Episode 17: The Symbol of the Swan

At first blush, the swan impresses us with its dazzling white feathers and graceful posture, conjuring images of ballerinas or fairytale settings. But what does the swan offer us beyond the image of beauty and grace?Swans appear in myths often as emblems of solar, masculine gods, like Apollo or Zeus. In alchemy, the swan symbolizes a union of opposites, and can be found in the “albedo,” or the whitening phase of bringing clarity to the soul. And what of the “swan song”? According t...