The Helpers

In every Hero’s Adventure—as in your own Journey of life—“when the student is ready, the Teacher appears.” Teachers, Masters, Mentors, Guardian Angels, Guides, and Signs or signposts arrive to escort us or to prepare us for the challenging passage into the Unknown.

When we look back we can appreciate how a Helper arrived who allowed us to advance in ways we probably never would have otherwise considered. That special teacher appears who lights up a whole field of study for you at school, or that talented role model who demonstrates qualities you long to develop in yourself; by accepting such encounters we connect with our deepest aspirations and claim our life’s motivating Mission or Purpose.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is playing as I write this, so as we are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of J. K. Rowling’s gift of the wondrous world of Harry Potter, let’s focus on Dumbledore as the archetypal Mystic Helper. The qualities Dumbledore exhibits in his mentoring of Harry are those latent qualities Harry is needing to develop in himself in order to fulfill his destiny: magical abilities, teaching skills, the practice of right discernment, balancing good vs. evil impulses, and dedication based on love foremost.

Think of a Helper who appeared or is now present in your life and whose example and insights have helped you develop aspects of your own nature that have allowed you to move further along on your own purposeful journey.

How did you meet this Helper? What interests or abilities has s/he aided you to develop?

images are from pixabay.com

This month we honor and celebrate The Helpers.

I invite your Comments and Stories.

Mystical March

March corresponds with the MYSTIC Archetype according to the Avalon Archetype Institute pantheon of the Twelve primordial Archetypes developed by Dr. Charles and Nin Bebeau and Debra Breazzano (MS/LPT).

All twelve of the primary archetypes of the unconscious dwell within us all, with some being more or less dominant and more or less in Strength or in Shadow mode.

Archetypes appear both in the culturescapes around us—in literature, film and historical accounts, e.g.–and in role models within our own sphere of social relations. Archetypes are also internalized and part of our own psychic makeup, embedded as energies within our unconscious matrix of role identities and persona attitudes or perspectives.

What is YOUR Mystic persona ‘about’?  This month I’ll provide examples and techniques for connecting with and for integrating your MYSTIC Archetype Ally with the rest of your Archetypal Ally Assembly.

Let’s start then with a very clear popular MYSTIC Archetype image, Dumbledore from the Harry Potter saga.

Dumbledore represents the classic Magi archetype. A bona fide Wizard, Dumbledore mentors young Harry Potter to develop his own Mystic potentials. As the universal-collective Mystic form, Dumbledore’s powers of awareness span from the Below to the Above; he can go into the depths to retrieve the Gold and bring it to the surface or he can ascend for higher awareness.  He is also a Shapeshifter, able to duel with the evil Voldemort via a Protean battle, constantly transforming and adapting his defense to counter any evil cast against him.

Of course there are also feminine forms of the Mystic, as with any of the Twelve.  Minerva McGonagall plays this part well in J.K.Rowling’s saga, and it is she who assumes the role of Headmistress once Dumbledore has stepped Beyond, engaging in her own Protean battle in the final segment of the tale.

  

images are from pixabay.com

So, who is the Mystic? Who is it in YOU?

I invite you to call upon your Mystic Archetype part-of-Self this month, and to integrate Him/Her with your conscious pantheon as your Ally.

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.

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!

Gandalf, Dumbledore, your Inner Teacher, and You!

Two fictional examples of the Teacher archetype aiding an ensemble cast of protagonists to alter their dreamlike lives so they might achieve better endings are Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings saga and Dumbledore from the fantasy mythic adventures of Harry Potter and his friends. Gandalf and Dumbledore have always seemed to me to be the same kind of mythic personage, though Gandalf is cast more for the young adult and Dumbledore more for a child’s conception of the Teacher or Mage  (per Jung or Campbell) energy.

Myths are projections of archetypal personae and challenges that we all face in our everyday lives as everyman and everywoman heroes; so Gandalf or Dumbledore are—as we project onto them as readers or as moviegoers—our own intrinsic Teacher-selves made manifest. These mystical Teachers allow their charges to accomplish what they otherwise might believe to be unllikely, yet they are the hero’s own Higher Energy propelling her or him forward toward the realization of their “impossible dream.”  Saving the entire wizarding and muggle worlds from a force too dangerous even to Name; returning Middle Earth to a state of balance and harmony instead of chaos: these are the tasks of an orphaned boy and of a tiny hobbit; or, you and me. But the magical Wizard Teacher is a protean shape-shifter, a transformer of pure energy into otherwise unimaginable new Forms.  All is possible if we set our hearts to following the directives of this all-knowing, all-powerful Higher Self Ally of the Teacher.

Have you noticed how Wizard Teachers like Gandalf and Dumbledore conduct their novice apprentices to the attainment of their most worthy desires?  Like Glinda for Dorothy, Gandalf and Dumbledore seem always to know exactly when their presence is of utmost value; they appear only when they are needed, otherwise they remain in the background, invisibly watching.

Now then, this week as I have been contemplating how the Teacher appears in my own heroic journey of Soul, I find that my Inner Teacher(s)—whom I recognize to be “as close as my heartbeat”—are always present yet they appear exactly when and how I require their precious aid. I will share a true example of a life and death situation in which I was quite literally saved by my own Inner Master (an ECK Master associated with the spiritual path of ECKANKAR, which is the belief system and practice to which I adhere). Your own Inner Teacher or Guide may take the form of Christ or Buddha or of Socrates, Rumi, Glinda or whatever archetypal—yet very real—personae you recognize, so long as you believe in and deeply value their protection and guidance.

I was living in a duplex apartment in Tempe, Arizona with a housemate who worked a four to midnight shift. One early morning while sleeping in the living room, I had heard voices outside so looked out the front window and witnessed a drug transaction involving the scurrilous group of tenants living on the other side of the duplex living room wall. They saw me witness the transaction and started terrorizing me for the next several months, making overt threats in loud voices from the other side of the thin wall separating our lives. One April or May afternoon, I was sitting in a living room chair after a hard morning at graduate school. Suddenly, as clearly as I could hear a person standing in the room right beside me speaking into my right ear, I heard a male voice that I immediately recognized as my spiritual Teacher. He stated very calmly but firmly, “Linda, lock the door.”

I stepped over to the door, which was slightly ajar, and as I was placing my right hand on the doorknob to close and lock the door, the ringleader of the neighbor gang was reaching to grab the doorknob from the other side, to come in! I just barely closed the door and turned the lock before he could enter. Then I looked out the picture window to my left—the same window through which I had witnessed the drug deal transpire. Huddled down just beneath the window frame was the bodyguard of the drug gang, waiting to abscond me if I were to have run out of the house to escape. I kid you not; this was one of the most dramatic events of this lifetime and I am absolutely certain that had my Teacher not intervened (I know him as Harji, the Inner form of the still current Living ECK Master, Sri Harold Klemp), I would not be on this earthly plane today to share this story. Oddly though, I was not afraid at all after this happened; a calm set over me like a cloak instead. And even more oddly when I look back to it now, I didn’t even call the police. I called a friend, asked her to come pick me up at the house, and I never slept another night in that duplex apartment. I slept for weeks in a sleeping bag on the floor of my Ph.D. advisor’s office until I could locate a new roommate and move into a safer space.

I ask you to be thinking about how the helpful presence or guidance of your own spiritual or inner archetype Teacher has appeared in your own life experience. I would love for you to share your own memories or stories about how your Teacher or Guide has been leading you to fulfill your own meaningful life lessons or Quest.

Finally, it makes sense why the Teacher appears most clearly in our lives only when most needed. It is because it is not ABOUT the Teacher or Master himself or herself; we are not here to simply follow someone who has already attained to all that which we seek. We are apprentices, aspirants or Learners who are striving to become Masters of spiritual essence and formations of life for ourselves; we may then become or appear as the Teacher for others as we gradually come to master our own lessons and unfold in our own awareness.

I invite and would love to share YOUR insights and stories about your own Inner Teacher or guidance. Tomorrow I am going to see the new Hobbit movie; maybe we might meet somewhere in the Middle Earth of our dreams!