Between the Known and the Unknown: The Imaginal Spirit of Waiting

Abstract

This dissertation is an imaginal inquiry into the spirit of waiting. The research focuses on the inner life of the psyche of waiting in relation to the liminal, creative, and active imaginal fields. Informed through the spirit and the sacred, the author considers the lived experience of waiting a paradox, where one is existing and simultaneously not existing in the immediacy of the moment. The experience of waiting is examined as the passage from one place to another, and the presence of spirit within as the invisible connection between the known and the unknown. Waiting is observed as a phenomenon of immersion between two worlds, often infused with a challenging sense of isolation and the seeming endless duration of both an inner and outer solitude. The significance of waiting is traced through the realms of the numinous, the ordinary, rites of passage, ritual, and liminal space. In service to the world soul, anima mundi, which is an integral perspective of depth psychology, this inquiry addresses the question: How would psychology speak of waiting if it were to speak from the spirit within waiting? This heuristic engagement with the spirit of waiting is informed by an imaginal approach, and presents a model of the phases inspired in the presence of waiting. The dissertation culminates in an active imaginal creative synthesis, through narrative and poetry, that documents the spontaneous unfolding of numinous encounters with the spirit of waiting.