William stoddart the essential titus burckhardt

Metaphysics and Virtue in Sufism plastic, receptive substance—or materia prima—(passive). The integration of these complementary principles in primal Unity belongs to the realm of metaphysics, and not to cosmology.

It has just been said that Sufi psychology does not separate the soul from either the metaphysical or the cosmic order. The link with the metaphysical order provides spiritual psychology with qualitative criteria that are wholly lacking in profane psychology, which studies only the dynamic character of psychic phenomena and their immediate causes. When modern psychology pretends to be a science of the hidden contents of the soul, it nevertheless remains restricted to an individual perspective, because it possesses no means of distinguishing psychic forms that reflect universal realities, from forms that may appear “symbolical” but are no more than the vehicles for individual impulses. The so-called “collective unconscious” has nothing to do with the true source of symbols; it is nothing but a chaotic depository of psychic residues, rather like the mud of the ocean bed which retains traces of past ages.

For profane psychology the only link between the macrocosm and the world of the soul lies in the impressions that reach the soul through the door of the senses. Sufi psychology, on the other hand, takes account of the analogy between the macrocosm and the human microcosm. To this order of ideas belong such sciences as traditional astrology, the symbolism of which has sometimes been used by some Sufi, as well as by some Christian, masters.

The Sufi path can be considered as a way towards knowledge of oneself in conformity with the saying of Mohammed: “He who knows himself (nafsa-hu), knows his Lord”. In the last analysis, this knowledge applies to the Divine Essence, the immutable Self (Huwîya), and thus transcends both the cosmological and the psychological perspective. At a relative level, however, since it concerns one’s individual nature, knowledge of oneself necessarily includes a science of the soul. This science is also, in a sense, a “cosmology”. It is first and foremost a discernment or discrimination with regard to the elements of the soul.

To demonstrate how discrimination with regard to the soul is inspired by cosmological principles, certain very general criteria of inspiration (wârid) may be mentioned. But first of all, it must be made clear that inspiration is understood here, not in the sense of prophetic inspiration, but in the sense of the sudden intuition that is normally provoked by spiritual practices. This inspiration may have very different sources. It is only of value when it comes from 17