Active Imagination. Transforming fantasy into awareness (2)
Read here Active Imagination. Transforming fantasy into awareness (1)
Step 3. Ethical Attitude (Values)
In Active Imagination, this step of values and ethics is a very important one. Guided by ethics, the Ego protects the imaginative process in order to preserve its human aspect, to be constructive and not to slide into extremes.
The personified forces of the unconscious are amoral, and it is the Ego that brings the ethical, human and practical aspects into Active Imagination. Jung emphasized that the development of consciousness occurs in the presence of the ethical conflict – we become aware of the conflicting values, of attitudes and behaviors that put us in the position of making a moral decision. The ethical attitude, which is a principle of unity and consistency, is the one that brings balance between conflicting values.
How do we preserve the ethical aspect in Active Imagination?
• we are guided by attitudes and behaviors that are aligned with our values
• we give equal space to the unconscious aspects that arise
• we preserve human values that serve life (those that help us keep relationships alive and a healthy daily functioning)
We also have the right, but also the moral duty to ourselves, to fight back and introduce an ethical alternative when aspects of the unconscious arise that may negatively affect our important relationships or activities. We will listen to what an unconscious aspect has to say and refine that truth into a way that is civilized, humane, and acceptable.
Step 4. Integration (rituals)
The last step of Active Imagination encourages going beyond the abstract, giving it a concrete dimension, connected to everyday life, in the here and now.
It can be a ritual or any other action that aims to integrate the essence of the dialogue into the “fabric” of external life. The integration of the experience into consciousness is necessary for the dialogue in Active Imagination to be truly valuable and to close symbolically.
This physical act can be a practical action or a symbolic act (the most powerful can be the simple, subtle ones).
It is important not to act out the needs and conflicts as they appeared in Active Imagination, but to look at them symbolically, to extract their essence and meaning and then to integrate them into our conscious life. Therefore, it is important that in this dialogue with the unconscious we do not use images of people we know, because there is a risk of confusion between the level of imagination and the lebvel of the physical, external world. Thus, this last step of Active Imagination is linked to the previous step (ethical attitude), in which we bring our values that serve the process of self-knowledge and emotional maturity.
Anca Ghearasămescu
Jungian Psychotherapist, IAAP Router
