The Imaginal Cosmos

Subtitled 'astrology, divination and the sacred', this is a series of papers presented at an international conference in 2004, and include leading scholars in psychology, esotericism, the history and theory of astrology, mediaeval philosophy and religious studies. Not so long ago, it would have been inconceivable for an academic meeting on divination to be held at a University. As the title suggests, many papers focus on the prominent role all the creative imagination as the organ of symbolic insight, and locate divination in the mundus imaginalis. Of central concern is the mode of knowing implied in divination and one's corresponding understanding of the cosmos. Our current mechanistic understanding is only one mode, then one should not forget 'the older analogical view of nature with its alternative vision of order in terms of influences, sympathies and correspondences, implied, incidentally, in Jung's concept of synchronicity. Cosmologically, one can see the emergence of a fuller understanding of the universe articulating qualitative as well as quantitative aspects. Among the many interesting papers, the work of Gaston Bachelard was unfamiliar to me. The volume can be recommended as a valuable way of enhancing one's understanding of an esoteric perspective.