The Prosperity of Aliveness

Originally published in ImagiNews, Vol 31, No. 1, The Journal of Imagery International.  

When we hear the word prosperity, many of us think first of material abundance—money, success, possessions, or security. Yet in the practice of imagery, prosperity often reveals itself in a very different way. It appears not as accumulation, but as aliveness.

Aliveness is a word we use often in the practice of Deep Imagery. Early in the training, we meet what are sometimes called the chakra guides. Yet within our tradition we understand them somewhat differently. These are not abstract symbols or energy centers to analyze. They are living presences—what we call the Animals of Aliveness, our core living energies.

Each animal we meet carries a particular quality of vitality. They represent ways that life moves within us: instinct, perception, creativity, groundedness, vision, relationship. When we meet them in imagery, we are not simply learning about ourselves. We are entering into relationship with the living energies of the psyche.

Prosperity begins to take on a new meaning in this context. It becomes the abundance of life moving within us.

As the work continues, we encounter other guides: the animals of the senses, the animals of knowing, the guides of relationship. Each encounter deepens our awareness that the imaginal world is not empty. It is inhabited. The figures we meet are not symbols to decode but companions with whom we participate in our own aliveness.

Through these relationships, vitality often begins to return to places within us that have been quiet or forgotten or even have died.

People frequently describe imagery journeys in which the inner landscape begins to change. A dry field becomes green. Water begins to flow where the ground had been cracked and still. Animals appear unexpectedly, bringing companionship or guidance. Sound returns to places that had been silent.

These moments can feel deeply moving because they signal something essential: life is returning.

In imagery we discover that the psyche is not a static structure but a living landscape. Like the natural world, it moves in cycles. There are times when our inner life feels barren, quiet, or distant. Yet beneath the surface, vitality continues to gather, much like seeds waiting beneath the soil for the right moment to sprout.

Celtic traditions often understood the outer landscape in a similar way. The land itself was alive. Hills, rivers, trees, and springs were not simply features of geography but participants in a living world. Sacred wells, in particular, were places where healing and renewal were believed to arise.

Often found in quiet places—at the edge of a field, beneath an old tree, or where a path softened into moss and shade, People visited them not only to receive blessings, but to enter into relationship with the living spirit of the place, leaving small offerings or tying ribbons to nearby branches. The well did not create the water; it simply revealed what had been flowing unseen beneath the earth.

The imaginal world can be like this within us. When we enter that landscape with attention and respect, we come upon places where the waters of the psyche begin to rise. Animals gather. The land becomes green again. Something living stirs in the in-between spaces.

Like the sacred wells of the Celtic world, these encounters can become sources of renewal. In the quiet presence of the imaginal landscape, we discover that aliveness has been waiting beneath the surface all along.

This is a different kind of prosperity than the one our culture usually celebrates. It cannot be measured or stored. Instead, it appears as vitality, creativity, movement, and relationship.

When aliveness returns in the imaginal world, it begins to move outward into our lives as well. A sense of possibility replaces the heaviness of depletion.

We begin to experience prosperity not as having more, but as being more fully alive.

Perhaps this is one of the quiet gifts of imagery practice. Again and again, it reminds us that the psyche is inherently generative. Even in times when we feel depleted or disconnected, the imaginal world continues to hold seeds of renewal. Animals wait. Water gathers. Paths appear.

When we take the time to enter this world and listen, we discover that prosperity has been present all along—not as accumulation, but as the living richness of the psyche itself.

And in those quiet encounters, we remember that prosperity is not something we must acquire or strive toward. It is the moment when the hidden well of the psyche opens, and aliveness begins to flow again through the living landscape within us.

About Mary Diggin
Mary Diggin, Ph.D., is a cultural mythologist, Deep Imagery Trainer, Mythic Mentor©, and Transformation Life Coach. With over two decades of experience, Mary facilitates Deep Imagery workshops worldwide and provides individual guidance through the imagery

techniques developed by Dr. E.S. Gallegos. Mary is a trainer and Deep Imagery Guide with the International Institute for Visualization Research and runs the online Deep Imagery certification course. Her workshops often integrate aspects of myth, culture, and deep imagery.