I am working on my first essay. Out of the dozen or so topics, I chose to work on one that has me analysing one or two texts using the four fold hermeneutic. Which is a fancy way of saying a four layer method of analysis and interpretation. It is usually used on scripture to talk about the meaning (step 3) behind the allegory (step 2), which is behind the literal (step 1). Where it gets interesting is in step 4 – when you allow yourself to meditate on, or brood over, the text; allowing all three levels of meaning to penetrate you and change how you are in the world. It is a way to know the gods, your own soul, and the relationship between the two. One of the things that is really cool is how much the ancient theurgists have in common with Jungian analysis. The role of the imanginal, rather than the imaginary, as a kind of mesocosm – the place between the world of humanity and the realms of the gods/divine – is a key to both. It is a really interesting thought experiment/meditation to go there in a state of prepared openness and see what comes. Then the task becomes one of sifting and sorting begins – to know which is the content of my own psyche or ego, and what seems to come from the collective or the divine. This is not to say that the realms of the gods are merely a collection of archetypes, but that here, in the mundus imaginalis is a place within me where they may meet. I hope that something fruitful may be born.

The compass rose embedded in the floor as you walk into the library