transcendence (). As Henry Corbin has documented, the North Pole plays a key part in the cultural worldview of esoteric Sufism and Iranian mysticism. “The Orient sought by the mystic, the Orient that cannot be located on our maps, is in the direction of the north, beyond the north.” The Pole is also identified with a mysterious mountain in the Arctic Ocean, called Mount Qaf (cf. Rupes Nigra), whose ascent, like Dante’s climbing of the Mountain of Purgatory, represents the pilgrim’s progress through spiritual states. In Iranian theosophy, the heavenly Pole, the focal point of the spiritual ascent, acts as a magnet to draw beings to its “palaces ablaze with immaterial matter.”
Fantasy flights often refer to a flight to the North Pole for these same reasons.
See also
South Pole
Arctic exploration
Polaris
Inuit Circumpolar Council
Arctic Council
Arctic Circle
Biome
North Pole, Alaska
Global warming
Santa Claus
References
^ Russian sub plants flag at North Pole, Reuters, Aug 2, 2007
^ John K. Wright Geographical Review, Vol. 43, No. 3. (Jul., 1953), pp. 338-365 “The Open Polar Sea”
^ Henderson, B. (2005) True North W W Norton & Company ISBN 0 393 32738 8
^ http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/pearyfrontis.html
^ Obituary, The Independent June 16, 2007
^ Tom Avery website, retrieved May 2007
^ The North Pole Flight of Richard E. Byrd: An Overview of the Controversy, Byrd Polar Research Center of The Ohio State University
^ The Aries Flights Of 1945, Hugh A. Halliday, Legion Magazine
^ Guinness Book of Records, 1998 edition
^ Concise Chronology of Approaches to the Poles, R. K. Headland, DIO Vol. 4 No. 3
^