Initiation yes, but to what?

At different times over the past year I’ve hinted at the value to be found in the teachings of Henri Corbin regarding the imaginal.  My introduction to Corbin’s teachings came through the Charles Olson Archive, where I was able to study Olson’s heavily annotated copy of Corbin’s Avicenna and the Visionary Recitals.  As with many of the pointers I discovered in Olson’s archive, this introduction began a textual journey that led far into Corbin and his followers.

The challenge with the imaginal always seems to to center around the archetype of initiation.  Our culture has so denigrated the imagination that from a very early age we are taught that the imagination is “a nothing but.”  And that idea blocks our way.

Yet the imaginal is an experience of encounter, not an idea.  It is the world of awe in the presence of realities that do not fit easily into our current collective attitudes concerning the nature of the real.  It’s doorways are simultaneously always present and concealed.

“Entry into the imaginal requires a delicate, subtle and difficult personal transformation.” Tom Cheetham, Literalizing the Imaginal, 

While imaginal experiences can be shared, much like the photo from the hike I took earlier in the week, the narrative is a ghost of the encounter.  Initiation into the “other” is a task, but as Cheetham highlights, not one of power. My observation: the instrumentation of our souped up ego’s tends to behave like a bull in a china shop when it comes to the imaginal. And like the bull, we just want out.

(Tom Cheetham has written three engaging books on Corbin’s ideas which are available through the The Legacy of Henry Corbin Blog.)

Related Posts

• The Imaginal (catskillcottageseed.com)
• Corbin on Symbol (catskillcottageseed.com)