The Philosophers Secret Fire - A history of the imagination by Patrick Harpur

Imagination is the ground of reality. What a treasure trove this book is.

"It must be understood that Imagination in the poetic, Romantic, true understanding is pretty much the opposite of what it has come to mean — something unreal and invented....Imagination is independent and autonomous; it precedes and underpins mere perception; and it spontaneously produces those images — gods, daimons, and heroes — who interact in the unauthorised narratives we call myths." P.Harpur

In psychotherapy and mentoring I emphasise engaging with true imagination as vital in being with the ebb and flow of psychic life. Partly a private personal 'world' concealed from others, yet also the universal fount of all life, I believe this 'inner' work enables the individual to truly bring themselves to the world, rather than promoting an isolated withdrawal. Where the soul of the individual meets the anima mundi.

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Andrew Phillips is a Visual Artist, Art Psychotherapist, and Creative Mentor, in Newport, Wales.

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