The symbol announces a plane of consciousness distinct from that of rational evidence; it is the “cipher” of a mystery, the only means of saying something that cannot be apprehended in any other way. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Henry Corbin
David and Bathsheba
This darkness is ignorance or, more precisely, unconsciousness of ignorance — that is to say the natural man is in a state of ignorance and cannot even be conscious of that state. To free himself from it, he must pass to the darkness; this is a terrifying and painful experience, for it ruins and destroys all the patencies and norms on which the natural man lived and depended — a true “descent into hell”, the hell of the unconscious. Continue reading
Old men shall dream dreams
And it will come to pass after these things that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28) Mundus Imaginalis Elijah’s Dream The visionary Emmanuel Swedenborg … Continue reading
Ridwan and Malik
Hussayn’s head, according to popular tradition, was sent to Damascus with a large company of bodyguards to make sure it got to Yazid. On the way, the caravan stopped for a night below a hermitage where a Christian monk lived, spending his life in solitary worship. Continue reading
Spiritual Knighthood
Henceforth, the relationship between man and his God is that of knightly service. At its limit, this relationship produces the metamorphosis of the warrior knight to the spiritual knight. Continue reading
Man, Woman, and Self
For Adam, the Self is dead, represented by the rib since the bones are the last to decay. That rib is vivified by Eve, who appears therefore as the exteriorization of his own Self. She is almost his identical twin, genetically the same apart from her having two X chromosomes, his “reciprocal”. Hence, she is the perfect woman for him. In knowing Eve, Adam is knowing himself. Continue reading
Changing of the Guard
The third dimension of history understood as the impact of imaginal world on human history. Wars, migrations, expansions, conversions, and so on, need to be seen in the light of this higher dimension, above and beyond the material, biological, economic, and ideological causes. We have seen that Julius Evola attributes … Continue reading