A Shadow of the Golden Child: Trump?

I don’t like being too political with this venue, but it is striking to me as an observer of the current political platforming in the US presidential campaign that the candidate of D. Trump exhibits all of the distinctive traits of a Golden Child archetype presenting in “Shadow” mode. That means in a modality that inverts the most positive (what I call “Strength”) mode of this primary persona archetypal character form.

A ‘Shadow Golden Child’ archetype strives to draw a lot of attention to himself or herself, posturing as all-knowing, all-giving or all-wise. This Persona wants power and control over others, a following. H/she is hyper-critical of any who would oppose their own platform or is outside their realm of control. Often this Persona wants to dictate to others what to do and how to do it, but tends to be fairly lazy in terms of actions of their own. They can be jealous, harping, and autocratic as leaders, with many complaints when things do not go their way or when they are not at the center stage of attention.

Like any Shadow archetypal form, it exists as somewhat of a mirror to the positive, Strength bearing traits the same individual could be expressing if not feeling suppressed or defensive.  I have seen some persons generally exhibiting in this mode for many years gradually become less ‘shadowed,’ usually through developing strong familial ties where they come to take on a more positive, respectable, nurturing role. So let’/s not be typing individuals (Whole Self) images here. As with any shadowy traits it is helpful for the individual to gain more self-awareness and to nurture their own shadowy aspects, perhaps with therapeutic help and/or through good relations. And of course, the same person may present in Shadow mode in one  situation (e.g. publicly) and differently in another (e.g in private).

Still, I can’t help myself but to cringe at the notion of having a relatively non-self-aware, dominantly Shadow-Golden Self figure as president of a (my) nation! (Of course, there have been many, generally in autocratic societies or under dictatorships).  I suppose we should consider the sorts of constellations of archetypal networks that cluster to form political party segments or social platform groups that give rise to social movements of any one form or another. For myself I want to support a strong Elder Leader who demonstrates strong service and leadership capabilities.

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I welcome your Comments and Stories!

See Your Golden Child in the Mirror

Here’s a fun technique for bolstering your self-image: See Your Golden Child archetype (part of Self) in the Mirror!  Your Golden Child is that part of you that is bright and outgoing, full of charm and generosity in (her/his) most positive expression.

Look your Golden Child in the eyes in your mirror (outwardly or inwardly).  Notice her or his shining expression and gleaming smile, maybe with a bit of mischief in the eyes. Let her or him speak to you, too. What is your Golden Child telling you? What is s/he asking you to do TODAY in order to allow this important facet of your Self to express itself through your thoughts, words and actions?

Feel free to print this post out and write out a dialogue with your Golden Child in the Mirror space below. Just as an example, here is a brief version of my own Mirror Conversation with my Golden Child today:

GC:   I SEE YOU!

LW:  Ahah, I remember that from Finding Dory and from Avatar too.

GC:  But, do you get it?

LW:  Sure, “I SEE You!” And since you are ME, too—

GC: Well, a “part” of You as you soooo like to say—

LW: OK, as you are an important part of US, thank you for Seeing Me, and for Being Here!

GC:  Go get’em Tiger!

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LW:  Excuse me?

GC: You know what I am saying, now FEEL IT. BE IT. The Bengal Tiger you were when we were on the Buff State Fencing Team, right?

LW:  You were with me a lot back then…

GC: You bet I was/am! Time is an Illusion, remember? So, ET LA! EXHALE! LUNGE!!!

   I invite you to write YOUR OWN Golden Child dialogue or affirmation in the MIRROR:

Step Up to the Plate

Baseball has a great tradition of “stepping up to the plate.” Metaphorically, so do we all get our sweet opportunities, our times that we are “up to bat.” This is appropriate language for the August GOLDEN CHILD archetype.  This is that ‘part of you’ that wants to Step Up for you, boldly, to take a swing and hit the ball out of the Park!

I am thinking of the one World Series baseball game I remember from many years ago while I was a graduate student in Arizona. It was the A’s vs. another team (Dodgers?) and I remember Kirk Gibson was on the A’s team. (Feel free to correct me re. teams, if you’d like.) Anyway I do know that Kirk Gibson had a leg injury so he was in the locker room. The game score was tied; the A’s could win the pennant if they won this game.  The score on the field was I think two points over the A’s from the other team at the ninth inning, A’s up, already with two outs. Then Kirk Gibson surprises the crowd, limping out from the locker room onto the batter’s plate. He swings twice: two strikes (or he may have had some balls in but it came to two strikes.)  Then, yes of course, Kirk Gibson finds the sweet spot and swings: HOME RUN, 3 runs to home plate; the A’s WIN!

Kirk Gibson was truly the Golden Child for the team that day.

So, what is that situation right now or coming up in your life for which you’d like to call your Golden Child from out of the locker room to take (His/Her) turn at bat? What is it that you would like for your Golden Child to say or do that would help you as a Total Self to achieve your worthy Goal? Better yet, let this Golden Child part of you speak for him/herself.  Imagine a scene in which he/she says just what needs to be said. Write it out as a statement from your Golden Child to that other or whomever you need to say that to. Write it out. Pin it up. Or better yet, SEND IT or SAY IT yourself. Even if you say it inwardly to that person or whomever you need to be assertive with, do that. You should notice how you stand up taller and feel more positive, hopeful and empowered.

images are from pixabay.com

Try it! Here is a blank space below to write out your Golden Child proclamation or statement:

 

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Advice from your Golden Child

A major advantage and goal of getting to know your archetypal ‘parts of Self’ is that you can call upon various of your archetypal sub-selves to draw upon their specific perspectives and strengths of character. After all, these archetypal energies are facets of your Self.  Your Golden Child is that charismatic part of yourself that is always willing to step forward to help you express yourself boldly when the situation calls for that. But Golden Child is one of those archetypal personae that many of us—not Leos, for instance—tend to suppress or bury.

Can you think of a current situation in your life that could benefit from your stepping forth to make bold proclamations? Well then, even if you may not be ready to let your Golden Child shine forth fully on your life stage, I invite you to a technique that can help you allow your Golden Child to give you (or others) the advice It is ready to proclaim.

This is an active imagination technique such as Carl Jung and James Hillman have used to encounter  archetypal personae in their own unconscious domains.

Set some alone time to spend a half an hour or so in a quiet space where you will not be interrupted. With eyes closed or open (your choice), imagine! Let yourself sink into a part of yourself where your Golden Child lives. Ask him or her about a situation in your life where you could use strong advice. Have a conversation or just listen/attend to what this bold facet of yourself wants to say to you about the situation. You could also imagine someone else there with you, someone you wish you could be bold enough to say something to that you really wish you could say.

images are from pixabay.com

When you complete your active imagination session, I encourage you to journal about it. Either write out the dialogue as you remember it or at least record the bold statements that your Golden Child proclaimed as messages from your unconscious. By the way, what is she or he like, that part of you that gets to say everything you’d like to be able to express? How might you allow that part of yourself to have more of a voice in your life? Maybe in that situation you were contemplating? Write ONE STATEMENT that boldly proclaims what you need to say. You can print this out and write your statement below if you wish to:

 

I welcome your Comments and Stories!

 

You Are a Golden Child!

 

Leo is the astrological sign of the Golden Child persona archetype according to Dr. Charles Bebeau, the archetypal psychologist who founded the former Avalon Archetype Institute. For the month of August I will focus on exploring the Golden Child archetype with you. I invite you to participate by practicing some of the self discovery tools I will be sharing here.

The Golden Child is associated with positive traits of being charismatic, generous, and outgoing, with a flair for trailblazing and talented performance. Shadow traits could include a  potential for being overbearing, controlling, vain or or self absorbed. Everyone has a bit of the Golden Child in our unconscious makeup; it is a dominant character mode for some and might show up in a more inhibited or in a situational manner for others.

When does your Golden Child persona express itself (or would if you’d but let it)?  When are you most in your “on stage” best? Do you feel yourself ‘slipping into’ a more extroversive role when you feel most called upon to do so, or is this a more typical, normal public persona for you? Many other archetypal personas can benefit from aligning or combining with this ‘mask’. As a professor for instance I have a dominant Teacher archetype mode, and before a large class of students sometimes my Golden Child shows up to buttress my Teacher role. Then I find myself able to be more humorous and outgoing than is characteristic of my core, rather introspective nature. It’s almost as if I step aside in a large group environment to give ground to this talented sub-Self of the Golden Child persona. I am so grateful it is there!

images are from pixabay.com

I invite your own insights and 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.

Positive Self-Postulates (from your Golden Child)

Your GOLDEN CHILD archetype certainly would be one to express this month’s metaphor of Life Is a Bowl of Cherries! I have known a few GOLDEN CHILD-dominant personalities in my life, often Leos but not always. They are ready to claim the Brass Ring as their own, and not without reason. They express an attitude of entitlement, usually positively but sometimes not. They tend to be highly successful at what they set their hearts—and votes—to accomplishing.

 

Positive affirmations are in a GOLDEN CHILD’s core vocabulary. “I can do it! I CAN! I will! I am!” all carry the self-assertive energy of the Leonine persona. So for this next few days, I invite you to allow your own inner GOLDEN CHILD Archetype Ally to state some positive affirmations that can (will!) help you with any current issues or that can (do!) propel you toward fulfilling your most desired future goals.

 

Some trial-run personal examples:

• I will accomplish my heart’s purpose on this visit with my Mom. (Tuesday night: Yes! She survived another trip to the hospital today and is back in her familiar, beloved nursing home environment.)
• I will shift the balance of a nagging work situation back to a win-win situation for all.
• I am a vehicle for love, trust and clarity!

This is fun…and it works! It feels very empowering and focused. So I invite each of you who are reading this blog to let your own INNER CHILD proclaim positive affirmations for YOU. And then… Be Here Now to live them! I welcome your Comments and stories!

The Mythic GOLDEN CHILD

The GOLDEN CHILD persona archetype occurs in classic mythology with figures such as Theseus, Hercules and Achilles—each of whom also show WARRIOR archetypal qualities—and it shows up in many fictional stories and popular films as well. “Little Buddha” is a great film about the search for the reincarnated Buddha to become the next Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism. This is an explicit Golden Child construct which demonstrates the value of this key archetypal figure as a persona that potentially benefits all of humanity and indeed all life. Yesterday I watched part of “Roman Holiday” with my family, starring Audrey Hepburn in 1953 as a young princess who tires of her royal duties and longs to have a normal life experience. Here is shown the burden that a Golden Child might have to bear in being a central figure for her or his community, as if they are always on stage or serving their public.

My own dog Sophie (full name: Sophia Grace Wattsida {the last name being the word for ‘dog’ in Zuni!}) is a Golden Child to me. Her breed and style is even called a ‘Golden’ Shorkie because of her hair color as a Shitzu-Yorkie mix. Currently she is with me on her fifth cross-country trip at 5 yrs old; every summer I pack the car and Sophie and I traverse America together from Colorado to New York state and back to visit my mother and siblings.

Just yesterday I was realizing how I can learn a lot from my little Golden Shorkie Sophie. She has the social skills I sometimes lack, ready to greet (and lick/kiss) just about anyone, and tromping gleefully into the largest of crowds with aplomb, eager for the new experience and smells. I myself have a touch of social anxiety that often keeps me away from crowds of more than a few even well known persons; parties, as my close friends and coworkers know, are my most daunting challenge; I usually feel compelled to just stay away. But last night, with my sister Lee and with Sophie on her leash beside me, I actually attended part of a concert on the lawn of a ski area, with Blood, Sweat and Tears! Sophie showed no fear and just wanted to get off the leash to dart about freely in the large crowd there gathered (I held onto her instead, of course, to her frustration). As a Golden Child I think she feels it is her obligation to greet everyone with a proper licking!

Anyway, after dinner outdoors with my siblings and the concert, I had a scare overnight as my Golden Sophie was hyperventilating most of the night. She must have gotten too much sun or “too much of a good thing” in dinner handouts from me perhaps. We are many miles away from any animal emergency clinic here, so I tended her as best I knew to do with extra water and care, hoping she was going to be okay through the night. She is! Whew! She truly is a golden companion to me.

Do you have a Golden Child in your life? Often if we do not express an archetype as a primary aspect of our own Self’s archetypal assemblage, it may be present in people (pets are also people!) important in our lives.

I invite your Comments and Stories!

 

 

You Have a Golden Child Within

The GOLDEN CHILD is a universal persona archetype within what Carl Jung would call all of our “collective unconscious.” That means it is in the architecture of the human psyche, available as a figure any of us might draw upon in forging our self-expression or personality and forming our sense of identity.

Like any collective persona archetype form, your inner GOLDEN CHILD aspect of Self might be highly expressive or repressed; it might function in a very positive mode (what I call its Strength mode), or it could display SHADOW potentials. In the “positive,” GOLDEN CHILD is a very charismatic, generous, positive force of character.  It is associated with the astrological sign of Leo. In “Shadow” mode, GOLDEN CHILD could present itself as overly self-confident, boisterous, or jealous, especially when it is feeling undervalued or frustrated.

What is YOUR Golden Child nature? This week I invite you to explore this archetypal resource as it manifests both outwardly and inwardly in your life or your Persona. To do so, consider when you may have felt or acted most “like” a Golden Child. When have you felt most assertively demonstrative or even positively egotistical? When? Why? In what manner? To what result?

Last week—appropriately as this month of July began—I exhibited my own Leonine Golden Child twice very noticeably, once to a good effect in an important conversation in which I needed to represent myself clearly and well, and the second time not so positively but still with a positive effect overall, standing up for my mother’s needs in a hospital context.

Your GOLDEN CHILD nature can be a strong ALLY for you, a force for good in your world and in service to others. Allow it (her or him) to shine forth to brighten your way!

Life is… a Bowl of Cherries!

Live Your Dream, Now! is the throughline to Life Paths, a handbook for life mapping which should be forthcoming within the next year. This credo of “Live your dream, now!” highlights how important it is not to put off your Life Dream or future aspirations into a nebulous future but, rather, to live NOW according to the values and intent of your Life Dream, Here and Now. You can live INTO your future as a dream fulfilled by focussing on developing your current Strengths and being mindful “every day in every way” about who you are choosing to be, expressing from your core identity and nature.

Along with the metaphor of Life is a Bowl of Cherries, this month we will pair the archetypal Ally persona of the Golden Child, which is the universal archetype class associated with the sign of Leo and the month of July.  What an aprt conjunction this one is! The GOLDEN CHILD is a part of Self who knows whom s/he IS and may express itself forcefully or in a charismatic manner based on a positive self-knowledge amd capability, with great competence. Who better to assert Life to be a Bowl of Cherries than this, yourself as a Leonine Golden Child?

Life is a Bowl of Cherries as a life metaphor reminds us to embrace and to enjoy who we ARE and what we HAVE, right here and now. Yet I expect some readers–including myself in some respects this week as I am involved in a struggle currently to help my ailing elderly mother to cope with painful, life threatening effects from late stage Parkinsons–might appropriately question the sheer optimisim of such a credo. Is it then a mere platitude to declare life to be cheery, always positive, like “a bowl of cherries” even while facing the most dire of circumstances? What of all those well meaning people and animals for whom, indeed, life appears to be anything but happy, abundant or carefree? Is holding to such an optimistic mantra no more than a Polyannish attitude requiring one to “bury their head in the sand” or, worse, to DENY the more bitter realities of life in the “Real World”?

That is a vital question, and one I have similarly heard from people who question Joseph Campbell’s parallel credo of “Follow Your Bliss!” Again, what of those for whom the chance of “attaining Bliss” of any sort seems remote?

I must answer for myself that while the world as a whole will always remain a harsh training ground at every stage of life, even for those with the highest achievements or wearing the most rose colored glasses; nevertheless it can be helpful to focus on the positive. Life metaphors can serve as positive affirmations that orient our outlook to look for the GOOD in life–to see the BEST in ourselves and in others–and when necessary, to see the silver lining beyond the clouds.

I believe that human beings–perhaps all Beings–are wired to pursue and when possible to manifest “self-transcendence,” even in the most dire conditions. I recall a TV drama with Dick Van Dyke (check out his recent https://www.youtube.com/embed/hoPugqYMISM“>dance videos at 89!) portraying a homeless man in a big city. This character was a man of the deepest character: kind, gentle, self-sacrificing and ultimately happy in his life. He embraced a life of service and gratitude and he focussed on the positive potentials of every state of being, every condition, every relationship in his life.

So, life CAN be a bowl of cherries, if you CHOOSE for it to be so. And you can discover your Bliss anywhere, as everywhere you stand is Holy Ground as long as you stand mindfully and take in the bounty of the moment.

I welcome your insights and stories!