Your Archemes

Consider: All humans become members of their societies by assuming behaviors and attitudes associated with culturally patterned ROLES. A Mother or Father, a Doctor or Teacher, an orphan or an idealist, even a “depressive” all enact social positions vis a vis other social positions by displaying somewhat normative dispositions. In a way we wear masks, or what George H Mead would call personas as we seek to match identifiable images connected with situational identities. As well, we are all multiple in that respect; we adopt different sorts of persona images in different relationships and in different kinds of situations.

Next consider this intriguing statement from Carl Jung: “For every typical situation in life there is an archetype corresponding to that situation.” The archetypal persona forms associated with situational roles are what I am calling Archemes in Life Paths. Stock character forms that help you to learn and display your roles in social positions and in your relationships of various sorts become integral to your identities on both conscious and unconscious levels.

So when I speak in the blog this week about the metaphor of “Life is an Ensemble Cast of Archetype Characters,” I am referring to the notion of Archemes that we each have internalized or that have become ingrained in the very structure of human consciousness along with the evolution of society and culture. I speak as a professional anthropologist here, and I believe this approach explains much about the phenomena of archetypal personas. An understanding of Archemes helps dissolve much of the mystery surrounding the idea of collective and personal unconscious archetypes. While on the unconscious level your inner ‘voices’ and nudge-producers certainly do have a “noumenal” quality about them which can show up in dreams, they are also part and parcel of your conscious, outer roles which are closely connected with your feelings of identity and Self.

Getting to know your Archemes can be as simple, then, as to understand who you are in different sorts of typical situations, both on conscious and unconscious levels. Integrating your internal archeme personas can help you grow as a more unified, Self-aware individual.

I welcome all of your insights and stories!

Life Is… Your Ensemble Cast of Mythic Archetype Characters

Friday night there was a triple feature treat for me on Turner Classic Movies, with Man of La Mancha, Camelot, and Lost Horizon all playing on the same night! These are three of my favorite tales. Now I know better why these stories all appeal to me: they each have ensemble casts with very distinctive personalities. Don Quixote has his Sancho Panza and Dulcinea, as well as his shadowy foils. Lost Horizon has a range of personalities within the group of plane crash survivors and Temple personages including the Abbot, Conway’s resistant, pragmatic brother, and several other colorful characters each with their own distinct motivations and roles. And of course, Camelot has Arthur’s Merlin and his Lady Guinevere along with his Knights of the Roundtable and his own set of shadowy foes.

Arthur’s Roundtable image is what I want to focus on as we begin a new month here at Life Paths for Better Endings. Carl Jung makes reference to a similar Roundtable that he saw in a significant dream he describes in The Red Book.  Jung’s table had an emerald green surface and twelve seating positions around it like spokes on a wheel. He comments in The Red Book about the significance of twelve, as in twelve disciples or the twelve zodiac signs, and in his dream a feminine archetypal figure visiting Jung as a white dove mentions “the twelve” as well. Elsewhere Jung has written about the factor of twelve primordial archetypes representing the four elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) and the three natural energetic phases of any process (origination, maintenance, and dissolution). Dr. Charles Bebeau (with his wife, Nin Bebeau) developed these Jungian concepts—which Dr. Bebeau also relates to god/goddess figures in Sumerian astrology—into a pantheon of twelve universal persona Archetypes for his program in archetypal psychology at the Avalon Archetype Institute formerly in Boulder, Colorado.

Above is a wheel of Bebeau’s universal archetypes, named as adapted for contemporary psychotherapy by Debra J. Breazzano, MA, L.P.C.. These are The Twelve that I am exposing you to with this year’s blog schedule, pairing one of the twelve universal archetypes with one of twelve positive Life Metaphors each month. As these archetype energy modes are universal, that means that each of us has all twelve of these potentials within us, although each of us develops some more than others especially in relation to the sorts of “typical situations” and roles we establish in our particular Life Paths.

So, this month’s Life Metaphor is “Life is…An Ensemble Cast of Mythic Archetype Characters,” which are The Twelve Universal Archetype figures identified in the Archetype Wheel shown above.  They are an ensemble cast much as Arthur’s Knights of the Roundtable, or they can be, when they are integrated as a Council of Allies within your integrated, individuated Self. That is the topic we will explore this month!

Follow Your Positive Inner Nudges

As a follow up from Tuesday’s post inviting you to state a question for which you would like to receive a sign, I applied this tool myself this week to amazing results. I wrote out my question, stating that I would be looking for either a clear Yes or No as a sign.  I then typed the question itself into the Google search bar and guess what came up? A website that offers a Yes/No Oracle! I posed the question there and got the answer I would have hoped for; then I cross-checked with a second question and the site gave an appropriate answer to that. I then typed another related question into the Google search bar and it brought up new information I have needed that further corroborated the “oracle” responses. This is a set of questions I have been pondering about for several months, so it is certainly interesting how this exercise unfolded. Sometimes all we have to do is Ask so that spirit or the universe can meet us halfway. Whatever happens, I received what I needed Now in order to proceed with a major project with greater confidence.

On a related note, in addition to signs that can appear to answer your questions, what of the inner nudges you receive? Have you experienced a time when you received an inner nudge but didn’t follow it? How might things have turned out differently if you had? Even the slightest nudge to take a new way home from work or to say something meaningful to a loved one could bring unanticipated, positive results. I once had a nudge while returning from a road trip that told me to go back to a spot I had just passed where a dead rabbit was in the road. It was a strong nudge, so I followed it. When I got there, a couple was parked. They were taking pictures of the scenic beauty. They watched as I carefully removed the rabbit’s body off from the road. Then as I drove on again, guess what? I witnessed a bear cub crossing the road right in front of my car; a rare beauty! I had asked inwardly before the trip to see a bear. So following this nudge put me in precisely the right place at the right time. Only seconds would have made a difference.

What has happened for you when you followed a clear nudge? Of course we can all think of times when a split second decision could be the difference of meeting a spouse, or not, or something of that magnitude.

Can you distinguish between a clear inner nudge and just a random impulse? How can you best tune in to recognize your nudges? Any form of regular contemplative practice can help you to remain aware and attentive to your inner nudges. You can develop a knack for sensing which ones to follow. I think it helps to add non-habitual activities to your life when you can. Julia Cameron’s THE ARTIST’S WAY offers a great tool that she calls “weekly artist’s dates.” She invites you to practice doing something different and fun at least once a week. Exercising fresh pathways can open your creative wellspring to gush to the surface so you can remain open and flexible when those creative nudges arise.

I welcome your insights and stories!

Show Me a Sign!

It is the final scene in Castaway. Chuck Noland, finally back to civilization after being marooned alone on an island for five years, has returned to find his erst fiancé married and with a family.

Chuck is once again cast away, adrift on a sea of possibilities. Where to go next? He delivers a UPS package that indirectly had saved his life, hoping to thank the sender, but he or she is not at home. He is at a standstill then, literally stopped at a barren crossroads, trying to decide what direction to take to proceed into his uncertain future.  North, South, East, West: all seem equally empty.

A woman driving up to make a turn at the rural crossroads slows to see if she might be able to assist the apparently stranded man who stands outside his Jeep with a road map, looking aimless and lost. She explains his options in terms of destination points in all directions, then she leaves. But as her pickup truck steams off down from the direction in which he had made his delivery, Chuck sees a sign: angel wings painted on the back of the truck—the same angel wings that were on the package he had delivered; a symbol that had served to keep him sane and brought him home from his isolation on the island.

The movie ends, but we know where Chuck will go next, in what direction his future lies. He will follow those angel wings and forge a new Life Chapter.

Is this a story about synchronicity, when just the right sign appears in your life at just the right time? Chuck was asking for direction, studying a road map, and that is precisely when he received his Sign. How Mystic-al! And yet, improbable synchronicity like this happens for most of us when we most need it, especially when we remember to ask—and then, to pay attention so to recognize the answer!

How about in your life? Can you think of a time when you asked for a sign and one appeared to help guide you to your next step with some situation or decision? Did you follow that sign then, or did you continue asking and looking, just accepting the sign as partial guidance for a question of bigger proportions?

Some people are able to take quite successful ‘quantum leaps,’ as it were, responding to signs they receive, while others are more circumspect and prefer to proceed in smaller steps. I am—with some significant exceptions in my life—most often one of the latter. Signs are still important to this second kind of seeker, though, as each sign might reveal a significant piece of the puzzle.

“Ask and you shall receive!” is the postulate we are looking at with this post. To assimilate this principle more deeply within your mindful awareness, I invite you to write about a time when you did recognize and when you ACTED upon a clear sign you received, whether the sign came through a dream, a contemplative vision, or outwardly as a “waking dream” or as “golden tongued wisdom” (if it came as a direct answer to a question you were pondering as an unlikely statement from a friend or stranger). What were the results?

Secondly, I invite you to contemplate a question for which you would like to receive a sign in your life Now.  Pose the question in direct, simple terms. Ask to receive a clear sign.

I welcome your insights and stories!

Mystic and Descender, a Match Made in Heaven

The archetypes of the Descender (known as the Dark Mother in Sumerian astrology) and of the Mystic are often paired in the life experience of the individual. Descender is associated with exploring the depths of life, reaching to the bottom of things, as it were; whereas Mystic has the propensity to accompany your descent and to bring your lessons to the surface, or to soar to the illuminating heights of self-knowledge and spiritual insight.

 

The Mystic is a “dissolving” phase archetype (along with Teacher, Communicator, and Healer), meaning that it allows for a cycle of experience to be resolved, the lessons learned and integrated into greater awareness. So, Mystic can sink to the depths and soar to the heavens, bearing a transcendent wisdom. That is why it is helpful to inquire of your own inner Mystic nature when seeking insight or illumination about a troubling situation or decision. Trust your inner guidance to lead you well.

We find the pairing of Descender and Mystic archetypes often portrayed in mythic fiction or epic fantasy tales.  Arthur has his Merlin to call upon in the darkest moments of his Quest; Dorothy has her Glinda; Harry his Dumbledore; Luke his Obi Wan or Yoda. All of these mystic Wizard or Master figures have the capacity to encompass the lowest and the highest orders of experience and awareness, and the fact that these heroic protagonists have access to these Mystics is a projection from their own spiritual and psychic natures. These Mystic figures appear to be advanced in their unfoldment relative to the hero, yet it is the destiny of the hero to realize these Mystic abilities within themselves; they have projected these external Mystic helpers which mirror aspects of themselves. Do you see?

Archetypes, whether external or internal, reflect our own inner spiritual and mental potentials. In fact, both villainous and heroic Mystic forms are projections; but it is in the heroic nature of Soul, ultimately, to overcome or tame the negative energies while developing their positive attributes of Being, Knowing, and Seeing. These are Mystic traits, inherent in each of us. It only takes YOU to develop and to integrate your fullest potentials.

Dialogue with a Mystic: In You!

Archetype Dialogue can be a helpful tool for gaining greater self-awareness and clarity about any topic in your life about which you feel uncertain or in conflict. Where should you go for your spring vacation? Or, should you date that person? Take that new job? Make a change, and of what kind? Checking in with members of your unconscious ensemble cast of archetype Allies can help you to expose aspects of your own suppressed attitudes, feelings and motivations.

You can enter into Archetype Dialogue any time; in fact, we all do it naturally many times daily when we slip into “inner dialogue.” But when you consciously tune into your subconscious attitudes or conflicting outlooks on some topic or decision, you benefit from expanding your understanding of your own inner character modes and their considerations. Bottom line, you get to LISTEN to parts of your Self you might otherwise suppress or ignore.

As we are pairing the Mystic archetype with the metaphor Life is an Epic Quest this week, why don’t you take some time to ASK your Inner Mystic about the path you are on with some aspect of your life. What direction shall you go to maximize your Bliss or your goals with that leg of your journey of life?

Allow me to model this sort of archetype dialogue, briefly. I invite you to engage your own Mystic. You might begin with active imagination or contemplation (see Tuesday’s post). Then record a direct dialogue from your contemplative encounter.

(Self):  What is our next step, Mystic Lindy?

M: Do you mean regarding your writing?

S: Yes.

M: Stay the course.

S: Are we sure about that?

M: Absolutely.

S: But am I on the right track with this major revision? Is there more I still need to consider?

M: One small step at a time, but you are on the right track. Continue to remove all obstacles to the reader’s comprehension. Ask more of the reader.

S: How do you mean?

M: You can ask more direct questions for journaling reflections, not only in the “Tools” but throughout the narrative.

S: What kinds of questions, do you mean?

M: ‘Have you had a recurring form of Animal dream? What do you feel that animal reveals about you?’ OR: ‘If you were an animal, which animal would you be? Why? (Please complete Chapter x, # y before continuing.)’

S: I see. So we could spice up the Tool invitation boxes this way?

M: It is a way to interact, not just describe.

S: Thanks! I will use that. Anything else?

M: Trust.

S: But what if (you know)?

M: What waking dreams or golden-tongued wisdom have you perceived recently?

S:  That everything is fine.

M: Stay the course.

S: Thank you so much!

Continue to dialogue with your Mystic Ally so long as It continues to  advise you on your question. Know that It is always available to you.

I welcome YOUR insights and stories.

 

 

Tuning In to Your Mystic Awareness

How can you tune in to your own inner Mystic Guide? Let’s count some of the many ways available to you:

Active imagination

Meditation

Contemplation

Yoga

Dream work

Archetype Dialogue Journaling

Prayer

Mindfulness

Each of these natural modes of accessing your unconscious and/or spiritual awareness offers great potential for engaging your Mystic archetype as an Ally who can help your conscious self by sharing deep insights. Let me describe a few of these methods, then, that you may wish to practice.

Active imagination:

This is the technique Carl Jung himself used which he wrote about extensively (e.g. see the marvelous new Reader’s Edition of Jung’s The Red Book). It is a mode of creative visualization. You can journal about your inner experience after returning to your normal waking perspective.

Contemplation:

Contemplation is an active, engaged form of meditation. You maintain awareness while asking an inward question for inner guidance, or you can travel, either astrally (in your emotional state of consciousness), mentally, or via soul travel, to explore dimensions of consciousness beyond the Physical realm. With active contemplation you may assume the perspective of being in the state which you wish to observe, and release your conscious mind to allow whatever experience is relevant from that perspective. You may begin with active imagination and then shift into a contemplative experience.

Dream work:

Dreams occur from many different levels of consciousness, so different kinds of dreams reflect these different levels of perception (and action). Lucid dreaming occurs when you become aware within a dream that you are dreaming; achieving lucid dreaming can help you to be more conscious of your ability to control your outer states of consciousness while waking as well as your dream state.  Archetypal dreams—which Jung was interested in—appear with symbolic content that can reflect either universal, collective archetypal imagery (e.g. a snake can refer to transformation, or a circle can refer to completion or wholeness) and also personal unconscious archetypal parts of Self can appear as personas in your nightly dream. Waking dreams may also happen (more so when you pay attention as such), wherein you realize an outer occurrence has a symbolic component or gives you an answer you are seeking in a serendipitous manner. Some mystical philosophers would remind us that the outer life is as much of a dream as a nightly, “inner” dream scenario.’ (A good primer: The Art of Spiritual Dreaming, by Harold Klemp.)

Archetype Dialogue Journaling:

Using active imagination and contemplation, you can enter into a conversation with your own personal unconscious archetypal ‘parts of Self’. This is the approach I use with the Life Maps Process, and it is the approach Jung used that is described in his The Red Book.  Once you become proficient at invoking and ‘shifting’ between these perspectives, you can journal a dialogue with your varying archetypal personae as it occurs. This can allow you to explore your conflicting attitudes and motivations. These different archetypal perspectives may be identified with “typical situations” in your life; that is, with the distinct ROLES you have established and that you enact daily.

You can approach your MYSTIC archetype for a direct, dynamic dialogue or within a soul travel type of inner encounter.  Remember, all you have to do inwardly is to ASK! And then, accept what happens with a loving heart, ready to learn, and record your experience so you can interpret and remember the insights gained.

Follow Your Mystic Guide

This year at Life Paths for Better Endings we are conjoining twelve universal archetypal figures with twelve positive, goal-affirming Life Metaphors. This month we are focusing on The MYSTIC archetype in connection with the metaphor, Life is an Epic Journey. For our third week of the month, we bring these two ideas together, and it is natural to recognize that since life is an Epic Journey, the Mystic serves as a Guide.

I am very familiar with this fortuitous awareness of being able to follow a mystic Guide, as on my own spiritual path I recognize an Inner Master who appears often in my dreams and contemplations to offer his amazing, loving guidance, insight and protection. For me, acceptance of this inner guidance has been a major blessing in my life. I am deeply grateful to have discovered that life is so much more than outer appearances and that there are other-dimensional guides available always, for everyone, at any time.  While I work in a very worldly job outwardly as a professor, I feel extremely fortunate that this sphere has not confined my awareness or limited my perceptions of spiritual realities, and I will not deny nor apologize for my acknowledgement of the wonderful experiences this spiritual awareness has afforded me, time and time again.

The Mystic Guide—however else it may appear to you—is available as an archetypal persona that is a part of your Self and that you can call upon for clarity and direction whenever you are wondering what your next step could be.  Allow me to share an example.

When I was an undergrad in college many years ago in Buffalo, New York, I was on a quite successful intercollegiate fencing team. The last college tournament I participated in was a nationals qualifying event during my senior year of college. Our team had placed 9^th of over 125 universities (by two touches we would have been 7th) the previous year, but two of that team had graduated, and two less experienced, junior varsity teammates had joined me and my friend Ro (we had been the strongest fencers at that previous nationals, placing highly ourselves as well). Our coach, Denny, became overly aggressive in trying to force our younger teammates to step up beyond their level of skill, and he was also becoming overly forceful and aggressive with these teammates at meets. So at this last event, I did well as did my friend Ro; the rest competed as well as they could yet came up short of our coach’s demands. I found myself at that tournament at Ohio State University cheering on every good ‘touch’, whether by a teammate or by an opponent or by myself. I congratulated if an opponent won a bout as much as if a teammate did. Something was turning in me; my sense of competitiveness shifted to an appreciation of the sheer beauty of fencing as an art and of the endeavors and talents of each individual.

When we left that event, I sat in the back of the team van for the long ride home to Buffalo from Columbus, Ohio. I had recently discovered the practice of mantra singing, and for nearly the entirety of that road trip, I closed my eyes and chanted a single word: IS.  I sang that word as a mantra over and over: Is-is-is-is-is-is-isssss! I was contemplating existence itself, or ISness. And something amazing happened inwardly: I found myself in a round, high, turret like room with library shelves and books all around me, many stories deep, and a dome at the top. I was seated at a round table in the center, and all I had to do to get a book was to think of that and one of the books would come to me. ALL of the books in that round library were about the same subject: Language. I absorbed book after book, studying the titles, drinking in the immensity of the topic; its breadth and depth. All the while listening inwardly to:  IS-IS-IS-IS-IS-IS…

When we arrived back at our gym at the university in Buffalo, I approached Denny and announced to him that I was quitting the team from that moment forward. I took my own fencing equipment with me, and left. (My friend Ro did the same some weeks later.) But from the deep contemplation experience, I had found my next step in my own journey. That next week I started studying language intensively at the college library, and the next year I entered a graduate program in Linguistics at SUNY Buffalo; this has been the basis of my career foundation ever since.

It was something within me which I can now recognize as my inner Mystic Guide that set me to singing IS that day and showed me my inner passion for language that would become central to my life’s journey.  Something shifted inwardly while at the tournament that day, and this subtle shift in consciousness allowed me to be open to the inner direction of this mystical calling.

You and I only need, ever, to be willing to Listen and Learn!

The Call of the Mystic

As a gift of synchrony this week, I was struck by the following quote shared by Theresa from the Soul Gatherings blog “Today’s Quote” (March 10 2015):

 

“If something burns your soul with purpose and desire,
it’s your duty to be reduced to ashes by it.
Any other form of existence will be
yet another dull book in the library of life.”

~ Charles Bukowski ~

 

The Mystic in each of us is a Visionary who  brings purpose and desire into our hearts. And in its manner,  the Vision may indeed sear the mystic visioner.  Many turn away from the full  vision, their Dream, if it appears too difficult to practically achieve. These may then find a way to sublimate their vision into a form that still can fulfill some aspects of their dreams, e.g. through parenting or travels, and that is good. Others who feel driven by their vision as a genuine calling must proceed, regardless of social skepticism and despite the indefinite time or social sacrifice it may take to bring their Dream into fruition so it can benefit the Whole.

I am reminded of Langston Hughes’s poignant poem:

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die,

life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go,

life is a barren field, frozen with snow.

 I find myself at this phase of my life in the category of the  visioner who must push on despite the searing nature of the quest. In this case there is a concrete goal to accomplish, and guideposts along the way to maintain productive progress. But some dreams—including some of my own spiritually; and yours?—are greater than one can expect to fulfill even in a single lifetime.  Even so, such dreams propel a lifetime forward by incremental “small steps” of  unfoldment which either the Soul will continue beyond this earthly sojourn or which others may also continue once that original soul-journeyer has passed beyond.

 

Recently science and science fiction are exploring the idea of interstellar travel as the sort of vision that may take generations to fulfill. Is this a Mystic Quest? You bet it is! It is a Vision that speaks to the continuation and advanced evolution of our varied earthly species as a whole.  Our very lifeforms, according to some of these ark-like visions emerging today, may be transformed in the process of securing our physical survival in the vast expanse of perpetual existence.

So, live your visionary dreams, no matter where they lead. Trust your inner mystic  to lead you Home.

 

Encounter with a Mystic Seer

Twenty-two years ago almost precisely this week, I had recently finished graduate school and  I applied for two university positions that were open, one in Colorado Springs, Colorado and another in Austin, Texas. On the short list of applicants for the Colorado job, I went there to interview from a Tuesday through a Thursday in March and then I returned to where I then lived, in Phoenix.  That Sunday my friend Cam invited me to go with her to the first Renaissance festival I ever attended, near Phoenix.  Just inside the gates, the very first booth I noticed and was drawn to check out was for a palmist, named Madam Carolyn (You can click to see her web site). My great-great Aunt Bessie, one of my favorite relatives while growing up, had been something of a gypsy and she had read palms; because of her I had even studied about palmistry while in high school. I was intrigued; it would be fun, anyway. I paid fifteen dollars and sat for a reading.

The very first words Mme. Carolyn said to me were:

“You’re going to get the job.” [I had not said a word to her, at all, nor had my friend.]

Followed by:

“And you’re going to work in one of the other two places I do Renaissance fairs; either Colorado Springs, Colorado or Austin, Texas.” [You can imagine my shock!]

“But, you won’t believe anything unless you’re hit over the head with a two-by-four.”

 

I was flabbergasted, especially the next Monday when I was offered the job in Colorado, where I have worked ever since.  That next summer I went to the Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, Colorado (near Colorado Springs), and sure enough, there was Madame Carolyn. I thanked her profoundly and have visited her for a reading every summer since that astounding day in Phoenix.  Although I might say that I have long believed clairvoyance is possible, never in my wildest imagination would I have expected such true, clear awareness from someone I had never even met. A two-by-four it was [She was right about that, too]!

I have often since wondered WHY I stumbled upon such an accurate mystic in my encounter with Mme. Carolyn (BTW she still reads at both the Phoenix and the Larkspur events, where she is understandably very popular!)  Why did I need to receive this astounding experience? Perhaps it was to show me that it is possible for a Mystic to accomplish true, untrammeled perception.

To be clear, I am not one who generally seeks out any form of psychic reading. I mainly believe that we are the best interpreters of our own dreams and the clearest visionaries for our own lives, or should be. Maybe as I was just about to embark upon an “academic” career, I needed a bit of an eye opener as to what more there is to know than book knowledge; a proverbial carrot being dangled before me as an invitation—or an admonition!—to keep my mind OPEN to the mysteries of life and to strive to explore the deeper truths on my own, as well.

So, how about you? Have you been struck on the head by any two-by-fours lately? I welcome your insights and stories!

The Mystic Archetype

Magi, Guide, Master, Seer, Guru, Oracle, Clairvoyant, or Sage; and Merlin, Glinda, Gandalf, or Dumbledore: all fill the shoes or hold the torch of the MYSTIC archetype. And each of us, I am happy to observe, harbor within us the full potential for expressing the Mystic ourselves.

MYSTIC is a Water archetype corresponding with Pisces.  It often brings life lessons that involve a Descent and reemergence.  The Mystic holds the key to answering many a mystery or question. Remember to call upon your own Inner Mystic when your query is profound.

Mystic may appear in your dreams or in your spiritual practice through meditation, prayer or contemplation. Pay attention when he or she visits with you in a dream, as your Dream Guide is able to impart vital insight to you while your conscious mind is less likely to interfere. Is this Inner Guide, then, merely an archetypal part of your Self or may It also be a spiritual agency appearing from another dimension? That hardly matters so long as you receive the message. And, it may be either, or both; for archetypes are simply FORMS, whether personal or transpersonal. We project archetypes onto others as well as identify with them within our own psyche, and spiritual guides certainly also appear to us in these same modes.

Consider some questions you might pose to your inner Mystic that you might otherwise not ask at all.  Your deepest questions ARE worth investigating beyond what your outer mind can explore. For example:

Who Am I?

Why Am I Here?

What is my Life Mission?

How May I Fulfill this Worthy Purpose?

Now then, May You Dream! And remember to Ask!

Home Base

Let’s pick up today where we left off on Tuesday:

“Our projected journey ends where it begins because it is not really about going anywhere; rather, it is about remembering who we ARE, what our Source, IS.”

I invite you now to close your eyes and imagine a place or a relationship or a memory of a time where you have felt totally, authentically “at Home.”   Envision this homey, comfy place or relationship as your Source—a location you “live IN” even Now, where you return to in your thoughts and feelings when you desire to be safe and protected in a nourishing wholeness.

Write or engage in active contemplation about your “home base.” Describe and imagine the sights and the sounds, the smells and colors and the deep textures of your Heartland, this place or personal  relationship that in some recess of your Soul grounds and defines you.

I can imagine three places and three relationships that carry this feeling of Home for me. One is a certain spot overlooking the Canadian Niagara Falls; another is what I call my Eagle’s Nest overlooking Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona, AZ; the third is a sacred, personal temple on an Inner plane I often visit in contemplations. Also D/M, Ariel, and Sophie are relationships with whom I have shared such comfort as to feel eternally at Home within the heart.

Choose one of your Home Base memories or touchstones to contemplate upon deeply. Be-Here-Now! Allow yourself to fully settle into the comfort of this favorite homeland in your heart. What do you feel here? It is Love, I am sure. Love like the warm rays of the sun surrounding and uplifting you in the midst of winter, nurturing and renewing your every atom, every cell.

When I first traveled to Sedona, AZ, 38 years ago, I found a private spot in Oak Creek Canyon that I call my Eagle’s Nest.  Sitting in the aerie overlooking the verdant, spacious canyon, even now I feel at peace in this quiet, harmonious expanse of colors, light and sounds. I wrote a poem there that first day:

The Canyon

It is drawing me into Its depths;

It will contain me,

Yet in that instant It shall free me

Until me-ness dissolves

beyond eternity

Where just Is-ness, IS

 

So where is YOUR Homeland, your connection with Source?

Homeward Bound: Your Epic Journey

Have you thought about why it is that so many of the best adventure stories or epic quests end where they begin: at Home?  Homer’s Odysseus takes ten years to get home to his wife and son in Ithaca following his participation in the Peloponnesian wars. Dorothy’s whole purpose once in Oz is to return to her family farm in Kansas where Auntie Em will be anxiously awaiting her return.

Home is where the heart is, we say, so that even our everyday adventures at the workplace or venturing forth for groceries can become itself a mini Hero Cycle that is ultimately Homeward Bound.  And every time a baseball player steps up to the plate for his or her turn at bat? You’ve got it: the Goal is to make it back around to Home Base via the arduous adventure through three challenging turning points guarded by the Basemen who stand ready to waylay the hapless voyager.

So, why Home? Wouldn’t it make more sense for an adventure tale to be about going somewhere other than back to where the story began? Do Frodo or Bilbo Baggins really need to get back to the Shire in order for their epic saga to feel complete, their quests fulfilled? For that matter, what then does the final scene in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings add to this epic cycle when Bilbo and Frodo actually leave with Gandalf on the elvish vessel to cross the great waters, never again to return to the Shire? What’s that about? Yes, even on a grander scale: Going HOME!

So, where is this mythical, mystical spiritual Home to which all good heroes—like you and me—ultimately are destined to Return?  Call it what you like: your Shangri-La, Ithaca, or Xanadu; all are metaphors for where we are all really headed with our journeys from the cradle to the grave, and Beyond.  Life is ultimately uncontainable; our conscious Spirit moves us inevitably onward to transcendent Reality beyond this pale plane of material illusions and temporal diversions. Home is a realm beyond places in spacetime where we have never really left; we are always Here-Now! Our projected journey ends where it begins because it is not really about going anywhere at all but rather, it is about remembering who we ARE and what our Source, IS.

Your Life is An Epic Journey

 

 

You are a mystic life adventurer! But you know that, right? This month we will explore the Life Metaphor Life is an Epic Adventure, with the archetype of Mystic as our ally and guide.

James Hillman, archetypal psychologist, wrote in Healing Fiction about the healing power of your own Life Story. He made a distinction in his therapy practice between a “case story,” which a person brings to the therapy process, and a “soul story,” which a therapist can help the person to identify and own. The case story is just the facts, the weave and warp of situational events that have added up to where a person feels himself or herself to be in life.  But those same facts, told in terms of their meaning, their impact and significance to the person’s sense of life purpose, goals and desires, comprise the soul story instead.

With Life Paths I will introduce a technique I call the Parallel Myth technique. This method will provide a way to transform your basic Life Map—charting your significant, shaping experiences and their relative impacts on the person you have become—into a soul story. As a short version here, let me invite you to simply think about some Epic story in a novel, film, play or myth form that you have always identified with.  How? Why? What about that story or one of its key protagonists reminds you of your own life and your own epic life adventure?

Now then, write a brief, synoptic story that merges the story you have identified with and meaningful facts from your own life. Assign yourself a protagonist’s name, and write this synoptic story in third person, highlighting your own most dramatic challenges, successes, loves and dreams. Write a page or two encapsulating your life experience from the perspective of this ‘merged’ storyline.

I like to remind my life mapping clients and students of the following awareness:

You are the stuff that myth is made of, and myth is made up from the stuff of your lives.

Now then, go forth and prosper!

I welcome your insights and I invite you to share your stories. Let’s enjoy a conversation!