Help
Sign In
aborigines
June 2009 
The imaginal
Posted on Sep 5th, 2008
by 
Domi333
Domi333
I've heard of this realm several times, this mundus imaginalis from Henry Corbin, a philosopher of religion. The imaginal realm is not considered by him to be imaginary, it is the spiritual realm that is 'real', where one 'sees' but not normal sight. Corbin was studying Islamic philosophy and found this concept inherent in its ideas, this world is neither reality nor abstract fantasy.(In Persian, it is Na-koja-Abad, land of no-where)
To quote Corbin in his essay: 'Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginary and the Imaginal'
"Between the two is placed an intermediate world, which our authors designate as 'alam al-mithal, the world of the Image, mundus imaginalis: a world as ontologically real as the world of the senses and the world of the intellect, a world that requires a faculty of perception belonging to it, a faculty that is a cognitive function, a noetic value, as fully real as the faculties of sensory perception or intellectual intuition. This faculty is the imaginative power, the one we must avoid confusing with the imagination that modern man identifies with "fantasy" and that, according to him, produces only the "imaginary."
Corbin explores the vision filled world of Suhrawardi, a persian mystic of the twelth century, who is regularly confronted by a supernatural being whom he asks "who he is and where he comes (from)". Thus the imaginal world is a place of the constant gnostic search for defining one's self. One can see the supernatural being as a reflection of the archetype of the true self. He leads the witness to greater mystical possibilities, greater self-development.
The theme of the Imaginal also appears in Aboriginal cosmology, the 'Dreamtime' is not merely a place that happened at a past stage in human history, the 'Dreaming' happened, is happening and will happen. The Aboriginal shaman develops a connection to the Dreamtime, he is also a 'descendent' of these ancestral beings.
To conclude, this Imaginal realm is that vision, dream but not dream, that really sticks out, we constantly dream of little worries but every once in a while we're stuck in a 'reality' which is and isn't real and it's up to us to negotiate where this is telling us to go and what it really means.
Henry Corbin's essay http://www.hermetic.com/bey/mundus_imaginalis.htm
To quote Corbin in his essay: 'Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginary and the Imaginal'
"Between the two is placed an intermediate world, which our authors designate as 'alam al-mithal, the world of the Image, mundus imaginalis: a world as ontologically real as the world of the senses and the world of the intellect, a world that requires a faculty of perception belonging to it, a faculty that is a cognitive function, a noetic value, as fully real as the faculties of sensory perception or intellectual intuition. This faculty is the imaginative power, the one we must avoid confusing with the imagination that modern man identifies with "fantasy" and that, according to him, produces only the "imaginary."
Corbin explores the vision filled world of Suhrawardi, a persian mystic of the twelth century, who is regularly confronted by a supernatural being whom he asks "who he is and where he comes (from)". Thus the imaginal world is a place of the constant gnostic search for defining one's self. One can see the supernatural being as a reflection of the archetype of the true self. He leads the witness to greater mystical possibilities, greater self-development.
The theme of the Imaginal also appears in Aboriginal cosmology, the 'Dreamtime' is not merely a place that happened at a past stage in human history, the 'Dreaming' happened, is happening and will happen. The Aboriginal shaman develops a connection to the Dreamtime, he is also a 'descendent' of these ancestral beings.
To conclude, this Imaginal realm is that vision, dream but not dream, that really sticks out, we constantly dream of little worries but every once in a while we're stuck in a 'reality' which is and isn't real and it's up to us to negotiate where this is telling us to go and what it really means.
Henry Corbin's essay http://www.hermetic.com/bey/mundus_imaginalis.htm
Access: Public
I've never read any Corbin, but I've read about his ideas through a number of other books. It was in Robert Avens' book Imagination is Reality that I first came across the term “imaginal”. But it was Patrick Harpur's book Daimonic Reality that reminded me of this notion most recently.
The imaginal (or something like it) makes sense to my experience of reality and doesn't seem like a mere abstraction. Its the kind of idea that either makes sense to you or it doesn't. Even so, it does seem to have some corroboration across cultures and religions.
Is there a reason you're reading Corbin right now? Or is it just curiosity? Does the imaginal make sense to your sense of reality?
This idea of the imaginal reality helps to define those dreams or 'visions' which don't fit in with mere fantasies. I've had several of those imaginal visions and hence the imaginal helps me to define and understand them even better.
Do you think the warrior is an archetype? He seems to be the main figure in my visions once I was lead to see two crescents next to eachother, now I think they are the Van Allen Belts in a symbolic sense(or maybe nadis).