The Journey is an autobiography, but it goes beyond the story of a life, rich and interesting, to ask the questions that are in the heart of each of us as to the meaning of life: where we come from, where we go, and above all: " who we are? ... more >
That's why there is an opening to a much wider theme than that of the author's personal life, and the title of the book is not my "journey," but the journey of anyone who tries to follow the golden precept "Know Yourself." The idea that our true being is so much taller and more deep than the ego, of which stories are told, is present in ancient wisdom, much less in the various philosophical theories that have followed, but here it spontaneously forms as the mature consciousness in a truly lived life. Life and thought are the cornerstones of this journey - some will see them as practice and theory - but this is not so: we talk about a certain kind of thought, not abstractly conceptual, but what opens as the flower of a plant and knows how to sink his roots into the humor of life Vittorio Mazzucconi, who is an architect, painter and philosopher, makes us part not only of his life and his thoughts, but of works performed in the various fields of his activity, as many bodies in which the same soul is manifested. There is in all the fundamental orientation toward the Self, as to an inner sun, that Mazzucconi lives first and tries to communicate by pointing it out to all of us, at a time like ours, which seems to be lacking of it.

Summary

THE BEGINNINGS: A journey / My parents / The root / A soul / The child / The teenager / The young man / Tullia / Looking for a road / The graft / The first projects.

AROUND EUROPE: Switzerland / Sweden / Paris / London

III THE RETURN TO ITALY: The return / Via Machiavelli / The city in the image and likeness of man / America / Back to Milan.

IV THE FURNACE OF THE ANGELS: The building of the Avenue Matignon / The city of the Psyche / My home / My sisters / My painting / Eurydice / Villa Serena / Even that year ... / The descent to the Hells / Les Halles / The Lioran / The inscription to the Order / The Parisian Arches and the great contests / Difficulties / “The Dawning City” / 11/7 / Nancy / The Citadel / Athens / 12/7 / The end of my marriage / After the separation / The idea of the city / An unknown artist / Proserpina / I leave the “Fornace degli Angioli”.

V THE PLACE OF THE WATERFALL ( “Il Luogo della Cascata”): A new life / Psyche / 14/7 / 16/7 / The gestation of the Self / After ... / The Foundation / The Citadel of Culture / After ... / The Palatine Pyramid / 19 / 7 / The death of May and our children / The Ark of the Duomo / 20/7 / The seminars / The Spiritual Work / The Convivio / Feeling and reason / Art and Psyche / 22/7 / The prayer / Exit / A distant morning / 24/7 / Circularity / I breathe ...

VI THE LEAVE : ... of my old family / will we meet again? / Who am I? / ...of my friends / ... of my women / .. of places and things ... / ... of my children / .. my projects / .. of painting ... ... of body and personality / The seed / The leave of myself / I am ... / The illusion / A balance.

VII ANOTHER DAY: Almost a diary / A birth / The dream / Imhotep / The Museum of Etruria / The hourglass / The overthrowing / Building / The inner temple / 13/8 / The return home.

THE WORKS: Architecture Works / Painting Works

After writing "THE JOURNEY", the idea of a "Return” was spontaneously born in the author, even though it was not clear at first what return would be: not sure on the memories of a life already mentioned in the first book. Perhaps those of a previous life, or the return on life in a later incarnation? Or, through these and other countless stages, the long path of return to the indestructible origin, destiny and sense of everything? Our life is part of this journey ... more >
The book thus develops into a search for the meaning of life, about "who we are" really: a spiritual being, the Self, which our little ego does not know and seems to be lost in existence, especially at a time like ours, deprived of the consciousness of being, that is, of the soul and of God. The return that is being spoken and which is today dramatically urgent is therefore what brings us back to being, that is to ourselves, if we are to account of our true nature.

Summary

The return ticket / A prayer with the body / A musical Scale / The return / Sleep / From body to the soul and beyond / The “Sense” and its announcement / The Crucifix / The fall / The sin / The ignorance / Simplicity and complexity / The creation of the Sense / Resurrection / Healing / Wisdom / The wisdom of christianity / Christian myths / Our Lady / Faith / Innocence / The dawning City / The beautiful / Feeling and reason / Arts and religion / The great wheel of the world / The path of humanity and that of the individual soul / The empty flute / A new gnosis / Love / The word of God / The circularity of the whole / Grace / Orientation, grace and fall / Man's choices / Destiny of the soul and destiny of the world / Towards a universal religion? / The face of God / The abandonment of ourselves / The prodigal son / The return of the master / The son of God / Being and existing / The city in man's image and resemblance / The center / The birth / The return to the being.

To the mirror, or to the image that is reflected there, is usually associated an idea of ephemeral appearance, illusion, or vanity. In fact, it has a fundamental function in the evolution of man, as seen in the child when he recognizes his image in the mirror, while animals, except for a type of baboon, are unable to do so. The subject that is reflected and could previously see just one object, understands that this is himself. With the development of the mind, which is also a mirror, this game between subject and object becomes increasingly complex, developing what is called "reflection". The inner mirror of which the book talks but opens another perspective: it does not reflect as much the face or thoughts as the soul. ... more >
But it is necessary to go beyond the appearance of the reflection, visual or mental, which only shows us a mask to find out who is behind it. The nothingness ... or not the spiritual being that we are in reality, even if we do not realize it? The precept "Know Yourself" encourages us to find out by interrogating ourselves, that is, seeing us in the inner mirror. It is an ancient and perennial message that we shall remember today, in which man must open himself to a fundamental jump of conscience if he does not want to succumb.

Summary

THE INTERIOR ROOM: The enchanted palace / The inner room / The apple / The freedom / A divine order / The feeling and reason / The source / The mirror / The inner teacher / The image of God / Subject and object / Hybris / Writing

THE ART: The artist / A staminal art / Creativity / Emptiness / The center / The birth of the city / The artist and the blackbird / The sense and the nonsense of art / The perennial in art / Today, in the light of the perennial / Feeling and reason / The art and nature / The beauty / The reason and nature / The thought / ... and art

III THE WAY: The road / Know Yourself / The Christ and the Buddha / The sacrifice / Conscience / The work on the city and ourselves / The diagram / The inner center / Who am I? / The comet / The horizontal and the vertical / Why suffering? / A dance / The orientation / The way back

IV MEETING WITH THE OTHER: Meeting someone /The hippogriff / The Self / Suffering and sacrifice / The box closed / The soul / The gem / Where are you from? / The soul and the woman / The prana / The mask / The two knights / The dragon / The "spiritual work" / An integrated image / The Ark / The other, the angel and myself / The pyramid / What do we see? / Love God, love your neighbor / Who is the neighbor? / The mirror and the world / The world turns ... / The mirror and the Spirit / Goodwill / Among the others

It is an inner conversation with which, beyond the little ego, one is addressing himself to the Self, the much higher spiritual being who is precisely the secret friend that manifests himself in our center. The perception of an orientation which thefore is born is precisely that towards this being and the vision that it opens up, with the knowledge and the new consciousness of how to act in the world. more >
The book follows an investigation of the soul with which, in addition to searching for oneself, talks with other voices about the arguments of a theologian, Vito Mancuso, the mystical experiences of souls such as Meister Eckart and Teresa of Lisieux, the Nietzsche's will of power, and finally the same hybris, though in the form of totalizing erudition, which is manifested in the so-called cosmoteandria of a Pannikar. In the last part of the book, the author invites to set out, not looking only at the world where one must act by meeting other men, their ideas and ambitions, nor even at the kingdom of heaven to which the best souls have aspirated, but to a fruitful integration between existing and being: staying in the world but not being in the world, as Jesus had said. We need to look at our inner center, looking for truth in it, not in cultural or religious teaching; and engage in bringing it to the world, where today the false values that lead us to the catastrophe dominate.

Summary

I A INNER DIALOGUE: A habit / Talking with a friend / Silence and word / Water and reflection / Who is the secret friend? / Loneliness, love and sublimation / An eschatology of love / The inner dialogue / The true and the being / The men-children / Removal of death, eternity, cyclicity.

II The ORIENTATION: Orientation / The prayer / The will of God / The human condition / The orientation to the Self / Being and existing / The eternal game / The holiday and the life / The immensity of the universe / I am a solar system / Sicut in coelo et in terra / Effatà / The flower and the root / The invisible work / The Ark / The unconscious / The Lord / The genius loci / The spiritual east / The sphere and its center / The city in the image and likeness of man / The soul of the city / The essence / Harmony / Eros / Who is He and what is His face / A summer morning / The tree and the blackbird

III THE SOUL AND ITS DESTINY: A theology reading / Talking about the soul / Other Reading and Thoughts / Truth / Intuition / A Triad / The Holy Spirit / The Annunciation.

IV WALKING: The story of a soul / Being / The renunciation of the world / Sin and self-disclaimer / The person / Is there a kingdom of heaven? / The "beautiful sky" / The detachment from personality / Going beyond the world / The journey / Zarathustra / The will of power / The "cosmoteandry" / The son of God / Do I take leave? / A cover / Standing on a volcano / Light and shadow / The tale / The inner sun.

The source, the river that springs, the sea to which it comes, its evaporation in the sky, the rain that descends on the ground, feeding a new spring: this is the cycle of water and, in its image, that of everything else. In the book it is also read as the equally cyclical path of our life, from the birth with which it begins, to the river of the following existence, to the sea we come to with death, to the return of the soul to the womb of being, and the following new descent on earth with the birth of a new life. more >
The parts in which the book is subdivided follow the same rhythm: the first is "The Source", a meditation on the soul; The second is "The River", which, concerning the existence, encompasses the multiple aspects of the world in which it takes place, even contingent and political; the third is "The Sea", where the river flows from our existence, with the possible scenarios awaiting humanity, including, if not unavoidable, the catastrophe that will accompany a radical change of civilization. The fourth is "Heaven and Earth," which reflects on the aspirations that prepare such a change, first of all, to a salvation symbolized by the Ark. Then there is a reflection on what is meant by "salvation": the physical one of humanity and the outer world we identify with, or the spiritual one with which man, going beyond it and its wreckage, achieves the true Sense of his life? The author urges us to look at the inner source, which is in each of us, and to see the star that illuminates and orientates us in it. It is the path of individual realization and commitment to a true salvation of humanity, for it finds the lost orientation.

Summary

I THE SOURCE: Incipit / The leaf / Meditation / The many springs / The present moment / Birth, source, dawn / Hic et nunc / Is there a soul? / A universal soul? / The ego and the Self / Consciousness / Finding / Who is it? / The Self / The cycle and the ego/ The Son of God / The same Self in different egos / Light anddDarkness / The inner solar system / The levels of being.

II THE RIVER: Essence and existence: the source and the river / Modernity / Once upon a time a king ... / Towards the catastrophe / The city in the image and likeness of man / A theory? / Collecting yourself / How to do it? / Reflections on power / God and Satan / Freedom and submission / The will of God / Nature and woman / Democracy / The essence and the laws / Good governance / Laity and religion / Feeling and reason / Freedom / Single thinking and the faces of freedom / The age of freedom / The ship goes ... / The rebalancing / The freedom in nature / How to guide us?

III THE SEA: Leaving the river / The mouth, scenery 1 / On the road, scenery 2 / The wreck and utopia, scenery 3 / My utopia / The center / A seed / The Ark, scenery 4 / The squaring of the circle / “The Dawning City” / Florentia / The pyramids / The soul of the city / Waking up / The city of God / The city of Man / The Cathedral Arc / The Ark of Man / To surrender.

IV THE SKY AND THE LAND: In what salvation can we hope? / The inner sun / Resurrection / ... and after / The earth / The stories of art / At work! / The two kingdoms / Separation and integration / The seed / Exit

While the former book, the Secret Friend, was a dialogue with itself, though on a much higher level than that of the little ego - was a dialogue with the Self - this is a dialogue with death, born of an experience in which it appeared close. But what do you encounter in this situation? The Self itself, if our soul has gained its awareness and is able to recognize it, as the Tibetans call upon to recognize the "clear light" at the point of death. The soul is in this case liberated from the cycle of births and deaths and can ascend to eternal life, as it would be to get out of the rotation of the earth to ascend to the sun; only that the soul sun will not be in heaven but in its center. more >
The "know yourself" of the ancient precept, followed by the words "in yourself is concealed the treasure of the Gods" involves the discovery of this center. Next to this, the author looks at the world we live in and a modernity that is going to end up under our eyes; he is compared to its various aberrations, including the utopia of unlimited growth - as it would be a life that does not know death - supporting the need for a limit in every field, yet to be recognized with a true knowledge well beyond the rationalist and materialist who is destroying man and the world. Dialogue with death ultimately leads us to a reflection on the "golden head" seen in the cover image. It makes us think that when the soul breaks out of the body, it carries with it a precious identity that, beyond our lives, is immortal: good news for all of us. In the same way, the identity of our civilization will persist and emerge in new forms, beyond the mortal crisis we are experiencing.

Summary

I IN FRONT OF THE DOOR: Humanitas / The illusion of the world / Is there a continuity of consciousness? / The great tree / The leaves / The kingdom of heaven / The truth and the mind / Being in the world but not of the world / The bridge / An Autumn day / The Director / Nudity / Tension / The Self / The passage.

II DO KNOW YOURSELF: A look at the world and ourselves / The soul / The Father / The birth of the son / The death of the son / Resurrection / The sermon / The Self in the present / Arjuna / The source / Meet Yourself / Hic et nunc.

III AT WORK : The work of new man / “The City in Man's Image and Similarity” / Culture / The Limit need / Art / Science / Politics / Religion / Towards the end of modernity / A new modernity / The way of life / The first signs / Parallel to the fall of the Roman Empire / A new balance.

IV SOPHIA: At death / The neighbour / The spiritual work / Dante / The actor / The neighbour's love / Tagete / The Ark / Compassion / Sophia / A blank page / The Man's Ark / A new birth / The golden head.

The book begins with a small journey and the thoughts that come to mind in the author, while sitting on the train. They may touch on anything but the old traveler, who is not far from the end of life, is led to reflect on the meaning of this and his own identity: "Who am I?" He asks ... more >
The visit to Pompeii, to which he is directed, puts him in front of a death show - the end of the ancient city and, more generally, of every human enterprise - and make him think of the impulse that drives man to seek an overcoming, so as it can be accomplished in transformation, as occurs in nature and history, or intuition in a transcendent perspective. A critical moment of coexistence between the two dimensions took place at the end of the Roman empire, a time so similar to ours - when St. Augustine lived and wrote precisely the city of God while the earthly city, or Rome, was in fatal decadence. It also met its end and future transformation as well as Agostino's Mediolanum, and how it will happen to our city too. Mazzucconi speaks to us instead of a city of man: the "city in the image and likeness of man" - this was the title of his first book of 1967 - and the "dawning city" not only as transformation projects but as hope for a new birth of the city and civilization, after the catastrophe which the modern world is producing. This will also lead to the birth of a renewed man, as in an ideal baptism, that we are also ready to relive in a real action such as the construction of an Ark, a symbol of hope and salvation. The emotion in front of the frescoes of the Villa dei Misteri, evocators of a Dionysian rite, and the ruins of the ancient city, is accompanied by these thoughts of the day, on the possible tomorrow, meditating on life, death, love, Sense of our existence, until the author returns to the first question, and each of us can find the answer with him: "who am I?"

Summary

I THE MYSTERIES: Travel notes / In Pompeii / End or transformation? / Being and existing / The Villa of Mysteries / The drama / Two thousand years after / The awakening / The search for a way / The man in relation to the world / The sunset of a civilization / A principle of love / The “Domina” and her thoughts / Death and resurrection / The mirror / The Sacred Family / The Self / The lay spirit / The black hole / The beautiful and the true / The original pulse / The archetype / Love / The Sacrifice / The overcoming of death / Human and divine / Is there a kingdom of God? / If the universe has a Sense / Zeus and Ade / The inner sun / Eros and Psyche / The egg / The Witness.

II THE CITY OF MAN: Florentia / The city of youth / The man and the city / The city's soul / The emptiness in the city / Values for a new civilization / The city in man's image and similarity / Mediolanum / The city in time / Today, yesterday, tomorrow / The renewal of the man / Ambrose and Augustine / The city of God / Rome / Parallel between the end of the Roman Empire and today / The third Babylon / My "city / The city of alienation.

III THE ARK: The breath of God / The return to itself / At the thresholds of the apocalypse / Noah's Ark and Troy's Horse / In Front of the Arc / The Palatine Pyramid / Birth and overthrow / A new Baptistery / The baptism / The Kingdom of Being / Salvation / Spiritual birth / We beleive / The Ark of Man / The source / The cross and the spiral / Geometry / The double Pyramid / The sacrifice / Beliefs and truths / The different religions / Credo quia absurdum est / The walk / The golden statue / The rising sun / The person / Know yourself.

IV GEOMETRIES: The spaceship / The center of the earth / The symbolon / The space city / The interruption, the shell and the ark / Après le déluge / The archetype, the interruption of death and the rebirth / The archetype and the shapes / The truth / The chessboard / A spiritual principle / The fractals and the octagon / Transgression / The hourglass / The overthrow / The One and the multiple / The Etruria's Museum / The true salvation / The Dharma / The son of the One / “I Am That”.