Imaginal
Our imagination is often an early casualty of our culture’s focus on productivity, practicality, and reality. We feel pressured to stay constantly busy, managing projects or solving problems—leaving little time for our minds to wander. Imagining and dreaming are frequently dismissed as frivolous distractions, yet nothing could be further from the truth.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
Albert Einstein
From a purely practical standpoint, it is through the imagination that new ideas emerge into our world, whether they are technological innovations, architecture, film, or art. Every great advancement begins as an idea and takes shape in the mind before it becomes a reality.
Imagination is also essential for healing. James Hillman noted that “imagination itself must be cared for since it may well be the source of our ailing.” By honoring the imaginings that appear to us we often find a reduction in suffering. They provide insight into our problems that our rational minds don’t always see.
C.G. Jung created a technique called Active Imagination, which involves tending our imagination and working with the images that appear to us in waking life and in dreams. Images are not just projections or here to meet our needs—they have lives of their own. Jung said that through active imagination a new situation is created in which unconscious contents are exposed in the waking state. By engaging with the images that emerge we can uncover aspects of our unconscious and gain insight into any challenges we face. The process can also help us to become unstuck and to move forward in our lives.
Nurturing our imagination opens us to creativity, healing, and transformation. Far from being an idle indulgence, imagination is a vital force that shapes our inner world and the world around us.