''Parabola'', also known as ''Parabola: The Search for Meaning'', was a

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-based quarterly magazine on the subjects of mythology and the world's religious and cultural traditions. Founder and editor Dorothea M. Dooling began publishing in 1976. It was published by The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, a not-for-profit organization.

Title etymology

The name of the magazine is explained by the editors as follows:

The parabola represents the epitome of a quest. It is the metaphorical journey to a particular point, and then back home, along a similar path perhaps, but in a different direction, after which the traveler is essentially, irrevocably changed.

Subtitle changes

The magazine's subtitle has changed over the years. In its first years, it was ''Parabola: Myth and the Quest for Meaning'', then ''Parabola: The Magazine of Myth and Tradition'', later ''Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search for Meaning'', ''Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search for Meaning'', ''Parabola: Where Spiritual Traditions Meet,'' and its current title as of October 2019, ''Parabola: The Search for Meaning''.

Issues and subjects

Each issue focuses on a particular subject, with each article related to the main subject. The subjects of the first five years' issues included creation, relationships, death, magic and hero mythology.

Featured authors

Authors contributing articles to Parabola are listed as contributing editors, and include

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of t ...

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and in ...

, Jacob Needleman,

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852), was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist who was widely regarded as Ireland's "National poet, national bard" during the late Georgian era. The acclaim rested primarily on the popularity of his ''I ...

, Christmas Humphries, William Irwin Thompson,

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer (; 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Poland, Polish-born Jews, Jewish novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, essayist, and translator in the United States. Some of his works were adapted for the theater. He wrote and publish ...

, David Rosenberg, P. L. Travers,

Jane Yolen Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 400 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. H ...

, Robert Lawlor,

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

Keith Critchlow Keith Barry Critchlow (16 March 1933 – 8 April 2020) was a British artist, lecturer, author, Sacred geometry, sacred geometer, professor of architecture, and a co-founder of the Temenos Academy in the UK. Biography Critchlow was educated at ...

Elaine Pagels Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey (born February 13, 1943), is an American historian of religion. She is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Pagels has conducted extensive research into early Christianity and Gnost ...

James Hillman James Hillman (April 12, 1926 – October 27, 2011) was an American psychologist. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich. He founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private practic ...

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ...

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...

David Abram David Abram is an American ecologist and philosopher best known for his work bridging the philosophical tradition of phenomenology with environmental and ecological issues. He is the author of ''Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology'' (2010) and ' ...

, Howard Schwartz,

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosm ...

David Rothenberg David Rothenberg (born 1962) is a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with a special interest in animal sounds as music. He is also a composer and jazz musician whose books and recordings reflect a long ...

, John Anthony West, and many others in the fields of

Jungian psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their s ...

, spirituality,

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

and the aforementioned subjects. The journal also publishes interviews with many of the same figures, as well as reviews of books in these fields.

Closure

On April 4, 2025, the editors of ''Parabola'' announced that the journal was being discontinued, saying "The financial challenges posed by today’s publishing environment have proven insurmountable."

Stephen Schiff {{Infobox person , name = Stephen Schiff , image = Stephen Schiff at the Peabody Awards 2019.jpg , image_size = 140 , alt = , caption = Schiff at the Peabody Awards 2019 , birth_na ...

, Chairman of the Board of the Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, wrote "We are a casualty of the market forces to which so many other periodicals have succumbed." The website remained active until the end of April 2025 and subscribers were allowed to download an unlimited number of PDF back issues free of charge. The Society then closed the website, which has been taken over by Études Architectural Solutions.

Related materials

In addition to the journal, ''Parabola'' at one time also produced books, recordings and videos, including ''And There Was Light'', by

Jacques Lusseyran Jacques Lusseyran (19 September 1924 – 27 July 1971) was a French author and political activist. Blinded at the age of 7, at 17 Lusseyran became a leader in the French resistance against Nazi Germany's occupation of France in 1941. He was e ...

; ''Sons of the Wind: the Sacred Stories of the Lakota''; ''I Become Part of It: the Sacred Dimensions in Native American Life'', edited by D. M. Dooling and Paul Jordan-Smith; ''The Bestiary of Christ'' by Louis Charbonneau-Lassay and D. M. Dooling; ''A Way of Working'', edited by D. M. Dooling; as well as the extended video ''

The Power of Myth ''Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth'' is a PBS documentary from 1988. The documentary was originally broadcast as six one-hour conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) and journalist Bill Moyers. It remains one of the ...

'',

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers; June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Council ...

's interview with

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://parabola.org/ 1976 establishments in the United States Alternative magazines Quarterly magazines published in the United States Religious magazines published in the United States Independent magazines Magazines about spirituality Magazines established in 1976 Magazines published in New York City Mythology magazines Magazines disestablished in 2025