What is Active Imagination?

Active imagination is a method of introspection in which we observe the flow of our inner images. So its a means of seeing imagery within the mind’s eye without trying to control it and to engage with the imagery that appears. The object is to open a dialogue between conscious and unconscious content and to give a voice to different sides of the personality.  

Jung developed this method while working on his red book. It arose from his personal experiences while exploring his own unconscious and it became one of the pillars of his psychology. He started working on the Red Book during a time that was very difficult for him. Jung had worked with and developed a close friendship with Freud. But at one point their roads diverged and their friendship ended because Jung’s views differed from many of Freud’s.

So this was the time, after the end of their friendship, that Jung fell into a very difficult place in his life - a place of disorientation. This was the time he started to dive deep into his inner world through his dreams, the process of active imagination and image making. He had lost his direction in life and yet there was an inner pressure for these inner images to arise. But while there was a lot of these inner images arising, there was also a resistance towards them. It felt very risky for him to let go and enter this imaginal world because he had worked with schizophrenic patients and he had seen them get lost in their fantasies. So he was afraid that the same thing was happening to himself. He said:

“Though such imagination is present everywhere, it is both tabooed and dreaded… so that it even appears to be a risky experiment… to entrust oneself to the uncertain path that leads into the depths of the unconscious.” 

Finally one day he decided to let go and he let himself immerse in the images - he let whatever was there to rise up. He was sitting in his desk with his eyes closed and first felt that he was floating somewhere in space. Then he felt himself fall downwards, downside a mountain or a hill. Then in his imagination he came to a stop and looked around and saw the side of this hill - which was a familiar scene as he lived in Switzerland. Then he saw a cave, went closer to it and saw a fire there and two figures:

“I caught sight of two figures, an old man with a white beard and a beautiful young girl. I summoned up my courage and approached them as though they were real people, and listened attentively to what they told me. The old man explained that he was Elijah, and that gave me a shock. But the girl staggered me even more, for she called herself Salome? She was blind. What a strange couple: Salome and Elijah. But Elijah assured me that he and Salome had belonged together from all eternity, which completely astounded me They had a black serpent living with them which displayed an unmistakable fondness for me. I stuck close to Elijah because he seemed to be the most reasonable of the three, and to have a clear intelligence. Of Salome I was distinctly suspicious. Elijah and I had a long conversation which, however, I did not understand."

Through these encounters, he discovered inner personalities which are part of the psyche that act autonomously. The imaginal world became a place of stability for him, so unlike the ever-changing nature of dreams, active imagination is much more stable. It nurtured him, and became a source of wisdom for him. Over time, through the process of active imagination, dreamwork and creative exploration, he had a set of characters that he would always return to, they developed into a kind of personal myth for him -  they revealed the living myth of his soul and that gave his life direction

I was driven to ask myself in all seriousness: “What is the myth you are living?” I found no answer to this question, and had to admit that I was not living with a myth, or even in a myth, but rather in an uncertain cloud of theoretical possibilities which I was beginning to regard with increasing distrust. I did not know that I was living a myth, and even if I had known it, I would not have known what sort of myth was ordering my life without my knowledge. So, in the most natural way, I took it upon myself to get to know “my” myth, and I regarded this as the task of tasks…” 

So essentially active imagination is a method of uncovering the myth we are living and how that myth is ordering our lives.

If you'd like to learn how to do active imagination together with image making you can download my active imagination guidebook for free here: https://www.iabet.fi/activeimaginationguide

Source used:

Jung, C.G., 1997. Jung on Active Imagination. Edited by J. Chodorow. London: Princeton University Press.