The mundus imaginalis is the place that all spiritual and transcendent experience comes from. It is the source of synchronicities, of ‘psychic’ experiences and creative insights; it penetrates into our dreams and other visionary experiences.
- Sharon Blackie, PhD; writer and teacher
The mundus imaginalis or mundus archetypalis is the imaginal realm, the world behind the veil, the Otherworld. In the Celtic tradition, the Otherworld, is the source of wisdom, inspiration, nourishment – of life itself. It is the place where the others live and according to James Hillman, founding father of Archetypal Psychology, the ‘necessary angels’, the ones who guide us, and to Carl Jung the archetypes.
Ibn Arabi (1165 – 1240), a scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, first shared the imaginal theory and described the imaginals, as “the world of imagination" as real as the physical world.
Henry Corbin (1903 – 1978), a French theologian, philosopher, scholar and mystic, wrote extensively about the mundus imaginalis (the ‘imaginal world’ or "world of images") to describe a particular order of reality which is referred to in ancient Sufi texts. Corbin describes this as “a truly real though subtle landscape located in a third domain that is neither precisely spirit or matter, but lies somewhere in between the purely intellectual world of angelic intelligences and the sensible world of material things and participates in both”. He found this world was spatially within a person’s body and also a distinct region of the cosmos.
Ervin Laszlo, philosopher and quantum physicist, hypothesizes parallel worlds exist within each person that he names the metaverse, a place beyond ordinary time and space. If reality is a vast field of consciousness that exists throughout the cosmos, there may be organizing patterns within this field that can be accessed and experienced as the mundus imaginalis.
In the imaginal world, everything we encounter has life, agency, intelligence. A stone might tell us a story; the wind might sing to us; thunder might be the voice of a god. We come back to the everyday world carrying images, stories and ideas which can be profoundly transformative.
- Sharon Blackie, PhD; writer and teacher
The imaginal world or realm, the world behind the veil, the Otherworld is that place where the others live - those that guide us, offer us insight, wisdom, inspiration, protection, healing, nourishment, and direction.
Cyndi Dale, author, speaker, healer, and intuitive, in her book, Raise Clairaudient Energy, perceives the imaginal realms as multidimensional concentric, spiraling realms. She describes them as "the dense worlds, realms or beings being closest to you...Maybe rocks. Maybe people...You go out another concentric circle...Maybe plants. You go out a little bit more. Maybe animals...Then the further out you go, the more ethereal...there might be the fae realm, the fairy realm. You keep moving, you get into angelic realms. You keep moving, there are other spiritual realms. They can all be considered part of nature because they're all available to us while we are natural beings."
Dale describes these elements and beings as:
Here are a few crystal suggestions for working with:
Spirit: Ajoite, Amethyst, Angelite, Anyolite, Apophyllite, Aventurine, Barite, Blue Fluorite, Blue Quartz, Carnelian, Fire Agate, Goethite, Kyanite, Morganite, Petalite, Sapphire, Sugilite, Sunstone, Tanzanite, Wulfenite
Animals: Angelite, Leopard Skin, Petalite, Rhyolite, Stibnite
Angels: Angel Aura Quartz, Angelite, Celestite, Goethite, Petalite
Ancestors: Abalone shell, Bowenite, Obsidian, Onyx
Learn more about crystals, their properties, and metaphysical meaning at Healing Crystals.
A hawk circles over your head, effortlessly riding the wind. The eyes of a raccoon peer keenly out at you from the night. A spider spins an intricate web on your windowsill. Is this coincidence, or is there a message for you in these events?
According to shaman Ted Andrews, the universe is whispering its wisdom to you through the hidden language of animals. On Animal Speak, Andrews presents an in-depth workshop to help you tap the power of the animal spirits in your own life. Animal Speak features:
How to determine your own power animals —your personal totems and allies
Learning to understand the "language" of animals —both wild and domestic
Methods and techniques for calling on the innate medicine of your animal guardians for protection, healing, and uncovering your own hidden strengths
The animals that frighten you, and how you can turn that fear into a healing force
How every encounter with a living creature can become an epiphany of the heart —as well as a message from the divine, and more
In The Bloom Book, Heidi Smith, psychosomatic therapist, flower essence practitioner, and registered herbalist offers a holistic and comprehensive guide for working with flower essences to bring about healing, awakening, and deep transformation—personally and collectively.
Every sphere in nature, every plant, the sand, every river, the wind has this hierarchy and every being occupies a definite level in the hierarchy.
- Verena Stael von Holstein
Verena Stael von Holstein, a student of the work of Rudolf Steiner, has from childhood been able to perceive the etheric and astral realms beings and the natural world. In her book, Nature Spirits and What They Say, discover the fire-spirits, air-spirits, water-spirits and stone-spirits, among others and the role of each tree within the natural world along with its relationships with the spirit world, with human beings and with other creatures.
Angelic Realm
The most influential Christian angelic hierarchy was that put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book De Coelesti Hierarchia (On the Celestial Hierarchy). Dionysius described nine levels of spiritual beings which he grouped into three orders:
Lowest order - Principalities, Archangels, Angels
Living by synchronicity isn't merely about getting messages. It is about growing the poetic consciousness that allows us to taste and touch what rhymes and resonates in the world we inhabit, and how the world-behind-the-world reveals itself by fluttering the veils of our consensual reality.
- Robert Moss
Resources:
Neuroscience and Psi: "Henry Corbin’s Mundus Imaginalis, Sufism, neurological damage, psychic opening, and imagination gone awry" by Barbara Croner & Sheila Joshi
Comments