Your Master Plan for Understanding and Integrating Each of the Core Power Archetypes
Suppose that you've been studying - and using - the power of archetypes in your life for a while now. What will make this year the year in which you achieve personal mastery? What will make this year your breakthrough year, and launch you to a new level of personal success and victory?
You may already understand that as we grow, we go through archetypal "growth stages." Perhaps no one explains this better than Carol Pearson, in The Hero Within. She walks us through how we go from the not-so-empowered Innocent to the fully-empowered Magician.
You may also know, from reading Caroline Myss's Sacred Contracts, that we simultaneously access and use several different archetypes. In fact, she has us select "current" and "desired" archetypes from a roster of a few dozen possibilities.
With all these great teachings, there is still something missing when we seek to fully capture the power of archetypes in our lives - the power to be in the right frame of mind for different tasks, relationships, and intentions. This "something missing" was actually laid out for us in the first seven cards of the Tarot's Major Arcana.
A Master Plan That Goes Back Thousands of Years
The background story tells us that this knowledge actually has a much older provenance than we may have thought. The earliest known Tarot decks are several hundred years old. However, the Major Arcana are based directly on the twenty-two "pathways" connecting "spheres" (Sephiroth) in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Kabbalistic written tradition goes back for hundreds of years; the oral tradition to perhaps a couple of thousand of years. And since the Tree of Life is the earliest known base for esoteric teachings in our culture, the origins may even be earlier. The Tree of Life is mentioned in the earliest known human writings.
In short, it is very likely that a certain "esoteric teaching" - based on mastering six core power archetypes - goes back at least hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years.
Three factors stand out when we undertake this "journey":
- The six core power archetypes (together with two reserve battery archetypes) match directly to three of the four "dimensions" used by Carl Jung in creating his Psychological Types,
- There is a certain order for study and master, and
- There is an "endgame" - that is, we don't want to just master these archetypes in isolation; we desire the ability to pull on each one (or several) as needed. That is true mastery, and it is our goal as well.
What is Our Master Plan?
As with all big intentions, it helps us to have a "game plan."
Our "game plan" is that over the course of a year, we will spend each semi-quarter on each archetype. Integration, we trust, will be something that we take up as we go along. (We may choose to repeat this study for a few years, each time gaining greater levels of insight and refinement,)
A second - yet very important - aspect of our "game plan" is that we're tying in our intellectual and practical archetype study with our "lab work" - our daily practice of energy exercises and dance movements. We tie all of these together with the appropriate "season", using the traditional Western esoteric approach of assigning and "element" to each "season."
- Winter: Season of Earth (pentacles, the physical body, a "feminine" season),
- Spring:Season of Air (swords, the mind, a "masculine" season),
- Summer: Season of Fire (rods, the spirit, a "masculine" season), and
- Autumn: Season of Water (cups, the emotional realm, a "feminine" season).
Master Plan Overview
Each "element" has a set of qualities associated with it, and a particular focus of attention. Our archetypal study curriculum focuses on intellectual study combined with reflection and exercises that highlight each of the specific "archetypes" for the given semi-quarter. When we combine this with pathworking, we add in elements of spiritual discipline, emotional release work, energy cultivation exercises, and (of course) dance movements and techniques and choreography.
The archetypes that we will consider, are (in order):
Winter Quarter - Season of Earth (Pentacles, a "Feminine" Season)
- High Priestess: Dec. 21 - Jan 31 Being contemplative and intuitive, a time for gazing into the fire, creating a "vision board" for the coming year, and being open to "dream-time", and
- Hestia (a reserve battery archetype): Feb 1 - Mar 20 Spring-cleaning - for our homes and our psyches; the classic "wax on, wax off" approach to opening our minds for insight and guidance.
Spring Quarter - Season of Air (Swords, a "Masculine" Season)
- Magician: Mar. 21 - April 30 Being a visionary, creating reality according to your "big dream", and
- Emperor: May 1 - June 20 Bringing your desired reality into fruition; business plans, project management, process flows, stabilizing your "empire."
Summer Quarter - Season of Fire (Rods, a "Masculine" Season)
- Green Man (a reserve battery archetype): June 21 - July 31 Escape to the "great outdoors," breaking out of the molds that civilization puts on us, and
- Hierophant: Aug 1 - Sept. 20 Becoming a guru/guide for those younger than us - either in years or in skills and understanding.
Autumn Quarter - Season of Water (Cups, a "Feminine" Season)
- Hathor (The "Love Goddess"): Sept. 21 - Oct 30 Reveling in sensual beauty and pleasure, and
- Empress: Oct. 31 - Dec. 20 Connecting, loving, nurturing - sending out Christmas cards and gifts, holiday entertaining, time with family, friends, and loved ones.
Putting the Master Plan Into Action
For this coming year, each semi-quarter will be devoted to the appropriate archetype. I'll offer resources and guidance, and as you feel led, you can follow up at will. Resources will include:
- Guest Bloggers: Special invited guests for each different core archetype - Giving you insights from the "best of the best," together with real-life stories from others who've achieved amazing results in different areas of their lives,
- Suggested Readings: Links to books and online resources - Get greater depth, and
- Exercises and Checklists (Strictly optional): What to do to get the most out of each archetypal focus.
From time to time, I'll write about the integration process - how we can combine two or more archetypes to create "mastery" for ourselves in different life situations. I'll also point the way to what happens after this level of mastery. (Yes, mastery comes in levels - and the whole work with archetypes is simply the first level. However, it's the level where we need a good foundation before advancing to anything else.)
So here's to you, with very best wishes for an absolutely awesome coming year!
