The Cosmic Quest: Henry Corbin's Vertical Imagination

In the quest for spiritual growth, the quest for truth does not seek conclusions but rather opens the path to deeper questions. In today’s episode, I explore the vertical imagination of the French philosopher Henry Corbin. Using his book The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, I explore his understanding of what it means to be human and to walk the spiritual path.  

This exploration happens through the mythology of the Exile, as seen through Sohravardī’s Recital of the Occidental Exile. The Exile represents the soul's journey trapped in a well, constrained by oppressive forces, yet seeking light and liberation through spiritual ascension. The Exile is a metaphor for the soul's struggle against the forces of conformity and forgetfulness, ultimately striving for reunion with the Divine, symbolized by the quest for the "Emerald City" or “the Cosmic North”. Corbin illustrates this as a battle of consciousness, where mystic awareness resists the secular forces that try to reduce the individual to madness or heresy. On the other hand, the Seeker is portrayed as a fragment of divine light, searching to reunite with the source of all light. This mystical journey leads to a profound cosmic salvation where the individual, transcending geographical boundaries and personal limitations, reaches a direct relationship with the divine. In this transformation, the "man of light," or the subtle body, emerges—an essential aspect of spiritual development that allows one to perceive and experience the spiritual realms. Through these narratives, Corbin emphasizes that the spiritual path is not a collective journey, but a deeply personal one, where the seeker must confront their inner darkness and strive to manifest their light. In the end, the seeker’s relationship with the divine is intimate, unique, and unshareable, a relationship defined by love, the highest expression of being.

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You can find today's intro and outro music here: https://open.spotify.com/track/1b5jf2kJ73trBAbME4eSSq?si=b6283c50a12f47a7