In the history of the inventions of civilization there are many which were discovered by accident, through someone playing with an object and then suddenly getting an idea. Schiller even says that man is at his highest level only when he plays , when he has no conscious purpose. Creativity through play is such a well-known and essential factor that one does not need to point it out, but we see again and again that if we try to induce our analysands to do active imagination, all the skeptical rationalism pop out -- that it is a waste of time, that one cannot do it, that one does not know how to draw, that one has no time today or tomorrow, that one is not inspired -- and whatever other blocking resources there may be.
But every new beginning of consciousness, every essential process of consciousness must first arise from such a state; only then is the human being open enough to let the new element in and let things happen. Many creative people start their creativity with a terrific depression. They have such a well-constructed and strong ego consciousness that the unconscious must use very strong means - send them a hellish depression - before they can loosen up enough to let things happen. I have noticed that people who tend to have those creative depressions, if they can anticipate them by playing in some way, the state of depression is lifted at once, for the secret final intention of that kind of depression is, as the word says, to depress, to lower the level of consciousness so that these processes can come into action.
(M.L. von Franz, Creation Myths, par 37.)