To live a symbolic life is to participate fully in life, to live with an awareness that there is something bigger than ourselves and what we think we know. When we live wholly and symbolically,  we move beyond the tidy measure of reason and convention into the vital mystery of life itself.  What follows are my thoughts on what is required to live in this way.

1. A symbolic life is grounded in our own experience, not someone else’s experience, no matter how powerful or attractive that other person’s experience may be.
   
2. We must be willing to be radically open to new experiences that are unlikely and unusual and not dismiss them as mere imagination or temporary aberrations.
3. A symbolic life is a life lived in relationship with something beyond ourselves. It is a life lived in what Henry Corbin calls “creative prayer – an intimate dialog between two beings who depend upon one another and whose interaction leads to ‘new creation’.”
4. We must be willing to actively engage what comes to us, to struggle with it if necessary, and not just passively receive it or be completely taken over by it. Rollo May says that creative people often possess talent, but something other than talent is also needed. That something else, he says, is intensity of involvement. The genius, he goes on to say, has both talent and intensity of involvement. For living a symbolic life, talent helps but intensity of involvement is essential.
5. We must have the capacity at some point to step back from our experience and reflect upon it, allowing an element of objectivity to enter.
6.  We must take some action as a result of our experience. We must find a way to bring it into our everyday lives.
7. A basic steadfastness of spirit is essential. Even when we get caught up in our usual concerns, we have to return again and again to our dreams, to meditation, to our journals, to creative expression, to prayer, and we must let what we discover there infuse our daily lives with meaning and compassion.