Archetypal Alchemy

Carl Jung’s recognition of the value of encountering unconscious archetypical aspects of Self through active imagination leads to his understanding that this is a process leading to the “integration” of archetypal energies within the overall, individual identity of one’s Self. James Hillman further recognized that there is value in experiencing the dynamic vitality of usually submerged unconscious archetypal persona aspects, not necessarily to ‘raise them to conscious’ habitation but to explore the dynamics of their own field of influence within the Depth levels of Self.

Each archetypical mode or energy complex within our overall human consciousness formation has Its own nature and can be a staunch Ally in Its most positive (Strength, to me) mode— or an impediment if repressed or in Shadow. To me, as with Jung, Hillman, and Jean Houston, the forming of an Archetype Council— what I like to call your Ensemble Cast of Mystic Archetype Characters— is an important process that facilitates the integration and mobilization of your dynamic archetypal energies in the most positive way. I think in terms of Archetype Pairings and Archetype Constellations within your Total Self System.

Allying with your Warrior nature can be a good opportunity to forge an Archetypal Constellation in working toward a specific life goal or addressing a situation in your life that seems to call for your Warrior— at least in one aspect— to step forward. By Itself in full force, Warrior can lead the charge, when needed, to bring about a major shift in a situation. But Warrior also combines well with any of the other 11 universal archetypes (and/or their sub-modal, individualized forms), especially when you desire to establish a more tempered, balanced approach to a situation.

Combining archetypal modes or ‘guises’ normally happens unconsciously, but as an “alchemical” practice, the individual can choose consciously to enlist and combine specific archetypal elements in order to facilitate a specific objective. By the way, if this is not done, and as Joseph Campbell has reminded us, in some situations you might feel ‘dissociated’ or ‘split’: one part of you thinking or acting in one manner, another feeling or speaking from a very different ‘location’ within your Self. This is represented by the classic “angel on one shoulder, devil on the other” motif.

One technique I offer to you for forging an archetypal Constellation to explore how best to approach a specific goal or deal with a difficult situation, is what I’ll call the Roundtable Room technique (based on the symbol of King Arthur’s Roundtable):

1. FRAME a question or a situation;
2. State your goal in relation to this situation or decision;
3. On the picture below, circle those persona archetype characters you feel might be helpful to enlist to help you realize your goal or arrive at your decision:

 

4. Enter into an Active Imagination (imaginative contemplation) session and Descend to the Roundtable Room where these selected Archetype characters have been assembled. Now invite each of these Archetypical personas to offer how they can help your overall Self with the situation or decision. Have an open conversation with these parts of your Self, seeking their input and asking to draw upon each of their Strengths in a team-based, collaborative manner.

5. Emerge from your Active Imagination contemplation and write down all that transpired (you can also journal this conversation as it occurs if that works better for you).

Below are some spaces where you may print this post and  record which archetype modes you have invited to help you work with the situation you have focused on with your active imagination.

 

SITUATION:

Ensemble Cast Allies/Strengths to Draw Upon:

Warrior  /  (e.g. resolve)

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

 

So, choose a situation for which your inner Warrior would be one ‘part’ of your Self that it feels appropriate for you to recruit in the Roundtable Room. What does your Warrior want for you and of you in the situation? How can he/she help you to deal with the situation and achieve your goal? What other parts of your Self have something to add to this? What Strengths can these Archetype Allies each contribute to help you implement this plan and manifest your goal?

images from pixabay.com

I welcome your comments and stories!

 

Your Fight Cheer

This message came through for me last night from my own Warrior archetype Ally: Compose a Fight Cheer to help you as a positive affirmation of determination and persistence to achieve a valued goal.

Here are some fight cheers I found online (Cheers and Chants):

Let me hear you yell GO! -GO!- (pause) Let me hear you yell FIGHT! -FIGHT!-(pause) Let me hear you yell WIN! -WIN!- (pause) Let me hear you yell GO FIGHT WIN!!!! -GO FIGHT WIN!!!!-

All the fans in the stands, yell GO! -GO!-, All the fans in the stands, yell FIGHT! -FIGHT!-, All the fans in the stands, yell WIN! -WIN!- All the fans in the stands, yell GO FIGHT WIN! -GO FIGHTWIN!!!!-

The Power, the might, can you believe the hype. Let’s go Tigers let’s fight, the Tigers will rock you tonight, yeah!

We are the Bears and we can’t be beat. We’re gonna knock you you right off your feet.

We can, we can, know we can, we can, we can we must, we can, we can!

Control is the key, to take that victory!

My own Warrior chant is actually a bit at odds with the norm. What came through from my own Warrior is:

Remember to Surrender;

Always Give UP!

How is this a Warrior cry, you might well ask? It reminds me to RELEASE my goal “upwards,” to Spirit, then trust and be patient, attentive to the Way it opens; then to ACT in keeping with the path revealed.

What is YOUR Fight Cheer, your Battle Cry, your Affirmation for Success? Write out one that you repeat many times, or several. Place it somewhere you will see it through the day or where you most need to be reminded of your Goal. Do a cheerleader’s routine with your Cheer, if you like!

Go, Go, You CAN and Will Succeed!

Reach Your Target, Achieve your Highest Dream!

images from pixabay.com

Integrating Your Mystic Ally

This month we have focused on helping you to tune into the perspectives and Vision of your MYSTIC Archetype Ally. All of us have this aspect, this ‘energy of the unconscious’ that is available to us always, so long as we listen for and accept Its input.

The Twelve primary Archetype persona forms are most helpful to us when they are consciously enlisted to serve the Self and especially when they are allowed to form an integrated Council.

I like to call this your Ensemble Cast of Mythic Archetype Allies, similar to Dorothy’s cast of Tin Man (Shadow Lover)/ Cowardly Lion (Shadow Warrior)/ Scarecrow (Shadow Teacher)/ Glinda (Mystic)/ and Toto (Animus) in the Wizard of OZ. Once these cast members work together in harmony, they come into their greatest Strengths and together they successfully rescue the Self from its imprisonment within the Shadow Descender’s (Witch’s) castle, dissolving the negative energy of the Descender altogether as the Integrated Self (Dorothy) assimilates that energy as a positive Strength and ultimately; well, you know the Story (it is yours too): She GOES HOME as a mature, well integrated “Total Self System” (my phrase). I figure after all of this, Toto is going to be okay. Dorothy has the Heart, Mind, and Courage fully self-realized to manage the intrusive neighbor and to assure Toto will not bother the neighbor’s garden any more.

images from pixabay.com

Imagine a large, Round Table, reminiscent of King Arthur’s table at Camelot. There are thirteen seats around the table, for The Twelve primordial Archetype Allies, and the Self. Place an issue on the Table in some form (a request or an inquiry about a situation about which you would like a “concerted” input from your Inner Council). Imagine (listen to inwardly) or write out the conversation wherein various of your Ensemble Council members contribute their perspective or advice.  Take note of all suggestions received. Allow the Council to discuss the situation from all angles, among themselves and with You. Consider this input deeply; it may carry unconscious Truth beyond your conscious mind’s tendencies to conceptualize.  Express GRATITUDE to each and All for their input and constant Presence.

                                                                                Artist   Idealist   Nourisher    Self      Lover   Teacher  Elder-Leader

                                                                                             

                                                                              Warrior   Mystic     Descender   Communicator   Healer  Golden-Child

A Mystic Message for You

image from pixabay.com

Your inner Mystic archetype Ally has a clear message for you. Allow It to impart this message in the following two mediums:

1)Imagine you have just finished a wonderful Asian buffet dinner. The waiter has brought you two fortune cookies at the end of your meal. You will recognize that the first message relates to your present life and the second forecasts a desirable future condition that you can realize.

Open them here (allow your Mystic consciousness to fill in the words):

(You can print out this blog then use the fortune cookie shapes and heart shapes below as templates to write, draw or paste images.) 

2) After reading your fortune cookie messages, please take them to Heart. In the Heart space below, place your own words or images to communicate to your Mystic Ally how you will manifest the future condition S/he has forecasted for you. 

It is vitally important that you work IN TANDEM (like a bicycle-built-for-Two) with your Mystic Ally, so that your Inner perceptions and intentions can be effectively, powerfully in alignment with your Outer capabilities and Action.

I welcome your insights and stories!

Allowing the Teacher Within

Your Descender and Shadow Archetypes

The Descender archetype as part of your Total Self System is not quite the same as what Jung referred to as your Shadow. In the system of twelve universal archetypes I am representing with the Life Maps Process, based on the system of archetypal therapy developed by Dr. Charles and Nin Bebeau and Debra Breazzano at the former Avalon Archetype Institute, all twelve archetypes, including Descender, each have both positive or Strength qualities as well as negative Shadow potentials.

Your Descender is associated with Descent, a part of you that is more comfortable in reclusive, reflective spaces or moods.

This often submerged unconscious persona digs deeply into the lower layers of life experience and may often bring forth pearls or gems in the process.

Shadow traits of any archetype are repressed or inhibited modalities. They may result from injuries or express inhibited, fearful aspects related to negative life conditions or from traumatic experiences from the past or present.

The Lone Wolf animus figure I wrote about in my last post (Friday) has a Descender aspect to it. It stands apart and ventures where others may not dare to tread; this is its nature and it has been of great value to me as a writer, yet now I am seeking to reintegrate my Lone Wolf nature back into its wider community of Archetype Allies as it is time to go forth in a more external, service oriented  manner of sharing and communicating widely.

Embrace your Descender as one who can show you the depths of any situation or relationship. Also acknowledge your Shadow expressions, as these may lead you to recognize sources of discomfort that can lead you to make positive adjustments and change. Explore the depths, then bring up the gold that can illuminate your passage to reach your desired goals.

Most importantly, I encourage you to LISTEN to your Descender and Shadow forms, whether they appear in your dreams, your emotional attitudes, or in your outer waking world interactions. They bear important messages for you to learn and grow from. They are your Allies, too!

I welcome your comments or stories!

Integrating the Lone Wolf

Have you had an animal image that recurs with similar themes in your nightly dreams? What might this archetypal animus/anima image say about you?

Recently I have had a wakeup call which has made me aware of such an Animus-Descender image in my nightly as well as waking dreams. The image is that of a Lone Wolf, and my wake-up call (literally after walking into a glass wall a couple weekends ago!) is showing me that I am ready to and need to make a change in my life in relation to my Lone Wolf nature.

The animus figure started appearing a couple of months ago. While waiting with a friend to walk an outdoor labyrinth in a remote, forested area, an unusual, large and scrawny but strong looking hybrid wolf-dog went slowly walking by, closely enough to catch my gaze and eye me as it passed through a clearing. It was similar in “image” to the Wolf in the recent INTO THE WOODS portrayal by Johnny Depp, though not at all threatening or lecherous, just very aware and very solitary. A few mornings ago I had another dream image of a Lone Wolf; this time it was a rather scruffy but healthy looking WHITE with orange blotches, hybrid Wolf-dog, just standing about the same distance from the one I saw in the forest, alone.  Then I realized I have an online banking icon gravatar of a lone German Shepherd…definitely something going on here!

So when I asked for inner guidance after walking into the wall (which impact spread through my forehead over nearly two weeks) about what sort of CHANGE I am being asked to implement, I immediately saw that Lone Wolf image and now I understand intuitively what it’s about.  For the past few years I have embodied a Lone Wolf in certain respects in my life. I have been less social than I used to be; though I am always somewhat an introspective, quiet sort, I used to be somewhat more socially active. This has felt right and necessary while I’ve been working hard on writing and editing a book manuscript. I have needed not to be so influenced by social opinion, so I have stayed more in the background in some circles.  But lately I notice things are changing. I have been receiving unusual invitations to step forward again, to make presentations and join with others in service.

The change, I realize, is that it is time to reintegrate my Lone Wolf nature back into my combined archetypal Ensemble Cast. I feel s/he is ready to return to this inner community of persona characters in a collaborative, unified sort of way. And with this understanding  has come a technique to help reintegrate such a Descender archetype energy–or, any.

Is there an aspect of your nature manifesting in some particular sort of attitude or traits that you have been expressing more than usual lately? What is its nature and how has it been helping–or possibly hindering– you with some dimension of your life? Describe its nature as an archetypal form, like my Lone Wolf image. My Wolf, e.g., is solitary but strong; it forges forward where others might not dare to tread, but it acts as if it needs no-one, especially no human, to accompany It.

Focussing next on the positive qualities of this archetypal persona or animus/anima image, what does it need from the REST of your nature that could help to reintegrate it back into the fold of your Total Self System? For me I see my Wolf can use some Nourishing care, so I have envisioned my NOURISHER archetype stepping forth inwardly to offer food, water and compassion to the Wolf, leading it back more closely to my central Self domain. I also imagine other aspects of my nature: Lover, Mystic and Communicator archetype Allies, welcoming the Lone Wolf back into our common, shared field.  Together we can accomplish more than any of us separated off or alone. I need this Wolf energy to step boldly forth for a next contemplated step toward fully realizing our Life Dream, but it will be better tempered in concert with the rest of this assembly.  Communicator can help express what it is the Wolf perceives; Lover and Mystic recognize the need for timing and service to proceed with the next step of our journey.

images from pixabay.com

I welcome YOUR comments and stories!

For A Kinder, Gentler World

As I conclude this month of pairing the Lover archetype Ally with the postulate to Live Your Dream, Now! I find within some personal reflections and insights from this segment of the journey.

For myself I  realize how sensitive—not fragile but acutely aware of my own and others’ feelings—my Lover persona can be. It is tender and vulnerable and you know what? I like that about me…er, about that aspect of my integrated Self. I protect this tender, heart dwelling Lover nature, and I value her presence and her willingness to ‘hang in there’ with me, even though often she must submerge into the unconscious reservoir to refresh and renew her own nature.

For those not familiar with the understanding of archetypal energies and specifically about unconscious persona archetype energies that influence and can contribute either in Strength or Shadow manner to our conscious constructions and expressions of Self (á la Jung or Hillman or other popular authors or herein), let me reassure you that becoming aware of and connecting willfully with your sometimes ‘buried’ archetypal personae does not make you “multiple” or schizophrenic. In fact, as all these authors would note, it is in aligning with and working to strengthen, illuminate and ally with our archetypal personae—which all of us have at least latently in human consciousness or what Jung called Psyche—the resulting individuation and integration forges a much more balanced, aware, and dynamic Self that is closer to expressing our full Soul potentials in this world.

But back to the Lover seeking to Live my Dream, Now! This month she has shown me through her tender sensibilities how hard this world can sometimes be. Not always, of course (fortunately!). But in our urbane world often people are not led primarily by their own loving natures so much as by the Mind or by the Rule (Elder Leader energies).  My sensitive Lover persona runs for cover when I bump up against someone’s anger or cold indifference, though I realize it is simply the way of the world I live in to throw such energies about, some times. I too have to sometimes muster my own Elder Leader traits to meet such interactions ‘head on’. I try to do so in a balanced way, as far as possible to bring a greater balance to my environment. Sometimes it is necessary to be firm.

So I realize it is in part my Lover persona who seeks a Kinder, Gentler World. That is one reason I am intending to retire to a small rural town soon enough. I look forward to walks along the lake and in the nearby parks and moving gently through lake water in a rowboat or small motorboat or canoe or kayak. I envision walking with my Soul companion Sophie (my Shorkie), and cuddling with her and with my furry cat friends. Well, of course I do that already! To the extent we daydream we create the life of our dreams here and now; we do not have to wait to Live Your Dream, Now!, which is the very point after all, n’est-ce pas?

May You Dream Your Dream and Live It Daily!

I welcome your insights, always.

What Would Love Do Now?

Love is the moving force of Creation for all forms. We might say it is God Itself in motion in our lives. Love is that vital, positive energy that forges connections between any two or more beings who are open to and accepting of one another.

This past weekend in Minneapolis I felt like I was at a love fest of sorts; a global spiritual conference (the 50^th anniversary Eckankar Worldwide Seminar) with over 7,000 souls attending from 59 countries. Amazing to be in that high concentration of positive creative energy for a few days. While there, I came up with today’s topic: What Would Love Do Now?

Any way in which you might feel stymied or held back in your life, you can ask yourself this question. Using your capacity to LOVE, what can you do to go beyond these self-limitations and proceed forward to reach your goal with this or any situation?

I have been asking inwardly why things move so slowly with creative projects.  I opened a spiritual book “anywhere” and found my answer directly: “Release your fear and speak to people about (your project). There will be plenty of opportunities!” Wow! That is indeed what love can help me to do; love is the opposite of fear and it is true I have been holding back in some quarters from speaking about my work, but it is indeed time to step forward.

What about you? What would Love do Now, for you? What action can you take of a loving nature that can overcome obstacles and remove unnecessary barriers or roadblocks?

Put your Lover Archetype Ally in the drivers seat this week, and let It steer your course.

images from pixabay.com

I welcome your insights and stories!

 

Vinci cum Amor, or, Act on your Dreams!

This week I have had two dreams, the second of which this morning was clearly a blog gift dream for this month’s theme of partnering with your Lover archetype Ally to Live Your Dream, Now!

A little backstory first: I have been waiting for nearly three months on a stipend check from an international university, for service I have given on a Masters committee for one of their students. Lately there has been  some angst on my part because their financial office is telling me I need a “swift code” for my bank in order for them to complete the transaction, and my bank does not use swift codes.

So the first dream, which I had a few days ago after having sent a rather stressed out email to the international university’s  staff who had informed me about the glitch mentioned above, presented me as being too demanding and overbearing, standing at a banker’s window. I was making the clerk there very nervous. He sirred me (I get that sometimes because I have a low voice and might interact in a “masculine” manner just from being a professor): “Excuse, Sir!” (My retort: “I am a woman!”) then the clerk turns the whole matter over to a superior, who does not seem at all inclined to be helpful.

I woke from this dream aware that I had better ease up on this guy by email. So I sent another email, this one thanking him and simply expressing my concern over the situation.

Second dream then, this morning:

Someone who is a student I am working with in the dream is taking fencing lessons from me. (I was a competitive foil fencer in college and for many years after.) An older person says to the student:

“Follow your Teacher’s (my) famous words, “Vinci cum Amor!”

I woke with that fine phrase turning over and over in my mind:

“Victory with Love!” (or, ‘Conquer with Love’)… Vinci Cum Amor. 

When I looked up the Latin word for ‘love’ today to try to be accurate in sharing (Amor? Amore?), online I found this site (click here), about Virgil’s very similar famous line:

“Amor Vincit Omnia,” “love conquers all things.”

And so it does. Victory with love; approach your goal with love. Sometimes we must compete or act assertively, but we can—I can—do so with impersonal, detached Love instead of aggression.

In fencing I found that loving the sport, bouting for the sheer joy of heartful competition–to hone and gracefully engage my abilities–was always more successful than ‘fighting’… because it issued from and expressed a mindful Balance!  Sword-play trumped a ‘battle of wills’—or, blades—any day.

Besides, it was so much more fun!

How can you apply the credo of VINCI CUM AMOR in your own life?

I believe in paying attention to and learning from my dreams; this allows me to work in tandem with Spirit and my Inner Guidance according to my own higher consciousness…with support from my Archetype Allies!  Today while reflecting on this dream theme, I read a signpost along the roadside that said: “WE FLY WITH YOU!” THANKS, inner Guides and Archetype Allies!!! I fly with and for you, too!

I welcome your own stories and insights!

Heal Thy SELF

This month I am encouraging you to connect with and to explore your own HEALER Archetype Ally. You know you have one! It is a part of your Self that serves the Whole as a Healer will, watching over your health and prompting choices that result in wellness and growth rather than any self-destructive behaviors or attitudes.

Your HEALER is internal, not external.

Listen to your inner HEALER. He or she is your Ally who is whispering sweet somethings into your ear. What might some of these inner promptings be?

Take that vacation; you have well deserved it!

Let’s watch this program or read this book about brain health, heart health (etc.).

Act on what you are hearing about Co-Q10, magnesium, (etc.)

Here’s a personal example I can share. About a year ago I changed two behaviors relating to my health. I had recently turned 60. First, I woke one morning with just the words “9 years” planted in my awareness. I knew instinctively this meant I could potentially save nine years of my life if I would stop drinking soda. I stopped that day.

A few months later, after having heard several weeks  earlier that the second of two aunts on my mother’s side had been dealing with brain tumors, as I went to sleep I heard “brain tumor,” which was a bit of a shock. All night I seem to have been dreaming about that. Then as I awoke, again in that fertile awareness between sleeping and waking, I heard and saw printed in my ‘mind’s eye’: LYSINE – L. I had never even heard consciously about this amino acid before. I did some research to  find only that it is helpful as a supplement to help with collagen. I have taken it ever since. Most interesting is that this past summer while I was able to visit with my Aunt Karis, who had a tumor affecting her optical nerve successfully removed by surgery, she told me her and my other aunt’s tumors were not cancerous but benign.  Lysine then made sense more than before!

I am always grateful for the inner guidance I  receive, and I thank my inner Healer for helping me remain open and receptive to information from the Higher dimensions and unconscious domains that help me to accept higher wisdom.

Life is Better Endings with the Healer as Your Ally

What, to you, is a “better ending”? Whether we apply this notion to a preferred fictional ending in novels or films or to outcomes in our own life conditions, a better ending is in some fashion more satisfying or ultimately more fulfilling for all concerned, even if it is not necessarily happier than some other conclusion or set of conditions.

This month we will focus around the metaphor of life as better endings, pairing this with the collective and personal archetype of the HEALER.

Certainly a Healer might facilitate or impart a better ending, whether by effecting a cure or healing of an illness or in some other manner improving upon a set of deleterious or less than ideal circumstances. I like the notion of my personal archetypal HEALER Ally–a part of my greater Self–having the capacity, the agency, to bring about better endings in my life. I can look to this part of mySelf–and you to yours–for healing a broken heart or to seek a solution that improves upon an out of balance situation.

So I invite you this month to get more in touch with your own inner HEALER and to contemplate the meaning of potential Better Endings in your life. Always feel free to share your insights or stories (which I would publish here). 

A Letter from Your NOURISHER

You deserve in life everything that supports your positive, life affirming dreams and ambitions.  You are here to do all that you can, to BE all that you inherently ARE.

What limitations there are can be gifts, like Stephen Hawking’s Lou Gehrig’s disease, which has allowed him to focus mentally in ways possibly more productive for him than any other condition.

Many limitations can be transcended if doing so would support your highest self-realization in this lifetime. Often we establish self-limitations and settle for less than it is possible for us to manifest or achieve. We might be restricting our own potentials from unnecessary feelings of unworthiness or from simple inertia. (A body at rest stays at rest unless impelled by an irresistible force.)

Enter Your NOURISHER, certainly a kinetic force when you allow her or him to motivate your actions. Your NOURISHER is a part of yourself— a vital archetypal energy form in all humans (at least). Your NOURISHER is that part of your Self that knows you are capable of manifesting your highest potentials and will be your strongest Ally and cheerleader to propel you toward realizing your deepest-felt, positive goals.

Imagine Now that your NOURISHER stands ever available and wants to encourage you to go after that next goal post that moves you irreversibly in the direction of your Heart’s desire. Maybe it is your Life Dream; you do not need to postpone envisioning and realizing a pathway that fulfills your greatest sense of life purpose and Mission in this world. Or maybe it is something as basic as finding the motivation to go to a gym to work out, or to eat a healthier choice of food or drink when you are faced with options.

Your NOURISHER wants the best for you, and from you, at all times and in every circumstance. It wants to help you to succeed in every endeavor, to learn from every experience regardless of the outcome; to strive and to thrive.

I invite you to take time out from your busy routine to sit down with pen and paper and ask your NOURISHER to WRITE YOU A LETTER.  Allow him or her to encourage you. Listen with your Heart. If you like, you can also write back and start a conversation. Welcome your NOURISHER into your Ensemble Cast of Archetype Allies. You deserve to be nurtured and pampered even. Your NOURISHER deserves to express him/herself, too! As a Giver, and as an integral facet of You, you will find that allowing your NOURISHER to nurture your dreams will also spill out as unconditional loving service to others.

I welcome your Comments or stories!

Re-Member Your Golden Child

I initially misread my own weekly topics agenda for this past month. The Golden Child archetype is associated with Leo, yes, but really this Leonine Ally is more associated in the Avalon Archetype Institute framework which I am utilizing here with August rather than July. The NOURISHER (or, Nurturer as I prefer) archetype is more directly connected with July Cancerian energy. (Being a late June Cancerian myself, I can verify this!) Still, it has worked rather well to pair the Golden Child Ally with our monthly postulate of Life is a Bowl of Cherries! So, I guess there was a method in the madness of Synchronicity!

Before leaving this ‘conjunction’ of Golden Child archetype with the Bowl of Cherries postulate, I want to encourage you as you proceed forth from here to “re-member” your inner Golden Child as an Archetype Ally persona.  Re-membering (I got this from a spiritual passage long ago from ECK Master Paul Twitchell) means to put back together again or to reassemble elements of the Self into a new, holistic, synergistic Whole.

GOLDEN CHILD is a strong, vital, generally outgoing and, at its best, a charismatic persona as a member of your archetypal ensemble. All of the members of your inner Council or Assembly or Cast of archetype character allies remain in the background of your conscious awareness once you have integrated them through identification and active dialogue. They remain available to be enlisted and may choose on their own as well to ‘step up’ in any given situation.  Dorothy, when leaving OZ to return to Kansas (or to ‘Conscious’, as  Jean Houston has aptly noted in her book THE WIZARD OF US) knew that her archetypal Allies of Tin Man, Scarecrow and (no longer a cowardly) Lion would remain available as mature  energies within her own Self long after her dream adventures in the Land of OZ. So too, you have accessible within you all twelve of the universal Archetype persona figures that comprise the architecture of human role-based consciousness which this year’s monthly blog themes are presenting.

After identifying and exploring any archetypal facet of your Self, it is helpful to “ground” your connection and awareness of this internalized figure with a Symbol: an active TOTEM that will remind you of your treasured Ally. Carl Jung used the artistic vehicle of a Mandala to center and totemically ground his own archetypally integrated parts of Self. After engaging in “active imagination” episodes with his unconscious archetypal persona enrergies to the degree of achieving an integral awareness of their purpose and role in his life, Jung would paint (see his original RED BOOK/ Liber Novus) a mandala picture symbolically representing the archetypal awareness or persona in the Center, with meaningful images and/ or words surrounding the central figure to depict qualities, lessons or insights he connected perceptually with this persona aspect.

I invite you to compose a Mandala picture that represents your own GOLDEN CHILD part of Self along with qualities s/he brings forth within your integrated Self.

An easy method for composing a mantra—unless you prefer to exercise your artistic talent ‘by hand’ with any artistic medium you choose, which I encourage!—is to select online graphic images such as clip-art icons and simply cut and paste them into a basic circle shape.  Let the central image represent yourself as the Golden Child persona, and place other images artistically around this central image to represent qualities you associate with this Ally in your life.

 Place your mandala somewhere where you will remember its significance of representing your own Golden Child qualities. This archetype is one that sometimes is hidden or subdued in a culture that values humility over self-assertion. Yet it is a vital energy which in a balanced form empowers us to pursue and to claim our talents in service to life.

A Message in a Bottle for You

“The world is full of people

who have stopped listening

to themselves.”

-Joseph Campbell

Imagine you are alone on a desert island and a bottle with a message rolled up inside it drifts up onto the beach. You pick up the bottle and to your great surprise, it has YOUR NAME written on the label!

Uncork the bottle and pull out the message. Have a seat on the beach and READ YOUR MESSAGE.

It is from your very own, unconscious, COMMUNICATOR Archetype Ally.

What does the message say?

I welcome your insights and stories.

Bury the Hatchet

As a final post about the Warrior archetype in relation to the life metaphor Life is an Ensemble Cast of Archetype Characters, it seems fitting to recall the story of Deganawida, the Peacemaker who along with Hiawatha established the great League of the Iroquois that served as a model of peaceful governance for the Articles of Confederation that presaged the US constitution.

The phrase “bury the hatchet” derives from an Iroquois ceremony whereby the Six Nations peoples literally buried their hatchets of warfare under the soil while planting a Great White Pine tree so as the tree grew they would be covered by its expansive branches spreading across the four directions.  Thus a warring, feuding peoples were united for peace and prosperity that lasted many generations. Warriors became peacemakers amongst their own peoples.

The Iroquois League came about after many years of intertribal blood feuding amongst Iroquois speaking Native Americans at a time that predated the settling of White peoples in northeastern North America. As one version of this legendary story describes, Hiawatha was an Onandaga warrior whose wife and two daughters were murdered by a chief of his own village. Hiawatha wandered bereft in the woods in a state of desolation and grief; some say he feared he would become a cannibal, so great was his despair.

In the woods, some say while in a canoe on a lake, Hiawatha looked into the water and saw a godlike figure, Deganawida, looking back at him. (Another version says Deganawida was a man with a speech impediment that Hiawatha encountered while in the woods.) In any event, Deganawida shared the Condolence Ritual with Hiawatha to help him deal with his grief and to bring back to the Peoples to help them to allay their own grief. He also described how the tribes could unite to form a great League, with lifelong, wise delegates or sachems to be installed or deposed by the women of these matrilineal tribes. Deganawida also inspired the ritual for burying the hatchet, a symbolic putting aside of warfare for the sake of coming together as one Peoples, uniting in strength against their common enemies and fostering internal peace.

This great League forged peace among the Six Nations of Iroquois that joined it; this peace lasted for many generations and still embues these Nations with deep principles of peace and democracy.

It has been said that the ceremonial act of burying the hatchet by the Iroquois peoples is one of the greatest examples of peacemaking in all of human history.

It took a Warrior who allied with and became himself a peacemaker to put aside warlike habits and attitudes in order to embrace unity, peace and the greater Good. If only West and East could BURY THE HATCHET today. At very least, you and I can do so. We can bury the hatchets brandished by any of our own feuding sub-selves, or within our outer community of fellowship. It takes only a CHOICE for the Warrior within you and me to stand up for Life and Peace, not Death or War.

Who Has Your Back?

I live with a wonderful family consisting of Sophie (a Shorkie), Loki (pure white, gold eyes), Emily (petite, orange-white, sensitive) and myself. We, like any family, comprise an archetypal grouping.

Loki sleeps by my head in case I roll onto my back and sleep apnea kicks in; I once woke at 3 AM to Loki snatching lightly at the tip of my nose, waking me from what felt like a near death experience inwardly.  Suddenly my dream had shifted to an empty, chaotic void; I was still conscious and moving in a positive direction but all sense of timespace had vanished and I dimly yet dispassionately knew this might be death; until, Loki brought me back!

Emily comforts me when I am feeling Down. Like my former harlequin calico cat of 20 years, named Ariel, Emily nudges at my blanket for me to form a cave and then she snuggles in beside me. This first happened the night I had returned from a two week trip to Ireland. Ever since, it has been our bonding time, and she always seems to know just when we both need to cuddle.

And then there’s Sophia. Sophie literally has my back. Late at night when all are settled in for the night and then again in the morning before I can crawl out of bed for another round at life, Sophie jumps up onto the mattress and curls up intently to press her own back lightly against mine. During the night, my little Shorkie girl is also a competent watch dog; she lets me know of any odd noises outside the house. To honor her loving service I will sometimes get up to patrol the house thoroughly, defensive tool and phone in hand, prepared to defend the family too if ever needed.

So these are my home family ‘outer’ cast of archetypal allies.  We have each other’s backs, looking out for one another and relying upon one another harmoniously.

Who has your back? We have been exploring this month how a Warrior archetype Ally serves to rally the troops of character types in an ensemble archetype cast, like Dorothy with her archetype Ally cast in the Wizard of Oz. What happens in our unconscious ‘land of Us’ (as used in a recent Jean Houston book) is often mirrored in our outer lives as well. Is there a time or a kind of situation in your life that calls your Inner Warrior forth to stand up for your interests and protect you from harm?

Tell yourself (and us, as you please!) a story of a time in your life when you–as your archetypal Warrior Ally part of Self–stood up for yourself or blazed a pathway to achieve something magnificent in your life or for someone else. Or perhaps there was a time when someone in your outercast of Allies stood up for and protected you?

I welcome your insights and stories!

Archetypal Synergy

For this last week of April’s focus combining the WARRIOR archetype with the metaphor Life Is an Ensemble Cast of Mythic Archetype Allies I’d like to share about how aligning archetypal energies into synergistic combinations can function like alchemy to create effective, productive approaches to any situation or challenge. Already this past week we have looked at the Mystic-Warrior and at the Peaceful-Warrior: two archetypal Ally pairings that can foster strong, distinctive character modes.

Allow me to suggest below then some possible ‘alchemical’ sorts of archetype combinations utilizing the 12 Universal Archetypes I am putting forward here and in my forthcoming book, Life Paths, based on ideas originated by Dr. Charles and Nin Bebeau and Debra Breazzano, M.A., LPC.

This notion of combining archetypal strengths/ traits, can be useful not only for the individual seeking to marshal their internal archetypal ally ‘assembly’ or synergy, but the concept can also be fruitfully applied to composing organizational teams or to designing fictional character types.

Some Archetype Ally conjunctions:

Binary archetype pairings  — polarized archetype energies combining to bring balance or deeper understanding to a conflictual situation. Example: DESCENDER and MYSTIC. Mystic traits can help alleviate depressive tendencies by illuminating meaningful lessons.

Archetype clusters – one identity mode or kind of situation constructively drawing upon two or more archetype forms. Example: ELDER LEADER, NOURISHER, and IDEALIST traits being associated with a Parent or Mentor figure.

Archetype constellations – three or more archetype energies brought together to forge a creative approach to manifesting a goal or to performing artistically or intellectually. Example: ARTIST/TEACHER/COMMUNICATOR/MYSTIC combining to present an interactive workshop or a motivational seminar (e.g. Deepak Chopra  or Wayne Dyer’s approaches).

Archetypal clouds – This one came through for me in a dream the other night; it involves archetypal traits permeating a situation or affecting a decision or life experience in a non-distinct, blended manner. Example: Thoughts from several of one’s archetype-cast energies encouraging a certain decision or action. “Spreading a net widely” in terms of the conception of a new approach or idea can lead to an innovative solution.

 I welcome your insights and stories!

[I trust you will honor, dear readers, that publishing these ideas in this blog legally establishes copyright. With that said, the idea of Archetype Allies is not new; I believe Jean Houston may have first coined the term; she uses the idea frequently in her writings.]

The Peaceful Warrior

I want to talk about Peaceful Warriors since I am writing about the Warrior archetype this month. The WARRIOR archetype appears to be so out of balance in so many parts of the world and in so many people these days that I want to emphasize that any archetypal part-of-Self acting ‘alone’ is liable to be out of harmony with the Whole; meaning both the whole of the Total Self System of a person’s archetypal cast, and the Whole of humanity and Life itself.

Dan Millman popularized the phrase “the Peaceful Warrior” in his best-selling book of that title.  He speaks of a spiritual warrior, a Mystic + Warrior archetype pairing, at least.  I find it pertinent that Millman’s experience was that of an Olympic oriented athlete; he was a gymnast in training when he met his spiritual guide whom he names Socrates in his book. Socrates taught Dan to develop a neutral overview perspective on any situation so as not to be attached to the outcomes or to the results of any action or occurrence. As a warrior-athlete—a highly trained and focused gymnastics competitor—Millman’s goal was to be and to perform at the highest level he could. He competed with himself to achieve highly, even after experiencing a crushing motorcycle accident by which he broke both of his legs not long before a qualifying gymnastics tournament.

So, what is a Peaceful Warrior? Is it an oxymoron? I don’t believe so. It is someone with positive, life affirming goals, a dedication to achieve those, and a balanced attitude about results. Strive to find that CENTER within your Self, and compete from that Center. To do so, you will find yourself manifesting not only a Warrior’s energy, but also that of the Nourisher, the generous Golden Child, the Idealist and/or Artist, and possibly also, the Mystic.

I invite your insights and I would love to post relevant guest blogs!

Rally Your Troops

The Warrior archetype pairs naturally with the notion of life as an “ensemble cast of mythic characters”.  We are all inherently multiple so it is helpful to get to know your own archetypal cast and to enlist their support as Allies. What better archetypal part-of-Self to help enlist and combine the strengths of your multiple sub-selves than your Warrior?

Is there a situation in your life that could benefit from stepping up to assert your goals or needs? An example would be strengthening your resolve to go ask your boss for a raise or a well deserved promotion. How would your Warrior set that up, while collaborating with other aspects of yourself as well?

You could start by staging an Archetype Ally Conference. Call on various of your ensemble cast—or all—to discuss the situation and arrive at a balanced plan of action.

Possible allies: Elder Leader, Lover, Nourisher, Artist, Idealist, Golden Child, Descender, Teacher, Communicator, Mystic, Healer, with Warrior as the Ally in charge. You could imagine yourself sitting around a conference table with some constellation of these archetype allies attending. Which would you include to help you move a step forward with an important goal or need. What plan might emerge by convening this assembly?

I invite you to actively imagine and to journal about your plan of action as tempered by the combination of these perspectives. You can practice your plan by inwardly imagining carrying through with your strategy. This may help you to fine tune the plan. Then,…ACT!

I welcome your insights and stories.