Active Imagination Enables Imaginal Dialogues with Plants in Western Psychocultural Contexts

There has been a recent proliferation of Western authors documenting imaginal dialogues with plants. Mainstream perspectives often dismiss such experiences as projections or anthropomorphisms, neglecting their deeper, transformative potential on human behavior in ecosystems, as well as the reality of vegetal agency. However, a post-Jungian understanding of active imagination offers a valuable, culturally rooted framework both for making sense of imaginal dialogues with plants and for engaging with them in a way that can return Western people to the vegetal depths of the more-than-human self. Examining an example of imaginal dialogues published by the American organic gardener and author Maria Rodale ( 2023 ), this theoretical article demonstrates how imaginal dialogues with plants inform understandings of the psyche and the self, and how they can contribute to individuation—an ongoing process reflecting the interconnectedness between human beings and the more-than-human world. This framework has direct implications for ecotherapeutic practice.