Last week, I began exploring Active Imagination drawing on the work of Robert Johnson in his book, Inner Work. Active Imagination is a way of dialoging with energies that are in the unconscious part of our psyches. It is often used with those people who populate our dreams. However, it can also be used for other energies that impact our conscious life by personifying complex energies such as fear, worry and anxiety.

In the book, Johnson outlines a four-step approach to using Active Imagination:

1. Invite the unconscious

2. Dialogue and experience

3. Ass the ethical element of values

4. Make it concrete with physical ritual

Johnson also includes a preliminary step before beginning the four-step approach. He recommends deciding on the mode of recording the dialogue when you engage the energy. This can be pen and paper or a computer. However, he stresses that it is important to record the dialogue in a physical way in order to make it real. This is similar to recording your dream in a written form in a dream journal. Johnson also notes that there can be other ways to record your dream such as using art or dancing. It is also important to have a physical setting which is conducive to this enterprise similar to having an area which can be used in meditation i.e., an area where you won’t be disturbed. In effect, you need a room of your own to draw on the work by another author. I will give a brief summary of each step.

1. The Invitation In this step, you invite the inhabitants of your unconscious to come into your conscious awareness. Johnson notes that the object of this is not to control the energy but to engage in a conversation with it and allow the energy to respond as in any conversation. It is important to allow the energy to take on a personal form. IF this does not happen spontaneously, you can ask it to do this.

2. The Dialogue As Johnson describes it, the dialogue is, “mostly a matter giving yourself over to the imagination and letting it flow.” At this point you record the dialogue as it happens as well as anything else that the figure does.

3. The Values Now that the image is engaged and in dialogue, it is important to ensure that you do not allow it to rule the roost, so to speak. The figure may want you to express what it represents and live out its impulses in ways that go against your basic values and even be against the law and customs of our culture. Your ego is an equal participant in the process and should not believe that the unconscious energy is necessarily superior in knowledge of wisdom.

4. The Ritual The Ritual step applies to dream work as well as Active Imagination. To quote Johnson, “whenever you do any form of inner work and bring it to an insight or resolution, you should do something to make it concrete.” This does not mean that it should be acted out - see step three. It does mean doing a physical action i.e., ritual which will integrate it into you practical life.

As I noted, this is a brief summary of the process to use in Active Imagination. For more information, I would refer you to the book or to someone who has experience in this practice. It may not be for you as no one method is for everyone. However, it is definitely worth exploring and it may be a blessing on your journey.