Why Are Pearls on the Cover?

In the months preceding the beginning of the dictation of A Course in Miracles, Dr. Helen Schucman experienced a series of vivid waking and sleeping dreams. In three of those dreams, she was presented with a book. It was thick and black and had large gold letters on the cover.

In one of those dreams, she saw it draped in a strand of pearls. That image is reproduced in the artwork for this edition in homage to Dr. Schucman’s perseverance and dedication to the completion of the Course.

There is an ancient symbolism to pearls. From the earliest of times, pearls have been considered miraculous.

Unique in all the world of nature, their beauty comes from the most mundane of substances and yet it is somehow transformed by a living organism into one of the most beautiful objects known to man.

And it is the way pearls “play” with light that gives them their fascinating beauty and their almost mythical status.

Pearls have become, in other words, an archetypal image of what can happen to the human mind that dedicates itself to perfection, utilizing the hard knocks of daily living as a stimulus to growth.

“The Pearl of Great Price”
That which is of such momentous value that you would sell all that you own to possess it.

“Pearls of Wisdom”
Thoughts which illuminate and simplify one’s thinking,
bringing peace and clarity.

“A String of Pearls”
A veritable chain of wisdom and insights, spreading out and then interweaving as a string of brilliant flashes that lighten up the very dark world around us.

A string of pearls, in other words, is the perfect symbol for

“A Course in Miracles“