Active Imagination — A Gateway To Your Inner World

As I have engaged with my own inner work over the years, active imagination has become one of my favorite tools for self-discovery. Just this past week I have utilized it twice, once to continue working with a potent dream image, and once to hold space for and elucidate an emotion moving powerfully through my system. Active imagination allows us to open up communication with the unconscious, while our conscious ego is still present. Unlike dreams where we are recalling scenes that have already happened, in active imagination we can consciously step into the imaginal state in order to interact directly with the images, emotions, or symbols that are arising.

So what exactly is the practice of active imagination, and how can you get started using this tool?

Active imagination is a meditative practice that was developed by Carl G. Jung in the early 1900’s during a period of significant inner turmoil. At the time, disturbing visions and symbols were regularly rising up within him. As a psychiatrist, he was used to hearing his patients talking about visions and images, and so he deeply feared succumbing to the psychosis he witnessed in others. In an effort to make sense of the unconscious contents that were regularly making their way into his conscious awareness, he started to use his imagination to engage directly with these figures, images, visions, and fantasies. What he found in this imaginal landscape were characters that were decidedly autonomous. He could interact with them, and they possessed differing viewpoints and wisdom than his personal ego possessed. Can you imagine being Jung at the onset of this discovery? Perhaps wondering if you had indeed gone mad. Nevertheless, he persevered in his exploration of this previously uncharted inner territory. And his lived experience proved not to lead to madness, but rather to great discovery.

Jung became a cartographer of the mind, though that perhaps was not his initial intention. Through his diligent inner work, his practice with patients, and his extensive study of mythology, religion, and art he began to see that certain universal symbols or archetypes kept presenting themselves. These archetypes formed the foundational ground of what he would later call the collective unconscious. A massive conglomerate of symbols that unconsciously we all inherit. You may be wondering what this collection of symbols has to do with you, and why it’s important that you learn about it. Well, the overarching purpose of Jungian psychology, and the techniques used within it, is to facilitate greater relationship between the conscious ego, and the much more expansive unconscious mind. In order for the conscious mind to initiate this relationship, it is important for it to understand that the unconscious psyche speaks in a language that will initially be unfamiliar to it. The unconscious does not communicate in clear and succinct sentences, but rather in symbols, images, and emotions. And if we take to these symbols, images, or emotions too literally, we will often miss the message entirely.

You now understand that there will initially be a language barrier between you and your unconscious mind. But with patience, curiosity, and a little research, you will find that you can work with any symbol that arises. So let’s discuss some of the ways that you might find yourself invited to do some active imagination.

Within our nightly dreams we can find much rich material to work with. Do you remember any dreams that lingered with you long after you awoke? It may have been a whole dream or perhaps just a specific image or potent feeling that stuck with you. You may have wondered, what does this mean? Why would I be dreaming of this? The contents of your dream may have even disturbed you. But when we learn that our dream images are symbolic and shouldn’t be taken literally, curiosity can be allowed to blossom. Jung saw our dream images as natural and spontaneous messages that arise from our unconscious mind with a specific goal. To move the entirety of the psyche towards wholeness and balance. He witnessed that the unconscious mind utilized dreams as a sort of balancing function when a person’s conscious attitude became too rigid or extreme. In our own lives we can therefore view dreams as an opportunity to learn more about ourselves, our potential imbalances, and about what symbols might help us to move towards wholeness. When you awake from sleep and can recall a dream image or feeling, active imagination allows you to re-enter that dream in order to continue the work that the psyche had started. So how do you do just that?

I like to find a quiet place where I am unlikely to be disturbed and I can fully relax. I get comfortable in a chair, or lying horizontally on a firm surface. My favorite is a yoga mat on the floor. It is important to be comfortable enough that you won’t be overly distracted by your body, but hopefully not so comfortable that you are likely to fall asleep. I close my eyes and begin to connect to the sensation of my lungs filling and emptying with my breath. Drawing awareness to the places where my body makes contact with the surfaces that support me. When I have settled into the present moment, I turn my attention inward, to the image, emotion, or scene that made a strong impression on me in a dream. With inner vision, I begin to see the scene take shape. When I am sitting in the midst of the dream image, I look around to the symbols or people (people are often symbolic in dreams as well and stand in for qualities that you may associate with the person) that are present, and I decide which one I wish to interact with. That I wish to understand or continue to work with.

I recently awoke from a dream in which I saw my father with a bloody and graphic wound that he was entirely unaware of. I awoke with lingering feelings of shock, horror, and fear. I knew immediately that I needed to continue to work with this dream image. So I did exactly what I detailed above. I returned to the scene and saw myself standing in front of my father, his gruesome wound demanding my attention. Fear, horror, and shock again coursed through me. My first inclination and desire was to heal him. And so I imagined the fragmented piece of his skull that was lying on the asphalt, rising up and reattaching to him. Restoring him to wholeness and health and erasing his wound. But try as I might, it wouldn’t stick. It dawned on me then that this desire was my ego’s pattern. I had always wanted to heal and fix my father. And that had never actually been my job. So instead I sat down, and continued to feel the horror, the shock, and the pain of knowing that he was hurt, and that I was not capable of removing this wound from him. After a certain time, my hand reached out to his wound, the scrap of skull lying before me, and I picked it up to cradle it within my hands. It made the grief and sadness in my heart intensify almost unbearably. But then my right hand rose up to touch my own skull, and as it dropped back down onto my lap, I saw that I had a wound that was identical to his. My emotions crested and crashed like a mighty wave before dissipating from my body, leaving in their wake nothing but intense compassion for the man before me. I felt as if I understood him as never before, and was finally willing to allow his life’s journey to be his own. To return to him the responsibility for his own growth, development, and healing. His path was not my own. With a smile I returned my wound back to myself, taking responsibility for what was mine, as I rose up onto my feet. I gently and lovingly placed my father’s wound onto his own lap. Giving him the wound that belonged only to him. That symbolic act, of returning what I had unconsciously taken from him, allowed something beautiful to take place. He gazed down at that piece of himself, and slowly, almost uncertainly, raised it to his own scalp, where it immediately fused and healed. And I watched my father transform from an old, fragile man, to one decades younger and full of youth and vigor.

As you can imagine, this experience was profoundly moving for me. I have had a troubled relationship with my father for years, and through this dream and active imagination, I have experienced a monumental internal shift. I no longer feel as if I am carrying a wound that is not my own, or taking responsibility for another’s life path. It feels as if my psyche was inviting me to leave behind something that was weighing me down, and keeping me in some ways from fully committing to the path that I am meant to walk. It also opened up for me a deep and meaningful inner relationship to the father archetype. I have continued to sit and visit with the image of my healed father full of youth and vigor. I clearly feel the love that he has for me, and the encouragement that he offers me on my own journey. Something I have always longed to receive — given to me from an autonomous character within the unconscious.

Using your imagination in this way might at first seem foreign and strange to you. You might even wonder if this kind of work is accessible to you. I am hoping that with all that I have shared, you will find yourself willing to give it a try. I can promise that the unconscious psyche wishes to make contact with you, and will respond to your efforts. If you choose to put yourself out there and to build a relationship between your ego and the unconscious, you will find yourself connected to something vast and great. This relationship will enlighten, sustain, and guide you towards a life full of soul, vibrancy, joy, and depth.

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I want to acknowledge that approaching the unconscious can be a very daunting task to undergo by yourself. If you are hoping to have a companion and guide to illuminate the many twists and turns along the path, I would love to discuss what working together could look like. Book a connection call below to share where you are on your inward journey, and learn how to best continue your own work.

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