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The dark night is an inflow of God into the Soul.
—John of Cross

O you guiding night!
Oh night more kindly
than the dawn!
Oh you night that united
Lover with beloved,
the beloved in the Lover
transformed!

Order Embrace of the Daimon on Amazon

USA Best Book Awards — Winner (Philosophy)

Next Generation Indie Book Awards—Winner (New Age)

ForeWord Reviews' Book of the Year — Finalist (Body/Mind/Spirit)

Read about the evolution of the book's cover here

"Thank you for writing Embrace of the Daimon. It is the only contemporary firsthand account of the day to day practice of mystical depth psychology that I have come across..."
—Roger Langmaid, Powell River, Canada

“This book is different in that it is truly sensitive to the soul. ... I will cut out the many passing insights here that are expressed so beautifully and tersely and make them my appendix, my guidelines for dealings with the Devil."
—Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul and Dark Eros

“Sandy Dennis re-imagines the work of integrating shadow, helping us find beauty and dignity in the Dionysian elements.”
—Jeremiah Abrams, author of Meeting the Shadow and The Shadow in America

“This book is a rare documentation of a spontaneous eruption of wild stories and monstrous characters from the primeval spaces of the unconscious psyche,”
—Betty DeShong Meador, Jungian analyst, author of Uncursing The Dark

Order Embrace of the Daimon on Amazon

USA Best Book Award — Winner (Philosophy)

Next Generation Indie Book Awards—Winner (New Age)

ForeWord Reviews' Book of the Year — Finalist (Body/Mind/Spirit)

Read about the evolution of the book's cover here

“In this pioneering work, Dennis forges a bridge between the worlds of the scholar and the visionary”
—Richard Tarnas, Passion of the Western Mind, Cosmos & Psyche

“...encourages 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, Integral Dreaming

"I’ve found Embrace of the Daimon fascinating and useful; it’s provided a perspective on my experience that’s liberating and I expect it will continue to yield challenging opportunities. "
—A Reader in Hawaii

“...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...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, Ph.D., Integral Dreaming: A Holistic Approach to Dreaming

"For anyone who has come to a place in their life where they feel ready to face the darkness that we all hold deep within ourselves, Sandra Lee Dennis provides a sanctuary of support for the journey inward. If you feel the pull of your subconscious calling but are afraid to face the unknown alone, let this book be your guide."
—Amazon review

“In this unique, engaging work, Sandra Dennis goes beyond the split that continues to underlie the phrase ‘mind-body.’ ... “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, Eros and Chaos and Songlines of the Soul

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"Such invasions have something uncanny about them because they are irrational and incomprehensible to the person concerned. They bring about a momentous alteration of his personality since they immediately constitute a painful personal secret which alienates and isolates him from his surroundings. It is something that we "cannot tell anybody." We are afraid of being accused of mental abnormality--not without reason, for much of the same thing happens to lunatics. Even so, it is a far cry from the intuitive perception of such an invasion to being inundated by it pathologically, though the layman does not realize this."
-C.G. Jung

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"It’s hard to describe this book in normal terms. It takes the reader on an incredible journey to a place where the world we think of as real is penetrated by the world that we usually consider imagination."
—Amazon Review

That Unbelievable Pain is Real

On the surface, spilling a hot cup of coffee on yourself and the feelings of rejection you feel when you look at the picture of a person that recently left you may seem to elicit very different types of pain.

However, MRI researchers at University of Michigan found that intense personal rejection activates the same regions of the brain that are involved in the physical pain sensation of being burned.

These findings are consistent with the idea that the experience of social rejection represents a distinct emotional experience that is uniquely associated with physical pain.

- Taken from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011.

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In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to continue and endure. —H.W. Chosa

It is easy to keep your equanimity in heaven; can you keep it in hell?
—Zen story

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them
pressed me against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.
—Rainier Rilke, First Elegy
(as translated by Stephen Mitchell)

In the darkest hour the soul is replenished and given strength to continue and endure.
—H.W. Chosa

From Gerard May, Dark Night of the Soul:
The dark night is not primarily something but a someone, a presence that leaves an indelible imprint on the human spirit, on one’s life.
The dark night is a profoundly good thing. It is an ongoing spiritual process in which we are liberated from attachments and compulsions and empowered to live and love more freely.
The night is the means by which we find our heart’s desire, our freedom for love. It works to heal our blindness, our “slavery to attachment and delusion.
To be darkened is to be emptied of the ‘false gods’ we cling to.

"You see, somewhere our unconscious becomes material, because the body is the living unit, and our conscious and our unconscious are embedded in it: they contact the body. Somewhere there is a place where the two ends meet and become interlocked. And that is the place where one cannot say whether it is matter, or what one calls psyche."

—C.G. Jung

Order Embrace of the Daimon on Amazon

Foreword Book of the Year Finalist!

Read about the evolution of the book's cover here

“... the most honest work on the psychoid/imaginal realms since Corbin ... I was stirred by the head-on engagement with these archetypal invasions, more like Jung in the Red Book than the scholarly Corbin. ”
—Peter Rojcewicz, PhD.,Vice President, Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, Antioch University Seattle

“...this book takes us to the leading radical edge of Jungian psychology today.”
—Veronica Goodchild, PhD., Eros & Chaos

Order Embrace of the Daimon on Amazon

Foreword Book of the Year Finalist!

Read about the evolution of the book's cover here

“In Embrace of the Daimon, Dennis moves psychology into a fuller engagement with the uncharted depths of archetypal, imaginal reality embedded in bodily experience.”
—Richard Tarnas, author of Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos & Psyche

“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...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.’.”
—Don Sandner, author of The Sacred Heritage:The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology

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USA Best Book Awards — Finalist (Non-fiction Narrative)

ForeWord Reviews' Indiefab Book of the Year — Finalist (Psychology)

Next Generation Indie Book Awards — Finalist (Spirituality)