Using Archetypes and Gaining Personal Freedom

Using Archetypes and the Power of Forgiveness to "Break Free" Forever!

Well, darlings, it's time to come clean.

I haven't written to you for over two months - not counting the little "warm-up" exercise that I did in two weeks ago.

There's been a reason for this.

My daddy died recently, and I've been hugely grieving his loss. And as I shared with some colleagues and friends earlier this week, I was grieving not only the loss of what we did have as a relationship, and also - what we didn't have.

I've been doing a huge amount of processing lately. And just recently have been able to do more "cognitive" tasks - such as handling emails, balancing the checkbook and paying bills, and - of course - writing.

Now, don't get me wrong on the family-thing. Daddy was a magnificent "protector and provider." He was a deeply honorable man.

But emotionally - there were things that I craved, and simply didn't get. No matter how hard I tried, or what I did.

The turn-around has come only recently, as I've started really working with forgiveness - as described in both A Course in Miracles and in the Lord's Prayer. ("Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those ...")

So here's the important thing to share. This is coming not as some abstract "word on high," but because it's been what I've been doing and working with in my own life, over the past several weeks - and it's been making a huge difference.

Forgiveness shifts things.

According to A Course in Miracles, when we forgive, we actually alter the impact of time in our lives, and in our "reality." Forgiveness extends back in time, and forward, and (as I'm sensing right now) into the lives of people who are connected with us and are around us.

Not that this makes it any easier, but I've found that forgiveness has been the one thing to release a huge logjam of "stuck stuff."

Forgiveness is one of three core "principles" with which I've been working over the past few weeks, rebuilding my life from the inside-out. (And what better way to start the new year? The new B'ak'tun even?)

The most valuable books that I’m reading right now reinforce these three principles:

• Own Your Power & A Course in Miracles – the importance of forgiving,
• The Power (by Rhonda Byrne) – the importance of gratitude and “giving love,” and
• Money and the Law of Attraction (Abraham-Hicks), and all other A-H materials, the importance of always “reaching for a better-feeling thought” – of how important it is to carefully culture and nurture good-feeling thoughts, and deliberately choosing our thoughts, as they set up vibrational points-of-attraction.

 

A Course in Miracles and Own Your Power

A Course in Miracles is a true heavyweight. It's the basic "graduate-school level text" for spiritual growth. And it's not real easy. I've been working through this book for over a year. (It's designed as a one-year study program, with substantial "exercises" for each day). If I were to grade myself on this, I'd be somewhere between a C- (at my very best) and a D-. (That's for those days where I'm cussing under my breath, being really sarcastic, and generally blowing the whole thing off.)

	Paper		Kindle

The only reason that I stay with the Course?

Well really, there's two.

The first is that there are only three people in my life right now to whom I will turn when things go really down. Only three people whom I know, and to whom I can call, who have the right "tone" when they address an issue. That is to say, they have real spiritual depth. Each of these persons has done A Course in Miracles. A couple have done it several times. One teaches it, another is getting ready to teach it. It's not that another really substantive spiritual path wouldn't do as well, but in my personal circle right now, those who've worked the Course are those who have worked their lives.

The other factor?

Well, A Course in Miracles itself states: "Everyone will answer in the end..." In fact, the Course makes it clear that once we start on this particular journey, we will finish it. We may stall about, but ultimately, we can't drop out of this particular "Course." It's like being enrolled in a school curriculum required class. If we screw up, we just get to take the same class over again. And again. There's no real "quitting." Which is the only reason, some days, that I don't quit.

That doesn't make it any easier. And since this isn't easy, I don't go about recommending this book to all my family and friends, because it's just a little bit of a big challenge.

What I do recommend, however, is a book that is not yet on the market - although it soon will be.

My dear intuitive friend Alice (S. Alice, or "Alicja," Jones) is getting her second book, Own Your Power, published soon. Own Your Power is kind of A Course in Miracles-light. A “see Spot run” approach to spiritual teachings. More accessible. Be certain, I'll let you know as soon as it's released. I've been looking at a pre-release copy, and it has had a HUGE impact in my life already!

And so – while I’ve been reading bits and pieces of the pre-release Own Your Power, I've noticed some big shifts in how I've dealt with situations and people that were beyond irritating. Truly, this book has helped me get through some very awkward and difficult times in these past two weeks; times when I’d really have blown it unless I used Own Your Power to get re-centered. I’ll keep you in the loop for when it’s coming out.

Now I've told you that three principles - and three sets of books - were having a major impact and being very useful for me right now. The first was (see above) the power of forgiveness, and the relevant books were A Course in Miracles and the forthcoming (and much easier) Own Your Power, by S. Alice ("Alicja") Jones, out soon.

The other two principles were gratitude (see The Power, which is the sequel to The Secret, by Rhonda Byrnes), and the importance of carefully aligning and shaping our thoughts - focusing our thoughts - so as to carefully establish our "vibrational point of attraction." (See any of the Abraham-Hicks material, although I'm currently working with Money and the Law of Attraction.)

This blog contains enough to read (and enough for me to write) in one sitting, so I'll defer the next two principles to a subsequent blog.

And then, I'll take the "big step" and link up these principles (all three of them) to how we can work with our archetypes. Because I've found that our archetypes - the primary ways or modalities in which we shape our psychological core - are not something simply handed down to us at birth.

We're not just "born with" an archetypal predisposition, as we might have thought if we'd been following a simple Myers-Briggs approach. (Please recall, as mentioned in Unveiling: the Myers-Briggs approach was adopted during World War II as a means to effectively match service people to the jobs for which they'd be most suited. The deeper, Jungian-based material on which the MBTI questionnaire was based does suggest that we access all archetypal modalities, and mature in our use of them over time.)

Now here, in brief, is what we'll cover soon in terms of archetypes and their relation to spiritual principles, such as forgiveness.

Sometimes, we have a natural predisposition towards one archetypal mode, but have the ability to use another mode.

This is particularly true for women; I expect that we women are more psychologically flexible then men.

Sometimes, we have life events - of a variety of sorts, ranging from family influences to huge cultural surrounds - that cause us to reject an archetypal mode that would be our natural and normal "home state." And in self-defense, we pick up another mode that we think gives us better "survival value." (I know. Complex. More on this soon.)

When that happens, we get stuck. It's hard for us then to make full use of all the archetypal modes available to us. It's like having to drive a car in one gear only. Really, really tough at times.

Forgivenesss (see the reference to the spiritual stuff?) helps us break down the defenses and fears that we build up about accessing our other, rightful and enjoyable and effective and sometimes downright necessary archetypal modes. It breaks the logjam. It tears down the (often imaginary but still impactful) internal "barbed wire fence" that keeps us locked into a very small "range of motion."

Now, as a quick overview of where this will lead us.

When we release something at the spiritual level, we release it energetically as well. When we reframe our emotional setpoints (using gratitude) and train our minds to select better-feeling thoughts (changing our "vibrational point-of-attraction"), we make it possible to have huge shifts in our physical bodies. We can release tension. We can breathe better. We can move out old, tight little nodules of pain.

But when we've had energetic/emotional "stuck stuff" lodged in our bodies for a long time, this physical release doesn't come about automatically.

That's why we need a pathway.

Specifically, we need a body/mind/psyche/energy pathway that helps move the release work that we do at the spiritual, energetic, and emotional levels into our body, and vice versa.

There are two art forms that I've found, in my more than thirty years of studying body-mind arts, that help us with this purpose. These are T'ai Ch'i Chuan and Oriental dance.

Yoga is good. Yoga is downright necessary, as it helps us stretch out and release tension throughout. And let's keep in mind that yoga was designed to be a pathway. The physical yoga movements are the complement to the other spiritual disciplines of meditation, etc. So yoga can work very well.

However, for women who desire to include emotional expressiveness as part of their total life-integration and healing, Oriental dance works much more, because once we get a certain amount of technique down, the dance is all about emotional expression. Not fancy choreography. Not virtuoso technique. But rather, Oriental dance gives us the opportunity to tap into how we feel as we listen to music, and listen to our souls listening to the music.

I've had all my "big breakthroughs" in my body associated with dance. However, yoga, and healing therapies - Reiki, massage, Rolfing, a number of things - they have all been very powerful in helping to do "logjam releases" at the physical level.

For men, and for women who simply don't have an affinity with Oriental dance, I continue to recommend T'ai Ch'i. It allows the same physical release and integration work to take place. And I've taken a number of Principles from T'ai Ch'i and applied them to Oriental dance, so that at the core, these two arts come from the same place. (At least in how I express them, and teach them to my students.)

In the next few posts, I'll round out the spiritual principles of gratitude and deliberately shaping our "vibrational point-of-attraction." I'll start the new year with a survey of the major archetypes; how we can use them, and how we can move from one to another. Also, we'll look at how we can draw archetypal complements into our lives; this allows us to primarily invoke one state, and yet get the benefit of others.

In the related blogposts for the Alay'nya Studio, I'll develop specifics of how we can use Oriental dance as our body/mind/psyche/energy integration pathway. I'll include specific techniques and general exercises. I'll provide links to music, DVDs, and other resources, and I'll share how we are structuring our quarterly curriculum.

By combining spiritual release work with the energy-cultivation and physical practice, any of us can create a much more powerful - and happy and fulfilling - way of living. Here's to a joyous 2013 and beyond!

Our "Hierophant" - Mentor, Protector, and Guide for Our Love-Goddess "Hathor"

Our Hierophant's Most Important Role: Championing our Love-Goddess Hathor

My work with A Course in Miracles is really kicking up a storm. I feel as though there's a whirlwind going on inside me. All the "internal dynamics" that I've ever had are massively active, and it feels as though I'm living inside a tornado.

Grounding things help. These include the physical hard work of cleaning; especially deep-cleaning - the sort that involves moving furniture and getting behind things. Gardening helps - slowing down and working with plants. Cooking also works. Anything that keeps my body moving and is not overly demanding of either fine motor-skills or a great deal of cognitive attention. (Does this explain why I haven't updated my database in over ten days, despite meeting lots of interesting new people at recent events? Cognitive storm.)

With all this inner "churn" going on, I'm noticing the interplays - the dynamics - between my archetypes more than ever. And I'm amazed (sometimes shocked and horrified) to see how these same dynamics are playing out in the lives of people around me. Apparently, many of us are dealing with the same things. It's just that most of us don't know it.

The biggest challenge that I'm facing is in learning to love myself more. That means finding and loving the "real" me - not the "superficial" me - or the construct that I put together many years ago. The "real" me is artistic, sensual, and emotionally expressive. The "cover story" is that of being an intellectual, and even a businesswoman.

Now to some extent, the "cover story" is real. But it's not real if I take it to be all of who I am.

There's history behind this; for myself, and (I suspect) for almost everyone whom I meet. In my case, I did a form of "psychic amputation" when I was twelve years old. I decided - for a number of reasons that came together all at once - that being who I "really was" was not a safe place to be. That is, being in my expressive, feminine, sensual core was not safe. And I don't mean physically; I was in no danger of physical harm whatsoever. This was all an emotional interpretation.

So instead of developing my artistic and sensual aspects, I sort of "lopped" that part off, and went into masculine-themed pursuits. I studied math, science, and martial arts. I tried to put a damper on my emotional expressiveness, and simply not to feel. (Hah! That was certainly not successful. Suppression never is.)

Be as it may, a lot of other life-decisions came out of this. Some good, and many not-so-good.

And over the past twenty or thirty years I've kept seeking to reconnect with, and to rekindle, my artistic/expressive aspects - with at best partial success.

This has resulted in a sort of "archetypal war" going on inside.

My Emperor is (as with many expressive women) my least "favorite" archetype. As I was explaining it to a friend two days ago, our Emperor builds empires. He's all about structure and control.

My Hathor wants to come out and play. She's the one who wants to do "kid-art." Everyone has a Hathor, and each of our Hathors are a bit different - but this is where are inner "party girl" resides.

In fact, our Hathor really is our "inner child."

So imagine what it's like if we have a rather sour and dour middle-aged man running the show, insisting that life be lived in a framework of timelines and deliverables, and there's a very active, imaginative, willful little girl that wants to divert all the attention.

Yup. That's exactly what it feels like.

So how do we make our own inner breakthroughs?

It sure isn't easy. I've been chipping away at this for years and years, and right now - even though a really big change could be underway - it feels like a maelstrom let loose. Just a "word of warning" for others who take on this process.

But in terms of dynamics: Our Hathor needs the structure and boundaries and guidance that one of our masculine archetypes provides. She needs this precisely so that she can run free and play. She is "safe" simply because someone else (one of our masculine archetypes) has taken on creating and protecting the "play zone."

You wouldn't just drop a wild and willful child off in an unknown area, would you? You'd make sure that there was a responsible, capable adult nearby. Not so much for supervision, but for protection.

The interesting thing is: the masculine archetype that fulfills this role is not our inner Emperor. He simply can't. He's all about building an empire. Creating and monitoring a play-space for a wild, expressive, sensual, fun-loving art-child is something that he's just not capable of doing.

But our Hierophant is absolutely right for this job.

Our Hierophant, like our other "core" masculine power archetypes, is very focused on completing goals and getting to the "end-game." However, unlike our two other primary male archetypes (Emperor and Magician), he is Feeling rather than Thinking. That means that he is strongly driven to connect with others, and that he (like our Empress) is governed by the feel-good sensation that comes from oxytocin release. This means bonding and connection.

Our Hierophant functions best when he can direct a student towards a "high goal." Remember, our Hierophant is our own inner Obi-wan Kenobi; our own Yoda, our own Professor Dumbledore, and our own Mr. Miyagi. He lives to bring the student to a new level of mastery.

And our Hathor is not particularly concerned with mastery, so there's a little dissonance in their interests.

However, of all our masculine archetypes, our Hierophant is most concerned with the true happiness and well-being of others. In other words, if we had to pick from our set of masculine archetypes the one who would be the best "baby-sitter" for a highly creative, expressive, and willful girl-child, it would not be our Magician. Our Magician will not take time away from his creative vision to be open-ended and playful.

Nor would it be our Emperor. He'd just want to put our Hathor off in a corner someplace, tell her to play quietly with her dolls, and don't disturb him while he's running the kingdom.

But the Hierophant? Now there's a chance.

Our Hierophant is most likely to not only care about and be interested in our Hathor, but also to be fascinated by her.

If a man finds his soul-completion when he "lives to serve his Queen," then our Hierophant (think of a wise older man, a grandfatherly sort) finds his true completion in nurturing Hathor.

Imagine a very kind, wise, and loving grandfather who absolutely adores and dotes on his grandaughter. He is endlessly fascinated with her. He'll do whatever is in his power to schedule play-dates with her; to take her places where she can have fun (but safe) new experiences.

Of all our masculine archetypes, he's the one to not only look out for her, but to be her advocate in "time-splicing" how we spend our days.

When our Hathor is deprived for too long, she stages a hissy fit. A good old-fashioned temper tantrum.

But that's not the best way to keep our inner "selves" in order. Having our Hierophant negotiate up-front the playtime for his darling and wonderful Hathor is a useful strategy - if we can simply get to this place in our lives.

This archetypal integration process is not all that easy. And it's something that we re-do and relearn, again and again. But each time, we add in a bit more of our wholeness and fullness.

If we can survive the maelstrom.