The term "Imaginal" was coined by Henry Corbin and is a central element in esoteric Islamic. The Collective Unconscious of Jung is equivalent. The Imaginal s the subtle or intermediate world between the Gross physical and the pure spiritual realms. It can be accessed through inner Gnosis and
sacred symbols.
Recently I have become a lot more interested in the Imaginal world and its relation to mythopoesis and popular culture. Fiction has to provide a mythos of something not here, a way of entering vicariously into the other world, i.e. the Imaginal world (the imaginal enacted indirectly via mythopoesis, role playing, etc, as opposed to direct gnostic insight).
Imaginal esotericism and metaphysics represents a very different yet perfectly complementary and equally authentic approach to nonduality; one being in the realm of higher (rather than gross) form and subtle and sacred symbols, the other in the Suchness beyond all being, and hence it can only be called just this, just this. However both can be reconciled at the noetic level; for example the Buddhist concept of Trikaya would seem to incorporate both. Ultuimately that is what the Integral Realisation means, to include all aspects of being.
In accessing the gnostic, imaginal heart of each spiritual tradition and teaching, the rational mind, which on spiritual matters is a bad master, then becomes a beautiful servant .
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