online: 23 december 2006
modified: 23 december 2006

14 december 2006 the imaginal world


14:49 ...four tall beeches at the corners of a square... each is of a different shape, one widely spreading east and west, one growing only southwest, one growing mainly upward, and one only to the east... the four have been planted at the edge of a lawn, bright green, beside a neoclassical mansion with a moat ... a magpie flies close to me and then glides away, seeming to shrink as it becomes more distant...

...and, while these larger events happen, a black insect with a shiny spherical abdomen (of about 1 mm diameter) explores the extent of my upper-leg surface, repeatedly...

...while connecting these worlds (in these words) i feel the human world expanding somewhat, in consequence...

...a middle-aged man in black sportswear runs by with long strides and an easy rhythm that is as rare as it is inspiring...

...i can hear loud impacts from construction machinery in the distance... and the sound of a small aircraft flying low...

(i could continue these examples were it not for the cold wind on my hands)

...these sights.and sounds, each so different in size and form - what do they tell of our own world... are these indeed parts of the 'imaginal' reality described and created by William Blake, and named by Kathleen Raine?*

*while reading Kathleen Raine's, City of Imagination, last studies in William Blake, Golgonooza Press, Ipswich, 1991, i noted:

reality is mind including matter, not mind denied by the presence of matter

...and now i move into the outdoor interior of the neo-classical palace (garden) composed of formal lawns and flower beds bordered by dwarf rectangular hedges in an imposed design which, like the buildings on three sides, is constructed of earthly materials but can be experienced as imaginal (as product of, or presence of, mind)

...but the things of natural evolution, are they too the products of thought?... difficult to believe, but that is what Blake meant (apparently)...

...and is that what is implied in the call for a more human technology, or world!

...the way to resolve the global crisis may entail the rethinking of science, of philosophy, and of reality itself!... though the greater need is not to solve problems but to live better lives...





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