Dialoguing with nature through the thought of the heart

Today’s modern Western epistemology and ontology is built upon the scientific method of fragmentation of knowledge, with real world experience so fixed on this one position that humanity now has difficulty moving beyond rational and literal ways of relating to each other and nature as a whole (McGilchrist, 2009).

This paper seeks to offer a differing perspective on, and means of engaging with, nature - aiming to illuminate an ‘interconnected’, heart-centred epistemology by drawing attention to the mystical traditions of Sufism and the Christian East, and the archetypal psychology of Hillman, who each highlight the heart as the place of reconnection and transformation (Cutsinger, Ware, Corbin).

This paper suggests that the dynamic symbol of the heart speaks urgently to our own troubled times as the mediator between the rational and the non-rational worlds, and when embodied as metaphor, could support the development of an epistemological lens through which it may be possible to open up a long-forgotten dialogue.

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