Change is not that hard to imagine. Try on a new vision of yourself. Feel what it feels like to be this new self. Let it sink in to your body and mind. Envision this person out in the world. Notice what reactions you get. Notice how they make you feel. Keep up being this new self in your mind, and keep feeling it in your body, as you mentally embody this new you. Keep your imagination alive and your vision strong as you see yourself in new circumstances, naturally part of a new environment, fully living the new you. The imagination is one of the strongest human assets. Use it to your advantage. If you can imagine it, if you can dream it, you can experience it in reality. Make your dreams come true.
Have patience with yourself just as the bird sitting upon a nest has patience. Soon your eggs too will hatch and new life will come forth. In the meantime envision that new life and what you want it to look like. See it unfolding. See yourself living it. Even as the bird feels the eggs beneath it in the nest it has created it does not question what comes next, for it lives the program as it exists. Humans however can use imagination to bring forth new life, interrupting an old program that no longer works. For the bird, it’s one dream only, but for humans the ability to dream a new dream at any time is truly a gift.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh.” – St. John
“Thou shalt not Covet thy neighbor’s wife.” – Tenth Commandment
What do the words Word and Covet have in common? Both are insubstantial. Both issue from the creative action of the mind’s imagination. Imagination is the causal dimension of physical reality.
The mind’s imagination produces the energetic blueprint that draws to it and manifests all material creation. The major attractive energetic activity implied in to covet is judged equal to, if not more sinful than, the action of an actual physical affair itself. Imagination is indeed the primal force of creation.
Be responsible for that which you wish for. Be responsible for that which you think. The mind’s imaginative thought is a living entity, brimming with energy. Thought is a seed that once thought must take root and find completion, somewhere, in some form, somehow. Many a fiction novel is an outlet for the karma of unlived thought.
What does a conservative Jew, devout Catholic, faithful Muslim and evangelical Christian have in common? The answer is, reverence for the Law: the written Words in the sacred texts. This reverence for upholding the Law has animated the behaviors of humankind throughout the centuries. Sacred words originating from the thoughts and images in the imaginative mind are the guardians of that which must be obeyed.
In modern psychology these sacred laws and words are the archetypes of the collective unconscious of humankind. These dominants of our shared human psyche govern the unfolding and autonomous functioning of our physiological being, as well as the species specific behaviors involved in mating, parenting and surviving. In fact, all behaviors available to our species are, at core, latent archetypal potentials.
As conscious beings we’ve been granted the free will to obey, innovate, deviate from, or fully ignore the laws of the archetypes. Clearly, the transgender explorations of our time reflect promptings to express new permutations, beyond the limits of established archetypes. One only need consider the pivotal role that the Tenant, a death defier, had on the evolution of Carlos Castaneda’s shamanic lineage. The Tenant was equally facile at manifesting physically either side of humanity’s inherent androgynous nature.
This, of course, gives rise to clashes with conservative upholders of primal archetypes, who feel it their duty to uphold the Law as once imagined and laid down.
Others would argue that if we allow the archetypes to press us into their molds we don’t exercise our obligation to evolve and create. The truth is that archetypal patterns are fixed. The phases of the moon never deviate. However, though the waning phase of the moon may urge that new enterprises not be initiated during this phase, a rogue adventurer might launch a successful enterprise anyway, though lacking the moon’s archetypal energetic support.
Typically, archetypes are nature’s best course of action, but humankind was issued consciousness to steer life into new possibility with greater efficiency. For example, to love one’s enemy is an innovative advancement from an eye for an eye, which seeks a new solution to conflict and opposition. So, sometimes archetypes in their primal form fit a need, but at other times, archetypes must evolve to ensure the present survival of the species.
By understanding and respecting the dominance of the archetypes upon life, we are freed to innovate in the magical world of the imagination. In this subtle realm of thought and image we become the weavers of our own lives. While accepting the concrete facts of our material existence, we are freed to suspend our attachment to the belief systems that manifest and uphold our physical lives and imagine a new and changed reality. The imagination has its own facts of reality.
The often laughed-at placebo effect is the greatest proof that what we imagine can indeed become our physical reality. The more we exercise our imagination to create what we want, the more we become the architects of our lives, drawing to us the material manifestation of our imaginal blueprint. The subconscious mind, the factory that converts imagination to materialization, will respond to suggestion.
Realize, however, that if we depart from an archetype we will be tested; archetypes are fierce warriors. We must be prepared to go it alone, as nature guards her established patterns. We must also be humble in our search for new frontiers, and accept that perhaps our ego is deluded by an inflation that is unsupported by the true needs of the Self.
On the other hand, we were granted the power of imagination to exercise the divine right of our existence to create and innovate, so we have every right to take life forward into new possibility.
We are all granted the freedom to square the facts of our own life with the power of the imagination.
Find nature, no matter where you are, in the quiet within the self, in the inner space of calmness and peacefulness that everyone is capable of achieving. Imagine a quiet country lane, the hills and valleys it meanders through, and place yourself there in the fresh air, the sunlight, the fragrant breeze that cools your forehead. The imagination is a strong natural force, as strong as nature around you, capable of so much. Use it to your advantage to achieve calm and quietude no matter where you are and what is going on in your life. It is your most natural helpful talent!
Stay focused on the positive and with a loving and kind heart envision the world you dream of, inside and outside, personal and collective, for the greater good of the self and the greater good of all. An image is as powerful a tool as all the words in the world. Use your imagination to envision change in your life and in your world. You may discover it to be your greatest power yet.
