Fifty years ago, D.M. Dooling – “Doro” to those who had the good fortune to know her personally – founded a new quarterly publication, dedicated to the idea that, in her words, “man is not here on earth by accident but for a purpose, and that whatever that purpose may be it demands from him the discovery of his own meaning, his own totality and identity.” 

The magazine was called Parabola, and its subtitle was “Myth and the Quest for Meaning.” That subtitle has changed several times during its half-century of life; for the last nine years, it has been, simply, “The Search for Meaning.”  And whether we all agree that man is here “for a purpose” – and some of our greatest minds have grappled with that question in our pages – we have never wavered from pursuing the Search for Meaning. 

Along the way, we have hosted a plethora of remarkably distinguished writers and artists, both as authors and interview subjects, even including a smattering of Nobel Prize winners.  Each issue has been devoted to a single theme, and the thematic ground we’ve covered is vast, from “The Hero” in our very first issue – which featured contributions by the likes of Mircea Eliade (the scholar who pioneered the study of comparative religions), P.L. Travers (the author of the Mary Poppins books), and the great photographer Minor White – to topics whose contemplation would be, and should be, at the heart of every serious search: “The Call,” “Ways of Healing,” “Science and Spirit,” “Liberation and Letting Go,” “Embodiment,” and so many others up to and including, in our last issue, “The Mystery of Time.” 

Yes, we were a serious publication, but not only that. We filled our pages with essays and interviews but also with fables, witticisms, apothegms, and myths, with writings from the great spiritual traditions, with storytelling, art, poetry, the wisdom and even the humor of those who have devoted their lifetimes to the great questions that have always haunted humanity. Because of the profundity of those questions, and because we have striven to approach them at the highest level we could attain, the nearly 200 issues we produced will live on, as a resource, an inspiration, and, we hope, a source of pleasure. 

Even those of you who have been following us the longest may not have realized that behind Parabola is a nonprofit organization, The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition (SSMT), which oversaw the magazine as well as Parabola’s other operations. In its first thirty years, those included books, videos and audios, lectures, programs, film festivals, symposia, and special events. Twenty years ago, we wound down those ancillary activities so that we could place all our attention on the magazine, which we then set about refining. Under Jeff Zaleski, who became our editor nineteen years ago and added the duties of publisher two years later, we began introducing color to our pages (with the “God” issue) and then went full color in 2011. We improved the quality of our paper, polished our typography and design, supplemented our print edition with an energetic online presence, and ranged more widely and eclectically in our subject matter, all while hewing to that central pursuit: the search for meaning.  

As you will have gathered, our journey has now come to an end. As of today, April 4, 2025, Parabola will cease publication. We are a casualty of the market forces to which so many other periodicals have succumbed. As the President of the nonprofit’s Board of Directors, a role I’ve served in for the last two decades, I have been astonished at the magazine’s longevity, especially during these last demanding years – a longevity due almost entirely to the tireless efforts of our editor-publisher, Jeff Zaleski; his wife (and our editorial director), Tracy Cochran; our gifted and industrious staff; our sage and conscientious Board of Directors; and, most of all, to you, our readers, who have proven such lively and supportive participants in our quest. You have been generous, loyal, appreciative, eloquent, and bracingly smart, and, on behalf of Parabola and our Board of Directors, I thank you with the whole of my heart.