The existence of this
intermediate world, mundus imaginalis, thus appears metaphysically necessary;
the cognitive function of the Imagination is ordered to it; it is a world whose
ontological level is above the world of the senses and below the pure
intelligible world; it is more immaterial than the former and less immaterial
than the latter… Upon it depends …both the validity of visionary accounts that
perceive and relate "events in Heaven" and the validity of dreams,
symbolic rituals, the reality of places formed by intense meditation, the
reality of inspired imaginative visions, cosmogonies and theogonies, and thus,
in the first place, the truth of the spiritual
sense perceived in the imaginative data of prophetic revelations.
Henry Corbin
The theophany
of the Sakina flows from the Pleroma as the divine act of creation, disclosing
the revelation of the Word through the mythical planes of the underworld to
condense into the presentation of the natural world. The Body of Sophia cradles
the imaginal realm of the soul, mediating the interdimensional passage between
the celestial and the terrestrial, interposing a continual transmutation
through which the luminous emanations of the spirit symbolize into corporeal bodies
while the latter, through the transition of death or the initiation of the
return, sublimate and divinize back into the formless matrix of the Word.
It
is this divine imagination, or image-creation, which crafts the intelligible
abstract of the celestial into the palpability of sensual bodies, sowing the
quiddity of the ideal forms into the cultivation of temporal creatures, a cosmic
dream delineating the ontological sequence of manifestation to present the knowledge
of the sacred through the conditional transience of relative phenomena. This
intermediate boundary, the mythical twilight between darkness and light,
naturally separates and conjoins the duality of intellect and phenomena.
The flow of the
deific imagination embodies the meditations of the Angelic Intelligences
through the procession of the celestial spheres spanning the ontological gamut between
Heaven and Earth. These nested planes envelop one another to constitute the
anatomy of the soul on both an individual and universal level.
The imaginal
realm is flooded with the astral light, permeating with the creative force and
protean energy that is the fragrant breath of the Sakina, who, as the organ of
the Holy Spirit, performs the melody of the Muses through the living sea of the
quicksilver, intonating the celestial verses of the Holy Book as the divine
messenger of the gods.
The Mystical
Earth partakes of both spirit and matter as the otherworldly domain of
apparitions, revelations and visionary experience, extending as the very path
of manifestation to simultaneously serve as the road to salvation. It is thus
the bridge, conduit and sympathy between the existential polarities of Heaven
and Earth upon which the wayfarer performs the alchemical work of her own
transfiguration, conducting the Substantial Motion that is her ontological
ascent of the Holy Mountain, a theomorphic journey through which she enters the
secret cave of the heart to consecrate the bridal chamber of the Unio Mystica.
The underworld interweaves
the paradoxical conjunction of spirit and body, colliding as the meeting place
of the two seas whose ambiguity intermingles the upward tilt of mortal yearning
with the manifestation of the sacred. It is thus the crossroads between worlds,
the active force of the divine imagination whose dreaming substantializes the
pure intelligibility of the noetic realm into a host of sensual bodies, thereby
rendering the archetypal meaning of the Pleroma as the living metaphor of the
cosmos. This formative densification transfuses through the imaginal plane to
set the stage for the mystical return, as the enigmatic haze of sensory
impressions conveys the soteriological principles of the Word through a visionary
montage of iconic and evocative signs.
The divine
imagination thus establishes the cosmic relationships of the Most Beautiful
Names by transfusing intelligible substance into sensual corporeality through
the mediation of the soul, relaying the affinitive action by which the avatar
exhibits the likeness of the spiritual essence for which she is the
signification, and in so doing converts to her original state in the Garden of
Paradise.
The contemplative
activity of the Divine Mind is apprehended by the agency of imagination which inscribes
the Book of Nature through the flowing rhythm of the Sakina, who descends as
the ontology of the Axis Mundi to paint the emergence of spiritual forms upon the
canvas of sensory phenomena. This generative poetry is the expression of wisdom
through the language of the soul, the very means by which the spirit is
revealed to provide the psychogenic vehicle for the dispensation of grace and
revelation of divine intimacy. The
Celestial Earth is the mystical transport for interdimensional communication,
whose visionary protocol supplies the sage, prophet and seer with the spiritual
food of the gnosis, the salvific means by which the transcendental message of
the Word is interpreted into the vernacular of mythical and romantic ecstasies.
The intellective
rays of the Spiritual Sun shine through the window of the heart for the illumination
of the soul. This ceaseless theophany discloses the meaning of the Angelical
Harmony through the ecstatic rapture of visionary experience, bestowing the Medicinal
Sapience of the Love Divine to intensify the presence of Mercy within the
dwelling of the wayfarer.
Indeed, revealed being is Theophanic Imagination, and its true
hidden reality is the Divine Being
Henry
Corbin
This symbolization of the Divine
Speech orchestrates the recitation of the archetypal paradigm, analogizing the intelligible
ideas of the spirit into the somatic language of nature, poeticizing the
illustration of the cosmos that simultaneously reveals and conceals its source
in the uncreated. The disclosure is thus intrinsically an
obfuscation, as to explicate the essence is to effectively conceal it beneath
the sacred mystery of life. To lift the Veil of Isis is to disrobe the garment
of the spirit, penetrating the exoteric cover of nature to reveal the immanent glory
of God.
The Sakina
is the action of divine imagination, the mercurial function of the theophany
who distills the intellection of the Logos through the complementary stations
of creation and salvation, brewing the very elixir of consciousness that
alternately rises and falls, thickens and thins within the alchemical vase of
the soul. The providential order thus unfolds through the metaphoric instrument
of the Soul, through whom the intellections of the Word are enciphered within
the sensual parable of natural life, condensing the lowering of the cosmic
curtain to cryptically yet intimately suggest the underlying beauty of the Intellectual
Principle.
The six
biblical days of creation allude to the theomorphic phases of existence emerging
and returning through the heavenly spheres of the Axis Mundi, whose ontological
planes delineate the degrees of consciousness spanning from the transcendent to
the immanent, formulating a cyclical continuum that flows out and back into the
Empyrean through the ethereal anatomy of the Cosmic Soul. The Sabbath is thus the
First and the Last, the restful state of eternal felicity that is the tranquility
of the Love Supreme.
The higher
Sakina, whose luminosity instantiates the fullness of the Pleroma, shines the
intellective extension of herself upon the visionary mirror of her lower
counterpart to manifest the iconology of the natural world.
The soul is ambiguous, partaking of both the unitive
and the multiple, constituting the apparitional boundary that is the mixture,
mediation and convection between spiritual and physical realities. The imaginal plane is the bifocal lens through which the Deity gazes upon
the art of nature while reciprocally providing the means for the creature to
peer back into her foundation in the spirit.
Through ecstatic vision, the seer is able to apperceive the permeation
of the sacred within the seemingly profane, as the veil into transparency to
reveal the underpinning reality of the celestial archetypes lurking beneath the
cloak of corporeality.
The eye of
the heart is the skylight of mediumship for discerning the numinous dramatics
of the gods, whose causal sagas are immortalized within the Holy Book of the
Pleroma which records the ancestral paradigm of the Golden Age, canonizing the
initial and eternal acts of creation whose deep significance remains accessible
to the sage through her invocation of the sacred, whereby the she enters the otherworld
through the ecstatic portal of the active imagination.
The
luminous spirits of the Logos are witnessed within this inner theatre
where they assume a subjective countenance in relation to the individual, as their
celestial energies resonate with the sentimentality of the psyche to conceive an
iconic spectacle that symbolizes the intermingling of divine intimacy. The wayfarer reads the hidden powers of the
Pleroma through the eyeglass of her own soul, thereby substantiating the Abode
of Light within the imaginal context of her own personal mythos.
The harmonics
of analogic resonance empathetically metaphorize the characteristic bearing of
the metaphysical entity through the cognizant climate of the observer, evoking
the feelings and imagery of an affinitive nature within the subjective arena of
ecstatic mentation, thereby brewing a profound experience whose expressive
syntax is drawn from the memory of the soul herself to disclose the
intelligible signature of unseen influences in a symbolic language that is
recognizable and interpretable by the mystic.
Thus where
the Christian perceives the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Hindu bears witness to the
lovely Parvati while the ancient Egyptian beholds the beauty of Hathor, Isis or
Bastet. All these experiences are fundamentally valid and authentic in that
they clothe the formless essence of the Divine Feminine in the vibrant expression
of mythical garments sewn from the cultural background and personal inclination
of each respective individual, whose ecstatic rapture initiates the empathic dialogue
that is the upward motion of their devotion meeting the revelation of the
Goddess herself.
The pregnant
mists of Hurqalya evoke the hidden world of the Emerald Cities, the
apparitional domain of the Twilight Kingdom whose mythopoetical landscape both
conceals and reveals the Way of the Return. This twisting path of subliminal
exegesis leads deep into the underworld of the psyche, unfolding a strange eschatological
drama that reveals a celestial staircase spiraling up into the golden meadow of
the empyreal realm. The ambiguous, elusive and ephemeral climate of the soul
weaves the translucent conjunction of spiritual and physical realities, as the divine
energies of the Pleroma assume the masks of archetypal images within the epiphanies
of visionary experience.
Creation proceeds through a gradated series of
metaphorical analogies that increasingly densify, symbolize and substantiate through
contiguous planes of ontology that ultimately culminate in the diaphanous shroud
of the cosmic mandala. This succession of worlds simultaneously unravels the
road to salvation upon the spine of the Holy Mountain, lowering the celestial
ladder the lover must climb through the thinning fabric of her own soul to
reach that most intimate realization of truth that is the divine compassion of
her Beloved.
The Axis Mundi reaches
into the shining pearl of the North Star, the immoveable millstone upon which
the wheel of creation turns to direct the creational epic of the alchemical dream.
The celestial pole comprises the musical scale of cosmic theatrics spiraling
out and back into the symphony of the Word, whose metrical composition scores
the legendary saga through the origin of genesis to the exodus of the return.
The luminous
shadows of the otherworld weave the veins of mystery, ecstasy and paradox into a
visionary passage of exploration, initiation and spiritual nourishment. This
mythical dialogue traces a symbolic thread leading back through the psychic
centers of the microcosm and into the Empyreal Palace. The wayfarer
thus travels through the Seven Heavens of her interior stars, crossing the very
gamut of creation to reach the Kingdom of Light. The psychic centers within
reflect the planetary spheres as the solar system of the microcosm. This transformational
odyssey was ritually symbolized by the alchemists as the transmutation of lead
into gold through the same seven stages that form the metallic seals of the
Great Work. Passing through the mysterious gates of her own internality the mystic
enters the Garden of Paradise upon the threshold of the Pleroma, rising to the celestial
summit where she encounters the divine companion of her own Perfect Nature to
come full circle by reuniting with that heavenly spirit who is her source and
guardian.
Bathing in the
Fountain of Life she dons the shining mantle of her authentic identity, giving
birth to the very Angel from which she herself has emerged into the play of
cosmic existence, thus assuming the wholeness of her eternal destiny to fulfill
the divine intention of her Creator. Yet only the pure of heart can endure this
purgatorial passage and drink the lifeblood of the Christ from the spiritual
center of the Holy Grail. For it is the site of the Last Judgment, where the
Body of Resurrection is conceived or revoked upon the very virtue of the soul that
determines her closeness to the spirit.
The mystic quest thus delves into the very heart
of reality, the intensification of consciousness that is the perfection of the
soul. This hermeneutical voyage unpeels the layers of creation through that ontological
ascent that is the psychic deepening of Substantial Motion towards divine
proximity, a qualitative penetration through the series of analogical
correspondences that form the rungs of the cosmological ladder, a transcendence
of perception by which the archetypal signatures [of life] are deciphered to
reveal the salvific message of their divine author. This budding revelation
refines the soul onto the substantiation of her own quintessence; for it is
this direct witnessing that draws the wayfarer closer to her angelic identity
by the illuminating the presence of God within. Her heart provides the locus
for the increasing reception of theophanies that flow out from the celestial
hymn of the Word to apportion the higher states of consciousness that are the
provisions for the journey of liberation.
Known in esoteric
Islam as the alam-al-mithal, the Mystical Earth is the World of Analogies
comparable to the chthonic underworlds and astral planes found worldwide,
including the Egyptian Duat, the Christian Purgatory, the Celtic Otherworld,
the Kabbalistic Yetzirah, the Grecian Hades and the Sacred Dreamtime of the
Australian Aboriginal. It is the underworld for the ethereal is hidden
from sight by the veil of Isis.
The fabled lands
of Hybrasil, Shangri-La, Arcadia[g1] , and the Jade
Garden allude to the supernatural localities found within these inner worlds. It
is the cathedral of the soul that hosts the hermetic marriage to reunite the
polarity of Heaven and Earth through the divinization of the body embracing the
incarnation of the spirit. This mythical template is recited in the epic of the
solar hero as exemplified in the legends of Horus, Hercules and Jesus.
The faery realm holds
the ancestral cauldron for the resurrection of our Perfect Nature, distilling
the alchemical preparation that is our meeting, effacement and resuscitation in
the One.
Absolutely beautiful and stunning writing - thank you for sharing this.
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