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Jungian
Active Imagination & Hypnagogia
"the royal road to
the unconscious"
-C.G. Jung
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Going Deeper
with Active Imagination
"Beyond
the limited circle of light bounding our conscious
mind is the vast darkness of our unconscious mind.
The very ground upon which consciousness stands
is the unconscious mind." - Stephen LaBerge
Active
Imagination practice is as challenging and robust
as any other Soul or Spirit discipline used throughout
history and throughout the world. While several
disciplines have had far and wide promotion (i.e.
prayer in Christianity and meditation in Hinduism/Buddhism),
the proponents of Active Imagination have not been
so well organized or powerful in conveying their
message. Active Imagination has frequently been
an "accidental practice" such as in Alchemy
when these early chemists had their deeper imaginations
activated by their dedication to finding gold in
their retorts and chemicals. Many artists (visual
and performing) turn to Active Imagination with
little awareness of its history or relationship
to Soul and Spirit work to get the insights needed
for outstanding creations.The
following steps are offered to heighten awareness
of just what is involved with consciously applied
Active Imagination practice and outlines much of
the work that is necessary to make this an important
discipline.
STEPS TO A DEEPER PRACTICE OF ACTIVE IMAGINATION
1. Pick a time to do quality work. This is very
important. So many of us have tried to relegate
inner work practice to the time after we get everything
else done. All of our obligations to work, to house,
family, friends, to bills, are done first. Only
then do we sit down to do inner work. By that time
we are too tired to do anything. Do not use "junk
time," that time left over once everything
else is taken care of to do quality inner work.
It won't work. This does not mean giving up your
day job but it does require awareness of when your
energy is appropriately high for this sort of work.
Find the means to carve out good time for this important
work.
2. Use Pre-Active Imagination
work to turn inward and to create the ambiance
for Active Imagination.3.
When the ambiance is right, introduce a topic to
be explored or allow a topic to show itself.
If it feels right
to introduce a topic, try:
- an image or
feeling from a very recent dream
- an image from
a very recent time during your day world
- a mood from
your day world
- a powerful
image/feeling from other sources (i.e. the
Tarot, art, film, literature)
If it feels right to
allow a topic to come up, try:
- to trust the
process
- to allow for
more depth so that an important topic can
up (avoid the "chit-chat" that
we so often face when not going far enough)
4. Once
a topic has been agreed upon, stay with it. Try
to stick to the central image. This doesn't mean
that it can't change, it will. Try to let the topic's
full drama unfold rather than expecting/seeking
a cascade of images/feelings.5.
Get into the image (physically, emotionally, intellectually,
and intuitively)6.
Remember. It is too easy to let everything just
pass your eyes without reflection, but remember
that one of the primary aims of this practice is
to learn. To learn requires remembering. To remember
requires not a passive approach to what one is experiencing
but a very active one. This is the main reason this
practice is called Active Imagination. To remember
you will need to:
- Take notes
- Tell someone
else what you are experiencing so that they
can record the action
- Or, make the
session last no longer than your ability to
remember the inner events. This can mean that
the session (once you are warmed up with Pre-Active
Imagination) will only be five minutes long.
That's fine, no harm is done with short sessions.
7. Dialogue
with inner figures.
If you can meet or call forward inner figures, do
so. Become come engage in realistic dialogue; personification
is one of the most powerful and important aspects
of Active Imagination. Trust the process and listen
and learn.8. Wind
down. Sessions do not need to be very long. Ten to
fifteen minutes can provide a tremendous amount of
material. Develop a simple process of inner and outward
steps that communicates to your psyche that you are
now leaving this process. Some peple prefer to use
an inner image such as walking down a path towards
their home to make this transition.9.
Emerge and do any needed additional recording of your
experience.10.
Settle back into your everyday world.11.
Do Post Session Work
Do Research
As Needed
Frequently
a special image or motif will come up demanding
exploration after you leave Active Imagination.
Do what research you can and you want to do either
on-line, at a university library or through the
help of a Jungian
Society. One note: for this type of work,
most research only requires a light exploration
of the topic. For instance, if a goddess figure
appears, look at goddess images, get some sense
of how historic and wide spread these images are,
and find one or two that attract you. Also get
a general idea of what these goddesses represent.
Note that it is not necessary, and frequently
a hindrance, to go into too much detail. Going
into detail tends to turn a poetic inner experience
into a head trip. Nothing against head trips,
but if heavy intellectual analysis is used too
early, before one has mastered accessing the unconscious,
it will be an obstacle, pulling you away from
the work you need to do. Once a reasonable level
of mastery is achieved, then deeper research will
not only not interfere with Active Imagination,
it will serve to deepen it. However, in the beginning,
try to keep to the gut level nature of what you
experience. This will keep you motivated and connected
to the ambiance created by Active Imagination.
Do Something With It
Many Active
Imagination practitioners and teachers recommend
doing something with you experiences. Writing,
journaling, sculpting, painting, and dancing
are just some of the means of taking an experience
and bringing it into this world by giving it
form. Giving it form will give it a greater
place in your life and will further activate
the unconscious.
Keep To Your Promises
If one is
going deep enough in Active Imagination one encounters
inner figures (either from a dream, spontaneously,
or from an exterior image such as a Tarot card).
Inevitably, a promise is made (or should be made)
to these personifications of unconscious processes.
This promise tends to be around some attribute
of the inner figure and some attribute you hold
or wish to hold. Robert Johnson in his fine book
on Active Imagination, Inner
Work, tells of a woman who cuts a deal
with her inner artist. If she makes room in her
busy life for a greater connection to beauty and
art, the inner figure will not pester her through
bad dreams and compulsions. Her life takes on
a new vitality and sense of meaning, but Johnson
warns, she must keep to this promise or this gift
will be lost. When you make such deals, keep to
your promises. This will increase your ability
to hold meaningful dialogues with sometimes reluctant
inner figures.
Keep Quiet and Be Humble
While
you may now have a new understanding, an understanding
that is well beyond your friends and family,
don't be arrogant. Treat whatever you have received
as a delicate gift. If you hold it just right
you can possess it and learn more from it, but
if you are not careful, this gift can become
beat up and distorted. You don't have all of
the answers---you just have another piece of
a very large, complex, and when it gets down
to it,---a very mysterious, puzzle.
Change/Enlarge/Grow
You have
been presented with insights about life and
these insights must be applied to open your
perspective on the inner and outer world. Insights
gained in Active Imagination tend to expand
one's view by showing a new side to an issue.
They weaken our old certainties, making room
for new understandings and receptiveness. Active
Imagination is synthesis and we need to carry
this synthesis forward in our choices, our expectations,
our demands.
12. Start Again
A CAUTION
If you have
any psychiatric condition or suspect that you
might have some difficulties handling your dreams,
work with the imagination, or maintaining a comfortable
grasp on the requirements of everyday living,
please do not work with Active Imagination alone.
Work with mental health professionals who can
advise you on how best to approach this sort of
work.For those
who have no such problems, Active Imagination
should make for a helpful and exciting way of
learning how to live a meaningful and more expansive
life.
Resources:
- Go to Learning
Resources for a list of books outlining this
technique.
- Johnson,
Robert A. Active
Imagination - Tapes. A good supplement
to his book, Inner Work.
- There are
two books, not specifically on Active Imagination,
that convey the general tone of this sort of work.
See:
- Listening
to the Oracle: The Ancient Art of Finding
Guidance in the Signs and Symbols All Around
Us -
Dianne Skafte.
- Solved
By Sunset: The Right Brain Way To Resolve
Whatever's Bothering You in One Day Or Less
- Carol Orsborn (Available in the bookstore).
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