Active Imagination: Confrontation with the Unconscious — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00“My soul, my soul, where are you?
2. 0:03Do you hear me?
3. 0:05I speak, I call you – are you there?
4. 0:08I have returned, I am here again.
5. 0:11I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you.
6. 0:18After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again…”
7. 0:24Active imagination is a technique developed by the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist
8. 0:30Carl Jung.
9. 0:31It is one of the core concepts of analytical psychology.
10. 0:35He considered it the most powerful tool to access the unconscious and for achieving wholeness
11. 0:41of personality, which is latent potentiality.
12. 0:45At first, Jung didn’t have a name for active imagination, as he was reluctant to publish
13. 0:50work on it.
14. 0:52The Transcendent Function is the first major paper Jung wrote about the method he later
15. 0:57came to call active imagination, before that he had also called it “the picture method”,
16. 1:03or “visioning”, among others.
17. 1:06Active imagination is a dialogue with different parts of yourself that live in the unconscious.
18. 1:12In some way it is similar to dreaming, except that you are fully awake and conscious during
19. 1:18the experience.
20. 1:19This, in fact, is what gives this technique its distinctive quality.
21. 1:24Instead of going into a dream, you go into your imagination while you are awake.
22. 1:30You allow the images to rise up out of the unconscious, and they come to you on the level
23. 1:35of imagination just as they would come to you in dream if you were asleep.
24. 1:41If we honestly want to find our own wholeness, to live our individual fate as fully as possible;
25. 1:48if we truly want to abolish illusion on principle and find the truth of our own being, however
26. 1:54little we like to be the way we are, then there is nothing that can help us so much
27. 1:59in our endeavour as active imagination.
28. 2:02Active imagination is not just an expression of personal content, but of the collective unconscious.
29. 2:09It is an attempt to uncover the quintessentially human.
30. 2:13Jung discovered this method between the years of 1913 and 1916, a period of disorientation
31. 2:20and intense inner turmoil which he called his confrontation with the unconscious.
32. 2:26He searched for a method to heal himself from within, through the power of the imagination.
33. 2:31He wrote: “It was during Advent of the year 1913 – December
34. 2:3612, to be exact – I resolved upon the decisive step.
35. 2:41I was sitting at my desk once more, thinking over my fears.
36. 2:46Then I let myself drop.
37. 2:49Suddenly it was as though the ground literally gave way beneath my feet, and I plunged into
38. 2:55the dark depths.”
39. 2:57After his vision where he met with strange figures of his imagination in a dark cave,
40. 3:03he became covered in imaginative blood, a thick jet of it leaped up and he felt nauseated.
41. 3:09He continued to see fantasies in which blood was a recurring theme, including thousands
42. 3:14of dead bodies and the whole sea turning into blood.
43. 3:18This was just before the outbreak of the First World War.
44. 3:23The culmination of Jung’s experience with active imagination is presented in his Black
45. 3:28Books, written between 1913 and 1932.
46. 3:33He later began to copy these notes into the Liber Novus (the “New Book”), also known
47. 3:38as the Red Book, because of its red leather-bound cover, where he included a medieval style
48. 3:44calligraphy and depictions of his visions from the unconscious.
49. 3:49This book he showed only to a few of his trusted friends.
50. 3:52It was only around 50 years after his death that the Red Book was published in 2009.
51. 3:59Jung delved into an imaginative venture which he referred to as his “most difficult experiment”,
52. 4:05and stated that, “to the superficial observer, it will appear like madness.”
53. 4:10It was not, however, an illness, but a conscious and deliberate experiment.
54. 4:16Jung remained firmly grounded in the world with his family and his work as a psychologist,
55. 4:22and so did not become overpowered by his unconscious.
56. 4:26He began conversations with forces that were not himself, but rather archetypes of the
57. 4:32collective unconscious.
58. 4:34He saw what he called the “mythopoeic imagination” as the intermediary between consciousness
59. 4:40and the unconscious (both personal unconscious and collective unconscious).
60. 4:46Alchemy played a key role in Jung’s understanding of the psyche.
61. 4:50At first he disregarded it as indecipherable nonsense – but he soon realised that the
62. 4:55strange symbols present in alchemy came from the same source he was investigating, the
63. 5:01unconscious.
64. 5:02He continued studying it throughout his life.
65. 5:06In his final great work, Mysterium Coniunctionis, completed at the age of 81, Jung describes
66. 5:12active imagination as the way to self-knowledge and the process of individuation, to becoming
67. 5:18who you are, inspired by the alchemical process of the union of opposites, which in the deepest
68. 5:25sense is inner transformation.
69. 5:28“The alchemical art and its allegories are the drama of our own souls – playing out
70. 5:34the individuation process on the wheel of life.”
71. 5:39The important thing in active imagination is to let the fantasies or dreams run their course.
72. 5:45Jung explained the process in a letter: “The point is that you start with any image,
73. 5:51for instance just with that yellow mass in your dream.
74. 5:54Contemplate it and carefully observe how the picture begins to unfold or change.
75. 6:00Don’t try to make it into something, just do nothing but observe what its spontaneous
76. 6:05changes are.
77. 6:06Any mental picture you contemplate in this way will sooner or later change through a
78. 6:12spontaneous association that causes a slight alteration of the picture.
79. 6:17You must carefully avoid impatient jumping from one subject to another.
80. 6:21Hold fast to the one image you have chosen and wait until it changes by itself.
81. 6:27Note all these changes and eventually step into the picture yourself, and if it is a
82. 6:32speaking figure at all then say what you have to say to that figure and listen to what he
83. 6:38or she has to say.
84. 6:39Thus you can not only analyse your unconscious but you also give your unconscious a chance
85. 6:45to analyse yourself, and therewith you gradually create the unity of conscious and unconscious
86. 6:52without which there is no individuation at all.”
87. 6:56For most people the difficulty is in getting the active imagination started.
88. 7:02However, there is a fundamental precaution that everyone must take before starting active
89. 7:07imagination.
90. 7:09Some people may be subject to being so totally possessed by the flow of images that they
91. 7:14can’t pull out of it.
92. 7:16Their minds get lost in the realm of fantasy and can’t find the way back to the here-and-now
93. 7:22of the ordinary world.
94. 7:24The unconscious is powerful, and if we are going to approach it, we must do so with respect
95. 7:30and care.
96. 7:31Though it is a solitary experiment, it is advisable to have someone close to you in
97. 7:36the beginning in case you become overwhelmed by the imagination or to consult a competent
98. 7:42Jungian analyst before undertaking this technique.
99. 7:46In his book, Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth, the
100. 7:52American author and Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson gives us a guide on how to do inner
101. 7:58work, direct ways to approach the unconscious through dreams and active imagination, and
102. 8:05discover the hidden depths of our personality, enriching our lives.
103. 8:10We will be focusing specifically on how to approach our inner self through active imagination.
104. 8:16Although Jung held dreams in high regard, he considered active imagination to be an
105. 8:22even more effective path to the unconscious.
106. 8:25The difference is this: when you dream, you receive signals from the unconscious, but
107. 8:30the conscious mind does not participate.
108. 8:32Unless you are experiencing a lucid dream where you are conscious that you are dreaming.
109. 8:38In active imagination, by contrast, the conscious mind actively participates.
110. 8:44The ego goes into the inner world, walks, makes friends with or fights with the people
111. 8:49it finds there.
112. 8:51You engage in conversation, exchange viewpoints, go through adventures together, and eventually
113. 8:57learn something from each other.
114. 8:59A new world with unlimited possibilities.
115. 9:03The events take place on the imaginative level, which is neither conscious nor unconscious
116. 9:09but a meeting place, a common ground where both meet on equal terms, it gives rise to
117. 9:14the transcendent function, the Self, that stands as the synthesis of the two opposites.
118. 9:21Active imagination is different from ordinary, passive fantasy.
119. 9:26This is daydreaming: it is sitting and merely watching the stream of fantasy that goes on
120. 9:31in the back of your mind as though you were at a movie.
121. 9:35You do not consciously participate and thus it is a waste of energy, because the issues
122. 9:40do not get resolved.
123. 9:42The “I” must enter into the imaginative act as intensely as it would if it were an
124. 9:48external, physical experience.
125. 9:51Robert gives an example of a woman who was repainting her house and was unable to sleep
126. 9:57because of her obsession with the different colours and designs.
127. 10:01She became irritated toward her husband, who couldn’t understand her.
128. 10:07One night, she entered into a dialogue with an inner being by expressing her mood, “JA”
129. 10:12refers to an androgynous Japanese artist and “E” refers to her ego.
130. 10:19“JA: I am afraid.
131. 10:21E: Afraid of what?
132. 10:23JA: I am afraid that I will be locked up again.
133. 10:26E: Locked up?
134. 10:27JA: There are rarely any opportunities for me to express myself.
135. 10:31It seems I must work very fast and intensely while the door is open to me.
136. 10:36Soon it will be over, and I will be locked up again.
137. 10:40E: I begin to see what you mean.
138. 10:43In my life there have been very few outlets provided for you, so few that I hardly knew
139. 10:48you existed.
140. 10:49The culture I live in doesn’t provide any place for you.
141. 10:53And I have not stood separately from my culture in this matter to provide for you.
142. 10:58JA: That is true.
143. 10:59I feel that I’ve been starving.
144. 11:02This may be my only opportunity…”
145. 11:06In the aftermath of this active imagination, this woman found a new world opening to her.
146. 11:11She had been so tied up with mental work – thinking, analysing, productivity – that there was
147. 11:17no room in her life for the realm of physical beauty.
148. 11:21She talked to this inner Japanese artist figure regularly.
149. 11:25She started spending time working in her garden or at the ceramics workshop and in other physical
150. 11:32or artistic activities that put her in contact with earthly, feminine values.
151. 11:37By honouring this part of herself, she derived a deep satisfaction, a knowledge that she
152. 11:43is nourishing a part of herself that was starving before.
153. 11:46Her sense of who she is had become amplified.
154. 11:51Robert had a patient who made up all his active imagination week after week, just to make
155. 11:56a fool out of him.
156. 11:58He revealed this the last day.
157. 12:00Robert looked at him and the patient’s triumphant expression changed slowly to one of horror.
158. 12:06Tears came to his eyes.
159. 12:08He cursed and realised that all that he was doing was in fact true, but he didn’t want
160. 12:14to admit it.
161. 12:15By trying to conjure up his “fake” story in order to fool Robert, he was spilling out
162. 12:20the secret contents of his interior being.
163. 12:24It is common to ask: “How do I know that I’m not just making all this stuff up?
164. 12:29How can I talk with someone who is only a figment of my imagination?”
165. 12:34Robert tells us that it is nearly impossible to produce anything in the imagination that
166. 12:39is not an authentic representation of something in the unconscious.
167. 12:44You are not just talking with yourself, but with your various selves.
168. 12:49That is the whole point.
169. 12:50The inner figures are autonomous.
170. 12:53This is something we do not want to hear, as it is a frightening reality to know that
171. 12:58we are not the masters of our house.
172. 13:01Active imagination does not only have to do with immediate issues in our personal lives,
173. 13:06but can also take the form of a mythical adventure, a journey into the archetypal realm.
174. 13:12Setting foot into a land of evil, taking on a heroic quest to heal the sick and wounded
175. 13:18and helping an innocent queen.
176. 13:20Each of us has all the great archetypal themes hidden inside.
177. 13:24However, few of us can actually partake in this great primordial energy within us, unlike
178. 13:30our primitive ancestors.
179. 13:33This kind of active imagination connects us to the timeless cosmic dance of the archetypes
180. 13:39that goes on eternally in the unconscious.
181. 13:43It is a way of discovering how those universal energies flow through us as individuals, and
182. 13:49express themselves in a unique and special way within our individual personalities.
183. 13:55Jung’s technique of amplification helps to interpret these archetypal images by using
184. 14:01mythological, historical and cultural parallels in order to “turn up the volume” on the
185. 14:07fantasy material.
186. 14:10Robert gives us a four-step approach on how to get started with active imagination.
187. 14:15But before beginning with the first step, it is important to find a convenient way to
188. 14:19record the imagination as it flows out.
189. 14:23Many give up before they get started because they can’t figure this out.
190. 14:27Your inner dialogue should be written, typed or recorded.
191. 14:30This is your major protection against turning it into just another passive fantasy.
192. 14:36The writing will help you remember and digest the experience.
193. 14:39Just as the woman did in the example given, she wrote “E” to refer to the ego, and
194. 14:45JA to refer to the Japanese artist.
195. 14:48If you type it down, you can use the lowercase setting to type what you are saying and capital
196. 14:54letters to record what the other person in your imagination says back to you.
197. 14:59In this way you can just pour the dialogue onto the page as quickly as they happen.
198. 15:04You can also use a recording device and talk and then transcribe them later, making sure
199. 15:10to distinguish yourself from the unconscious inner being.
200. 15:14This helps to stay in the visionary state and not have it interrupted by our impressions
201. 15:19of the external world.
202. 15:21Use any method that works best for you.
203. 15:23You should not try to “dress up” your imagination and make it sound impressive in
204. 15:28case some other person happened to read or listen to it.
205. 15:32It is highly personal and is something you are doing for yourself.
206. 15:36The goal is to experience and record whatever flows out of your unconscious honestly in
207. 15:42its raw, spontaneous form.
208. 15:46Another important thing is the physical setting.
209. 15:48There must be a room that is quiet and private enough that you can shut off the outside world
210. 15:53for a while, at least half an hour.
211. 15:56You also need to be alone.
212. 15:59If you live with other people, tell everyone in the house that you are not to be disturbed
213. 16:03except for a nuclear blast or the Second Coming.
214. 16:07You are entitled to that kind of freedom, privacy and security.
215. 16:12You need it in order to make your journey into the inner world.
216. 16:15You should be able to let out your raw feelings and emotions without worrying that someone
217. 16:20is watching, or listening to you.
218. 16:24The first step in active imagination is to invite the creatures of the unconscious to
219. 16:29come up to the surface and make contact with us.
220. 16:32Every interaction helps us to develop the organs of perception of the imaginal world.
221. 16:38We often have something vague and invisible in the unconscious that bothers us.
222. 16:44We can feel the conflict just below the surface, but we can’t see what is going on.
223. 16:49We can’t associate it with anything specific.
224. 16:52Sometimes it is an inexplicable, free-floating anger.
225. 16:56We can’t say why we are angry, or at what—we just feel it.
226. 17:01Moods, worries, depressions, inflations, and obsessions all come within this category.
227. 17:08Robert writes: “When this happens, you can go to the unconscious
228. 17:13in your imagination and ask the unseen content to personify itself.
229. 17:18You can start your Active Imagination by asking: Where is the obsession?
230. 17:22Who is obsessed?
231. 17:24Where does this feeling come from?
232. 17:27Who is the one inside me who feels this way?
233. 17:30What is its image?
234. 17:31What does he or she look like?”
235. 17:34If you do this, an image eventually comes into your mind.
236. 17:38We invite the inner persons to start the dialogue.
237. 17:42By taking our minds off the external world around us and focusing on the imagination
238. 17:47we can direct our inner eye to a place inside us, then we wait to see who will show up.
239. 17:54To invite the inner figures, we need to “empty the ego-mind”.
240. 17:59We clear the mind of all thoughts of the external world and simply wait, with an alert and attentive
241. 18:05attitude, to see who or what will appear.
242. 18:08If you see someone, you can begin with asking: “Who are you?
243. 18:13What do you want?
244. 18:14What do you have to say?”
245. 18:16Your dialogue begins.
246. 18:18Surrender yourself to the experience and don’t try to control or push the imagination in
247. 18:23any particular direction.
248. 18:25If you have a certain fantasy material that’s been in your mind all day, you can safely
249. 18:30assume that it is expressing one of the main conflicts where psychic energy is concentrated in you.
250. 18:36You can begin by going to that specific place as a starting point for active imagination,
251. 18:42instead of passively watching the same fantasy repeat itself over and over in your mind,
252. 18:48you carry the material forward.
253. 18:50You can also start active imagination by embodying one of your inner figures and assume their
254. 18:56consciousness, or make your invitation by going to a symbolic place in your imagination.
255. 19:02Robert writes: “For me, the seashore is a magical place
256. 19:06that often appears in my dreams.
257. 19:09When I don’t know how to start my Active Imagination, I frequently go to the seashore
258. 19:14in my mind and start walking.
259. 19:16Inevitably something happens or someone appears, and then the imagination is launched.
260. 19:22There have been a few days when I walked and walked, and almost nothing happened; sometimes
261. 19:29you can grow weary walking.
262. 19:31But generally, if you go to the inner place and search, you will find someone waiting for you.”
263. 19:38Jung also found that active imagination could be used for extending dreams.
264. 19:43If you have a recent dream that you recall or a recurring dream, you can extend the dream
265. 19:48by imagining where the dream left off.
266. 19:51In this manner, you can effectively continue your dream and interact with it by extending it out.
267. 19:58This is a legitimate process as the dream and the imagination come from the same source
268. 20:03in the unconscious.
269. 20:05It allows you to “continue to the story”, go through the next step the dream is leading
270. 20:10toward, and bring the whole issue to a resolution.
271. 20:14Curiously, dreaming decreases dramatically when one does active imagination.
272. 20:20The issues that would have been presented in dreams are confronted and worked out.
273. 20:25As such, dreams become more focused and concentrated and less repetitious, for dreams do not waste
274. 20:32your time.
275. 20:33Jung used to describe this method for people who were too overwhelmed by intense and frequent dreams.
276. 20:41You have invited the unconscious; the images have risen up into your imagination.
277. 20:46Now you are ready to begin the second step, the dialogue.
278. 20:50This is to give yourself over to the imagination and letting it flow, to let the inner figures
279. 20:56have a life of their own.
280. 20:58In your imagination you begin to talk to your images and interact with them.
281. 21:03They answer back.
282. 21:04You are startled to find out that they express radically different viewpoints from those
283. 21:09of your conscious mind.
284. 21:11They tell you things you never consciously knew and express thoughts that you never consciously thought.
285. 21:18To begin the writing process, Jung wrote that: “The alterations must be carefully noted
286. 21:23down all the time, for they reflect the psychic processes in the unconscious background, which
287. 21:29appear in the form of images consisting of conscious memory material.
288. 21:34In this way conscious and unconscious are united, just as a waterfall connects above
289. 21:41and below.”
290. 21:43By focusing on your writing, you concentrate and experience the active imagination more
291. 21:48deeply, protecting you from wandering off into passive fantasies that creep in from
292. 21:54the edges of the mind.
293. 21:55Often the inner person will lead you off on a path.
294. 21:59If you feel that it is wrong to follow the person, you have the right to say so.
295. 22:04That, in turn, will often lead to a heated discussion of the conflict between this inner
296. 22:10person and yourself.
297. 22:11The dialogue has begun, and the different parts of the self are learning from each other.
298. 22:17Most people do a fair amount of talking in their active imagination, exchanging points
299. 22:22of view with the inner figures, trying to work out a middle ground between opposing
300. 22:27views, even asking for advice from some very wise ones who live in the unconscious.
301. 22:33However, not all dialogue is verbal – it can also take the form of images, that speak
302. 22:40to you without words.
303. 22:41It is important to stick with the image that we start with and not allow oneself to be
304. 22:46distracted by other fantasy material.
305. 22:49It may take days, weeks or even years for a certain fantasy to be resolved.
306. 22:55You must be present with your feelings, and sense that it is actually happening.
307. 23:00You are not merely an observer, but an active participant.
308. 23:04Do not try to dominate or manipulate the conversation either.
309. 23:09Active imagination is, more than anything, a process of listening, either to the words
310. 23:15or the images.
311. 23:17After so many years of ignoring these parts of ourselves, seeing them as the inferior
312. 23:21characteristics in our personalities, we find that they have some very unpleasant things
313. 23:27to tell us when we finally listen.
314. 23:30They may also appear as frightening and threatening, this is your Golden Shadow, which you must
315. 23:36wrestle with to find your undiscovered potential.
316. 23:40We must turn a friendly face to the unconscious.
317. 23:43It is only when we humbly listen to them and give them time to express themselves, that
318. 23:49we can gain new insights that can be integrated into our conscious life.
319. 23:53As Jung wrote: “We know that the mask of the unconscious
320. 23:56is not rigid – it reflects the face we turn towards it.
321. 24:00Hostility lends it a threatening aspect, friendliness softens its features.”
322. 24:07The ego is a small island surrounded by a deep unseen ocean of energy where huge forces
323. 24:14are at work.
324. 24:15Active imagination is underwater diving.
325. 24:19Though our ego is small in comparison, we shouldn’t take everything the inner figures
326. 24:24say as final authority.
327. 24:26That would be just as one-sided as our ego-centred approach.
328. 24:31Active imagination starts out from affirming that the unconscious has its own wisdom.
329. 24:36It should not be confused with guided meditation practice, which seeks to “program” the
330. 24:41unconscious so that it will do what the ego wants it to do.
331. 24:45There is no script, nothing is predetermined.
332. 24:49You will have to go your own way, which is both terrifying and exhilarating.
333. 24:54You must ultimately walk the path alone.
334. 24:58The third step is the values and ethical element our ego must introduce.
335. 25:04Ethics is derived from Greek and means “proper conduct”.
336. 25:08It, in turn, derives from the Greek word ethos, meaning the “essential character or spirit”
337. 25:16of a person or people.
338. 25:18It sets limits in order to protect the imaginative process from becoming inhuman or destructive.
339. 25:25The universe is awesome and beautiful, but its forces behave in a way that is amoral.
340. 25:31They are not concerned, as we are, with the specifically human values of justice, fairness,
341. 25:37service to our fellow human beings.
342. 25:40These primitive archetypes serve a realm close to the instincts.
343. 25:44They do not have a super-ego (socially appropriate behaviour).
344. 25:49And since the creatures who arise in our active imagination are personifications of the impersonal
345. 25:54forces of nature, it is we who must bring the ethical into active imagination.
346. 26:00But not all archetypes are like this, some may be concerned with human values, by a sense
347. 26:05of love and moral responsibility.
348. 26:08There is some truth and wisdom in every figure that comes to us in active imagination, and
349. 26:14they help us compensate the one-sidedness of our ego.
350. 26:17Robert recalls a case where a woman had a dialogue with what appeared to be a wise old
351. 26:22man who gave her good insights.
352. 26:25However, one day he told her to hand over her purse and keys, symbolising all her resources
353. 26:32and complete control of her life.
354. 26:34Robert immediately told her to go back and tell him that she must take her things back,
355. 26:40and so she did.
356. 26:42Unfortunately, after a year, she went off on an inflation and became a know-it-all,
357. 26:47trying to dominate every situation.
358. 26:50She became possessed by the trickster archetype and went off a self-destructive path.
359. 26:56It is as much the ego’s duty to bring a sense of responsibility to the creatures of
360. 27:01the inner world as it is for us to tend to the welfare of our fellow humans in the outside world.
361. 27:07Jung wrote: “The images of the unconscious place a great
362. 27:11responsibility upon a man.
363. 27:14Failure to understand them, or a shirking of ethical responsibility, deprives him of
364. 27:19his wholeness and imposes a painful fragmentariness on his life.”
365. 27:24The fourth and last step is the rituals.
366. 27:27To bring the active imagination off the abstract level we must give it the concreteness of
367. 27:33immediate physical experience.
368. 27:35The most important step of all is for the images of the unconscious to find their place
369. 27:41and purpose in one’s outer life.
370. 27:44An important point here is not to take our inner conflicts and urges and try to live
371. 27:49them out externally.
372. 27:51For example, if a man is arguing with his inner figure during active imagination, he
373. 27:56may go and start up the same argument with his wife immediately afterwards.
374. 28:02He will try to live out the imagination externally and literally, by projecting on external people.
375. 28:09For this reason, it is important that one should not call to mind the image of one’s
376. 28:14spouse, friend or co-worker and start talking with that person in one’s imagination.
377. 28:20It is confusing the inner with the outer reality.
378. 28:23If asked, the inner figure will almost always cooperate and alter his or her appearance.
379. 28:30You can then enter into your dialogue with a clear sense that you are talking with a
380. 28:34part of yourself, and not an external human being.
381. 28:38To incarnate the experience, we must do a physical ritual or integrate what we have
382. 28:43learned in our daily life.
383. 28:46This can be taking some alone time to be aware of one’s feelings, lighting a candle or
384. 28:51incense, going for a walk and directing your eyes on the colours of nature and the sky,
385. 28:57reconnecting to the physical world.
386. 28:59Or make it into something tangible with sand play, drawing, playdough, etc.
387. 29:06Jung’s ritual was the calligraphy and artwork of the Red Book, which occupied him for many years.
388. 29:13He took his communication with the unconscious seriously and valued it greatly.
389. 29:19Each ritual must be custom-made out of the raw material of your own inner self.
390. 29:25Keep your rituals small and subtle, and they will be more powerful.
391. 29:29The best rituals are physical, solitary and silent: These are the ones that register most
392. 29:36deeply with the unconscious.
393. 29:39Our tendency in the West is to make everything abstract, to use wordy discussion as a substitute
394. 29:46for direct feeling experience.
395. 29:48We have a tremendous need to get our bodies and our feelings involved.
396. 29:53“Ritual, in its true form, is one of the most meaningful channels for our awe and sense
397. 29:59of worship.
398. 30:01This is why ritual came spontaneously into being among humans in all parts of the earth.
399. 30:07This is why modern people who are deprived of meaningful ritual feel a chronic sense
400. 30:12of emptiness.
401. 30:14They are denied contact with the great archetypes that nourish our soul-life.”