X CLOSE
TherapeiaEudaimoniaPoiesis
AboutContact
Search
Menu
Psyche
DonateNewsletter
SIGN IN
Ideas

Rituals and celebrations

Disorders and difficultiesTherapies and practical advicePerspectives and controversies
Self-knowledge and personal growthRelationships, work and leisureValues and ethical living
Creativity and the artsSpirituality and transcendence
Altered statesDrugs and psychedelicsMindfulness and meditationPrayer and contemplationRituals and celebrationsSacred placesSpirituality and religionSymbols and mythThe irrational and uncannyTranscendent experienceVisions and mysticismWonder and the sublime
LatestPopular
Illustration of a closed café with a person sitting alone, chairs stacked, abstract art on walls, dimly lit interior.

Emotion regulation

idea

Solitude can be profoundly restorative. Here’s how to savour it

Time alone offers unique psychological benefits, once you learn to embrace these quiet moments rather than escape them

by Thuy-vy Nguyen

Bas-relief sculpture depicting the three most important figures of the Eleusianian Mysteries: the goddess of agriculture and abundance Demeter, her daughter Persephone, queen of the Underworld, and the Eleusinian hero Triptolemus, in what appears to be a rite. Triptolemus stands in the centre, the two goddesses stand either side.

Rituals and celebrations

idea

For Plato, rationalists and mystics can walk the same path

Why did such a keen proponent of reason turn to the Eleusinian Mysteries to explain his ideas about knowledge?

by Sam Woodward

People dining at long tables adorned with blue tablecloths in a narrow, lantern-lit street lined with old buildings and blue-and-white flags.

Community

idea

Take a seat: the long table is an antidote to loneliness

While some consider the long, shared dining table outdated or inconvenient, it is actually a powerful social tool

by Antone Martinho-Truswell

Two traditional-style pagodas in a grassy field under a blue sky with scattered clouds, with mist and mountains in the background.

Rituals and celebrations

idea

Together forever: ‘at-home burial’ in southern Vietnam

What might a traveller along the Mekong Delta learn about the beliefs and traditions behind the country’s elevated tombs?

by Gina Elia

The bone outline of a skull is seen in relief where excavated on a cave floor

Rituals and celebrations

idea

Digging for answers in a cave filled with Neanderthal skeletons

When a team of researchers returned to an Iraqi cave believed to be a Neanderthal burial site, here’s what they found

by Shayla Love

Archaeological dig showing three weathered stone head sculptures, partially buried in the ground.

Death and dying

idea

Why ancient Mesopotamians buried their dead beneath the floor

In an age before photos or audio recordings, people found other ways to stay sensorially connected to their deceased

by Nicola Laneri

A group of people in white attire and backpacks walk along a wooden path through green fields under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Rituals and celebrations

idea

More radical and practical than Stoicism – discover Shugendō

As they train for their own deaths, Japan’s mountain priests develop a form of acceptance that goes beyond the Stoics

by Tim Bunting

Photo of people holding signs supporting Kennedy on Franklin Rd surrounded by trees.

Civic life

idea

Voting in person brings democracy to momentous life

Elections are about more than tallying votes – they offer voters a deeply felt connection to democracy and their role in it

by Emilee Booth Chapman

Photo of eight varied stone doughnut-shaped artefacts on a blue background with a 5 cm scale bar.

Rituals and celebrations

idea

Far-flung ancient communities forged bonds through broken rings

What can the fragments of Neolithic slate rings found in Finland tell us about social relationships 6,000 years ago?

by Marja Ahola, Elisabeth Holmqvist & Petro Pesonen

Photo of hands handling betting tokens, coins and paper slips on a brick surface with grass in background.

Sports and games

idea

For players of fafi, dream interpretation is a vital skill

The fafi lottery game in South Africa requires the careful interpretation of dreams and the waking world around you

by Brittany Birberick

Photo of a tattoo on a person’s chest. It reads “RIP My Baby Boy” with dates and a rosary design around the text.

Grief

idea

‘A tattoo is for life’: how memorial tattoos help the bereaved

More intimate and permanent than other reminders, tattoos offer an embodied form of meaning-making in the wake of loss

by Jennifer L Buckle & Sonya Corbin Dwyer

Photo of colourful candy close-up with red, yellow, green and purple pieces, some marked with a white “S”.

Emerging therapies

idea

Why placebo pills work even when you know they’re a placebo

New evidence of the power of the placebo effect – even without any deception – is raising important questions for medicine

by Darwin A Guevarra & Kari A Leibowitz