C.G. Jung called the dialogue with “the other”—between the conscious and the unconscious—“active imagination,” and he felt it was the most powerful means he had ever come across to integrate contents of the unconscious.

In active imagination1 we find ourselves being asked to creatively respond and come to terms with the autonomous and seemingly independent voice of “the other” within ourselves. The psychological process of active imagination is the equivalent of the symbolic operations of alchemy. When the alchemists speak of “meditatio” 2 and “imaginatio” (meditation and imagination), they mean cultivating a living relationship and developing a real dialogue with the other in ourselves, i.e. with the unconscious.

When an unconscious content is about to become conscious, it first becomes partially conscious, like something that is translucent—simultaneously visible and invisible. In active imagination, we enter into a creative dialogue with these unconscious contents, midwifing their passage from an unconscious, quantum state of potentiality to a conscious, actual state. To quote Jung:

“The best way of dealing with the unconscious is the creative way…. Becoming conscious and the creative are closely linked.”

There is a German word that Jung uses—auseinandersetzung—which connotes an encounter in which we have it out with and come to terms with these unconscious contents. The decisive factor always comes down to consciousness, which can take a position towards and relative to these unconscious contents as it tries to come to terms with (and understand) them. Notice the similarity to what has been discovered in quantum physics—that the act of observation facilitates the potentiality of the quantum domain to actually incarnate in the particular form it does.

Welcoming the Daemon Into the Light

The daemon is an inner figure—like Jung’s Philemon—that represents our guiding spirit and inner voice, the source of our creative genius. Arche-typically, this figure makes it appearance in times of darkness or crisis. When we sufficiently hold the creative tension of the opposites within us, a creative spirit can potentially arise out of this tension—this is the “coming out” of our daemon3. It is worth repeating that there is an unconscious tendency, however, to identify this inner voice with our own mind, which is a huge mistake. In the emergence of the daemon, we are being invited to relate to it “as if” it is a living being that is other than ourselves. It is simultaneously part of our nature, a figure that travels alongside us an ally throughout our whole life, while manifesting in the form of an “other” with whom we can develop relationship.

Our relationship to our daemon as an inner autonomous figure that guides us in our journey is mirrored back to us via our relationship to our inner demon(s). Relating to our inner guide as a living autonomous and independent being that we can cultivate relationship with is very different than being unconsciously identified with this energy (which is a form of inflation), which blinds us to the true nature of its (and our) existence (thereby blocking us from receiving its full benefit). In the same way, if we are unconsciously identified with our inner demon—potentially even feeling possessed by it—we are unable to relate to it as other than ourselves, and will invariably be fated to act it out destructively in our life.

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