Ep. 48 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Corbin and the Divine Double

In this episode of "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis," Dr. John Vervaeke delves into Heidegger's philosophy, particularly focusing on the concept of Gnosis as serious play and its connection to overcoming nihilism. He explores Heidegger's commentary on Angelus Silesius's poem "The Rose is Without Why," linking it to Meister Eckhart's idea of living without a teleological purpose and remembering the being mode through Aletheia. Vervaeke transitions to Corbin's perspective, emphasizing the importance of the imaginal in recovering Gnosis and bridging the gap between the abstract intelligible world and the concrete sensible world. He critiques fundamentalism and literalism for stifling the imaginal and discusses the significance of symbols as translucent, transjective, trajective, transformative, and trans-temporal. Vervaeke introduces the concept of the Divine Double and Agnes Collard's work on aspirational rationality, suggesting that the angel symbol represents the aspiration towards a better self and the integration of symbolism with self-transcendence.