Have you ever found yourself in a situation wherein you needed to hastily jot down notes and were—to a certain degree—confident with your output?[i] Only to realize that when you revisited them, you could no longer make out what you wrote down?
This was the challenge of this particular post. So I am hoping for the best.
Active Imagination
During one of our recent Jung Certification Program classes, my classmates and I had the opportunity to try out a Jungian intervention called Active Imagination (AI). The process involved guiding the participant into a meditative state wherein their unconscious would somehow “reveal” to them possible dreams, feelings, images, or objects of significance. Once the unconscious narrative presented itself, the participant is then instructed to engage it in a dialogue.
Ideally, one who is immersed in such a process should also be mindful to not consciously control the narrative; rather let the possible dream, feelings, images, or objects of interest come organically.
This then sets the stage for this question: How would I know if the narrative developed organically or that I just put it there?
Antiquity
As I closed my eyes waiting for my unconscious mind to reveal itself to me, only one solid image stepped forward: That of Antiquity—a character that I created for my Indie comic book called Lindol.
Dressed in a white onesie Unicorn outfit with a short stock Unicorn staff resting on her right shoulder, the image of Antiquity dominated this activity. Have you ever had that feeling wherein a pair of eyes were always trained on you? That’s how that particular moment felt with Antiquity.
I remember asking myself as this was all unfolding, “No way.”
It was straight out of a scene from the Old West: Two gunslingers on opposite ends of the street. Ready to draw their pistols at a moments notice…except there were no pistols and that it was pitch black.
No words spoken.
Processing
Later on during processing phase of the activity, it came to my attention that if an element of surprise[ii] was involved during Active Imagination–then the dream, feelings, images, or objects of interest did come organically and were not manufactured from the consciousness or the Ego.
That is always good to know.
Subsequently, I also learned that if the same dream, feelings, images, or objects of interest were to somehow reveal itself once again to the participant in a future Active Imagination exercises–it could evolve.
Now that’s exciting.
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[i] I’m sure we’ve all been there.
[ii] There was.
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