Henry Corbin introduced the term "imaginal" to draw a distinction in contrast to "imaginary." “Imaginary” typically designates the imagination's capacity to fabricate purely subjective phenomena with no reality beyond the imaginer's private mind. Imaginal, by contrast, implies phenomena that are disclosed through the imagination’s capacity to serve as an organ for perceiving archetypal realities that are neither simply fabricated nor limited to the inner world of any individual.

The imaginal gestures to a domain of existence that has a subtle, complex, and mysterious relationship to the physically perceptible world. It includes symbolic and metaphorical patterns that consistently and inextricably shape the way we perceive things and attribute meaning to our experiences.

The imaginal is also deeply involved in the unfolding of time. Imaginal causality may be revealed when we suddenly perceive the nonlinear arrangement and interconnection of distinct events according to shared meanings—a phenomenon that C.G. Jung famously referred to as "synchronicity."

Henry Corbin and C.G. Jung have offered lucid accounts of the role played by the imaginal in the process of individuation. In other words, the imaginal is deeply involved with the processes at work in the ongoing growth of our personalities—the nature-driven process of becoming who we are.

Images and themes emerging through dreams and imaginal practices can portray developments in the archetypal influences at work in the development, maturation, and actualization of our innate potentials.

Our active engagement and participation with the imaginal aids in the unfolding of these potentials. This participatory dimension in the workings of imaginal causality carries profound implications both for our experience of meaningfulness in life and our felt sense of connection with the greater whole.

It is time to consider the possibility that the significance of the imaginal is broadening its scope within our current historical context. What if the imaginal were crucially involved not only in the unfolding of our individual potentials, but also in the unfolding of our co-creative power and potential?

More than ever, our collective intelligence and collective wisdom are needed for meeting the increasingly complex and intensifying challenges that have been accelerating since the advent of modernity. Our species has collectively entered an initiatory threshold marked by compounding existential risk. For better or worse, there is no possibility of opting out: we are, all of us, in this together. On a deep level, we are being asked to take part in an unprecedented cultural metamorphosis in service of a viable and life-enhancing future.

The co-creative task of braiding together our most fully realized individual capacities (sympoiesis) in service of cultural metamorphosis is becoming an imperative of planetary evolution.

Just as imaginal practice can serve as a gateway toward actively assisting the unfolding of our individual creative potential—so may collective imaginal practices assist the unfolding of creative possibilities that can only be realized through our co-operation and co-creative synergy.