Imaginal Vision - Transmutation and Reeducation of the Gaze

The imagination is not just able to reproduce, but also to create. According to Henry Corbin, the imaginal is the same, meaning that it designates the imaginative space, enriches the sense of images and reinstates the man deeply inside the Nature and the World. The symbolic and mystical traditions, in particular the Eastern and Western neoplatonic gnosis, have authenticated and implemented the imaginal. The imaginal will give us the key to understand both the creative experiences in the contemporary arts and the most promising developments of a pedagogy of the soul.This book introduces the imaginal vision as a vital philosophy, as a contemporary pharmacopeia of the gaze, a gaze disturbed by the technologies of the image, and also as a symbolic hermeneutics, esemplified by the outstanding works of important artists: Andrej Tarkovsky in the motion picture industry, Ted Hughes in poetry and Giacinto Scelsi in music.