Gateway at the Cistercian Abbey of Thoronet, in Provence, France. Photo by Jamie Walters. Use with Creative Commons citation and link.
Gateway at the Cistercian Abbey of Thoronet, in Provence, France. Photo by Jamie Walters. Use with Creative Commons citation and link.

“Imaginal hygiene is the inner art of self-managing the imagination, to defend it from forces that compromise, pollute, colonize, shrink, and sterilize it, and to cultivate those that illuminate, expand, and nourish it.” ~ M. T. Xen, by way of Rob Brezsny of Pronoia.

Imaginal hygiene goes hand-in-hand with energy and psychic hygiene — they’re all interwoven, as we know. And awareness is the gateway.

M.T. Xen — a pun on words if I’ve ever heard one — puts it in ‘plain speaking’, as it should be.

The imagination — my imagination, your imagination — is one of the Sophia Gifts, part of our Divine inheritance.

With imagination (and other Sophia Gifts) we dream things into being, or give energy to and thus strengthen what’s preoccupying our imagination (and mind).

Imagination is a very, very powerful gift, and for most of us, it’s been co-opted and filled with garbage.

Faceless mannequins. Image courtesy of Public Domain Images.
Faceless mannequins. Image courtesy of Public Domain Images.

Also, if you’re like me, you were conditioned early on away from the power of the imagination by (false) beliefs that it was somehow a waste of time, something to be ashamed of or ‘put away’ as a toy of childhood.

That said, I’ve heard people admonishing even very young children to ‘stop imagining things’, and the child’s neurology isn’t even yet able to tell the difference between ‘fantasy’ and ‘reality’! This speaks to the predominant conditioning and just how hypnotized most people are to it … until they pop out of that spell.

Of course, just because it’s conditioning and passes for ‘normal‘ doesn’t mean it’s right, or even healthy. After all, the same forces that are quick to diminish it are equally gluttonous about colonizing it, pouring all manner of gunk through the plugged-in pipeline.

There’s a clue in that.

Spiral Path in Stained Glass. Public domain image courtesy of Pixabay.
Spiral Path in Stained Glass. Public domain image courtesy of Pixabay.

Spiraling back around to imaginal, energy, and psychic hygiene … awareness is a powerful start, and we pick, prune, and cleanse from there.

We ‘re-occupy’ our own imagination, reclaim the gift, and remember how to work well with it.

In this moment I begin anew … that mantra is powerful any time!

Imagination-stirring musings from the Sophia’s Children treasure vault:

We Must Imagine It

Our Sophia Gifts – Our Divine Inheritance

Big Love and Hard Places

The recent musings, including the one on The Beauty Way of Relating, offer a few lovely themes to imagine into being as well — you’ll find The Beauty Way of Being here.

Big Love, and Imagine Well.

Jamie

Green labyrinth in Luxembourg City. PD image from Lode Van de Velde, PDpictures.net.

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For ‘graceful communication’ and ‘harmonious relating’ consultation, or for a reminder of your own Beauty Way of Relating (and other Venusian) gifts and opportunities, see the current Reader & Client Appreciation specials or other consultation offerings:

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The Fair Face of Woman, by Sophia Gengembre Anderson (1823-1903)
The Fair Face of Woman, by Sophia Gengembre Anderson (1823-1903)

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Labyrinth image credit: Green labyrinth in Luxembourg City. PD image from Lode Van de Velde, PDpictures.net.