"What we wish to know, and most desire, remains unknowable and 
lies beyond our grasp." With these words, James Hollis leads 
readers to consider the nature of our human need for meaning in 
life and for connection to a world less limiting than our own.

    In The Archetypal Imagination, Hollis offers a lyrical Jungian 
appreciation of the archetypal imagination. He argues that without 
the human mind’s ability to form energy-filled images that link us 
to worlds beyond our rational and emotional capacities, we would 
have neither culture nor spirituality. Drawing upon the work of 
poets and philosophers, Hollis shows the importance of depth 
experience, meaning, and connection to an "other" world.

    The author draws upon the work of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, 
particularly his Duino Elegies, to elucidate the archetypal 
imagination in literary forms. To underscore the importance of 
incarnating depth experience, he also examines a series of 
paintings by Nancy Witt.

    With the power of the archetypal imagination available to all of 
us, we are invited to summon courage to take on the world anew 
and to risk a radical re-imagining of the larger possibilities of the 
world and of the self.

_________________________________________________________

JAMES HOLLIS, who lives in Houston, Texas, is a Jungian 
analyst and executive director of the C. G. Jung Educational Center 
of Houston.


Number Eight: Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical 
Psychology


What people are saying about this book

". . . a feast of poetic and artistic references to the numinosity of 
the imagination."—Journal of Analytical Psychology