I’ve conducted or coached LifePath mapping with over 600 persons in one form or another (i.e., interview cases, university humanities classes, individual sessions, workshops). In the process I have discovered that when people identify and name their sequence of Life Chapters (see the just previous post), it comprises one of three scripts or Life Story plot structures: Epic Adventure-Heroic, Epic Adventure-Tragic, or Episodic (picaresque).
Not surprisingly, these three Life Story scripts are the same basic mythic/narrative structures recognized by the archetypal psychologist James Hillman (The Dream and the Underworld) and the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell (The Hero with 1000 Faces). Both these scholars also emphasize in their works how everyone has a life story of mythic proportions, and that recognizing this story and working consciously to “change the story” (or, edit the script) when appropriate can be the basis of successful psychotherapy (Hillman) and part and parcel of “following your bliss” (Campbell).
So we are in good company with LifePath mapping as we review our own life story chapters and plot (see just previous post to catch up) and even as we can discover – with the step I will offer next – our own mythic ensemble cast of archetypal characters each with their own character arc.
What have you discovered so far about your own Life Story narrative script? Has it progressed to a stage of resolution of earlier challenges (though more may surely come to pass as you continue to grow and unfold)? Has it stalled at a point of uncertainty? (Then, how might you change the story, Now?) Or has your life seemed more of a meandering journey such that every new experience brings a new and unexpected bend in the Road?
images are from pixabay.com
What are your life mission and goals or your Life Dream? Is your Life Story script moving you in the direction of realizing your most ardent wishes, or have you learned to compromise and accept less than optimal conditions?
How might you bring about more of your own “better endings,” especially if you find yourself at a crossroads or at an apparent ‘dead end’? One suggestion based on LifePath mapping results: Listen! Listen to your own deepest, Higher Self and to your unconscious archetypal Inner Assembly. Going there with the next post, so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
I hope you might actually be applying these techniques for yourself, either in part or in whole. A simple way to catch up to where we are at is to make a short list just of those events in your life of such magnitude that you may feel you were a different person before and after that event or situation occurred. Place those along a time line, based on your ages or dates, when each of those occurred or began. Then draw vertical lines at each of those age points, and consider the time frames BETWEEN these critical events to be Life Chapters based on your retrospective current viewpoint. Next you can NAME or give narrative titles to each of these Life Chapters. Now then, reread this post from the top!
Better Endings to All!
Better Endings 