I am often asked, “What is Imaginal Healing?”
Simple question, complex answer. The foundation lies in my search for a term describing the synthesis of my healing and teaching. In 2010 I was studying the transit of Pluto into Capricorn, and Uranus into Aries. Transformation, great change and metamorphosis were key concepts. I began to study exactly how caterpillars turned into butterflies…I had outgrown the chrysalis of my practice, and Walela Institute of Imaginal Healing was rebirthed as a butterfly.
Imago by definition is the winged adult stage of an insect. Imaginal by definition pertains to the imagination. Imaginal Healing, then, is the process of transformation informed by what one sees as a possibility of what one’s life can be. Breaking patterns and interrupting karmic momentum through vision by way of self-awareness. And my purpose is to be your guide…to help you become the beautiful butterfly you dream to be…
An Imaginal Healing session may include any of the following:
Evolutionary Astrology Reading/Consultation
Vibrational healing (Gem Elixirs and Flower Essences)
Shamanic healing
Dream work
Observation of synchronicity and archetypal energy/journaling
Counseling
The process of Imaginal Healing is best described by Anodea Judith, Waking The Global Heart
“When a caterpillar nears it’s transformation time, it begins to eat ravenously, consuming everything in sight. The caterpillar body becomes heavy, outgrowing it’s skin many times, until it is too bloated to move. Attaching to a branch (upside down, where everything is turned on its head) it forms a chrysalis–an enclosing shell that limits the caterpillar’s freedom for the duration of the transformation.
Within the chrysalis a miracle occurs. Tiny cells, that biologists actually call “imaginal cells,” begin to appear. These cells are wholly different from caterpillar cells, carrying different information, vibrating to a different frequency–the frequency of the emerging butterfly. At first, the caterpillar’s immune system perceives these new cells as enemies, and attacks them, much as the new ideas in science, medicine, politics, and social behavior are viciously denounced by the powers now considered mainstream. But the imaginal cells are not deterred. They continue to appear, in even greater numbers, recognizing each other, bonding together, until the new cells are numerous enough to organize into clumps. When enough cells have formed to make structures along the new organizational lines, the caterpillar’s immune system is overwhelmed. The caterpillar body then becomes a nutritious soup for the butterfly.
When the butterfly is ready to hatch, the chrysalis becomes transparent. The need for restriction has been outgrown. Yet the struggle toward freedom has an organic timing.”
Read my recent interview with Sarah Kirton of mysticmag.com about Imaginal Healing and Evolutionary Astrology: https://www.mysticmag.com/psychic-reading/diane-swanson-interview/