"The middle plane is the space or barrier between the conscious and the unconscious world."
Question to Marie-Louise von Franz : Is this stage, then, a permanent condition of active imagination?
Von Franz: Yes, this is the plane on which active imagination takes control. With the inner nucleus of consciousness you stay in the middle place; you no longer identify with what goes on in the upper or lower planes. You stay within your active imagination, so to speak, and you have the feeling that this is where your life process goes on. For instance, on the one plane you very often notice synchronistic events happening, and on the other are the dreams, but you keep your consciousness turned toward the events that happen on the middle plane, on the events that evolve within your active imagination. This becomes the function with which you move along through life. The other planes still exist for you, but you are not centered in them. The center of gravity shifts away from the ego and its functions into an interim position, into attending to the hints of the Self. For instance, a Chinese text that describes the process says consciousness is then in a position like a cat watching a mouse hole – not too dull and not too tense. If a cat is too tense, it gets cramps and misses the mouse; if it is too dull, the mouse will walk out and the cat will miss it. This kind of (half-dimmed) conscious attention is turned toward the inner process.
Question to Marie-Louise von Franz : Is this stage, then, a permanent condition of active imagination?
Von Franz: Yes, this is the plane on which active imagination takes control. With the inner nucleus of consciousness you stay in the middle place; you no longer identify with what goes on in the upper or lower planes. You stay within your active imagination, so to speak, and you have the feeling that this is where your life process goes on. For instance, on the one plane you very often notice synchronistic events happening, and on the other are the dreams, but you keep your consciousness turned toward the events that happen on the middle plane, on the events that evolve within your active imagination. This becomes the function with which you move along through life. The other planes still exist for you, but you are not centered in them. The center of gravity shifts away from the ego and its functions into an interim position, into attending to the hints of the Self. For instance, a Chinese text that describes the process says consciousness is then in a position like a cat watching a mouse hole – not too dull and not too tense. If a cat is too tense, it gets cramps and misses the mouse; if it is too dull, the mouse will walk out and the cat will miss it. This kind of (half-dimmed) conscious attention is turned toward the inner process.
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