Definition.
Popularized in the West by scholar Henri Corbin, the term imaginal pertains to the subtle domains of psyche. In this case, the definition of ‘psyche’ may be expanded to transcend the merely individual, embracing the terrains of shamanic journeying and other visionary states. Though the word shares a root with the word ‘imaginary,’ this does not imply that imaginal phenomena are unreal or ‘made up.’ The imaginal domain is understood as being psychically and/or spiritually real.
Similar to the Greek onar (the world of dream, as opposed to the hypar, the material world), we engage the imaginal by way of the faculty of imagination.