The simple importance of the Image

By Sunday afternoon my mood was dark and I was mentally at a standstill. I was frustrated, tired, and confused with no clear way back to normal functioning. This was the result of an arguement with my girl which started the night before. We were now calmly at odds with no where to go intellectually, both fed up with having arrived at nowhere. I walked into the band studio, dark and quiet, and lay down on the floor to clear my convoluted mind. The very moment I broke through my mood a strong, clear image emerged through the fog: a massive, ultra-thick brick wall with an opening leading to an infinite sea. Along the edge a trickle of water from me to it.

As will happen I've resolved my own doubts about the usefulness of paying attention to images which emerge from the unconscious realm. My experience with images are that they relate more directly to the underlying reality of a thing or idea. Now, it's impossible to know which came first in this example - the image or the breakthrough. But the image, strong as it was, was able to be evoked at will and held in mind as I recovered from the long period of frustration. After such an extended period does not a part of the mind try sometimes to revert, even if we know the difficulty has been surmounted? The image of the wall and sea, with it's accompanying feelings of relief, helped keep me connected with the resource of my grand subconscious* from which I'd been cut off.

I'm also reminded of a time when I was confused about a casual friend. There was an unclear jumble of ideas and feelings about who he was, my relationship with him, and expectations thereof and for a brief time I struggled to put it out of mind. During meditation an image emerged during thoughts of him. The silouette of a young man stands in a doorway, beyond is nothing but clear night sky peppered with stars. Intellectually I had absolutely no idea what this image indicated and neither did it matter. Somehow my mental tangle was relieved by pulling up this image at will, and I did it several times thereafter whenever thoughts of him caused my systems to tighten and clog. Before long I was in the clear and I've hardly looked back. Sometimes we're dragged down by situations - mental or physical - which are beyond our ability to understand or overtly clear up. The Image arrives as a secret passage to resolution of sorts.

For more on the importance of the Image look for A Blue Fire by James Hillman. When i develop this blog further I hope to post downloads of some the recordings I have, including Hillman's excellent readings and discussions from this book.

*Jung tended to use "unconscious" and "subconscious" interchangeably, as I have here. Not sure why, though it's on my radar.