Corbin on Symbol

I discovered the writings of Henri Corbin while delving into the archives of the beat poet Charles Olson, whose interests were incredibly wide ranging, “liberal” in the true sense of the word.  In Corbin’s writings Olson seized on a distinction between symbol and allegory.  While Olson shelves contained Corbin’s Avicenna and the Visionary Recitals, the definition of symbol that appears in this later work of Corbin is somewhat more useful.

At this point we must recapitulate the distinction, fundamental for us, between allegory and symbol; allegory is a rational operation, implying no transition either to a new plane of being or to a new depth of consciousness; it is a figuration, at an identical level of consciousness, of what might very well be known in a different way.  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; a symbol is never “explained” once and for all, but must be deciphered over and over again.” Henri Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi, pg.14

One of the major challenges of accessing the symbolic plane of dreams, or the world for that matter, is to step beyond an attitude that limits allegorically by claiming “it’s only x, y, and z.” Instead, with bowed neck one needs to entertain the possibility inherent in the glyph: a symbol presenting without explaining a mystery.