This article of mine might make you feel a little dizzy. What I would invite you to do this time is not so much a reading, but an experience. First, watch the short home-made video I filmed while walking on a path in the woods, not far from home, in Umbria, Italy. Pay close attention to the shadow sliding over the rocks, the plants, the earth. (You can mute the sound; silence is possibly more appropriate for this experience). Look carefully at the shadow: it has no thickness, it is not made of atoms nor molecules, yet it has a shape; it is absence of light, yet it is present—existence without substance!
Experience it as if you were walking alongside your own shadow now. (And I invite you to embark on this journey in nature, by yourself, whenever you wish). See the shadow—your shadow—as a symbol. The symbol of a limit—limen in Latin, i.e. a threshold—between your everyday mind and something else. Feel the shadow as a Threshold. WHERE does this Threshold lead you? Try to sense it with your body.
Could this “where” be what the ancients called the Underworld, or some other invisible dimension? I like to call it the Imaginal Realm, as described in the texts of Henry Corbin on Sufi mystics, a dimension that can be explored in meditative states, using Imagination. It has nothing to do with mere phantasy nor wishful thinking, it is a real tool. Imagination (and, more precisely, active Imagination) might be one of the main exploratory functions of the soul. On this side of the shadow, we are here, with our smart, rational, trained mind that we use every day, and that believes to know many things. And perhaps, on the other side of the shadow, there is a much vaster consciousness that knows it doesn’t know anything at all, speaking in a Socratic sense. I would even say it knows it doesn’t need to know or, better yet, it knows without needing to know. This knowing without needing to know—because need belongs only to the mind on this side of the threshold, (the mind that deludes itself into thinking it can control everything, after erroneously considering itself separate from the Whole)—is what the Gnostic tradition called the nous, and ancient Vedas called vijnâna, and what we could translate today as True Knowing. Vedic Knowing, or Wisdom, is a mystical experience; it is the state of being that precedes bliss, ânanda. It is not only stated in the Vedas but in many other texts of ancient wisdom traditions, and some peoples far from our so-called civilization still possess this profound knowledge. It is a revelatory knowing. It is revelation, an epiphany, and it is profoundly lived with every cell of the body on this side of the Shadow, in the here and now, like a reflection of Light.
And what if our shadow were a memento—a sort of magical post-it note—a constant, moment-to-moment reminder that we live simultaneously in two worlds? We are at the same time here and now, in the visible, measurable, tangible world, and beyond, in the invisible, intangible world, as Dante expressed in his Divine Comedy: “Trasumanar significar per verba non si porìa” (Paradiso I, 70-71) – that is, the act of transcending the limits of human nature (in order to reach the divine realm) cannot be explained through words. The experience of the beyond is trivialized, flattened by everyday words. Perhaps, it can only be evoked through poetry or other forms of creative expression that generate imagery. The beyond is the Kingdom of Images. The world we inhabit is the more tangible one: from here, Symbols connect us to the intermediary Imaginal realm, which is also a reflection of the highest, unfathomable, Archetypal dimension, mentioned by Dante in his Paradiso.
We could also call these divine sphere the super-celestial realm, as suggested by some Taoist meditations in which we intentionally connect our roots first to the center of the Earth, and then imagine them extending to the other side of the planet, so as to feel at one with Space, both below and above, and in every other direction.
Another interesting point is that shadow only appears when there is sunlight or another source of light. Similarly, we can only “read” the Image behind the Symbol if we are conscious, awake. Symbols only open to the Light, like flowers do.
So, I really invite you to discover what I discovered while walking, namely, to enter into your shadow as if it were a Threshold, to see what lies on the other side.
This experience happened to me in nature, in a forest: Nature is the privileged place to evoke and receive revelations because it has the ability to make us more porous to the invisible, calming the chatter of the small mind and allowing us to loosen our grip, our inner claw that clings to what we already know. Immersion in Nature enables us to glide into the unknown with a fearless, curious, and inspired heart.
Sparks of Wonder 