intimacy with imagination is intimacy with god

keep the channel open

art by Javier Mayoral

What do I mean by intimate? Close. Related. In relationship with.

I mean eroticising god—marrying the two—knowing the One.

This is the fundamental issue with human consciousness; the separation of god and eros; masculine and feminine; yin and yang.

god and eros are eternally intertwined;

as in: shivashakti—as in—no space between;

infinite void full of aliveness;

electrical current through open conduit;

life breathing clouds into boundless sky;

water condensing into form wherein

a felt sense emerges.

~~~

What is that feeling in your hips. This density in your chest. The hunger that arises, beckons, falls. awakens; again, and again, and again. What is the wonder in a field of grass aglow with setting sun; the glimmer of moonlight in open ocean; the moon without which no life would surface; eternal pull—incipient of waveform—source of clouds and of life and of water; all intimate—close—inextricable—connected.

The way the moon comes alive in a lover’s eyes the way the lover is the beloved—the way love transcends itself and at the same time becomes more real, pulsing every apparently empty atom into being; this; field of aliveness, humming.

Infinite void—eternal life.

You feel a rock humming in your hands;
what do you imagine this humming is?

Are you imagining it?
Is it imagining you?
What is this it?
Ghost in language,
this it.

You’re it;
one energy,
one emergence,
endless wave,
stone humming.

Breathe.

Thrust of the hips
and the seed of the lotus;
life arising from clay.

This poem arose out of the following contemplation:

Sense and response: this is the basis of being in harmony, so says the I Ching.

Intimate imagination is how we develop this ability; it entails condensing imagination — in essence: eros/creative energy/god (all that invisible stuff which we perceive) — into form through the felt sense;

feeling life—sensing life—is the only way we can honestly respond to it, and thus enter the flow.

Intimate imagination is my exploration of the active imagination practice popularized by C .G. Jung.

Intimate imagination is the process of giving life energy and sensational awareness directly to the unconscious urge; not only witnessing the image transform, but allowing it to animate you — to transform you through the creative process from which you are not separate;

this clears the way, frees the flow, keeps the channel open — and with consistency, goes to the root, the essence; giving focus to form, concentration to scattered attention.

The purpose of this practice is to develop the capacity to become intimate with an image — to feel it so deeply (in your primordial waters ,your bone, your stone—the conduit of intelligence [another conversation for another day]) that it condenses into form through your way of being

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

— Martha Graham

Thank you for reading Unfurling Tongue. If you enjoyed what you read, there are a few ways to let me know…

<3 this post, leave a comment, buy me a coffee, or upgrade to a paid subscription.

As a paid subscriber, you will receive weekly practices to nourish your creative, essential eros — the substance of the intimate imagination from which life flows.

You will emerge from these practices feeling alive, nourished, and connected with your creative center.