Column

the Messiah is described as the ‘central column’ (i.e., of the Sephiroth system), and of this column it is said: ‘The column of the centre is Metatron, whose name is like that of the Lord… it includes all gradations from Above to Below and from Below to Above, and binds them together in the centre.’

Jung cites the Zohar’s identification of the Messianic ‘central column’ with Metatron as a Kabbalistic parallel to the Paracelsian Original Man, establishing the column as a cosmological axis binding macrocosm and microcosm.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, 1951thesis

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the column has been intentionally and distinctly identified as such by its base and capital, and the ivy tendrils which appear on it and form a sort of crown by being heaped above the mask do not make the column into a tree but accompany the epiphany of the god present in the mask

Otto argues that the draped, mask-bearing Dionysian column is an unambiguous architectural symbol of divine epiphany, not a displaced tree-cult, making the column the primary vehicle for the god’s presence.

Otto, Walter F, Dionysus Myth and Cult (1965), 1965thesis

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Thus did the Doric column begin to represent the proportions and the compressed beauty of the male body in buildings. Similarly, as Vitruvius goes on to explain, female slenderness was taken as a model for the pillars of Diana’s temple

Rank draws on Vitruvius to demonstrate that the classical column is a conscious anthropomorphic symbol, encoding the proportions of the human body — male in the Doric, female in the Ionic — into architectural form.

Rank, Otto, Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development, 1932thesis

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In this sanctuary of Poseidon was a column of orichalcum on which were inscribed the injunctions of Poseidon… They then led the bull to the column and slew him against the top of the column over the writing. The whole strength and mana of the bull is thus actually applied to, tied up with, the dpxos.

Harrison demonstrates that the sacred column served simultaneously as legal inscription, sacred oath-substrate, and sacrificial altar, concentrating the mana of the sacrificed animal into the binding force of divine law.

Harrison, Jane Ellen, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, 1912thesis

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the caudal half of the PAG is organized in four longitudinal columns on each side, each of which has different immunohistochemical properties, anatomical connections, and functional characteristics… Activation of the lateral column rostrally produces aggressive behavior

Craig identifies the PAG’s longitudinal columns as anatomically discrete functional axes governing fight-or-flight and related survival responses, offering a neurobiological parallel to the column as a vertical axis of differentiated force.

Craig, A.D. Bud, How Do You Feel? An Interoceptive Moment with Your Neurobiological Self, 2014supporting

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στήλη [f.] ‘column’, e.g. for fixing a peace treaty, hence ‘law, treaty’; also ‘buttress’… στήλ-ίτης, ‘whose name is written on a column as a denouncement, publicly dishonored’

Beekes’s etymological analysis of stele establishes the deep semantic range of the Greek column-term, from architectural support through legal inscription to public shaming, grounding Harrison’s ritual usage in linguistic history.

Beekes, Robert, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010supporting

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each column indicates probable observable physical, cognitive, and emotional states associated with that level of arousal. Read down the orange Flight/Fight Sympathetic II column

Rothschild employs ‘column’ as a clinical-tabular organizing device for arousal states, a methodological rather than symbolic usage that nonetheless echoes the column’s function as a vertical axis of differentiated categorical force.

Rothschild, Babette, The body remembers Volume 2, Revolutionizing trauma, 2024aside

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You are going to focus on completing the second column. As you can see, the second column asks you to identify the unhealthy dependency that was underlying your emotional reaction.

Berger uses ‘column’ in a purely structural-tabular sense within an Emotional Sobriety Inventory, entirely divorced from symbolic or mythological register.

Berger, Allen, 12 Smart Things to Do When the Booze and Drugs Are Gone: Choosing Emotional Sobriety through Self-Awareness and Right Action, 2010aside

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