E9: What Is The Imaginal? And How Does It Differ From Visionary Processes?

In this post, I answer the question I've been getting ever since I relaunched this website: what is the imaginal? It is a good question and an important inquiry. I'm actually surprisingly happy with where I arrived in my understanding by taking on the topic. This, by the way, is part of the revelatory nature of the imaginal process, and one of the reasons I love doing this so much. Here then is that understanding as I've come to it: I see the imaginal process as a creative access to higher orders of reality, orders of reality which, in an infinitely expanding universe, must continue to expand out in ever widening spheres. These higher orders of reality can be thought of from a theoretical scientific perspective as higher dimensions or unknown areas of understanding about the physical universe. They can be seen from an esoteric, a shamanic, or artistic perspective, or any area which is unknown and theoretically unknowable at the present time. And so the imaginal is a stance and an art (and for me a discipline, since I’m wired up that way) which is not bound to a particular location or type of question, just as the artist is not bound to a particular medium or subject matter. Perhaps there is a place called the imaginal realm, where all imaginal works can be found–a great confluence of intersecting realities, creative works, and artists, like a massive art studio. If so it would be a truly stupendous, wild and magical, dangerous and haunting and brilliant place indeed, as Tolkein described the realm of faerie: “The Land of Fairy Story is wide and deep and high […] its seas are shoreless and its stars uncounted, its beauty an enchantment and its peril ever-present; both joy and sorrow are poignant as a sword.”[8] For now, I am focusing on the imaginal as a method which holds potentials for revelation, and thus lends itself to grappling with mysteries. I look forward to these revelations in the coming months and years.

READ POST/TRANSCRIPT https://www.katymorikawa.com/what-is-the-imaginal-and-how-does-it-differ-from-visionary-processes/

Astrology chart for Moon conjunct Venus on January 30, 2022 (1st Morning Gate of Venus) https://alittlemorefree.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Venus-2022-AM-1.png

Becca Tarnas' book Journey to the Imaginal Realm: A Reader’s Guide to J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings.

Find the rest of my references at the blog post linked to above.