Hillman appeals for an "angelology of words," a return to the ancient notion that words have a life of their own and say more than we mean when we use them.
Hillman never writes of the unconscious as a separated area of the psyche or an objectified field of investigation; insists that unconsciousness runs through everything; in late essay "Notes on White Supremacy" he forcefully argues that the shadow is essentially present in "white" consciousness itself and not only projected outward into "black" (self-contained psychic reservoir)
the unconsciousness in everything both deconstructs everything yet allows each thing to reveal itself in its fullness; when the shadow is projected away from a thing, all we see is its shell, a distortion shaped by the moralistic motives of projection.
in essay on masturbation inhibition and compulsion are both given a place
neither myth nor alchemy, he says, can be taken literally; they are root metaphors for keeping the unconscious elements present; fantastic accounts elaborated tales, symbol systems that ground because they open leading farther into the unknown
his tendency always to go down to find holes into the undersphere; look for routes into the unconscious areas
polytheism; essay "Psychology: Monotheistic or Polytheistic?" (1971); claims Greek polytheism, revived in the European Renaissance to be an effective paradigm for modern psychology; the many impulses and directions that erupt from the soul (variety of gods and goddesses are to be honored); the tensions among them sustained and enjoyed
polytheistic psychology encourage ego to step aside, or at least dance without always taking the lead, and let the soul manifest its turns and pleasures; some of Gestalt concern to let images speak without letting the ego identify with the image, and a great deal of Jung's mythological sensibility without the desire to integrate and make all things conscious
anima serves the important function of leading a person farther into unconsciousness, Consciousness in the sense of reason, control, and ego, is not an essential ingredient in individuation; Hillman never uses the words individuation or unconscious, staples in orthodox Jungian thought
the consciousness to be found in dream image, fantasy, nature, and the things of culture; a form of consciousness in its very presence, its self-display, to use a word that occurs frequently in Hillman's later essays
Hillman shows no interest in Jung's compromise of the self embraces both ego and the unconscious, or that there is an axis between them, and the point of psychological work is to firm up the axis
theoretical essay "Anima Mundi" and "The Return of the Soul to the World" (delivered in Italian in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence) he moves even farther from ego psychology and personalism to encounter psyche in objects; he studies gardens, waterworks streets, buildings, show business, bombs, racism, ecology, work, education, and architecture; instead working feverishly on our own microcosmic lives we might more lightly and effectively engage in the work of the soul by becoming sensitive to the world's suffering: our buildings are in pain, our governments are on the rocks, the arts are relegated to museums where they are explained away or reduced to technical concerns
Neoplatonic beauty; a lengthy journey like circuits of soul-work described by alchemists and Renaissance artists
Hillman's embrace of depression and pathology paradoxically leads to a psychology beyond health and normalcy, toward a cultural sensibility where soulfulness and beauty are the standards
the infinite range of psychological endeavor, rooted in everyday life and culture, but echoing the wisdom, the artfulness, and the beauty of centuries of soulful work, love, and play