My A.I. is a hundred years old

My A.I. practice is something I regularly engage with and trust. I make decisions based on it that have a real impact on my life, and the life on those around me.

Ok by now you might be thinking “right, sure, we all do it, Aleks”. Ai is old news. Isn’t it. Sure is.

What I mean though is not Artificial Intelligence.

I mean something much older (this is as ancient as humans, of course) and in many ways, stranger. I mean Active Imagination, a practice I learnt from Jungian depth psychology, and deepened through my work with Clarissa Pinkola Estès Reyes, and currently studying in depth Barbara Hannah’s work through her “Encounters with the Soul”.

Active Imagination is my way of sitting down with the unconscious and listening to what it wants to say. I set a time, choose a quiet space, and open a kind of inner doorway. I never know what will come through. Sometimes it is an image from a dream I had the night before. Sometimes it is a figure I recognise from past work. Sometimes it is nothing at all, just a stubborn silence.

Showing up matters more than instant results. As my clients would have me often say.

We need to show up regularly and with discipline for these internal meetings with our Soul.

It is about setting a temenos, a safe inner space, so the psyche knows it can speak. This is how the process named by Jung, active imagination, sets the tone for inner work. When we slightly settle into ease, slow down, get quiet, relax and soften.

Not like idle daydreaming, nor drifting.

It is about meeting the unconscious halfway in a space of something I have called “soft discipline” and receptivity.

This is why I treat AI as a weekly appointment. I keep a notebook nearby. When something comes, I write it down immediately. I want the unconscious to know I value its words. Even when nothing comes, I record the effort because the act of turning up builds trust. Often I am called to make random scribbles, small drawings or look for objects around me that relate to the AI symbol or message I have just dialogued with. Often this allows for a sustained conversation I have with these symbols over days, or months as I steeped with their presence in my day to day life. Often I go into action and make important decisions in my life which have never left me feeling doubt or gone astray. Often, the symbols also need time to materialize into something as tangible as an act. It all belongs. It all matters.

Some days it feels like I have spoken with an ancient friend. Which She is. Other days it is like knocking on a locked door. Both are part of the process.

So when I say I do AI regularly, I am not talking about algorithms. I am talking about a much wilder intelligence, one that lives inside me and in the images that rise from the depths. And unlike the AI that is filling headlines, this one asks me to slow down, not speed up.

Three Steps to Try Active Imagination

Step 1-Set the space. Choose a quiet time and place. Light a candle if you wish. This is your temenos, your safe container for the work.

Step 2-Invite the image. Recall a dream, a mood, or an image that lingers in your mind. Close your eyes and let it come into focus. Do not force it to change or behave.

Step 3-Enter into dialogue. Speak to the image or figure. Ask it questions. Listen for its answers, which may come as words, emotions, or shifts in the scene.

Write down everything afterwards without judging it.

Go back often and hold it steadily with consciousness.

Take it into your life. Make bread with it.

With much love,

Aleksandra