For this project I used methods of active imagination to dialogue with various parts of the body. In addition to creating a full-sized body map, I approached the image of each body part from a Jungian perspective (as a manifestation of psyche) and wrote poetry in response. Rather than create poetry according to any specific formula or form, I wrote freely as I envisioned the story each section of the body would tell.

The body is both an image and a maker of images. Through complex sensory relationships, the creative practitioner dances, paints, and writes in response to the sensory world. "We now know that a highly charged image can create a correlative shift that stimulates changes in the body's chemistry, much as changes in body chemistry can alter moods and stimulate the imagination" (Woodman, 1997, p185). As Woodman points out, Jung's assertion that the boundaries between psyche and soma are permeable, imply that unconscious contents arise within the material world. One means by which these archetypal images appear is through creative work.

Woodman, M. and Dickson, E. (1997). Dancing in the flame: the dark goddess in the transformation of consciousness. Shambala Publishing.