Awards and Praise for Embrace of the Daimon
Praise for Embrace of the Daimon
Awards:
USA Best Book Awards — Winner (Philosophy)
Next Generation Indie Book Awards—Winner (New Age)
ForeWord Reviews’ Book of the Year — Finalist (Body/Mind/Spirit)
“Sandra Dennis has written a courageous, important book. In ‘Embrace of the Daimon,’ she 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 descent into dark recesses of the psyche that can reunite body and soul.”
—Richard Tarnas,PhD author of “Passion of the Western Mind” and “Psyche and Cosmos”
“While I served as Dean of the School of Holistic Studies at JFK University several years ago, I came across a copy of ‘Embrace of the Daimon’ and immediately read it. I was stunned. Not only because I deemed it the most honest work on the psychoid/imaginal realms since Corbin, but also because I never heard anyone speak of it. “How was that possible,” I asked? I am very glad that it shall be republished. I was stirred by the head-on engagement with these archetypal invasions, more like Jung in the ‘Red Book’ than the scholarly Corbin. I shared it with a colleague at JFKU, who also praised it, and we would discuss it after hours.”
—Peter Rojcewicz, PhD,V.P., Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, Antioch University Seattle
“‘Embrace of the Daimon’ invites us through personal revelation and compelling theory to dare to engage the vast expanse of the psyche, including the dark, the chthonic and the erotic. Sandra Dennis explores the imaginal extremes, terrains of ecstasy and terror we are inclined to avoid. She guides us through human dream landscapes beyond the mundane to the numinous. As 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, PhD, author of “Integral Dreaming”
“This is a gorgeous book, beautifully conceived and written. Sandy Dennis re-imagines the work of integrating shadow, helping us find beauty and dignity in the Dionysian elements, elevating the direct experience of the body and its sensations, and trusting in the psyche’s ability to ultimately render all that happens to us into something of meaning and value”
—Jeremiah Abrams, author of “Meeting the Shadow”
“When I first read the draft for ‘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 De Shong Meador, PhD, author of “Uncursing the Dark”
“This book is different in that it is truly sensitive to the soul. It is refreshing to trace the dynamic whereby we give soul earthly reality instead of psychologizing experience into the bodiless ether of pure reflection. I am especially drawn to this book for the many passing insights that are expressed so beautifully and tersely. I will cut them out and make them my appendix, my guidelines for dealings with the Devil.”
—Thomas Moore, author of”Care of the Soul,” “Dark Eros, “and more.
“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, as they indicate 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, PhD, author of “The Sacred Heritage:The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology”
“’Embrace of the Daimon’ is a rare and beautifully written book, one of a scant handful of books that addresses a complex and often misunderstood psychic process that frequently accompanies states of spiritual emergence: the dark urges of inner life…Sandra Dennis’ own inner confrontations with the instinctual forces of the dark feminine are the driving forces of the book. It is from this rich ore that the healing power at the heart of these experiences is made relevant and meaningful in the context of Jung’s alchemical theory of opposites. By gently unfolding and amplifying the inherent intelligence and creativity within the dark forces of the psyche, she shows us how we, too, can lovingly embrace the daimon and thereby unleash our own self-actualizing potential toward wholeness.”
—Melina Costello, author of “Seeking the God of Ecstasy”
“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
“In this unique, engaging work, Sandra Dennis goes beyond the split that continues to underlie the phrase ‘mind-body.’ She takes us on a journey to the profound levels of subtle body reality in that landscape of the psychoid, also known as the imaginal world. Through her explorations, we learn to recognize and navigate this subtle, imaginal realm and its daimonic denizens, and to heal through its energy. Engaging these often taboo energies, associated with the presence of Sophia, divine feminine wisdom, this book takes us to the leading radical edge of Jungian psychology today.”
—Veronica Goodchild, PhD, author of “Eros and Chaos and “Songlines of the Soul“