a 'spark of stellar essence.' Hippolytus says that in the doctrine of the Sethians the darkness 'held the brightness and the spark of light in thrall', and that this 'smallest of sparks' was finely mingled in the dark waters below….Alchemy, too, has its doctrine of the scintilla. It is the fiery centre of the earth, where the four elements 'project their seed in ceaseless movement'….In the centre dwells the Archaeus, the servant of nature, whom Paracelsus also calls Vulcan, identifying him with the Adech, the 'great man.'"
Collected Works
20
"The invisible centre is Adam Kadmon, the Original Man."
Collected Works
21
"If the life-mass is to be transformed a 'circumambulatio' is necessary, that is, exclusive concentration on the centre, the place of creative change." 'Psychology and Alchemy'
Collected Works
22
"The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost iresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances."
Collected Works
23
"All this, then, was the plan of the everlasting god for the god who was going to be. According to this plan he made the body of the world smooth and uniform, everywhere equidistant from its center, a body whole and complete, with complete bodies for its parts. And in the centre he set the soul and caused it to extend throughout the whole body, and he further wrapped the body round with soul on the outside. So he established one world alone." Plato, 'Timaeus'
Collected Works
24
"Since olden times the circle with a centre has been a symbol for the Deity, illustrating the wholeness of God incarnate."
Collected Works
25
"That Jacob Boehme should obtain a glimpse into the center of nature by means of a sunbeam reflected in a tin platter is understandable."
Collected Works
26
"If we study the introspective method of medieval natural philosophy, we find that it repeatedly used the circle, and in most cases the circle divided into four parts, to symbolize the central principle."
Collected Works
27
"The circular sea with no outlet, which perpetually replenishes itself by means of a spring bubbling up in its centre, is to be found in [the writings of] Nicholas of Cusa as an allegory of God."
Collected Works
28
"In the centre of the heart dwells the true soul, the breath of God." Paracelsus, 'Liber Azoth'
Collected Works
29
"The accentuation of the centre is a fundamental idea in alchemy. According to Michael Maier, the centre contains the 'indivisible point', which is simple, indestructible, and eternal."
Collected Works
30
"The One is the midpoint of the circle."
Collected Works
31
"If a spiritual principle is omnipresent at all times, then no object can ever be moved so that it either approaches closer to or retires farther from spirit; for spirit has its center everywhere and its circumference nowhere."
Lectures on Ancient Philosophy
32
"I think of grass – you know, every two weeks a chap comes out with a lawnmower and cuts it down. Suppose the grass were to say, 'Well, for Pete's sake, what's the use if you keep getting cut down this way?' Instead, it keeps on growing. That's the sense of the energy of the center. That's the meaning of the image of the Grail, of the inexhaustible fountain, of the source."
The Power of Myth
33
"The wonder is that the characteristic efficacy to touch and inspire deep creative centers dwells in the smallest nursery fairy tale - as the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea. For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented,or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source."
Hero With A Thousand Faces
34
"The hearth in the home, the altar in the temple, is the hub of the wheel of the earth, the womb of the Universal Mother whose fire is the fire of life."
Hero With A Thousand Faces
35
"Unconsciously dwelling at our inmost center; beneath the surface shuttlings of our sensations, precepts, and thoughts; wrapped in the envelope of soul (which too is finally porous) is the eternal and the divine, the final Reality."
Beyond the Post-Modern Mind
36
"I am blind and do not see the things of this world; but when the light comes from above, it enlightens my heart and I can see, for the Eye of my heart sees everything and through this vision I can help my people. The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit by which He sees all things, and through which we see Him. If the heart is not pure, the Great Spirit cannot be seen." Black Elk, Native American Elder
The Essential Mystics
37
"In unity, in a point, and a centre, which are the three principles of number, measure and weight, are all things created…and in God they are all things;…for in the centre He sustains all, in the point fulfils all, and in unity perfects all." 'Theatrum Chemicum' (1622),
Aurora Consurgens
38
"The primal center is the innermost light, of a translucence, subtlety, and purity beyond comprehension. That inner point extended becomes a 'palace' which acts as an enclosure for the center, and is also of a radiance translucent beyond the power to know it." 'Zohar', edited by Gershom Scholem, Schocken, New York 1963
The Other Bible
39
"Never during its pilgrimage is the spirit of man completely adrift and alone. From start to finish its nucleus is the Atman – the self-luminous abiding point, boundless as the sky, indivisible, absolute, the only reality." Huston Smith, 'Karma, Rebirth and Freewill'
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
40
"Philosophically viewed, the whirling wheel and its ever motionless center can be a potent symbol of the human struggle toward insight and harmony…..Only in the still center of the imperishable Self is true perspective apparently achieved."
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
41
"There dwells in the heart of every creature the Master who by his magic power causes all things and creatures to revolve mounted upon the universal wheel of time. Take sanctuary with him with all thy soul." Krishna, 'The Bhagavad Gita'
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
42
"By birth and growth the spirit-architect expands into this mass of which we consist, spreading outwards from the heart. Thither again it withdraws, winding up the threads of its web, returning by the same path along which it advanced, passed out by the same gate through which it entered. Birth is expansion of the center….death contraction to the center. It is the soul that gathers about it, groups and vivifies the atom-mass." Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Italian philosopher and poet, quoted in J. Lewis McIntyre's 'Giordano Bruno', Macmillan, 1903
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
43
"Leibniz held with Bruno that each monadic center – whether an atom, a man, or a sun – is a mirror and replica of the entire cosmos, as well as the moving power in evolution." Editors
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
44
"Every movement that returns to its point of origin must adopt the form of a circle. Only circular movement is continuous and consistent. Every object of nature is, then, a circle, whose function and activity derive from its center point, which is the soul." Dr. Felix Marti-Ibanez, 'Centaur, Essays on the History of Medical Ideas'
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
45
"Deity and the cosmos may be likened to a circle or sphere whose circumference is nowhere – hence boundless – but those center is everywhere. And each monad is such a divine, immortal, preexistent center." Editors
Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery
46
"In the establishment now proceeding through science and the philosophies of a collective human Weltanschauung in which every one of us cooperates and participates, are we not experiencing the first symptoms of an aggregation of a still higher order, the birth of some single center from the convergent beams of millions of elementary centers dispersed over the surface of the thinking earth?"
The Phenomenon of Man
47
"What is the work of works for man if not to establish, in and by each one of us, an absolutely original centre in which the universe reflects itself in a unique and inimitable way? And those centres are our very selves and personalities."
The Phenomenon of Man
48
"Each cell divides (by mitotic or amitotic division) and gives birth to another cell similar to itself. First, a single centre; then two. Everything in the subsequent development of life stems from this potent primordial phenomenon."
The Phenomenon of Man
49
"Behind apparent randomness stands the archetypal order of an individual cosmic play, directed by a transcendental center."
The Alchemy of Healing
50
"Let the OM be heard right at the center of the group, proclaiming God is All."
The Rays and The Initiations
51
"The circle with the point in the centre is symbolic of the perfected man. He is rounded out; he is inclusive both vertically (soul contact) and horizontally (human relationship)."
The Rays and The Initiations
52
"Everywhere are to be found centres of force, and the idea can be extended from such a force centre as a chemical atom, on and up through varying grades and groups of such intelligent centres, to humanity, and thence to the Life which is manifesting through the system. Thus is demonstrated a marvellous and synthesised Whole."
The Consciousness of the Atom
53
"In the process of evolution atoms themselves gravitate towards other and greater central points, becoming in their turn electrons. Thus, every form is but an aggregate of smaller lives."
The Consciousness of the Atom
54
"Mind is the pivot of the human structure, or the centre on which the spititual and material parts of man are made to turn."
A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
55
"The contemplation of God is based on a faith in God's love and goodness. Full healing and complete meaning come, ultimately, only from God at the center."
Spiritual Pilgrims, Carl Jung & Teresa of Avila
56
"Healing comes from the mystery at the center."
Spiritual Pilgrims, Carl Jung & Teresa of Avila
57
"The most powerful archetypal experience of man is that of the Deity. As a matter of fact, from the standpoint of psychology this statement has to be reversed, and we have to say that man has called his most powerful experience "God." it is the experience of a supra-individual centre of existence, of a power that gives and takes life, of a point from which life springs and towards which it aims, and in which the meaning and purpose of creation and man's place in it seem to become apparent. In this archetypal experience of the Deity the polarity between the unconscious and the conscious psyche finds its synthesis, and the tension is resolved in a complete union of the opposites. It is an immediate and direct experience of an absolutely convincing character, and one that carries with it a feeling of self-evidence. It is not made by man but happens to him out of the depth of his psychic existence. In other words, it is a spontaneous occurrence whose psychic reality cannot be denied."
Studies in Analytical Psychology
58
"One: Symbolic of being and of the revelation of the spiritual essence. It is the active principle which, broken into fragments, gives rise to multiplicity, and is to be equated with the mystic Centre, the Irradiating Point and the Supreme Power. It also stands for spiritual unity – the common basis between all beings."
A Dictionary of Symbols
59
"Point: The point signifies unity, the Origin and the Centre. It also represents the principles of manifestation and emanation….There are two kinds of point to be considered: that which has no magnitude and is symbolic of creative virtue, and that which – as suggested by Ramon Lull in his 'Nova Geometria' – has the smallest conceivable or practicable magnitude and is a symbol of the principle of manifestation. Moses deLeon defined the nature of the original Point as follows: 'This degree is the sum total of all subsequent mirrors, that is, of all external aspects related to this one degree. They proceed therefrom because of the mystery of the point, which is in itself an occult degree emanating from the mystery of the pure and awe-inspiring ether.'"
A Dictionary of Symbols
60
"In all symbols expressive of the mystic Centre, the intention is to reveal to Man the meaning of the primordial 'paradisal state' and to teach him to identify himself with the supreme principle of the universe. This centre is in effect Aristotle's 'unmoved mover'…Hindu doctrine declares that God resides in the centre, at that point where the radii of a wheel meet at its axis. In diagrams of the cosmos, the central space is always reserved for the Creator…Among the Chinese, the infinite being is frequently symbolized as a point of light with concentric circles spreading outwards from it."
A Dictionary of Symbols
61
"The sphere is a whole, and hence it underlies the symbolic significance of all those images which partake of this wholeness, from the idea of the mystic 'Centre' to that of the world and eternity, or , more particularly, of the world-soul. In neo-platonic philosophy, the soul is explicitly related to the shape of the sphere, and the substance of the soul is deposited as quintessence around the concentric spheres of the four Elements. The same is true of the primordial man of Plato's Timaeus….Another important association is that of perfection and felicity. The absence of corners and edges is analogous to the absence of inconveniences, difficulties, and obstacles."
A Dictionary of Symbols
62
"The symbology of philosophers, founders of religions and poets is wholly idealist and cosmic in direction, embracing all objects, seeking after the infinite and pointing to the mysteries of the mystical 'centre.'"
A Dictionary of Symbols
63
"The idea of rotation is the keystone of most transcendent symbols: of the mediaeval 'Rota'; of the Wheel of Buddhist transformations; of the zodiacal cycle; of the myth of the Gemini; and of the 'opus' [work] of the alchemists. The idea of the world as a labyrinth or of life as a pilgrimage leads to the idea of the 'centre' as a symbol of the absolute goal of Man – Paradise regained….Pictorially, this central point is sometimes identified with the geometric centre of the symbolic circle."
A Dictionary of Symbols
64
"Hindu doctrine declares that God resides in the centre, at that point where the radii of a wheel meet at its axis. In diagrams of the cosmos, the central space is always reserved for the Creator."
A Dictionary of Symbols
65
"A great many ritual acts have the sole purpose of finding out the spiritual 'Centre' of a locality, which then becomes the site, either in itself or by virtue of the temple built upon it, an 'image of the world'."
A Dictionary of Symbols
66
"All centres are symbols of eternity, since time is the motion of the periphery of the wheel of phenomena rotating around the Aristotelian 'unmoved mover'."
A Dictionary of Symbols
67
"In cabalistic symbolism, the sacred palace, or the 'inner palace', is located at the junction of the six Directions or Space which, together with the centre, form a septenary…This concept of the Centre embraces the heart and the mind."
A Dictionary of Symbols
68
"The point signifies unity, the Origin and the Centre. It also represents the principles of manifestation and emanation, and hence in some mandalas the centre is not actually shown but must be imagined….There are two kinds of point to be considered: that which has no magnitude and is symbolic of creative virtue, and that which – as suggested by Raymond Lull in his 'Nova Geometria' – has the smallest conceivable or practicable magnitude and is a symbol of the principle of manifestation."
A Dictionary of Symbols
69
"The mystic 'Centre' [is] the non-apparent point which is the irradiating origin of every branch and shoot of the great Tree of the World."
A Dictionary of Symbols
70
"The vertical axis through the centre of the Yang-Yin constitutes the unvarying mean or, in other words, the mystic 'Centre' where there is no rotation, no restlessness, no impulse, nor any suffering of any kind. It corresponds to the central zone of the Wheel of Transformations in Hindu symbolism, and the centre or the way out of the labyrinth in Egyptian and western symbolism."
A Dictionary of Symbols
71
"Work with symbols will be found of real value if you persevere. I would give you a hint about them which your intuition will reveal. Where the converging lines of any symbol meet and where the many lines cross there is a point of force and of illumination, a focussed centre through which the illumined mind can pierce. Ponder on this."
Discipleship in the New Age
72
"The closer one gets to realisation, the clearer becomes the concept that the point at the centre and the periphery are one."
Discipleship in the New Age
73
"The Point within a Circle…is the Divine Spirit indwelling creation and abiding in the nature of man."
A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
74
"When I began drawing mandalas, I saw that everything, all the paths I had been following, all the steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point – namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation."
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
75
"The source and center of all existence is pure spirit existing in all created things simultaneously." John Redtail Freesoul, 'The Native American Prayer Pipe: Ceremonial Object and Tool of Self-Realization'
Shamanism: An Expanded View of Reality
76
"There is a Center to the personality that includes the whole Self….This whole Self is in each of us as a potentiality and seeks to be realized in the life process."
The Kingdom Within, the Inner Meaning of Jesus' Sayings
77
"Spirit may be defined as that which has its center in itself." Georg W. F. Hegel (1770-1831), German philosopher
A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1
78
"The true Heaven wherein God dewells, is all over, in all Places (or Corners), even in the Midst (or Center) of the Earth….there is nothing that is without God." Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)
A Treasury of Philosophy, Vol. 1
79
"It will not be long before no structure of truth or goodness can be built up without a central position being reserved for that soul [the soul of the world], for its influence and its universal mediation."
The Soul of the World
80
"A great many traditions trace the creation of the World to a central point from which it is supposed to have spread out in the four cardinal directions."
Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, The Encounter Between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities
81
"The symbolism of the 'Centre', which plays a considerable part in every religion, is integral with the symbolism of Heaven: it is at the 'Centre of the World' that the break through the plane may take place, making it possible to enter into Heaven."
Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, The Encounter Between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Realities
82
"By mystical theology and secret love, the soul continues to rise above all things and above itself, and to mount upward to God. For love is like fire, which ever rises upward with the desire to be absorbed in the center of its sphere."
Dark Night of the Soul
83
"Now the heart of man, which is in the center of the body embracing everything, is the counterpart of the Holy of Holies which is the center of the world, and the Stone of Foundation. It embraces the sources and roots of all sanctities, just as does the Holy of Holies." Hayim of Volozhin, 19th century Rabbi
Anthology of Jewish Mysticism
84
"The number one is equivalent to the 'Centre', to the non-manifest point, to the creative power of the 'unmoved mover'.
Tarot Revelations
85
"The psyche of humanity contains…the divine Monad at the center."
Tarot Revelations
86
"The center of a spiral labyrinth may be likened to the maw of a dragon/serpent/crocodile in which the spirit/soul is devoured. But the way back is through the center; thus to be devoured is to be reborn,…a labyrinth is a form of Recycling Center."
Tarot Revelations
87
"What is required is the finding of that Immovable Point within one's self, which is not shaken by any of those tempests which the Buddhists call 'the eight karmic winds': fear of pain, desire for pleasure; fear of loss; desire for gain; fear of blame, desire for praise; fear of disgrace; desire for fame." Joseph Campbell
Tarot Revelations
88
"In a twelfth-century hermetic text known as 'The Book of the Twenty-Four Philosophers' there is a statement that has been quoted, through the centuries, by a number of Christian thinkers – among others, Alan of Lille (1128-1202), Nicholas Cusanus (1401-1464), Rabelais (1490?-1553), Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), and Pascal (1632-1662), as well as Voltaire (1694-1778); to wit: 'God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.'" Joseph Campbell
Tarot Revelations
89
"God is the dazzling light that constitutes the creative center of all life and movement. In that Point every 'where' and every 'when' are centered." Dante, 'The Divine Comedy', translated by Matthew Fox
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ
90
"The fire at the center of the tepee, pipe, or of sweat lodge represents Wakan-Tanka, the Great Spirit within the world. How close this comes to Meister Eckhart's teaching that a 'spark of the soul' burns within every creature and every human that will never be extinguished and that this spark of the soul is the divine presence within us all. All of creation shares in this holiness."
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ
91
"Stones towards the earth descend; rivers to the ocean roll; Every motion has some end; - What is thine, beloved soul?" John Byrom (1692-1763), English poet, 'The Soul's Tendency towards its True Centre'
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 4th edition
92
This center which is here, but which we know is really everywhere, is Wakan-Tanka.
All the things of the universe are joined with you who smoke the pipe — All send their voices to Wakan-Tanka, the Great Spirit. When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything.
Black Elk Speaks
93
To the center of the world you have taken me and showed the goodness and the beauty and the strangeness of the greening earth, the only mother— and there the spirit shapes of things, as they should be, you have shown to me and I have seen. At the center of this sacred hoop, you have said that I should make the tree to bloom.
With tears running, O Great Spirit, Great Spirit, my Grandfather— with running tears I must say now that the tree has never bloomed. A pitiful old man, you see me here, and I have fallen away and have done nothing. Here at the center of the world, where you took me when I was young and taught me; here, old, I stand, and the tree is withered, Grandfather, my Grandfather!
Again, and maybe the last time on this earth, I recall the great vision you sent me. It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds. Hear me, not for myself, but for my people; I am old. Hear me that they may once more go back into the sacred hoop and find the good red road, the shielding tree!
Black Elk Speaks
94
I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.
And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth, —you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.
Black Elk Speaks
95
"The centre is omnipresent; everything is contained in it; it is connected with the release of the whole process of creation."
The Secret of the Golden Flower
96
"May the time come when people, having been awakened to a sense of the close bond linking all the movements of this owrld in the single, all-embracing work of the Incarnation, shall be unable to give themselves to any one of their tasks without illuminating it with the clear vision that their work – however elementary it may be – is received and put to good use by a Centre of the universe."
The Divine Milieu
97
"However vast the divine milieu may be, it is in reality a centre. It therefore has the properties of a centre, and above all the absolute and final power to unite (and consequently to complete) all beings within its breast."
The Divine Milieu
98
"A universe comes to birth from its center; it spreads out from a central point that is, as it were, its navel. It is in this way that, according to the Rig Veda (X, 149), the universe was born and developed from a core, a central point."
The Sacred and the Profane, The Nature of Religion
99
"The symbolism of the center is the formative principle not only of countries, cities, temples, and palaces but also of the humblest human dwelling."
The Sacred and the Profane, The Nature of Religion
100
“One can reach the center directly from any point of the compass.” C. G. Jung, ‘Approaching the Unconscious’
Man and His Symbols
101
"The organizing center from which the regulatory effect stems seems to be a sort of 'nuclear atom' in our psychic system. One could also call it the inventor, organizer, and source of dream images. Jung called this center the 'Self'….Throughout the ages people have been intuitively aware of the existence of such an inner center. The Greeks called it man's inner 'daimon'; in Egypt it was expressed by the concept of the 'Ba-soul'; and the Romans worshiped it as the 'genius' native to each individual. In more primitive societies it was often thought of as a protective spirit embodied within an animal or a fetish." Marie Louise vonFranz
Man and His Symbols
102
“All the radii of a circle are brought together in the unity of the center which contains all the straight lines brought together within itself. These are linked one to another because of this single point of origin and they are completely unified at this center.”
Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works
103
"God is the centre of any one thing – a centre the periphery of which is nowhere."
Robert Fludd, Western Esoteric Masters Series
104
"As all numbers are in the One, as all radii of the circle are in the centre, and as the powers of all the members are in the soul, so, it is said, is God in all things and all things in God….God is the centre of any one thing – a centre the periphery of which is nowhere."
Robert Fludd, Western Esoteric Masters Series
105
"The centre of the soul is God; and, when the soul has attained to Him according to the whole capacity of its being, which is the strength and virtue of the soul, it will have reached the last and the deep centre of the soul, which will be when with all its powers it loves and understands and enjoys God."
Living Flame of Love
106
"One aspect of the soul is always joined with the center of creation, and this is our eternal link with truth."
God Is A Verb, Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism
107
"The passion for the essence of Good or of Beauty is a movement toward the centre, and it entails discipline, purification, contemplation, and entry into a spiritual communion. There is, moreover, when transcending Love has been attained, a return movement of the spirit, so that signs of the Eternal are detected in people and creatures and the manifestations of nature."
Men Who Have Walked With God
108
"God…is the center of all selves."
Covenant of the Heart, Meditations of a Christian Hermeticist on the Mysteries of Tradition
109
"Just as the plurality of the human soul's life of imagination, feeling, and will has a focus, a center, around which it orders and orientates itself, so also does the multiplicity of the appearances of the world have ONE center, which orders and holds everything together."
Covenant of the Heart, Meditations of a Christian Hermeticist on the Mysteries of Tradition
110
"Just as the self of the human being is the centerpoint of the plurality of manifestations of his life of soul, so is the ONE God, transcending the self, the centerpoint of the world."
Covenant of the Heart, Meditations of a Christian Hermeticist on the Mysteries of Tradition
111
"The center of one's being coincides with the center of all things."
Mysticism, Its History and Challenge
112
"God is central in each part of the universe, down to the tiniest atom."
Mysticism, Its History and Challenge
113
"The integrated personality does not merely express the individual totality, for in the actualization of his own a priori wholeness the individual also discovers his relatedness to a super-individual centre. This centre is the self which is paradoxically the quintessence of the individuum and at the same time of the collectivum. In other words: the experience of wholeness coincides with the experience of a centre of the personality and a meaning of life which transcends the individual. This is expressed for instance in the words of Nicolaus of Cusa who makes God say to man: 'Be thou thyself, and I shall be thine.'" Gerhard Adler (b. 1904), English Jungian analyst, 'Studies in Analytical Psychology'
The Choice Is Always Ours
114
"There was a muddy centre before we breathed. There was a myth before the myth began….Venerable and articulate and complete." Wallace Stevens, American poet
Origins of the Sacred
115
"Smaller than the small, I am that centre within you, the needle's eye through which all the threads of the universe are drawn." Paul Murray (b. 1947), Dominican priest and lecturer on mystical theology
God, A Companion for Seekers
116
Always in the centre shall come a new Word." Mexican aphorism
From Bethlehem to Calvary
117
"When we go to the center, we leave behind time and place and separateness. We come to our Source and are in the Being from which we ever flow and in which we ever stand and apart from which we are not."
Centering Prayer, Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form
118
"He is to be found in the depths of our being, at the center, at the ground of our being, perceived by the searching light of faith or the knowing embrace of love….He is within. And there we are so one with Him that we are communion, union, prayer."
Centering Prayer, Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form
119
"At the center, at the Source of our being, we find all others – for our Source is also their Source. We find that all others are one with us in coming forth from creative love."
Centering Prayer, Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form
120
"Since Deity is as a circle whose centre is everywhere, it follows that a divine centre, a vital and immortal principle, exists within ourselves."
The Meaning of Masonry
121
"The Divine Life and Will is the centre of the whole universe."
The Meaning of Masonry
122
"At the centre of ourselves, deeper than any dissecting knife can reach or than any physical investigation can fathom, lies buried the vital and immortal principle, the glimmering ray that affiliates us to the Divine Centre of all life, and that is never wholly extinguished however…imperfect our lives may be."
The Meaning of Masonry
123
"At the secret centre of individual human life exists a vital, immortal principle, the spirit and the spiritual will of man. This is the faculty, by using which we can never err. It is a point within the circle of our own nature."
The Meaning of Masonry
124
"The love of the One is actively concerned in awakening each life to its true center." Douglas V. Steere (b. 1901), philosophy teacher and author
Devotional Classics
125
"Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return." Thomas Kelly (1893-1941), American teacher of philosophy
Devotional Classics
126
"God is immanent in every atom, all-pervading, all-sustaining, all-evolving; He is its source and its end, its cause and its object, its centre and circumference; it is built on Him as its sure foundation, it breathes in Him as its encircling space; He is in everything and everything in Him."
The Ancient Wisdom
127
"The life of the Logos abiding in each form is its central, controlling, and directing energy."
The Ancient Wisdom
128
"Man remains forever free at the centre."
The Ancient Wisdom
129
"As a magnet has its magnetic field, an area within which all its forces play, larger or smaller according to its strength, so has every man a field of influence within which play the forces he emits, and these forces work in curves that return to their forthsender, that re-enter the centre whence they emerged."
The Ancient Wisdom
130
"At the very heart and center of existence, pervading the whole manifestation of the divine Idea, there exists one predominant Law. This Law – insofar as it may be comprehended by humanity – decrees that the tendency to preserve harmonious equilibrium, shall always be stronger than the tendencies toward discordance."
Call to the Heights, Guidance on the Pathway to Self-illumination
131
"Every point is equally the center of a circle whose radius is infinite."
The Inner Life
132
"That consciousness, wide as the sea, with 'its centre everywhere and its circumference nowhere', is a great and glorious FACT."
The Inner Life
133
"The soul, which is immortal, has an arithmetical, as the body has a geometrical, beginning. This beginning, as the reflection of the great universal Archaeus, is self-moving, and from the centre diffuses itself over the whole body of the microcosm."
Isis Unveiled
134
"Deity is the central and immortal germ of all that exists in the universe."
Isis Unveiled
135
"Goodwill abides at the centre. This centre... is everywhere, and is hence, in a certain sense, to be found in all."
Lamps of Western Mysticism
136
"The centre of grace is everywhere and the circumference nowhere."
Lamps of Western Mysticism
137
"The person who successfully probes his own inner nature and existence back to its Centre and Core, finds one single source of all men, all beings, all existence. Unity then emerges as the supreme verity, the everlasting truth."
Basic Theosophy
138
"Matter is immersed within the Center of Godhead."
The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics
139
"The Divine Child of us has knowledge of the center Ground of religion, philosophy, metaphysics and science – already knowing all that needs to be known to make it through time."
The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics
140
"The True Teacher is inside yourself at your very center."
The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics
141
"We never actually get away from the center and circumference where God put us."
The Child Within Us Lives!, A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Metaphysics
142
"To pray is to move to the center of all life and all love. The closer I come to the hub of life, the closer I come to all that receives its strength and energy from there….What does the hub represent? I think of it as my own heart, the heart of God, and the heart of the world. When I pray, I enter into the depth of my own heart and find there the heart of God, who speaks to me of love. And I recognize, right there, the place where all of my sisters and brothers are in communion with one another." Henri J. M. Nouwen, Catholic author, 'Here and Now'
Spiritual Literacy, Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life
143
"Every point in the cosmos can be considered its centre."
To Hear the Angels Sing
