"...the Imagination (or love, or sympathy, or any other sentiment) induces knowledge, and knowledge of an 'object' which is proper to it..."
Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was a scholar, philosopher and theologian. He was a champion of the transformative power of the Imagination and of the transcendent reality of the individual in a world threatened by totalitarianisms of all kinds. One of the 20th century’s most prolific scholars of Islamic mysticism, Corbin was Professor of Islam & Islamic Philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Teheran. He was a major figure at the Eranos Conferences in Switzerland. He introduced the concept of the mundus imaginalis into contemporary thought. His work has provided a foundation for archetypal psychology as developed by James Hillman and influenced countless poets and artists worldwide. But Corbin’s central project was to provide a framework for understanding the unity of the religions of the Book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His great work Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi is a classic initiatory text of visionary spirituality that transcends the tragic divisions among the three great monotheisms. Corbin’s life was devoted to the struggle to free the religious imagination from fundamentalisms of every kind. His work marks a watershed in our understanding of the religions of the West and makes a profound contribution to the study of the place of the imagination in human life.

Search The Legacy of Henry Corbin: Over 800 Posts

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Celestial Magic Conference


Sophia Centre Logo
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
The Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture,
School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology

Eleventh Annual Sophia Centre Conference
Second Call for Papers

'CELESTIAL MAGIC'

22-23 June 2013
Venue: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, Bath, England

Keynote speakers

Prof. Peter Forshaw, Universitair Docent (Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor) for the History of Western Esotericism in the Early Modern Period at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam.

Prof. Elliot R. Wolfson, Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University.
  
Conference Chairs
Dr Nicholas Campion, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, n.campion@tsd.ac.uk
Dr Liz Greene, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and the University of Bristol.l.greene@tsd.ac.uk

Conference Theme
Magic, loosely defined, is the attempt to engage with the world through the imagination or psyche, in order to obtain some form of knowledge, benefit or advantage. Celestial magic engages with the cosmos through stellar, planetary or celestial symbolism, influences or intelligences. This academic conference will explore the history, philosophy and practice of celestial magic in past or present societies.

The conference organisers invite proposals for papers of 30 minutes which may deal with text, imagery, practice or theory. We welcome proposals on any time period or culture. The deadline for submissions is 31 December 2012.

Please include an abstract of c. 150 words and a biography of c 100 words, in the same document.

Abstracts and biographies should be e mailed to Dr Liz Greene, l.greene@tsd.ac.uk

The conference is held in collaboration with the Sophia Centre Press.
Publication: selected proceedings will be published through the Sophia Centre Press.





Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Gilbert Durand May 1, 1921 - Dec 7, 2012.


Décès de Gilbert Durand, résistant et anthropologue de l’imaginaire

From Le Soir:

Lundi 10 Décembre 2012

Gilbert Durand, ancien résistant du Vercors, directeur du Centre de recherche sur l’imaginaire et spécialiste de la mythologie, est décédé vendredi à l’âge de 91 ans, a annoncé lundi sa famille dans le carnet du Figaro. Né le 1er mai 1921 à Chambéry, Gilbert Durand avait rejoint la Résistance dès la fin de l’année 1940 et avait ensuite participé activement aux maquis du Vercors. Agrégé de philosophie et docteur ès lettres, Gilbert Durand fut professeur de philosophie, puis de sociologie et d’anthropologie à Grenoble II. Disciple de Gaston Bachelard, il avait co-fondé en 1966 le Centre de recherche sur l’imaginaire et dirigé cette structure autour de laquelle travaillèrent une soixantaine de laboratoires du monde entier. Gilbert Durand était l’auteur d’une quinzaine d’ouvrages, dont « Les structures anthropologiques de l’imaginaire’ (PUF, 1960), « L’imagination symbolique » (PUF, 1964), « La foi du cordonnier » (Denoël, 1984), ou « Les mythes fondateurs de la franc-maçonnerie » (Dervy, 2002). En 2000, il avait reçu le titre de « Juste parmi les nations », la plus haute distinction décernée par Israël à ceux qui ont sauvé au péril de leur vie des juifs pendant la guerre. En 2007, le grand résistant Raymond Aubrac lui avait remis la cravate de commandeur de la Légion d’honneur pour ses actions dans la Résistance. Gilbert Durand était également titulaire de la médaille de la Résistance avec rosette, de la Croix de guerre 1939-1945 avec palmes et commandeur des Palmes académiques.

Friday, December 7, 2012

The conferences de la Journée des amis de Corbin are now online.


Selected talks at the Conferences de la Journée des amis de Corbin are now online HERE

Many thanks to Daniel Proulx for his amazing work on the website...


Thursday, December 6, 2012

Henry Corbin and Iran, Islam, Philosophy and Revolution


ROXANNE VARZI is a Research Fellow this semester at the IFK in Vienna and has a very interesting project going:

Varzi is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Film and Media Studies, Visual Studies, Religious Studies, and Persian Studies, University of California, Irvine

The French Connection: Henry Corbin and Iran, Islam, Philosophy and Revolution

There’s no denying that Henry Corbin was an important part of Iranian history and Western philosophy and yet nothing has been written about his role in the pedagogy of the Iranian revolutionaries who were to bring about the Iranian Revolution or what he referred to as a “shadow of evil.” My project while at the IFK is to research and write on Corbin’s revolutionary legacy. More here.



Wednesday, December 5, 2012

New Translation of Nāṣir-i-Khusrow


Nāṣir-i-Khusrow and cosmic hierarchies in Ismā 'ilism: translation of the 67th section of khwān al-ikhwān (the Feast of the Brethren)

From Wahid Nazal:

"The piece was summarized by Henry Corbin in several places including Cyclical Time and Isma'ili Gnosis, see especially pp. 36-37. To date, our translation appears to be the only full length translation of this entire section of the following work by Nāṣir-i-Khusrow. We note that additional to this blog entry, apdf of our translation below can also be found, here."


Monday, December 3, 2012

N. O. Brown, Corbin, Islam

An new essay online - from which,

To bring Islam into the historical picture is for Brown akin to a Copernican revolution:  following in the steps of Marshall Hodgson, Louis Massignon, and Henry Corbin, with Brown “we are moving out from under the schema of Christocentric world history, stamped on the minds of orthodox Westerners . . . into ampler and more Islamic, air.”




Tuesday, November 27, 2012

New Photos of Corbin Posted



At the Gallery section of the Association of Henry et Stella Corbin
HERE
& more to come!


Saturday, October 20, 2012

Announcing the New Official Henry Corbin Website



It is with very great pleasure and excitement that I announce the appearance of the magnificent new website
of Les Amis de Henry et Stella Corbin:




The entire community of those interested in the life and work of Corbin should give thanks to Daniel Proulx for the enormous labor that this site represents. It is instantly the premier Corbin website on the internet and the primary place to go for news and documents concerning Corbin. There is a stunning wealth of material available including links to online texts by and about Corbin, photographs, news and more. And M. Proulx promises more to come in the near future including selections from the vast treasure of documents in the Corbin Achive in Paris. It is long past time for this wonderful resource to become available to the world-wide community of "Corbinistes." It is worth spending quite a long time exploring.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Mundus imaginalis in Buenos Aires


Literatura | Programación actual
CEA. Curso. Mundus Imaginalis. La floración de las imágenes-símbolos en la mística medieval y en el arte del siglo XX. Por Victoria Cirlot.
Sábado 20 de octubre de 11:00 a 16:00 (con receso de 13:00 a 14:00). Auditorio. Costo: $300. Jubilados y estudiantes con credencial: 20% de descuento.

Inscripción en recepción de lunes a domingos (excepto los martes) de 12:00 a 19:30.

La visita de Victoria Cirlot cuenta con el apoyo de la Oficina Cultural de la embajada de España.

El seminario se propone plantear el origen y la emergencia de los símbolos en ámbitos tan alejados como la mística medieval y el arte del siglo XX en la confianza de que ambos se iluminen recíprocamente. La comparación tiene como objetivo responder a cuestiones tales como la procedencia de las imágenes-símbolos, el funcionamiento de la imaginación, y los modos de activarla. Asimismo pretende penetrar en los secretos de la creación del arte del siglo XX, y más concretamente en el surrealismo. La reciente aparición de El Libro Rojo de Carl Gustav Jung ofrece un material de primer orden para indagar en la experiencia visionaria de nuestro mundo.

1. Visiones en la mística medieval: Hildegard von Bingen y Hadewijch
2. Exploraciones en la zona intermedia: el mundus imaginalis de Henry Corbin
3. ¿Cómo forzar la imaginación? Ejercicios monásticos y prácticas creadoras surrealistas
4. Los paisajes del alma en El Libro Rojo de Carl Gustav Jung


Bibliografía
Cirlot, Juan Eduardo, Diccionario de los símbolos, Siruela, Madrid 1997
Cirlot, Victoria, La visión abierta. Del mito del Grial al surrealismo, Siruela, Madrid 2010
Corbin, Henry, Cuerpo espiritual y tierra celeste, Siruela, Madrid 1996
Ernst, Max, Écritures, Gallimard, París 1970
Jung, Carl Gustav, El LIbro Rojo, ed. Castellana al cuidado de Bernardo Nante, El Hilo de Ariadna, Buenos Aires 2010
La Visione, a cura di Francesco Zambon, Viridarium 8, Venecia 2012.

Victoria Cirlot nace en Barcelona en 1955. En la actualidad es catedrática de filología románica en la Facultad de Humanidades de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona, y Directora del Doctorado en dicha Universidad. Se ha dedicado al estudio de la Edad Media: cultura caballeresca y mística. Realizó diversas traducciones de novelas artúricas de los siglos XII y XIII del francés antiguo, como por ejemplo Perlesvaus o El alto libro del Grial (publicado en Siruela con varias reediciones) y también de lírica trovadoresca (Jaufré Rudel, El amor de lonh, Columna, Barcelona 1998). Entre sus libros dedicados a la novela artúrica destaca Figuras del destino. Mitos y símbolos de la Europa medieval, Siruela, Madrid 2005. En el ámbito de la mística medieval se ha ocupado de Hildegard von Bingen (Vida y visiones de Hildegard von Bingen, Siruela, Madrid 1997-2006), así como de otras escritoras místicas (La mirada interior. Escritoras místicas y visionarias de la Edad Media, Siruela, Madrid 2008, en colaboración). Ha trabajado acerca del fenómeno visionario en estudios comparativos de la Edad Media y siglo XX: Hildegard von Bingen y la tradición visionaria de Occidente, Herder, Barcelona 2005, y en La visión abierta. El mito del Grial y el surrealismo, Siruela, Madrid 2010). Es codirectora de la colección El Árbol del Paraíso de la editorial Siruela. También se ha ocupado de la edición de la obra de su padre, el poeta y autor del Diccionario de símbolos, Juan Eduardo Cirlot.


Informes
literatura@malba.org.ar
4808 6545/ 6560


Otras actividades en Malba
CEA. Entrevista a Victoria Cirlot.

Miércoles 17 de octubre a las 19:00. Auditorio. Entrada libre y gratuita. Hasta completar la capacidad de la sala.

Más información


Otras actividades en Buenos Aires
- Jueves 18/10 19:00 Entrevista (con foco en El libro rojo de C.G. Jung) abierta al público en Fundación Vocación Humana, Aráoz 1942.

- Viernes 19/10
19:00 Diálogo acerca del Diccionario de Símbolos de Juan Eduardo Cirlot con Leonardo Funes y Jorge Aulicino, en CCEBA, Florida 953.
Más información


 Sábado 20 de octubre a las 11:00

Monday, October 8, 2012

8e Journée Henry Corbin « Qu’est-ce que la mystique ? »



8e Journée Henry Corbin
« Qu’est-ce que la mystique ? »
le samedi 1 décembre 2012
à l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, 45 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, salle Dusanne

Matinée
9h 30 :  Leili ANVAR-CHENDEROFF (INALCO) : « La mystique peut-elle se dire? Le cas de Farid od-dîn 'Attâr »
10 h 30 : Daniela BOCCASSINI (Université de Vancouver) : « De la «Vita Nova» à la «Vista Nova»: le parcours mystique de Dante »
11 h 30 : Daniel DE SMET (CNRS) : « Y a-t-il une mystique ismaélienne ? »

Après-midi
14 h 30 – 17 h : Table ronde sur le thème « Qu’est-ce que la mystique chez Henry Corbin ? », avec Christian JAMBET (EPHE), Daniel PROULX (Université de Louvain), Pierre LORY (EPHE), suivie d’un échange avec le public.



Friday, October 5, 2012

Powerful Women: Painting and Building in Persianate Culture




Sussan Babaie, Professor of Persian Art and Architecture, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London

Women courting princes, visiting mausoleums, bathing and dancing at court, hunting— Persianate book painting of the fifteenth century is extraordinarily rich in images of women. Equally impressive are extant examples of monumental patronage by women of the House of Timur. Explore the implications for patronage in this period of the "female touch." This program is made possible by the American Institute of Iranian Studies.