Henry Corbin and the Mundus Imaginalis: The Geography of the Soul
In the 20th century, a French philosopher and Orientalist named Henry Corbin articulated a vision of the human psyche that would become the primary "Luminous Bridge" for modern esotericism: the Mundus Imaginalis (the Imaginal World). Moving beyond the fragmented surface of traditional scholarship, Corbin sought to move beyond the physical surface of the world to reveal the absolute, multi-dimensional architecture of the Alam al-Mithal —the "Eighth Climate" or the "Intermediate World" where spiritual meanings take on form and material forms are spiritualized. His work represents a heroic "Phenomenology of the Soul," a systematic attempt to re-connect the modern mind with the primordial "Imaginal Reality" of the ancient Persian and Hermetic sages. To understand Corbin is to confront the "High Perplexity" of The Active Imagination . Corbin taught that the imagination is not an idle "fantasy," but a "Sovereign Co...