.
Chinvat Bridge, Gallicanta, Montemolin, Extremadura: photo by Angel (Angel. G-), 23 July 2004
It is not in the power of a human being to destroy his celestial Idea; but it is in his power to betray it, to separate himself from it, to have, at the entrance to the Chinvat Bridge, nothing face to face with him but the abominable and demonic caricature of his 'I' delivered over to himself without a heavenly sponsor.
Henry Corbin (1903-1978): The Paradox of Monotheism, 1976
The Path from Endarkenment (Beckton Park, London): photo by Ian Tindale, 28 August 2008
Every physical or moral entity, every complete being or group of beings belonging to the world of Light...has its Fravarti. What they announce to earthly beings is...an essentially dual structure that gives to each one a heavenly archetype or Angel, whose earthly counterpart he is.
Corbin: Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, 1977
General Warehouse by night (Richmond, California): photo by efo, 12 January 2014
The history of the modern West is the history of "l'homme sans Fravarti."
Corbin: The Paradox of Monotheism, 1976
Corbin: The Paradox of Monotheism, 1976
General Warehouse by nightNo. 2 (Richmond, California): photo by efo, 12 January 2014
It is this Fravarti which gives its true dimension to the person. The human person is only a person by virtue of this celestial dimension, archetypal, angelic, which is the celestial pole without which the terrestrial pole of his human dimension is completely depolarized in vagabondage and perdition.
Corbin: The Paradox of Monotheism, 1976
Corbin: The Paradox of Monotheism, 1976
Berkeley forge. Heavy industry in Berkeley: photo by efo, 5 January 2014
I saw myself present in a world of light. Mountains and deserts were iridescent with lights of all colours... I was experiencing a consummate nostalgia for them; I was as though stricken with madness and snatched out of myself by the violence of the intimate emotion and feeling of the presence. Suddenly I saw that the black light was invading the entire universe. Heaven and Earth and everything that was there had wholly become black and, behold, I was totally absorbed in this light, losing consciousness. Then I came back to myself.
A Persian Sufi, Lahiji, quoted in Corbin: The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, 1971
Summer, Gallicanta: photo by Angel (Angel. G-), 23 July 2004
...to leave this world, it does not suffice to die. One can die and remain in it forever. One must be living to leave it. Or rather, to be living is just this.
Corbin: Cyclical Time in Ismaili Gnosis, 1983
The Search for Enlightenment (Berkeley): photo by efo, 27 June 2008
Sometimes Outside My Window (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 13 January 2014