Usually, we have a pretty austere view of what Saint John of the Cross has to say about the imagination. For example, we remember that he said,

He that would attain to being joined in a union with God must not walk by understanding, neither lean upon experience or feeling or imagination, but he must believe in His being, which is not perceptible to the understanding, neither to the desire nor to the imagination nor to any other sense, neither can it be known in this life at all. (Ascent, Bk II, Ch 4)

Or:

The benefits that come from voiding the imagination of imaginary forms can be clearly observed… namely, those of great rest and quiet. (Bk III, Ch 13)

In short, John teaches that since no imaginary form or image is proportionate to God, we should not rely on it. We cannot void ourselves of this dependence by ourselves; therefore, God must do it, in his way, in his time, and all we can do is make ourselves available.

But that’s the dark night. That’s the work of the dark night.

And that’s the simplest of contemplative moments, when everything is calm and everything is only absorbed in God.

As far as the contemplation that can carry on in the summit of our soul coordinating everything, equilibrating everything, transfiguring everything, it stands in a position to use everything at its disposal. It is not weak; it is strong. It can use anything. As the Mystical Doctor writes later in the Ascent of Mount Carmel,

… provided the soul pays no more heed to them than is necessary for this purpose, [images] will ever assist it to union with God, allowing the soul to soar upwards (when God grants it that favour) from the superficial image to the living God, forgetting every creature and everything that belongs to creatures. (Bk III, Ch 15)

Provided our interaction is not dependency or valuation above their stature, images, imagination, can serve to contemplation. They can lead us to suffer things divine.

Lived in the world, this is probably a condition that applies beyond what John’s treatment intended. John intended holy icons. That was what John considered chiefly as an image for contemplation when living the life of Carmel. But lived in the world, we are faced with God’s creation and the history of salvation at every second. The material for images is yet greater! A purified imagination will both see and compose fragments of images in new ways that are totally free, totally set free, not a slave to the images themselves. Passing through a dark night does not mean losing the imagination; it means gaining it, because the imagination, like everything else in us, will better know its place.