the imaginal realm

If you are a Christian or a Muslim, then it is highly likely that you believe in angels, if for no other reason than that the Book you follow speaks of them extensively. Angels do not appear to live in heaven or on earth but in a realm between the two. They are messengers from one realm to the other, usually thought of as from heaven to earth, but I think it is a two-way street. "Go tell them this and that" and then "What did they say? How did they react?" Of course the relay back to heaven could be instantaneous, since God no doubt lives in nonlocal time, if he ever bothers to live in time at all.

So what is this in-between place, this third place that is neither heaven nor earth? Balthasar (Theo-Drama, Volume IV: The Action) refers to such a place in his writing on the Book of Revelation -- "The vantage point from which the seer is shown these things is neither heaven nor earth but a neutral place between the two."

This sounds similar to Ibn 'Arabi's realm of the Imagination in which "spiritual beings, Angels and Spirits" dwell (Henry Corbin, Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi). Not too surprisingly, we have a Catholic theologian and a Sufi mystic, both geniuses of theological insight and comprehension, pointing to a similar locale -- to use Ibn 'Arabi's term, an Imaginal realm.

I think locale is exactly the right word -- an actual spot or location. The Imaginal realm is as real as, but differs from, the Sensory (the locale of sensation) and the Intellectual (the gymnasium of fine thought) realms. And while the Book of Revelation can provide long hours of intellectual gymnastics and is richly sensual in tone, the Book itself comes into being from the realm of the Imaginal.

Voices speak from this realm. Visions come. Knowing with clear deep certainty arises. Even today.