CH 7: Imaginal — Entering Above The Threshold

In myths and stories throughout human history, the hero or seeker often arrives at a threshold — a boundary between the familiar world and an unknown landscape where transformation becomes possible. This threshold may appear as a doorway, a bridge, a forest edge, or a passage through water or mountains. Symbolically, it marks the moment when an individual leaves behind the ordinary structures of perception and enters a new field of experience.

The Imaginal can be understood in precisely this way. To enter the Imaginal is to cross a threshold between the habitual patterns of everyday thought and a deeper dimension of awareness where images, sensations, symbols, and meanings become active participants in consciousness. This crossing does not require abandoning ordinary reality. Rather, it involves expanding perception to include a layer of experience that has often been ignored or forgotten......