Faivre’s notion of ‘correspondences’ has its ultimate origin in Plotinus’ notion of sympathy:5 it suggests that all parts of the universe are interrelated without a need for intermediary links or causal chains, and is therefore clearly meant as an alternative to linear or instrumental causality. ‘Living nature’ stands against mechanistic worldviews as well: it means that the world is conceived of as a living organism permeated by an invisible life force, not as a dead mechanism or clockwork. The notion of ‘imagination/mediations’ suggests a multi-leveled Platonic cosmology as opposed to a
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