This passage from Ester Harding’s book clarifies how one might work with images from dreams or images that ‘just drop in to consciousness’ during the day. Jungians call this ‘active imagination’, a term I wrestled with for years, but later understood as simply having an extended conversation with the dream image. And the effect of drawing the image is exactly as Harding describes below. There are resistances to this process but don’t be discouraged by them.
“Spontaneous drawings of something relatively unknown and whose significance is usually entirely obscure often portray images which arise from the unconscious. Much as the images of dreams do. To occupy oneself with these images through the actual work involved in painting the picture has a curious effect. In the first place the image itself becomes clearer and more definite, it frequently seems to come to life and may begin to move and change its character during the actual process of painting, so that it may be necessary to paint a second picture or even a series, showing how it evolves. At the same time the mood or emotional conflict becomes clarified. It also changes and develops with the change in the unconscious image. Consequently when a woman in an emotional crisis or conflict has painted a picture such as the above, (not illustrated here) she usually finds herself greatly released, even if she does not understand what it is she has drawn. If she can come to understand the significance of her drawing she will naturally be still further relieved, for the painting is like an oracle, which has come from the depths of her own being, and contains a wisdom which is beyond her present conscious attainment.
Ester Harding ‘Women’s Mysteries’ p. 148
