Embrace of the Daimon: Healing through the Subtle Energy Body/ Jungian Psychology & the Dark Feminine by Sandra Lee Dennis

by Sandra Lee Dennis

This is a nonfiction book. Highly recommended for those attracted to Jungian & archetypal depth psychology, mind/body healing, shadow work, and women's issues. Also for students of waking dreams, the imaginal and subtle body realms, and for therapists and healers. Although the book has attracted a dedicated following, be some of the material, as one reviewer put it is "not for the faint of heart!" * * * * *Have you wrestled with uncanny, nightmarish imagery in dreams or waking? Life crises, trauma, deep meditation, prayer or inquiry can unleash surprisingly compelling yet scary, even revolting, imagery and related feelings. With few maps to help navigate this terrain, we are tempted to deny or repress our experience. Precipitated by a descent into the dark recesses of her own psyche, Sandra Dennis explores the eruption of strange, wild, compelling characters from the unconscious that she calls 'daimons.' The Greeks understood the daimon as the intermediary between gods and humans, the guardian spirit assigned at birth that connects heaven and earth. These messengers come as agents of inner transformation. When we welcome them with understanding and compassion, they expand our consciousness and connect us with healing qualities of strength, compassion and vision. This book leads us to this growing edge of the psyche and invites our curiosity and caring. It charts a course of radical acceptance of experience - no matter how painful or difficult - as absolutely necessary for our well-being and the well-being of the planet. Sandra Dennis brings a spiritual context to what most disturbs us. She offers a simple method to navigate these alarming images and anxieties. Instead of treating them as perversions to banish, we are encouraged to embrace their primal power becoming more intelligent, loving and whole in the process. "Embrace of the Daimon" can Calm your concerns by understanding the role of these daimonic images in the larger context of growth to wholeness, or individuation. Find the courage to explore these states of mind with more intimate, compassionate interest. Learn to navigate your way through the unusual sensations that often accompany breakthroughs of the daimonic. Expand your understanding of Jungian theory, with regard to the little explored mind/body connection role in personal development. "Embrace of the Daimon" offers a rare look at this inner landscape and will help make your own trip, or that of those you are helping, less harrowing. Reviewers have called 'Embrace of the Daimon' -- "a pioneering work, a courageous and important book," "a significant contribution to the study of altered states of consciousness," "original and profound," "a rare documentation of unconscious processes,""a work that advances our understanding of a descending spirituality tremendously," "eloquently descriptive," "deeply moving," re-imagines the work of integrating shadow to find beauty and dignity," "bridges the worlds of the scholar and the visionary" and "takes us to the radical edge of Jungian psychology today." One reader commented, "It is the only contemporary firsthand account of the day-to-day practice of mystical depth psychology that I have come across. I find it a very practical guide to my own inner and psychic realm journeys." Another called it "the most honest work on the psychoid/imaginal realms since Corbin...the engagement with the archetypal invasions, more like Jung in the Red Book than the scholarly Corbin."

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Spirituality

Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

Sandra Lee Dennis, PhD, is an author, teacher and explorer of the interplay of depth psychology and spirituality. She holds an MA in Social Psychology and a PhD in Integral Studies/Psychology and Religion.

She has been on the faculty at several universities, as well as the San Francisco C.G. Jung Institute. She was a teacher in the Gurdjieff tradition for many years, an Ananda Yoga instructor, and a longtime student of the Diamond Heart work.

Bridging the world of scholar and visionary. Her writings and teaching have helped many better understand and mine their own depths. For more information see her website at www.sandraleedennis.com

Sandra is the author of two award-winning books: "Embrace of the Daimon: Healing through the Subtle Energy Body: Jungian Psychology & the Dark Feminine," and "Love and the Mystery of Betrayal: Grieving the Loss: Tending the Trauma, Healing the Heartbreak, Restoring Trust in Life"

LITERARY AWARDS:

"Embrace of the Daimon"

Winner - 2014 USA Best Book Awards (Philosophy)

Winner - 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards (New Age)

Finalist - 2013 Foreword Book Awards (Body/Mind/Spirit)———————————————————————
"Love and the Mystery of Betrayal"

Finalist - 2014 USA Best Book Awards (Non-Fiction Narrative)

Finalist - 2014 Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB Book of the Year (Psychology)

Finalist - 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards (Spirituality)

Reviews

[Joel Friedlander · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a challenging book in more ways than one, but it's also a book that will repay the time you put into it. The author had some very unusual experiences at a critical time in her life and this book is her attempt at coming to terms with the penetration into ordinary reality of some decidedly non-ordinary visions. Although I'm not a student of Jungian psychology, I found the book intelligent and educational, and it has stayed with me quite some time.

[Lisa Wendell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is her dissertation. It is barely readable, let alone understandable by any other than someone with an advanced degree in feminist depth psychology (her colleagues and mentors). Only because I have done considerable reading over the years in this area was I able to decipher some of her onerous repetitive rambling. This is not to say that what Dennis has written isn't interesting (if almost unintelligible), but it is hardly a book for someone with even a passing interest in feminism, Jung, symbology, or personal transformation.

Interestingly, Dennis had many of her initial "visions" in the months after her daughter was born. I'd be more prone to attributing these waking dreams to postpartum depression than to much else. She seems to really stretch the envelope here. Some of her analysis is a bit over the top and round the bend. It is certainly NOT a "practical guide" to anything, let alone healing. The only suggestions for how to begin this so-called embrace in one's life are numbers one through seven under a section entitled, "Body-Centered Immersion." This section is followed up at some point with a few numbered descriptions of various bodily sensations (i.e."pressure in head,) to help one decipher what they may mean. Clearly, this section was added as an after-thought in order to market this research as a "self-help" book.

It could be that Dennis' contributions to this esoteric field are part of a small early force of academics. I think though, that this time has passed; there are more accessible materials (though admittedly, not many), available to the lay reader. I'm thinking of Women Who Run With Wolves, (Clarissa Pinkola Estes) and Descent to the Goddess (Sylvia Perera).

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting reading, a fresh perspective on the subtle body, the imaginal, daimonic, as a positive force to be embraced in an alchemical union. Explains much.

[Chahira Boudjema · Rating 2 out of 5]

i like the Jungian approach, other than that, there was a lot of yappin

[Sandra Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excerpts from PRAISE/ REVIEWER comments for: "Embrace of the Daimon":

—Richard Tarnas, PhD, "Passion of the Western Mind"
“Sandra Dennis has written a courageous, important book...she moves psychology into a fuller engagement with the uncharted depths of archetypal, imaginal reality embedded in bodily experience...a pioneering work that forges a bridge between the worlds of the scholar and the visionary...a significant contribution to the phenomenology of altered states of consciousness."

—Thomas Moore, "Care of the Soul," "Dark Eros"
"This book is truly sensitive to soul."

—Betty DeShong Meador, PhD, "Uncursing the Dark"
"...a rare documentation.... from the primeval spaces of the unconscious psyche...traces an implicit road map for the millennial tasks of healing the harmful separation between body, soul and spirit that now afflicts us."

—Peter Rojcewicz, PhD, VP, Academic Affairs, Dean of Faculty, Antioch University
"...the most honest work on the psychoid/imaginal realms since Corbin...the head on engagement with archetypal invasions, more like Jung in the Red Book than the scholarly Corbin."

—Jeremiah Abrams, "Meeting the Shadow"
"...re-imagines the work of integrating shadow, helping us find beauty and dignity in the Dionysian...."

—Alan B. Ruskin, PhD, Jungian analyst
"Dr. Dennis' integration of personal material and theory makes possible a synthesis of active imagination, the daimonic and the subtle body. Much of the region is still unexplored and any reader will hve the excitement of seeing new lands for the first time."

—Melina Costello, "Seeking the God of Ecstasy"
"...a rare book..one of a scant handful of books that addresses a complex and often misunderstood psychic process that frequently accompanies states of spiritual emergence: the dark urges of inner life.

—Don Sandner, PhD, "The Sacred Heritage: The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology"
"This book advances of our understanding tremendously of a cultural movement into the next era of great importance—of the rise of "the feminine," the emergence of a dark, descending spirituality

—Veronica Goodchild, PhD, "Eros and Chaos," "Songlines of the Soul"
"Engaging the often taboo energies associated with the presence of Sophia, divine feminine wisdom, this book takes us to the leading radical edge of Jungian psychology today."

—Daniel Deslauriers, PhD, "Integral Dreaming"
"As a phenomenologist of daimonic realms, Sandra Dennis summons the fair witness in all of us, showing the way to deepen into embodied lucidity despite our fears or aversion. Recommended reading for all students of the imaginal."

***FINALIST*** Foreword Reviews Book of the Year 2012 Awards (Body/Mind/Spirit)

[Megan S Spark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am interested in the topic, and enjoyed this frank exploration of it, but for an average length book it seemed much longer. However it educated me, offering new understanding, so I believe it well worth the effort.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.
This was very interesting book with a lot of advanced information in it. A bit difficult for a lay person to comprehend. It certainly challenged me and had me thinking outside my worldview.