C. G. Jung and the Dead: Visions, Active Imagination and the Unconscious Terrain

Acknowledging that the dead are, and they have presences, they have effects.

Developing a relationship with the historical family which is inherent in each individual, the contents of the unconscious, the mythic land of the dead and the ancestors, is the work of individuation and the way in which psyche is developed or transformed. Jung’s psychology rests on this foundation.

When he talks about the dead he means the dead. And they’re present in images. They still live on.

we think the figures we uncover in our dreams or in active imagination are the result of us, but he says we are the result of them.

There are only a few rules that apply to this stage of the work. Inner figures should, whenever possible, not be real people, living or dead. The personified form should emerge from the unconscious, and should be unique to the person doing the active imagination. Doing actives with the images of real people is unfair to those individuals, for they