Relating different ways of knowing

Theories of Correspondences -- and potential equivalences between them in correlative thinking (Part #3)

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But the argument here is that the continuing influences of such contrasting theories of correspondences are indicative of different ways of knowing (and managing "moonshine") -- irrespective of the degree to which they consider each other to be irrelevant. Most perspectives may indeed be judged "wrong" from another perspective -- and this may indeed be a way of distinguishing perspectives. But the challenge between disciplines, between belief systems and between cognitive frameworks is how better to provide coherence to insights arising from such contrasting views (as in the X-ray diffraction pattern metaphor).

As noted by Lee Irwin (Daoist Alchemy in the West: The Esoteric Paradigms), Daoist Five Element (wuxing) cosmology is based on a theory of correspondences very similar to theories developed in the Greco-Roman world and subsequently passed onto Medieval Europe. Antoine Faivre and Karen-Claire Voss (Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions, Numen, 42, 1, 1995, pp. 48-77) suggest that modern Western esotericism is a form of thought identifiable by the simultaneous presence of four to six components including the idea of universal correspondences and living Nature. A very influential exponent of the theory of correspondences was the mystical philosopher, theologian and scientist Akel Ismail Kahera (Gardens of the Righteous: sacred space in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Cross Currents, September 2002). Emanuel Swedenborg, who had derived the insight from Plotinus and notably applied it to interpretation of the Bible. Expressing a perspective praised by Wolfgang Goethe, he noted in 1758 that:

The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world -- not just the natural world in general, but actually in details.  So anything in the natural world that occurs from the spiritual world is called a correspondent.  It is vital to understand that the natural world emerges and endures from the spiritual world, just like an effect from the cause that produces it.

In a review of a contemporary biblical study by social anthropologist Mary Douglas (Leviticus as Literature, 1999), Don Handelman (Journal of Ritual Studies, 18, 2, 2004, pp. 162-168) remarks:

Douglas argues that the cosmos of Leviticus (in my terms) is held together through analogical or concrete thinking. That is, through analogies added to and layered onto one another, thereby bringing macrocosm and microcosm into alignment.... Douglas's template of analogical thinking is taken from the ancient Chinese, especially from the Confucian patterning of correspondences and its intimate relationship to the idea of the exemplar, the perfect sage, the exquisite model for action, indeed, for praxis. [more]

Irrespective of judgements about the "occult", despite the value attached to some of its proponents and sympathizers (W B Yeats, Arthur Schopenhauer, etc), given its preoccupation with what is conventionally hidden, it might asked how much more hidden the Monster could have been -- and remains to ordinary modes of cognition. It might well be said to be "occulted".

The tragedy for science is that the very sense of elegance and beauty, which purportedly drives many of its proponents, derives to a considerable degree from the aesthetic way of knowing associated with the symbolist theory of correspondences. Indeed, as many authors note, the theory has had a significant influence on many aspects of culture from which people continue to derive meaning. It might even be said to constitute the essence of a cultured understanding through its recognition and appreciation of an implicit interdependence of all things in the universe, and the existence of multiple relationships between various aspects of nature's kaleidoscopic richness. Examples include:

• poetry: Charles Baudelaire (Correspondences / Correspondances, 1857) came to believe that the artist's unique ability to represent truth un-didactically, through symbols and metaphors, was of immense importance; Octavio Paz described analogy as a poetics that expressed the correspondence between the celestial and terrestrial realms; this poetics was nourished In Latin America by Emmanuel Swedenborg's theory of correspondences and the Baudelarian concept of synesthesia, and was seen to function as an aesthetic counter-measure to the fractures of modernity and its resulting alienation.
• music (John Covach, Schoenberg and the Occult: some reflections on the "musical idea", Theory and Practice: Journal of the Music Theory Society of New York State, 17, 1992, pp. 103-118); the Wagnerian synthesis of art forms was a major Symbolist aspiration, encouraged by Baudelaire's theory of "correspondences"
• architecture, as noted by Akel Ismail Kahera (Gardens of the Righteous: sacred space in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Cross Currents, September 2002):

  Finally, we may also speak of sacred geometry as having an inner reality transcendent of outer form, which has remained throughout history the basis for sacred structures. A theory of correspondences underlies sacred geometry, proportions, harmonic relationships, beauty and order, forms of crystal, and natural objects. All are part of a universal continuum and a structure of created existence.

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