Embrace of the Daimon
"This book is truly sensitive to soul....I will cut out the many passing  insights here that are expressed so beautifully and tersely and make  them my appendix, my guidelines for dealings with the Devil." (from the  preface)  —Thomas Moore,Care of the Soul, Dark Eros"While I came across a copy of Embrace of the Daimon, I was stunned....I  deemed it the most honest work on the psychoid/imaginal realms since  Corbin...I was stirred by the head-on engagement with the archetypal  invasions, more like Jung in the Red Book than the scholarly Corbin."  —Peter Rojcewicz,PhD.,Vice President,Academic Affairs and Dean of  Faculty, Antioch University Seattle"Sandra Dennis has written a courageous, important book that moves  psychology into a fuller engagement with the uncharted depths of  archetypal, imaginal reality embedded in bodily experience. In this  pioneering work, she forges a bridge between the worlds of the scholar  and the visionary, and in so doing makes a significant contribution to  the phenomenology of altered states of consciousness. Her prose is  eloquently descriptive, precise, at times compactly poetic. Her  first-person accounts are moving, often searing in realms that  traditionally resist description. Our era needs to hear her call for a  descent into the dark recesses of the psyche that can reunite body and  soul."—Richard Tarnas,The Passion of the Western Mind, Cosmos and  Psyche"When I first read Embrace of the Daimon I was thrilled to be reading  such an intimate portrayal of profound change embedded in the framework  of experiences of other explorers of personal depth like Jung, Sade and  Blake. This book is a rare documentation of a spontaneous eruption of  wild stories and monstrous characters from the primeval spaces of the  unconscious psyche, characters who, over time, become benevolent  carriers of an emotional reunion of soul with body. Dr. Dennis takes us  to the edge of imaginal experience and traces an implicit road map for  the millennial tasks of healing the harmful separation between body,  soul, and spirit that now afflicts us." —Betty DeShong Meador,Uncursing  the Dark"I find this an extraordinarily well-written, original and profound work  that extends our understanding of the relation between psyche and soma.  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 have the  excitement of seeing new lands for the first time. I believe the  material to be deeply practical for individual integration of psyche and  soma." —Dr. Alan B. Ruskin,Jungian Analyst, San Francisco"I was deeply moved by the force and effort of these personal  revelations that show that in spite of the alarming and painful  character of the visions, they may represent something more than the bad  effects of childhood, past lives, or defective genes. Dennis suggests  that they may represent a cultural movement into the next era of great  importance, indicating the emergence of a dark, descending spirituality,  like the lower worlds of the shaman, which is absolutely necessary to  balance the recent emphasis on 'light.' This world indeed corresponds  with the rise of 'the feminine' and its values. This book advances our  understanding of this ongoing process tremendously." —Don Sandner,The  Sacred Heritage: The Influence of Shamanism on Analytic PsychologyEmbrace  of the Daimon invites us through personal revelation and compelling  theory to dare to engage the vast expanse of the psyche.  Sandra Dennis  explores the imaginal extremes, terrains of ecstasy and terror we prefer  to avoid. She guides us through human dreamlike landscapes beyond the  mundane to the numinous. A phenomenologist of the daimonic realms, she  summons the fair witness in all of us, showing the way to deepen into  embodied lucidity despite our fears or aversion. Her explorations  encourage us at every turn to welcome the life-affirming potential of  the full range of our humanity. Recommended reading for all students of  the imaginal. —Daniel Deslauriers, Ph.D., Integral Dreaming