The Imaginal Cosmos

Imagination is the star in man, the celestial or supercelestial body (Martin Ruland)

“In our world”, said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas”. “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of”.(C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)

Objectives and course description:

To introduce the imagination as the faculty of perception and knowledge of the soul, through studying key texts and images of the Western esoteric traditions; to learn about specific historical and cultural contexts, but also to consider the relevance of an imaginal perspective for our own life, work and creativity, and to gain an understanding of transpersonal and participatory approaches to research.  In neoplatonic understanding, soul or psyche is envisioned as the mediator between two modes of being called ‘divine’ and ‘human’.

Taking this as our central image, we will begin with Plato, whose creation myth in the Timaeus establishes the soul as the intelligent, primary substance of the cosmos, and the human being as partaking of this intelligence. We will then discover how the image of the anima mundiand revelation of the divine order develops through neoplatonic cosmology and ritual, the early Christian hermeneutic of the four senses of interpretation, the Sufi tradition as interpreted by Henry Corbin, the revival of Platonic and Hermetic mysteries in the Renaissance, and finally through the 20^th century rebirth of soul-based knowledge in archetypal and depth psychology.

Each theme will give rise to the question of the relationship of cosmos and consciousness, the nature of revelatory knowledge as opposed to human reason, and the role played by ritual, visual image and active imagining in accessing modes of understanding beyond the rational. Of central concern will be the question of academic and scholarly approaches to this material, for example, how can one study the ‘experiential’ moment of revelation or realisation, and bring such experience to bear on rational discourse ‘about’ it? Is creative engagement with poetic or art forms a bone fide research method? Is it possible to combine contemplative and critical modes in research?  How can the integrity of individual participation and practice be incorporated into historical or cultural models?