Henry Corbin (1903–1978)

Temple and Contemplation is one of the last books of Henry Corbin, and it gathers together five distinct studies in a way that allows them to illuminate each other. While most of them are oriented around summaries and exegeses of religious texts, all of them are concerned with spiritual phenomenology in the context of religious hermeneutics. Each was first delivered at one of the Eranos conferences, with the oldest from 1950 and the newest from 1974, but they were edited into a single volume show more in 1980, and their non-chronological sequence there reflects the development of a set of related ideas.

"The Realism and Symbolism of Colours in Shiite Cosmology" (from Eranos 1972) is the first paper in the book. It is in the nature of a case study in esoteric correspondences, in the context of the phenomenology of color as expressed in hermetic doctrines transmitted through Islamic sources. The key concerns are then alchemy and the subtle body, set in a sort of hierarchical, emanationist ontology. The textual locus for the study is an 1851 treatise "The Book of the Red Hyacinth" by Shaykh Muhammad Karim-Khan Kirmani.

The second paper, "The Science of the Balance and the Correspondences between Worlds in Islamic Gnosis" (Eranos 1973) continues in the same vein, but widens onto a more general consideration of the metaphysical principles involved. The "Science of the Balance" is specifically the esoteric knowledge of correspondences, which identifies qualitative equivalences between the elements of different systems of thought and being. The authority here is the medieval Iranian Shiite theosopher Haydar Amuli, whose Text of Texts supplies multiple systems of correspondences based on the numbers of their elements (numbers which of course have arithmosophical portents as well): the "Balance of the Seven and the Twelve," the "Balance of the Nineteen," and the "Balance of the Twenty-Eight." Considering the second, Corbin's explication of the nineteen guards of Gehenna (Qur'an 74:30) opens onto consideration of light after death and the manner in which spiritual conditions can surpass mortality (99).

The paper "Sabian Temple and Ismailism" (Eranos 1950) is the shortest in this book, but it connects Iranian Ismailism with pre-Islamic Iranian religion, in terms of "the ideal configuration of these ritual monuments, into whose architectural form the soul projects her imago mundi, and thence proceeds to interiorize its every detail, assimilating it to her own substance through a mediation which thus enables her to construct her own microcosm" (134). This study also introduces Corbin's notion of the "Person-archetype," a phenomenon which "accompanies and presupposes the typification of this person in the person of the initiate" (178).

"The Configuration of the Temple of the Ka'bah as The Secret of the Spiritual Life" (Eranos 1965) is a reading of the work of the seventeenth-century Qadi Sa'id Kummi. It picks up the red hyacinth symbolism of the first paper and the Person-archetype concept of the third to arrive at an appreciation of the "jewel at the centre of man" which is the tutelary angel (239). And of course it treats the symbolism of the sacred center and cosmic cube more generally, in keeping with the framework indicated by the title, which includes the twelve edges of the cube interpreted along the lines of "The Balance of the Twelve."

The final text is "The Imago Templi in Confrontation with Secular Norms" (Eranos 1974). Unlike the others, this one does not focus on the intellectual and mystical heritage of Ismailism or even of Islam. Instead, it is concerned with the destruction of "the temple" and the immanentization of its reconstruction. The temple at issue is at least firstly the Jerusalem temple, and its reconstitution and perfection in the visions of Ezekiel and John of Patmos, but also in the Templar "tradition," whereby the Templars regenerate the Temple in their order, and then their esoteric successors regenerate Templarism in new initiatory societies. The lore of Templarism then connects with the Grail and its mythic and transcendent Temple.

Most of these studies express a dissatisfaction with the limitations of modern and "historical" perspective, as contrasted with traditional and "phenomenological" alternatives. In addition, they frequently gesture at the cross-cultural importance of ideas regarding "a category of spiritual persons in this world" whose hidden perfection makes possible the ongoing avenues of mystical attainment and religious redemption (34-5). This lore of secret chiefs and HIMOGs is explicitly related to the interior church which "presupposes neither ritual nor initiation ceremony" (254).

I have read six or seven of Corbin's books, always with profit to my understanding of Islam, the dynamics of esoteric religion, and personal spiritual development. Of all of them, Temple and Contemplation speaks most directly to my sustained perspective and interests. show less

The author presents some thought-provoking ideas about Iranian Sufism. Like many French authors, however, Corbin is rambling, repeats the same ideas endlessly, and has a very high syllable-to-content ratio.

Although written in part as a continuation of Corbin's Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, this volume stands on its own, and is perhaps of even more general interest. In it, the author proposes an esoteric continuity in Iranian religion from Zoroastrian antiquity to the present, and for his demonstration he focuses on comparing the "Mazdean Imago Terrae" to the "Mystical Earth of Hurqalya." These are respectively Zoroastrian and Muslim approaches to the Celestial Earth of the show more title, while the Spiritual Body is represented through the systems of pneumatology which Corbin classes as a "fundamental theme" of Shi'ite gnosis (77), also prefigured in Mazdean doctrines. Following Corbin's essays, the larger part of the book is filled with eleven selected translations from Shi'ite mystics, presented chronologically from Suhrawardi in the 12th century to Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i in the 19th.

Corbin is a very demanding writer, and although this book is rewarding, it is no easy read. Not only is he an expert in a culture strange to most Anglophone readers (and he is unconcerned to shield us from technical specifics), he is unmistakably a mystic himself, given to delighting in the paradoxical expressions that demonstrate how the object of his interest transcends rational analysis. At the end of his essay on "Hurqalya, Earth of Resurrection," in his effort to communicate to the reader that "boundary where the boundary ceases to be a boundary and becomes a passage," he refers the reader to two pieces of music! (105) Sufficiently engrossed by this book and its messages, I dutifully tracked down recordings of Richard Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration" and the closing chorale of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, but making those references so central to his exposition really robbed it of its communicative power in the moment of reading.

Even so, the content of this book--both the essays and the translations--is so valuable to those with genuine mystical aspirations, that I recommend it heartily. It is especially apposite for Thelemites pursuing the "Life" of Liber CL. show less

This book was a demanding but worthwhile read. Corbin analyzes the Sufi mystical experience in academic terms, but he also does his best to describe something that transcends words and to nourish the reader's intuitive understanding. He has his own political and religious agenda, but instead of steering him into a blinkered mindset, his beliefs serve as a creative springboard. He does tend to be repetitive, but this is probably necessary in order to maintain the reader's concentration. This show more is a quirky and brilliant book, and it falls into the same general milieu as work by Louis Massignon and Gershom Scholem. I highly recommend it! show less