Archetypal Improv

by Richard Reeve on March 27, 2009

in AziMuth

Caballero Aguila
Image by AleCue via Flickr

The Unconscious will have its way with us if we do not pay attention to it. Compulsion, fears, a host of destructive behaviors from the instincts run amuck, these are but a few of the tools the Unconscious seems quite content to unleash in the inattentive, or unexamined life, it’s reckless fury.  So the challenge is building the bridge, finding ways to build relationship to those parts of ourselves that are not personal, but are powerful.

Active imagination is a technique that Jung taught which could take many shapes.  Writing, drawing, movement, sand play all could be vehicles to engage and improvise with these forces which inhabit us.

The task is simple to define, but it can be difficult to encounter: to engage the dream while awake.  Jung provides this simple task as a path of entry:

“He should occupy himself intensively with his mood in an uncritical frame of mind, becoming absorbed in it, and noting down on paper a description of the mood and all the fantasies that emerge.  In doing so the fantasies will be allowed the widest free-play.  Out of this occupation there emerges a more or less complete expression of the mood, which reproduces the contents of the depression as extensively and faithfully as possible.  Since the depression was not made by consciousness, but represents an unwelcome intrusion on the part of the unconscious, then the expression of the mood so produced is a picture of the tendencies of the unconscious as a whole, which are contained in the depression.”  Carl Jung The Transcendent Function, Pg. 17

Rendering the image of the mood, even depression…give it a try.  You might be surprised where this type of play leads you.

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  • To continue your thought--

    Which is why I have never enjoyed traditional meditation. The best kind of meditation for me involves me doing one of three things: 1.) Hiking in seclusion; 2.) Painting or drawing; 3.) Writing. It is only while engaged in these activities that I can fully create and think upon my inner self.

    <abbr>Screwed Up Texan´s last blog post..You Can Help End the Cycle of Abuse</abbr>
  • Hey Allie,
    Right, we need to find what ever works. Jung used to sit on the edge of the lake at his retreat house for hours with a stick and make little rivulets in the shoreline for the water to play in...
  • Yay verily, as you know, I second this suggestion. Though Jung didn't say much specifically about active imagination, we sorta know what he meant. It's primal: letting the gods be heard, listening to the insistent inner whispers.

    Using the tools of art help a lot in focusing our active imaginations, but the concept includes interacting with any new tool. Even artists benefit from trying a new medium. When you have Beginner's Mind, you have nothing to lose. Observing, you are able to differentiate the Forces; you are susceptible to cosmic leaps of understanding.

    An easel sits behind my desk, generally untouched, but there and ready to serve when the only remedy is letting the unconscious speak.

    <abbr>Mary H Ruth´s last blog post..Illusions</abbr>
  • Thanks for your poignant contribution Mary. In the end, Jung's lack of directive is strategic on many levels, for each needs to find their own way. One of the difficulties with all sorts of systems that exist for meditation, martial arts, etc, is they do a great job at many things but allowing for the individual path to emerge.
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