A thing that's important to me about imaginal practice:

There is a sense that magic and mysticism are distinct, separate directions. I was reading Dr. Stephen Skinner's (excellent) introduction to Crowley's Book 4 and... it's a big theme for him. He seems to have a quite concrete approach to ceremonial magic. Evocative and externalized. Demons are real, autonomous phenomena that manifest in the material world -- they're not psychological in any sense.

It seems as if, from his perspective, the difference between magic: evocation and binding of demons, angels, elementals, spirits; and mysticism: experience of existence in a deep way through yoga (not just Hatha Yoga, but also other forms such as devotional or meditation practice) is obvious and clear. They are completely different directions and practices.

For me though, I come into meditation through teachers like Andy Puddicombe, Leigh Brasington, Shinzen Young, and especially Rob Burbea. Burbea in particular is deeply interested in imaginal practice, in interactions with archetypal images.

My magical practice is quite Chaotic. Not so much because I am part of the main stream of the Chaos movement or culture (though as a weird geek whose 20 somethings happened during the 90s, I was always on the fringes of it), but because I was raised Unitarian-Universalist by essentially non-religious scientist parents.

Any religious, mystical, or magical tradition I adopt is adopted consciously, intentionally. Having been raised outside faith, it has always been clear to me that the various religions contain some truth and some nonsense, some useful and some harmful. So I've been eclectic sort of by definition.

I can't really convert with integrity (I've thought about this a lot and... it's just not for me), so I have to pick and choose. My religion / magic / mysticism is bricolage. It's a pragmatic assemblage, curated by aesthetic and intuitive judgement, refined through experiment. What works? What rings true?

My current magical practice has a devotional character and is about interacting with allies and others in ritual work, meditation, and also during everyday life. Aidan Wachter's work resonates with me for this reason. I do a good deal of invocation, but so far not a lot of evocation and no evocation of potentially hostile beings (as is apparently common in Goetic magic for example). I do some practical magic aimed at causing "real-world" effects, but most of what I do is just hanging out with my friends. Enjoying their company.

Imaginal practice then, as described by Burbea, serves as a sort of bridge between magical and mystical work for me. It's a vision and an approach to Dharma that unifies. Listening to his talks from an imaginal practice retreat, he is often describing what I was already naturally doing.

I entered Conversation with my HGA through meditation. For me, meditation is one of several paths or approaches to interaction with spirits. It's not only that. It's also everything else that meditation is. Most of the time when I'm meditating, I'm not (explicitly) interacting with spirits. I'm just meditating.

That said, my HGA is always with me, so she's with me in my meditation practice. She is an important teacher to me, and asking her for help and guidance is part of how I start a meditation session. (I mean, it doesn't have to be? But I choose it to be. I invite her to sit with me. She doesn't require invitation. I don't require it either. I do it because it feels right.)

When I encountered imaginal practice I had this sense of "Ah! This is the missing piece." This is where magic and mysticism fit together for me. This is a vision of the Dharma that has space for, that incorporates my religious practice.

It's that feeling when, exploring a new city by subway, you get big chunks of city geography that are isolated from each other, connected by subterranean travel. Then one day, walking around, you encounter from one transit neighborhood from another and suddenly you know how those parts of the city fit together.

Like working on a jigsaw puzzle and you suddenly recognize that two big formations fit together with this piece right here.

Imaginal practice unifies magic and mysticism for me.