soul

IMAGINATION & FANTASY by Claudia Caleffi

IMAGINATION & FANTASY by Claudia Caleffi

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The need and the quest for knowledge and, at the same time, its communication are intrinsic in the nature of the individual. The ability to narrate, whether through myth, fables, song, or poetry, is the fundamental and inalienable dimension of human thought through the use of words, images, and memories.

Scientifically, the parts of the brain that appear to have characterized the evolution of human beings seem to be the frontal lobe and the cortical areas, the areas specifically dedicated to language, imagination, and visualization.

In his writings, Tommaso Palamidessi emphasizes the importance of intellectual faculties such as willpower, attention, imagination, visualization, and memory.

These faculties enable us to empty the mind and focus on a specific goal, until reaching states of mind such meditation and and even beyond contemplation. 

This is the art of knowing ourselves in our innermost being, as well as understanding Nature and the Cosmos and its dimensions. These faculties exist in both men and women in a latent state but can be activated and enhanced through appropriate, consistent, and targeted exercises.

 The human soul, the most sublime part of the individual, has, among other faculties, the contemplative faculty and imagination, whether spontaneous or induced, which is both evocative and invoking. It is defined by these two qualities: creative imagination. Imagination and visualization are based on the universal laws of suggestion, which have the power to keep alive and awake the goal and purpose we have set.

Palamidessi writes:

“Creative imagination, when directed by the fire of a will animated by a precise intention, is as powerful as an oxyacetylene flame and can dissociate, unify, and transmute.”

It can happen to confuse the term imagination with fantasy, and use them interchangeably. But from their etymology differences can be noticed.

The word fantasy has its roots in Latin phantasia and Greek φαντασία (phantasia), which translates as appearance or manifestation. Fantasy tends to have a more ephemeral and abstract connotation, with an association to the term phantom.

On the other hand, imagination comes from the Latin word imago, meaning image.

Imagination represents the sensory perception of reality, capturing the sense of the phrase: in me mago agere – to work deeply within me. Imagination is the combination of two Latin words, imus (meaning bottom or depth) and agere (meaning to act), suggesting a deep inner process that moves the individual.

So, we could consider imagination the means to make visible what fantasy, invention, and creativity conceive. Fantasy might be the source of ideas, while imagination is the process through which these ideas are made visible or realized in some way.

Bibliography:

DICTIONARY OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE – Treccani
ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE – Zanichelli

From the Series of the Archaeosophical School:
AWAKENING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTERS OF STRENGTH – Booklet 15, Tommaso Palamidessi, Archeosofica
ARTISTIC ASCETICISM, COLORS AND PAINTING – Booklet 27, Tommaso Palamidessi, Archeosofica
THE DAILY SPIRITUAL EXERCISES OF THE ARCHAEOSOPHIST- Booklet 41, page 3, Tommaso Palamidessi, Archeosofica

CHANT AND THE ART OF CHANTING by Filippo Costanti

CHANT AND THE ART OF CHANTING by Filippo Costanti

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Everyone needs to express their feelings—now of joy, now of pain—and one of the most effective means is undoubtedly music, either played or sung. Chant is surely the most totalizing means of expression that man and woman have at their disposal. Learning to sing not only means letting vocal cords vibrate to reproduce notes in tune, but also tuning one’s mind and morale to the content of the sung melody. A good singer should be able to perfectly dress the idea and feeling that the composer has imprinted in the composition. In a way, he or she should make this idea his or her own, live it by giving it a body and transmit it to the listener. So it is with good musicians.

Certainly, one can sing just for fun, as a necessity or in order to feel better, but it is understandable that a deeper study of chant makes one aware of the phonatory apparatus (diaphragm, lungs, larynx, resonance cavity, etc.), and it allows for an active research in regards to the psychic, mental and latent capacities of man and woman in an overall sense.

The fact that chant, specifically melurgic chant, is capable of making us become aware of ourselves and use our voices in a harmonious and harmonic way, surely makes this art a powerful instrument for the formation of the individual as a whole, that is, physical and spiritual. “Melurgy”, from the Greek melos, melody or chant, and ergon, opus, means “the action of melody” or “the action of chant” and it indicates the action that a sacred melody, particularly one that is sung, has on man. 

The study of the voice mystery can lead to a profound knowledge of human nature and its relationship with the cosmos. Since ancient times holy chant has been one of the main means for the moral and spiritual education of man. In all traditions music and chant, associated with poetry, are found to be used to sing odes to the deity. Take the development of music in King David’s time in Israel (1 Chronicles 23:5; 25:1, 6, 7), or the use of musical instruments and of choir by the Greeks, of which Pythagoras was one of the founders. Even in early Christianity the gift of song among the Apostles and Disciples is known (Acts 16:23, 24), and of no less importance is the role of music as a liberal art in the Middle Ages.

The soul of man was conceived as a melody to be tuned to and harmonized with the melody of the universe, a reflection of a divine music or harmony. It is to this “tuning” of the soul that the chant in its melurgic-sacral sense, that is ascetic in the highest of meanings, can lead.