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!

 

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!

Live Your Dream, Now!

 

The through-line and credo for the Life Maps Process which I share as a life coaching tool and have prepared in book form hopefully being circulated right now or soon by my agent is “Live Your Dream, Now!”

For Your Reflections:

What Live Your Dream, Now! means is that you do NOT have to wait for anyone or anything in order to begin living the life of your Dream! How? You can identify the VALUES you wish to be expressing in your Dream-Come-True future scenario, and start NOW to live by those values.

For example, some of the values I intend to be integrating daily Now in relation to my active post-retirement scenario include:

• Patience
• Greater forbearance of differences (no conflict or need to ‘prove’ anything to anyone, ever)
• Appreciation of life as separate from an institutionalized career (e.g. freedom from Academe, enjoyment of Nature and of basic human experience)

What do you hope to be experiencing as you live into your future Life Dream? How can you begin to practice and enjoy those kinds of experiences already?

• time for daily walks in Nature
• daily contemplations and journaling
• reading more
• writing daily
• offering life mapping services, workshops, seminars
• travel, near and far
• more time to share with family and friends

What is ONE THING you could be doing now or in the foreseeable near future that could help to propel you INTO the realization of your Life Dream?

• Create brochures that offer services
• Merge web sites to make static one more active
• Podcast

Plant the Seeds:

Here’s a creative tool you can use to establish a clear INTENTION and VISION of the positive Life Dream or some aspect of that which you can begin NOW to manifest simply by focussing and anchoring your Mystic attention.

CREATE AN IMAGE BOARD

An image board can be a collage of images or simply a white poster board with some central images placed on it that display the life of your dreams.You can IMAGE your “dream home” or “dream environment,” or  clearly represent any VALUE that you aim to be living NOW so as to bring this value with you into Living Your Dream.

Place your Image Board somewhere you will see it daily. You could place it where you do your daily meditations or contemplations or yoga, or some place that evokes for you a sense of transformation and emergence!

I welcome your insights and stories!

What Does Your Mystic Predict?

Although by general rule I don’t seek out fortune tellers—preferring to draw upon my own inner Mystic Ally, as I invite you also to consult—I do know quite unequivocally that seership or fortune telling can be quite accurate and valid. I know this from my own prophetic dreams but also because of an event that occurred 22 years ago.

In 1993 I completed my PhD at Arizona State University. That February or so, two job announcements came to my attention that appeared relevant to my preparation, one in Colorado Springs, Colorado and the other at the University of Texas at Austin.  I applied to both and I was put on short lists for them both. The first to invite me to interview was in Colorado. I interviewed over a three day period, from a Tuesday through a Thursday, enjoying the interview process and feeling quite good about the potential fit with my background and teaching experience.

That very Saturday, for the first time ever, I went with a friend for a lark to a Renaissance Festival in Phoenix, Arizona.  Not far into the theme park I saw a booth for a Palm Reader named Madame Carolyn. Because my Great-Great Aunt Bessie, whom I had cherished growing up, had read palms and was somewhat of a gypsy, I figured this would be fun. Neither myself nor the friend I was with, please remember, had ever even met this woman before this moment.

The very first words out of Mme. Carolyn’s mouth to me were:

“You’re going to get the job.”

Well, that surely caught my attention after I had just been interviewing that last week. Her next words were even more ‘telling’:

“And you’re going to work in one of the other two places where I do Renaissance Fairs: either Colorado Springs, Colorado, or Austin, Texas.”

Zowie! The next week I received the job offer in Colorado Springs and I began teaching that August and have been there ever since. Every summer too, of course, I continue to visit Mme. Carolyn at the Colorado Renaissance Festival in Larkspur, Colorado (about 20 minutes from my home). Over the years she has foretold equally astounding potentials. I have learned that what she is able to do with me is to see positive potentials. Then it is up to me whether or not to act on those potentials and bring them about.

Forecasting and engaging in your own creative future envisioning can be a very helpful tool. In the Life Mapping Process which I share with people and will provide in my upcoming book, Your Life Path, I provide several “Future Casting” techniques to help you to envision, plan for, and manifest your Life Dream. The motto of this approach to Life Mapping is:

Live Your Dream, Now!

But first you need to tune into what your current Life Dream IS. It may morph and transform as you work with this Dream image, but wherever you are at Now is an excellent point at which to sit at the ‘dock of the bay’, as it were, and cast your line or net into the waters.

images from pixabay.com

Close your eyes and call upon your own Mystic Archetype Ally.  Ask him/her to foretell for you  where you will  be/ what you will be doing five years from now (or more or less depending upon what it is you are hoping to fulfill in this time frame), with your most positive Life Dream potentials achieved.

You can engage with your Inner Mystic in active imagination (contemplation) or by writing a back-and-forth dialogue with your Mystic. You could use an artistic approach to sketch or draw an image of your Life Dream fulfilled. Or you could make a collage of magazine pictures or computer images to represent your Dream.

I invite you to share with us all here your insights and results!

Find the Gold, Bring It Forth

In the opening post this month it came through that the Mystic archetype is that which is able to “find the Gold and bring it up” to the surface of your awareness. This is a part of you that sees through surfaces to what lies beneath; that perceives the true and the good—or their opposites—despite outer appearances. Such a valuable Ally!

It is important to pay attention to this Seer side of you. How can you tune in when your “inner tuition” is trying to alert you or draw your attention to something your conscious mind might be denying or blind to? You must be willing to connect with this ‘deep’ facet of your awareness in order to follow its promptings or to accept and acknowledge its truths.

People are often afraid of their own Mystic potentials.  Perhaps it will reveal to you something you would rather ignore, like the actual state of a relationship or even an opportunity for significant change that will require that you take a step forward in a direction you may not yet feel ready to take.

So remember to pause, to ask, to LISTEN to what your Mystic Guide wants you to realize or understand. It may appear to you in a DREAM manifestation, as a Dream Guide or an elder Wizard or Teacher. Keep a dream journal and write in it often, then also review your dream entries on a regular basis to reflect on patterns and themes showing up in your unconscious dream promptings. Then once you acknowledge and understand your inner guidance, contemplate how you can ACT. I would encourage you to act in tandem with your inner Mystic, to allow it to guide your actions forward. It will lead you  according to your deepest sense of truth and value, so it is unlikely to ever steer you wrong.

images from pixabay.com

I welcome your insights 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.

Joan of Arc

When I think of archetypal female Elder Leader figures, Joan of Arc comes quickly to mind. She exhibited strengths of a Mystic and a Warrior, and as a Leader, Jeanne d’Arc led an army to victory at Orleans in defense of her beloved France. This brave young woman listened to her own inner voices, whether from her unconscious archetypal assembly and/or spiritual agencies supporting her mission.

I acted in a play while in college in the the role of a schizophrenic woman who believed she was Joan of Arc. For the part, I read all I could find about St. Joan so by the time the play was performed I really did identify strongly with La Pucelle.  The night before the first performance of this play, Chamber Music, a well-known author focussing on women’s psychology gave a talk on my college campus and she mentioned Joan of Arc as a primary example of the highest qualities of a heroic figure. She ended her lecture after mentioning Joan, saying, “having spoken of Joan of Arc, I cannot say anything more.”

I felt the weight of the world land on my shoulders then, and I promptly went to my dormitory to re-read the entirety of George Bernard Shaw’s play, Saint Joan, that night.

The Good Joan

by Lizette Woodworth Reese

Along the thousand roads of France,
Now there, now here, swift as a glance,
A cloud, a mist blown down the sky,
Good Joan of Arc goes riding by.In Domremy at candlelight,
The orchards blowing rose and white
About the shadowy houses lie;
And Joan of Arc goes riding by.On Avignon there falls a hush,
Brief as the singing of a thrush
Across old gardens April-high;
And Joan of Arc goes riding by.The women bring the apples in,
Round Arles when the long gusts begin,
Then sit them down to sob and cry;
And Joan of Arc goes riding by.Dim fall the hoofs down old Calais;
In Tours a flash of silver-gray,
Like flaw of rain in a clear sky;
And Joan of Arc goes riding by.Who saith that ancient France shall fail,
A rotting leaf driv’n down the gale?
Then her sons know not how to die;
Then good God dwells no more on high!

Tours, Arles, and Domremy reply!
For Joan of Arc goes riding by.

Could there have been a “better ending” for Joan of Arc, who died by being burned at the stake in 1431 at the age of 19? We know of the tragic betrayal and of her torturous death for having held to her truth and fought for her people. She was declared a heretic for not denying that she heard the archangel Michael and other spiritual agencies directing her campaign. Women were not expected to have a direct communication with God or angels then, let alone to set out to lead an army to victory. St. Joan could have recanted; she might have escaped, but history records how she chose not to betray her spiritual agencies just to save her physical form.

I can hardly abide the more recent biographical films about Jeanne (though from a modern context they are well acted); it is Ingrid Bergman’s 1948 film depiction of St. Joan, based on Shaw’s play, that feels to me to be the best or better ‘rendering’ of this true tale of valor and faith that has become culturally iconic and archetypally embedded in human consciousness.

I cannot conceive of a better ending than what St. Joan chose by her own nature and conscience to endure for the sake of her faith and her relationship with Divinity Itself.

The best account of Joan’s passing to my sensibility is Leonard Cohen’s song of tribute, https://www.youtube.com/embed/gtwUyDPXROQ?rel=0“>Joan of Arc, as sung by Jennifer Warnes. Click on this link or select:   to see this excellent YouTube performance.

images gratefully from pixabay.com

Those attending Joan’s heroic passing witnessed a White Dove flying to the heavens as her bodily form crumbled to dust. Watch this video (above link) and read about St. Joan to contemplate your own archetypal Elder Leader (combined with Warrior and Mystic) potentials!

All of You

Here’s a simple tool you can use to identify your own primary archetypal persona influences: simply make a list of your various social roles.  Parent, friend, spouse, doctor, teacher, artist, writer, etcetera; these are social roles you occupy. List your main roles (I’ll fill in mine as an example for you):

Primary roles

• Pet parent
• Teacher
• Writer
• Spiritual practitioner
• Friend
• Family member
• Single home owner

Next then, consider the following classes of universal persona archetype forms:

ELDER LEADER   ARTIST  TEACHER

LOVER     IDEALIST    COMMUNICATOR

WARRIOR  GOLDEN CHILD   HEALER

NOURISHER   DESCENDER   MYSTIC

Can you associate each of your ROLES with one or more of these twelve archetype figures? E.G.:

Archetype role associations

Pet parent  :  NOURISHER

Teacher : TEACHER

Writer  :  COMMUNICATOR

Spiritual  :  MYSTIC/ IDEALIST

Friend   :  NOURISHER

Family  :  COMMUNICATOR/ NOURISHER

Single home owner : DESCENDER

The archetypal influences you have just identified (with regard to your own list) are what I call your Archemes in LIFE PATHS. You learn how to appropriately occupy and enact a social role by drawing upon or assimilating to character traits of these collective archetypal figures.  As you assume or behaviorally enact these archetypal role types, you embrace these identities on both conscious and unconscious levels at the same time. That means, once you have identified with one of these archetype personas, they are always part of you, even unconsciously while you are expressing other modes. And if you have experienced tension or emotional inhibitions with respect to any of your Role identities, this can create archetypal “shadow” traits that might dog your footsteps and interfere with your sense of self-confidence or competence.

Knowing that your archetypal influences are largely associated with your primary roles in life can help you recognize your own character strengths and weaknesses as well as your self-limiting qualities. Also thinking of your Archemes as an “ensemble cast of Allies” can help you bring together your various role-“guises” to forge and express a more unified Self.

So after identifying your Archemes, you can also look at what strengths you draw from these influences (and you can understand some of your challenges, too).  How can you combine some of your strengths across these archetypal forms to pursue a major goal, one that will benefit from having  “all of you” activated rather than one ‘part’ or another?

E.G. Designing life after retirement [Readers: You can consider your own Major Goal similarly]

Teacher traits:  part-time teaching if needed; continuing with life maps coaching and workshops;

Communicator traits: continue with writing/ publishing;

Nourisher traits: Move closer to family, care well for pets, maintain & expand friendships;

Descender traits: Create space for solitude, contemplation

Mystic traits:  Share ideas in new location, form groups, etc.;

Idealist traits: Go for it! (fulfill Life Dream, travel, beautify environs and home!)

COMBINED:  “service” orientation in all areas.

In sum, as Socrates reminded us all: “KNOW THYSELF!”

I invite 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.

 

 

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!