Becoming a "Magician" Is Not Hogwarts-Easy!

Becoming a Magician - Not As Easy as Going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!

Ah, if life were only so easy!

If all that we had to do - in order to become a functioning, real, practicing Magician - were to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (from the Harry Potter novels), we'd have a relatively straightforward task. Perhaps not always easy. (Think of the various nasty elements that Harry, Hermione, and Ron face each year.) However, our course of study would be laid out for us. All we'd have to do would be to attend the required classes, practice hard, and - hooray! - we'd emerge at the end, wand in hand, as a fully-fledged Magician.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

And maybe, we'd think, a bit of luck might be involved. Or at least the right genetics.

But what if each of us had Magician-potential?

What if for each of us, becoming a Magician was a core part of our life's work?

Those of you who have been following along will be familiar with the basic theme of this archetypal study: Our adult "life journey" follows a path laid out in the Kabbalah - really based on the Tree of Life. There is a simple, straightforward, and easy mapping of the various "stages" of our "life journey" into the Major Arcana of the Tarot.

(Sidenote: It may very well be that the Tarot system, including both Major and Minor Arcana, was invented to capture this Kabbalistic "life journey." The first Tarot decks came into being during the height of the Inquisition, when the Jewish people were being persecuted; being driven from their homes, forced to convert to Christianity, and often tortured and killed. This went on for hundreds of years. The possibility of all Jewish esoteric knowledge being lost would have given the Kabbalistic thought-leaders huge motivation to capture their essential teachings for future generations in a sort of "Purloined Letter" manner - hiding them in plain sight, so to speak. More on that in a later blogpost.)

Our adult "life journey" really has three stages. While I address all three within the pages of Unveiling: The Inner Journey, most of the posts in this series have focused on building a deeper understanding of the first stage; that which author Rachel Pollack (in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom) calls The Worldly Sequence.

Prior to starting our adult "life journey," we are each in the role of the Fool. This doesn't mean that we are "foolish," per se. It just means that we are innocent; unknowing. We're like Bilbo Baggins, before he leaves the warm, safe, known realm of the Shire. Before he goes There and Back Again.

As a quick review, this first adult "life journey" takes us through six distinct steps, with a seventh providing a wrap-up or integration. In order, these are:

• Magician: Visionary and creative,
• High Priestess: Contemplative and intuitive,
• Empress: Nurturing and caring, all too often losing oneself as the focus becomes on meeting the needs of others,
• Emperor: Building and sustaining, from managing projects at work to running the home,
• Hierophant: Guru and guide; developing our Obi-wan Kenobi and Yoda aspects,
• Love-Goddess: Renamed Hathor in Unveiling (after the Egyptian goddess of love, romance, and pleasure in all its forms), and
• Winged Victory: Sometimes called the Chariot, we "pull together" the opposing forces of each of these powerful archetypes, harnessing them as needed to our strong sense of will.

Again, if all that we had to do was to cultivate each of these archetypes, in a nice and neat linear order, life would be easy.

But it's not.

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Simply getting from our starting place as the innocent Fool into being a powerful and effective Magician is in itself a huge challenge. Most people don't make it this far.

There's a reason for this.

Going from Fool to Magician is not simply taking a step on a garden path. It's not just enrolling for the first year of college. It is a profound, huge shift in the way-we-are in the world.

Furthermore, this Fool-to-Magician transformation is really several giant steps, all rolled into one.

We can credit Carol S. Pearson, Ph.D., author of The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By, with discerning and elucidating the fullness, richness, and overall complexity of this huge life-transition.

The next few posts will develop this Fool-to-Magician journey in more detail. In fact, the next several posts will concentrate on the Magician archetype itself: what it is, how we get there. How to spot and discern "magicianship" - in ourselves and others. (It helps us to acknowledge our own successes, especially when we can see them as part of the bigger picture.) After suitable attention to the Magician, I'll return to the Emperor archetype. These two - Magician and Emperor - are a powerful duo. Leaders throughout government, military, industry, and non-profit sectors are largely composed of Emperor/Magician personalities; sometimes both archetypes rolled into one; often with partners or teams having strong Emperor and Magician representations.

However, as Dr. Pearson discovered, the Fool-to-Magician transition is not easy. It is a set of journeys within itself, and may be far more arduous and challenging than we would ever believe.

Thus, our first step - in developing ourselves as Magicians - is to study this Fool-to-Magician transition more completely. To "gird up our loins," so to speak, for a potentially long and difficult journey.

We note that in Pearson's diagram (shown above), there is a long distance between the Wanderer and the Magician. Going from one to the other doesn't happen overnight.

However, we recall a line from a poem in The Hobbit: "Not all those who wander are lost."

Even though we may have a long stage of "wandering," in order to discover and fulfill our Magician potential, this is part of doing the magical work itself.

The essence of magic is transformation: Creating something, essentially, from nothing; from the raw, primordial substrate of consciousness. Over the next several posts, I'll provide many examples: creating a cohesive work team where there had been only divisiveness and back-biting. Creating a major symphonic performance with a scanty budget and tired (but still enthusiastic) volunteer musicians. Envisioning and creating a new product, service, and/or marketing plan.

Most of the time, though, our biggest "magical" actions are done in transforming ourselves. We become more of a Magician as we are willing to relinquish the fierce grip of being a Martyr and/or a Warrior. We take an even bigger step as we are willing to step into the unknown, especially the unknown space of our inner selves, when we are willing to relinquish the safety and security of known roles. In this, we are going from Fool to Wanderer. And only then, can we take the most powerful step and go from Wanderer to Magician.

Is Your "Emperor" Ruling Your Life?

Is Your Inner Emperor Ruling Your Life? (And If So, What Can You Do?)

A gentle tyrant.

Perhaps, sometimes, even not-so-gentle.

Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (1557-1619), painted by Hans von Aachen (1625).

We each have an inner Emperor.

Our Emperor mode, or archetype, is our "Project Manager" self. When we deal with cognitive, rational, "get-things-done" types of tasks - tasks often involving budgets, deadlines, and deliverables - we call on our inner Emperor.

Our inner Emperor is one of our six core power archetypes, and is often dominant. He (along with is compatriot, the Magician) tends to be a "resource hog."

We can't blame him; not really. Any good Project Manager, CEO, or President-of-Anything will charm, co-opt, or just plain commandeer any and every resource that he (or she) can find to get the job done. That's why they're paid the "big bucks." They get things done - and to hell with whose toes get stepped on in the process.

Our Emperor is all about - whatever he's "all about." This could be getting a law degree or a promotion at work. It could simply be getting a five-year-old's birthday party to come off successfully. Regardless, our inner Emperor is highly task-focused. And because "his" role is to get things done, at all costs, when he's in charge, no other archetypal mode gets much attention.

Our inner High Priestess wants to go for a walk, or even to get out of town for the weekend to simply chill? Sorry, but we're staying late at the office until the report is done.

Our inner Hathor wants some spa time? Later.

Our inner Empress wants to connect with girlfriends, or stay at home and cuddle? Again, later. Her needs get deferred in the face of the Emperor's overwhelming (perhaps even obsessive) task-focused nature.

Now don't get me wrong. We need our Emperor mode. This aspect of our psyche is essential to our well-being.

The challenge is that - for too many of us - we've allowed our inner Emperor to really become an inner Tyrant - gobbling up all of our time, all of our resources, and all of our energies. And then we find ourselves exhausted, frustrated, and just downright depressed and angry.

So how do we deal?

That will be the subject of the next several postings.

References

Soloman, Presidential Address to the Eastern Psychological Association, NYC, April, 1963.

Hestia - Our "Rest amd Recharge" Archetype - Part 2

Why We Need Some "Hestia Time"

 

It Was More Than "Just Winter"

Shortly after Thanksgiving, my father died. This, of course, was the "tipping point." But it was one event on top of several.

Within a single week, one housemate - someone with a severe medical condition - went into the hospital. Another, newly moving in, announced that she had quit her new job, would be unable to pay her security deposit, and would likely not have the next month's rent. Then, a tooth condition flared up, and it looked as though I'd need an emergency root canal.

Within another week, a housemate (yes, the same one who couldn't pay security or rent) lit a fire in the fireplace. The flue was open, but it was cold - and she started up a fire of magnificent proportions. Naturally, the smoke went into the room, instead of up the cold chimney flue. We had smoke throughout, as never before. I was faced with the somewhat daunting task of repainting the entire living room.

This combination - of grief over my father's passing, of simply too much stress from external events, and the onset of winter - kicked me firmly into a combination of High Priestess and Hestia modes.

High Priestess and Hestia - Two Natural Complements

High Priestess, by Mari-Na

Our High Priestess, as we know, is our contemplative and intuitive mode. This is where we take a spiritual retreat, or even just take a long walk. We need our High Priestess to find the "calm spot" within ourselves.

Our High Priestess is a necessary complement to our visionary, creative Magician mode. Without some reflective time, we find it difficult to tap into our inspirations and creativity. This is why our High Priestess is the second major archetype we encounter in our first adult life journey. Within the Major Arcana of the Tarot, she is Card II, and immediately follows the Magician (Card I).

Since our High Priestess plays such an important role in our lives, we often miss the important corollary of our Hestia mode.

Hestia - Our "Hearth and Home" Goddess

Hestia image created by Katlyn Breene, permission requested.

She [Hestia] is the Goddess of the hearth flame and temple flame, and at every public or private ritual, the first offering was always made to her. Upon marrying, a new bride would carry fire from her mother's home to the new, symbolizing the Goddess's presence blessing her new family. Hestia is the symbol of the sanctity of home, of home as temple and refuge, and of the fire of life contained within each place that honors her. (Text from Lunaea.)

"Mend, Tend, Befriend": How Women Deal with Stress

Shelley E. Taylor, Ph.D., has led breakthrough research uncovering how women's typical stress-responses are different from men's. In her book, The Tending Instinct, she found that "tending and befriending" behaviors - those that involve bonding - are part of women's natural responses to stress. However, it was also Taylor who coined the phrase "mend, tend, and befriend." The "mending" part, and also our "tending," may refer to our physical environment as well as our emotional landscape.

Emotional bonding behaviors - whether caring for a child, a husband, a friend, or a pet - or even having lunch with girlfriends or phone call with a long-distance sibling or friend - help to produce oxytocin. Oxytocin is a "feel-good" neurohormone, and is important in many aspects of our lives. However, to "feel good," we also need other hormones. Dopamine helps us to feel the zest and juiciness of life, and serotonin is soothing and calming.

Archetypes and Neurohormones: A Strange and Useful Relation

Although it is very simplistic, we can make an "overarching" correlation between certain of our archetypes and the brain "states" that we wish to induce with each of these archetypal modes.

• Empress - our "tend and befriend" mode - strongly correlated with oxytocin-inducing behaviors,
• High Priestess - intuitive and contemplative - and least well-understood in terms of neurohormonal correlates, but most likely linked to anything that is serotonin producing (and hence the strong association with the Hestia archetype)
• Hestia - the "mend" part of our "mend, tend, and befriend" stress-coping strategies - less emotionally-connected than Empress, and much more focused on the "calming" (serotonin-producing) activities of cleaning house, mending items, and generally keeping order, and
• Hathor (the Love Goddess) - focusing on sensual pleasure, love and romantic passion - a "dopamine-focused" (feeling exuberant and ecstatic) archetype.

Hestia and House-Cleaning: Breaking Through the Winter Doldrums

Alana Morales, writing for the online Mommie's Magazine, shares that house-cleaning helps relieve stress. She's not alone in this, as even the Mayo Clinic offers activity (such as house-cleaning), as a means of stress reduction.

Laura, a writer for Radiant Recovery, describes how she found that house-cleaning helped her to reduce stress . A friend and colleague pointed out the relation between cleaning, stress reduction, and seratonin.

She wrote:

That when OCD gets really bad you can not stop the need to clean that one spot on the table or keep washing your hands or organizing the silverware drawer or whatever.

And, here is the kicker, she said how do you feel after you clean or neaten the things up that bother you? I thought for a moment and said, I feel much , much better. A sense of relief...and calm.

She said that is because you just got some serotonin. The act of cleaning, or repetitively doing something calms you down which produces a small amount of serotonin.

Women, Stress, and Serotonin

For women, stress, depression, and serotonin levels are often linked.

We can, to some extent, improve our serotonin levels with certain kinds of foods, with exercise (which produces endorphins), and with sufficient sleep and even light-boxes (during winter).

Upcoming: Hestia Strategies

In the next blogpost, I'll share how we can consciously invoke the Hestia archetype into our lives, calling upon the "sacredness" of house-cleaning - of deliberately using our "mend and tend" instincts - to help us deal with stress. This can even help us deal with more difficult situations - such as sharp emotional life-changes, including major losses and transitions.

Related Blogs

Hestia - Our "Rest and Recharge" Archetype - Part 2

Masculine vs. Feminine - Core Archetypes

Your Masculine and Feminine Core Archetypes: How Are They Different?

 

Have you wondered yet how much you really need the archetypes of the "other gender" in your life? That is, if you're a man, have you wondered how much you "really need" the four core feminine archetypes? And if you're a woman, have you wondered how much you "really need" the masculine qualities in your life?

Yin and Yang not only embody classic masculine and feminine qualities, but each carries the "seed" of one within the other

If so, you're not alone.

 

Congratulations - You've Found One of the Top Blog Posts in The Unveiling Journey

Congratulations!

Whether by luck or by design, you've come to the fourth most popular blogpost in The Unveiling Journey since the blog was started in 2007. (The six "most popular" blogs are selected by statistics current as of October 22, 2013. This one is actually the best on this topic to date.)

Since then, we've moved the entire blog series to a new location.

Here are some great reading choices:

• The Unveiling Journey - the most recent blog (we keep getting better!),
• Six Top Blog Posts for The Unveiling Journey - top six as of October 22, 2013 - gives links to this blog post plus five more (including the one I'd recommend the most), and
• The Masculine vs. Feminine - Core Archetypes - the rest of this post (the one that you started reading here just now).

 

Why the Transition to a New Blog Site?

• Better Intralinking: You'll find related blogposts easier (look at the end of this post on the new site for good links),
• Better Categories and Tags: Interested in a related topic? Want to see what else is covered? Look in the right-hand sidebar on the new site - check out the Categories (main topics) and Tags (people, books, events, and sub-topics), and
• Improved Resources: Look for a Resources Page (main header menu); it will give you a different kind of access to related topics - from the antecedents (books inspiring this ongoing work) to future directions.

 

See you over there - and thank you!

 

Alay'nya (Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.)

 

Post edited and content moved to The Unveiling Journey website, specifically to the The Masculine vs. Feminine - Core Archetypes blogpost on Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Original post February 12, 2013.

Core Archetypes Year-Long Study Guide - The "Big Picture"

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!

Cultivating Our Core Power Archetypes: First Stage in Becoming a "Master of the Universe"

Six Core Power Archetypes: First Step in Mastery

Mastering ourselves is the first step in becoming a "Master of the Universe."

The Kabbalistic Tree of Life: A Roadmap for Personal Mastery

Several millenia ago, some very insightful mystics and seers somehow discerned that the "roadmap to God-consciousness" (and complete mastery of who they were as human beings) could be described as traversing through various "centers" or "realms of existence." They called these "centers" Sephiroth, and organized them in a map that has been called, throughout the ages, the Tree of Life.

There are ten Sephiroth. (These are the circles on the Tree of Life to the left.) Each Sephiroth represents something very specific - not only a "plane of existence" but also an aspect, or emanation, of God.

 

 

The Kabbalistic Tree of Life

These aspects (Sephiroth) are organized in a logical manner. The "softer, gentler, kinder" ones comprise the Pillar of Mercy (on the right), and the "harsher," more rigorous ones comprise the Pillar of Severity (on the left).

There are, potentially, 10x9/2 different connections between them. (Each one of the ten can connect with each of the remaining nine, and then these total paths need to be divided by two, so that they aren't counted twice.) This means that there are potentially 45 different "connection paths." In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, though, only half of these paths - twenty-two of them - are actually defined and used.

This means that getting from one "center" (or state of consciousness, or realm of existence) to another is not just a "random-jump" sort of thing, but more like an ordered progression. Each step in this ordered progression has a certain meaning, and that meaning corresponds to an aspect of human experience. In fact, it corresponds to a significant step in our adult life journeys.

 

The Three Adult Life-Journeys

The last blogpost discussed this Tree of Life, and how the Major Arcana (from the Tarot) relate to the pathways between the Sephiroth.

We identified three sequences of seven steps (Major Arcana) each. Each of these sequences is a major adult life journey. From the previous blogpost, we recall that these are:

• The Worldly Sequence: We access and cultivate each of six Core Power Archetypes, and integrate them - we are able to use each one as appropriate.
• Turning Inwards: We begin to release our ego. At the end of this sequence, we start to access and cultivate intrinsic life energy, or ch'i.
• The Great Journey: A time of destroying the last of the old "structures" that keep us imprisoned, leading to full realization of our life's purpose and being released to do our "great work."

 

The Worldly Sequence: Cultivating and Integrating Our Six Core Power Archetypes

Our first adult life journey takes us through the Worldly Sequence. During this time, we learn to cultivate each of the six Core Power Archetypes, plus a seventh step (integration):

• Magician (Major Arcana Card I): Power to create "something from nothing."
• High Priestess (Major Arcana Card II): Contemplative inner wisdom.
• Empress (Major Arcana Card III): Nurturing and caring; runs on oxytocin, the "bonding hormone."
• Emperor (Major Arcana Card IV): Strength, stability, structure, and order; the perennial "Program Manager," thrives on building and maintaining structures and things (ranging from a business process to an actual empire).
• Hierophant (Major Arcana Card V): One of the least understood but most important archetypes, this is the mentor/teacher/guide, typified by fictional characters ranging from Albus Dumbledore (in the Harry Potter series) to Mr. Miyagi (in the Karate Kid) to (of course) Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi (in Star Wars).
• Love-Goddess (Major Arcana Card VI): All about pleasure and play; romance, love-making, sensual pleasure in all its forms; she runs on dopamine, the "ecstatic pleasure" hormone.

Various blogposts, as well as sections in Unveiling: The Inner Journey, have described these various archetypes, as well as the seventh step, integration.

Most MOST Popular Post on the Six Core Power Archetypes and Integration:

• How important is it to gain each of your six Core Power Archetypes?: Your Six Core Power Archetypes: What Happens When One is Missing?

The OTHER Most Popular Posts on the Six Core Power Archetypes and Integration:

• The Unveiling Six Core Power Archetypes map to six of the eight of the Jungian Psychological Types, two more are "reserve battery" or "rest and recharge" archetypes: Eight Core Power Archetypes
• Mapping the Unveiling archetypes correspond to the Jungian Psychological Types: Unveiling Archetypes and the Jungian Dimensions
• Moore and Gillette identify four masculine archetypes; two of these are an exact match to the Unveiling/Jungian types, one is a partial, and one is a mismatch (read why!): Moore and Gillette, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: 2 1/3 Out of 4 Ain't Bad!
• Neurohormones and their potential relation with core archetypes: Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Estrogen: A Potent, Heady Mix
• Your eight Core Power Archetypes can help you with your Franklin-Covey roles and identifying life-priorities: The Unveiling Archetypes and the Franklin-Covey Roles: A Useful Synergy

Other Related Posts:

• Introducing the Major Arcana and their relation with core archetypes: Finding Peace and Happiness Through the Power of Your Archetypes
• Characters in The Lord of the Rings embody the six Core Power Archetypes: The Lord of the Rings: A Classic "Inner Journey"?
• What is integration?: Integration: The "Final Step" of Your Power Journey's First Stage

Becoming a "Master of the Universe": Three Essential Life-Stages

The Three Essential Life Stages: Why You Need Each, and How They Empower You

Don't we all harbor some secret longing to be a Master of the Universe?

Our ongoing fascination with (and often immersion in) the heroic actions of super-heroes tells us what is important to us: we desire to live a heroic life, to be much, much larger than the events and circumstances of our daily lives.

The way that we do this, in real life, is not to become a fantasy action-figure, but to go through each step of our adult life journey. This is actually a huge challenge, and one that taxes and challenges us as much as any story in myth or legend.

 

 

 

Congratulations - You've Found One of the Top Blog Posts in The Unveiling Journey

Congratulations!

Whether by luck or by design, you've come to the sixth most popular blogpost in The Unveiling Journey since the blog was started in 2007. (The six "most popular" blogs are selected by statistics current as of October 22, 2013.)

Since then, we've moved the entire blog series to a new location.

Here are some great reading choices:

• The Unveiling Journey - the most recent blog (we keep getting better!),
• Six Top Blog Posts for The Unveiling Journey - top six as of October 22, 2013 - gives links to this blog post plus five more (including the one I'd recommend the most), and
• Becoming a "Master of the Universe": Three Essential Life-Stages - the rest of this post (the one that you started reading here just now).

 

Why the Transition to a New Blog Site?

• Better Intralinking: You'll find related blogposts easier (look at the end of this post on the new site for good links),
• Better Categories and Tags: Interested in a related topic? Want to see what else is covered? Look in the right-hand sidebar on the new site - check out the Categories (main topics) and Tags (people, books, events, and sub-topics), and
• Improved Resources: Look for a Resources Page (main header menu); it will give you a different kind of access to related topics - from the antecedents (books inspiring this ongoing work) to future directions.

 

See you over there - and thank you!

 

Alay'nya (Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.)

 

Post edited and content moved to The Unveiling Journey website, specifically to the Becoming a "Master of the Universe": Three Essential Life-Stages blogpost on Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Original post October 9, 2012.

Dec. 21st, 2012 - And the Next 60 Years

Beyond December 21, 2012: The Next 60 Years

For the past half-year, this blog has had a strategic direction. We are leading up to - and pointing the way beyond - the much anticipated "2012 Transition."

And as we move towards that time, anticipation and curiosity mounts. Will we wake up on the morning of December 22nd to find that the world has irrevocably changed? Will we wake up at all? Or will we get into our cars or take our "usual" route to work, stop by our "usual" favorite place for morning coffee, and have a big laugh? The "2012 Transition?" we might say to each other. "It was all a big joke, wasn't it? Like the Y2K 'crisis' - remember that? All 'much ado about nothing.' Life goes forward."

Or will we say something in a similar vein, but have our words mask a fear-bordering anxiety. A sense of unease, as when horses send a blizzard coming down off the plains. We'll feel an instinctual, primal urge to find a "safe place" in which to hide - but have nowhere to turn. We'll continue reading the news, listening to our favorite pundits on TV, picking up the Twitter feeds and the Facebook links. And all of the news will converge into our heads to give us just one clear message: A crisis is coming.

In fact, that crisis is already here.

The question is: What sort of crisis? How big? How difficult?

Will we survive? If so, in what form? And what do we need to do now to prepare?

Now's my time to "come clean" with you. I am proposing answers. But I'm not proposing "easy answers." It's not that I'm "middle-of-the-road" in terms of what I believe will happen, but I'm being very careful about what it is that we need to do about not only what is going to happen, but also what is happening right now.

These "not-so-easy answers" are based not on one specific area or another. So I'm not going to propose a "financial survival plan," nor a "head-to-the-hills" approach. Nor am I going to be totally "New Age." Yes, we're having a "singularity." (See work by early proponent Ray Kurzweil.) Yes, we are at a culminating point in human experience. And yes, there are a whole lot of "strange things" going on - in our lives, in the world around us - that are not part of our "normal" expectations and experiences.

But I'm not going to go all "woo-woo" on you either.

Where we are at - where we are precisely at - in human experience - is a Tower moment.

Take a look at these images. First, our recent past.

 Photograph by Spencer Platt, Getty Images

Perhaps no images in the last dozen years more succinctly capture the opening of this millenium than the destruction of the "twin towers" of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Now, a visual image describing a point in human evolution - both individual and species-wide.

The Tower card - Major Arcana XVI - from the Rider-Waite depiction.

The Tower image is deeply embedded in our cultural mythology. Specifically, we have a culture-wide deep-felt resonance with the "destruction of a tower" as signifying the fall of everything from a civilization to a person.

In Unveiling: The Inner Journey, I depicted the Tower role in our lives as when we suffer loss of everything that defines our ego. Most importantly, according to Tower imagery, this loss is not of just one thing. It is when we lose everything all at once. We lose our job, and the same week, the doctor diagnoses us with breast cancer. Or our husband files for divorce so that he can move in with his mistress, and our company is bought out by a mega-conglomerate - with impending re-organizations and layoffs. Or we realize that we need to move our mother into a nursing home - and take over storing and processing her "worldly goods," while at the same time our son is diagnosed with ADD and needs extra tutoring and attention.

A Tower moment is when it all comes apart, all at once.

We have them in our lives. I've had multiple ones (described in Unveiling).

Now, here's the important point: One that I didn't make in Unveiling.

Humans have Tower moments, and so do societies. And humanity itself is now in the midst of a Tower moment.

If a Tower moment is defined as the conflux of multiple devastating challenges, all at once, we now have a Tower squarely and firmly on our hands.

Because it's not just one thing.

It's the conflux - the simultaneous flowing together and cresting - of our oil/energy crisis together with the population boom. We're running out of the oil that we use for fertilizers and cheap food transport at the same time that we're in the midst of an unprecedented population surge, anticipated to go to 9B people in the next several decades.

Oil and Population graph by Paul Chefurka, Population, The Elephant in the Room.

We have a built-up world-wide financial crisis just as we're having increased financial challenges to deal with climate and ecological disasters. And we are certain that the horrific BP Gulf oil spill is just one of many such challenges that we'll be facing; as we go after more and more "difficult-to-recover" oil, and rely more and more on other sources - including nuclear - we'll have more energy-based accidents. Chernobyl and Fukushima were just the beginning. There will be more.

And the biggest point that I'm making here? It's not just the ecological devastation. It's that cleaning up after these massive ecological devastations will be necessary. And very, very expensive. And that will be occurring just as we need to rebuild port infrastructures and port cities, as the climate shifts and the oceans rise.

And we're going to attempt to do this as the greatest money-generating generation of this country moves from generating money to taking money. The Baby Boomers are starting to retire. They'll want Social Security and Medicare. Their retirement savings were largely wiped out by the 2008 financial debacle, and they'll be needing help - instead of providing an income base to support large-scale clean-up and climate adaptation efforts.

And I haven't even mentioned the social retooling that we'll need as transportation costs rise, and it is more and more costly to commute to work, to take vacations, even to go to the grocery store. (Where everything is going to cost more, anyway.)


And also, I haven't yet mentioned the near-certainty of massive plagues, unleashed with new, antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains and new viral combinations.

This is a Tower time for humanity.

Most of us keep trying to move forward with "life-as-normal," hoping that someday soon, we'll get back to "normal."

My point is that there is no longer any "normal" that we can go back to.

The era of Norman-Rockwell-images - of comfortable family homes with the white picket fences and stability for everyone - is in the past. It won't come back in our lifetime, or in the lifetime of our children. In fact, it won't be available for our children's children either.

We're in the midst of a profound shift, and there's no "normal" that we can go back to anymore.

But there is a "word of hope"; for us as a society - and as a race of human beings. And for each of us, individually, as well.

The "word of hope" is that there is something that lies beyond the Tower.

In this blog, I write about human experience - both individually and society-wide - using analogies and stories. I write using archetypes and metaphors. And fortunately (for all of us), I haven't had to invent the storyline. (In my "sister" blog, I write from the non-linear complex systems perspective.)

The "storyline" was given to us several thousand years ago, in the form of the Kabbalah. This depicts the realms of consciousness; essentially a path towards God-realization. That's why the Kabbalah has been studied by mystics for many centuries. (Jesus Himself very likely knew and understood the Kabbalah, together with his role in Kabbalistic terms. Another blogpost, another time.)

The Kabbalah lays it out for us. It presents the "created world" using the analogy of the Tree of Life. (See the picture to the left.)

The "centers" of this Tree are states of consciousness. The "pathways" connecting the Tree correspond to the Tarot's Major Arcana. And also (not so coincidently) to the pre-Phoenician alphabet, which later became the Phoenician, which laid the groundwork for the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

The Kaballah shows the course of evolution - both of the individual person, and of humanity overall. So people individually go through Tower moments, and survive. (I have, and you have probably done so, also.) Civilizations go through Tower moments. And now, humanity itself is in the midst of a Tower; very likely the greatest Tower time in the history of humanity.

What brings us hope is that there actually is a "step beyond." It's called the Star.

The Star card - Major Arcana XVII - from the Rider-Waite depiction.

Calm, lucid, clear. We get wisdom. Our life - what once was - is in shambles around our feet. But we're still here. And without the need to preserve something that no longer serves its purpose, we are free to receive insight and wisdom. It's as though we are naked in the world once again. However, we are naked in the midst of the flowing waters of life. We have all that we need, and more.

And beyond the Star, we have the Moon (bringing to awareness all the gifts of our intuition and subconscious awareness), and the Sun (energy, blessings, abundance). From this holy and wonderful moment, we rise in response to the Judgment call. But rather than being harshly judged, this is truly the moment when we joyfully respond to a literal "higher calling." We "rise up" beyond ourselves. We become that which we were meant to be.

And finally, one step beyond, we are united with God, in a flowing, ecstatic dance.
This, my friends, this dance-with-God, this joyous realization of the divine spark within ourselves, is what our human experience is meant to be.

And if we have to go through a Tower moment to get there, then so be it.

We'll do this, and we - as humanity - will survive. Not necessarily each one of us individually, but as a species, yes. We'll survive. But we'll survive transformed. We'll survive as those beings that we were created to be.

Now, to specifics.


We can greatly increase our chances of survival if we do certain things.

This is NOT a prepare-for-a-financial-meltdown missive. Nor is it a prepare-for-the-rapture directive. Nor are we going to find our next evolutionary stage by forming some mental symbiosis with a world-wide network of computers, as was suggested by Ray Kurzweil. (But for a very interesting read, linking to the latest data, visit Going Beyond Moore's Law.)

Rather, what we must do, if we're going to get through this Tower, is to evolve ourselves. We're going to have to let go of that which doesn't work. (That's a given; that's the nature of a Tower time.) But also, we have to get ourselves completely together.

Refer, please, to my previous blogpost on the holographic nature of our archetypal experience. The lesson there (which I'll develop more over time) is that we're individually - and collectively - going through all of our archetypal stages all at once. Yes, sometimes one thing is much more pronounced than others. (And right now, for humanity, it's the Tower.)

But because our lives are holographic right now - and very definitely not linear - we can go back and "fill in" what we've missed.

So our first big "life challenge" was archetypal integration. That was realizing and gaining mastery of the six core power archetypes about which I've been writing for the past half-year. (I introduced these in Unveiling: The Inner Journey. See Chapters 7 and 11; "A Real Woman's Path (Really Does Exist!)" and "Shifting State," respectively.) And while we're at it, we also need to identify and access our two "reserve" or "battery-pack" archetypes - the ones that we use when we need to rest and recharge. This gives us a total of eight "power archetypes", which we can map onto the Jungian system.

This is a starting point. And if we have to go back and do some remedial work, we can do this. In fact, as focused and mature adults, if we recognize the need to "fill in a gap," we can probably do so very expeditiously.

We then have an "integration stage." Actually, we have two integration stages. And the second integration step, which I've just gone through, is like a preamble to the Tower, only in a somewhat lower-key way. (And at that, it's still a real toughie.) This "second integration step" precedes a sort of mini-Tower; one in which we voluntarily leave comfort, safety, and familiarity in search of wisdom.

The end result? If we go through archetypal access and integration (the First Journey), and then the re-integration and the following steps (the Second Journey), we get to a point at which we start accessing some real internal power and capability. This is the Fountain-of-Youth, or ch'i creation, which I describe in Unveiling. (See Chapter 29: "Pragmatic Esoterics," as well as chapters leading up to that.)

Once we complete our two Journeys, we have not only "all of ourselves, altogether" (the result of integration and re-integration), but also some real vital raw energy - ch'i - with which to work.

Now unfortunately, there's one really more scary and horrific step - even before we get to the Tower. This is where we encounter the real nasty, dark, ugly stuff inside. (Think of Debbie Ford's Dark Side of the Light Chasers. Think of World War I, World War II, and genocidal purges around the world. Yup, been there all along - but a lot of real nasty, truly ugly has come out in the past 100 years.) This is the Devil stage, where we encounter the worst-possible. And the really worst part is that what we truly encounter is that which is inside ourselves.

It is this, of course, that unleashes the Tower. Encountering our own ego - in its worst form - is what brings about the destruction of comfort and removes the illusion of safety.

Pretty awful stuff, indeed. And the Tower time is no fun. Not for us individually, and not for humanity.

But if we can put this in context, we'll see that it is a necessary step, and a transition to the freedom and joy that we truly desire. We move beyond the Tower, and become that which we were meant to be. And at that moment, each of us will be able to say (taking words from A Course in Miracles), "I am as God created me."

So with that thought of love and encouragement, let's move onward. And through.

And for those of you who live in the Northern Virginia/Metro DC area, there will be an absolutely fabulous concert on Saturday, June 2nd, at the Langley High School. Performed by The McLean Symphony under the direction of Maestro Dingwall Fleary with Special Invited Guests, it will feature Beethoven's Ninth Chorale Finale (the "Ode to Joy") as its closing piece.

Let's use this to lift up our hearts and spirits, and gain encouragement for the times ahead.

We can certainly make it through the next sixty years. But a "joyful" heart will help us greatly.

"Holographic Archetypes" - Experiencing ALL of Your Archetypal Journey At the Same Time

The "Holographic Archetype" - Why You Seem to Be Experiencing Everything All at Once

"Life," we sometimes think to ourselves, "is supposed to be simple." And all too often, it isn't. Especially for those of us who are trying to do some "personal growth work" while still carrying on some semblance of normalcy; jobs, family, school, community involvement and friends. In the midst of all of this (sometimes), we're carrying on with the rather difficult business of discovering and accessing/integrating our various "core power archetypes."

Our inner work is powerful. And as we dive into it, we can go through some very unsettling times. By analogy, let's imagine what would happen if we had a company that had a succesion of CEO's, each having a different dominant archetype.

As we know from any shakeup at the executive level in a company, when we start moving key figures around, things are (temporarily) unstable. If our company has formerly been headed by an entrepreneur/inventor (Magician archetype), and the Board of Directors decides that the time has come to put someone in whose background is in running a "tight ship," or who is formerly a CFO, we know that everything changes. (Switching from a Magician in charge to an Emperor in charge.) And there would be even bigger shake-ups if the Board put in charge someone who is focused on mentoring and developing "leaders from within." (Hierophants love to mentor!)

Imagine, further, the absolute chaos that would erupt if any of the other "core archetypes" were to be calling the shots for a while. If it were an Empress persona, the company would be all about "relating." We'd be hugging our clients a lot; but the eye would not quite be on profits and deliverables. (However, our clients might start placing bigger orders and referring their friends to us. Who knows?)

And if a Hathor-type were running the show, it would be all about parties and having a good time! (The High Priestess, wisely, would recluse herself from all considerations of corporate leadership. If she had to take this role, though, the first thing she'd do would be to declare a nine-day corporate retreat in the Catskills. Lots of walking the footpaths in silent meditation. Then she'd happily foist this job off on the first qualified Emperor.)

Now that's the simple version.

Really.

In real life, for most of us doing this kind of archetypal integration, our inner landscape is about as comfortable as frequent shifts in corporate leadership. That is to say, highly uncomfortable - especially when the various archetypes that we've finally accessed begin to assert themselves. Each one wants to "run the ship" - at least for a while!

And as I said, that's the simple version. This version presumes that we're doing our archetypal access and integration in a calm, linear, and "safe" manner. This was, in fact, the "curriculum" a few thousand years ago, when the Kabbalah was first discovered or understood. Back then, a certain sense of orderliness was assumed.

Now, however, all bets are off. Our world is highly chaotic and nonlinear. Our lives often are, as well. Instead of picking up our archetypes one at at time, and then doing our archetypal integration under the careful watch of a renowned integration master, we are often attempting this on our own. What advice and mentoring we get often comes from books, weekend workshops, and "life coaches." (These latter may or may not have done their own integration work. They may or may not even know what you'd be talking about - that is, in a real, substantive, and useful sense.)

So here we are, many of us, attempting to do the very rough-and-tumble work of archetype access and integration, all too often on our own. And to make it much more challenging, in the REAL "real world," we're often dealing with several emerging archetypes all at once.

Imagine a boardroom war in which various key players are vying for control. In the morning, the Emperor takes control, sets up the goals, objectives, deliverables, and timelines. All seems straightforward and doable. The goals may be stringent, but you know how to pour on the overtime. You can work evenings and weekends; you've done it before. (Many times, no doubt.) So you gear up, and mentally factor in the vacation that you'll take when bonuses are announced.

Then, around noon, Hathor seizes control. She wants that vacation now! You count up accrued vacation days, visit your favorite travel site, and figure out which weekend you can afford to extend to a three-dayer. No sooner have you made your plans and submitted a vacation request when whammo! The High Priestess emerges. And what she really wants is quiet time, because, lo and behold! She's paving the way for the Magician to emerge with his next great invention!

This is what the archetypal integration journey is all about. It's not all that poetic. In fact, it's downright messy.

And now - adding in more "real world" factors - there are at least two major integration processes. The first is when you've accessed all your core power archetypes. Everyone is "present and/or accounted for, Sir!" You (the cognitive, dominant "you-in-charge") can access each one as appropriate and at will. You know when to charm, and when to command. You know when to take some time off to connect with nature and your "quiet mind," and you know when to party. And you also know when to get the "deliverables" delivered. On budget, and on time.

You've mastered your game.

Or so you think.

It's the second integration process that comes up as a surprise, and is much more disorienting. It's more than the various key executives in a company taking on leadership roles. It's a lot more like when the Board decides that the company is going to go in a whole different direction. Instead of being a "service company," focusing on government (or commercial) contracts, you're going to be "product company." And the word comes down - new divisions are created, people are laid off while the company retools and regroups, new people come into newly created power positions. This is hugely destabilizing.

And necessary.

Just as companies must reform - sometimes very radically - we also need to rework ourselves from the inside out. Sometimes very radically.

You've heard about this. Someone who has made a living in the banking world leaves their job - their whole career - to become a baker. A successful business leader leaves his or her company to teach in an inner city school. Huge life-changes like this do happen; they happen all the time. But they don't just come up out of the blue; there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes before such an overt change happens.

Not all of us will switch careers, of course. But as we go through this second integration, we learn to pay much more attention to the needs, wants, and desires of core archetypes whom we may have repressed for many years. It's similar, in a sense, to the case in which a wife finally does leave a husband who's never really had time for her. After all the years that she's accomodated, she's finally decided that she can't deny her own self anymore. What a shock that is for everyone!

Then, of course, the husband has to woo and win her back. And finally, for perhaps the first time, he starts listening, paying attention, and allocating some real time to her; to her wants, needs, and desires. And for a good long while, he won't be putting in any overtime. In fact, what he might do is put in for a leave-of-absence or a sabbatical, in order to discover just who his wife really is. It's that, or the divorce court.

If we've similarly been Emperor-dominant all of our lives, there comes a time when we need to give some "quality time" to the other core power archetyps. Otherwise, they'll simply desert us. (Usually, this comes at a huge cost. Pay now, or pay later.)

Now, there's a reason that all these archetypal integration processes are coming up at once for many of us. It's not just that we're going through "changing times." We are, of course, but that's not the whole story.

It's not just that we're in a massively accelerated world. Yes, that's also true. And again, it's not the whole story.

It's much more that we - as a species - as a whole planetary species (and perhaps even as a planet) - are undergoing this kind of archetypal journey at a mega-level. We're not just doing archetypal integration individually; we're doing this as a society.

Moreover, steps like these are broad-ranging; they pull in all other aspects of our archetypal journeys. It's like living inside a kaliedoscope. Or, more appropriately, experiencing our lives as a hologram.

More on this in the next blog posting.

Finding Peace and Happiness Through the Power of Your Archetypes

Personal Happiness - Linked to Archetype Mastery and Integration

How happy do you feel, on an overall, consistent, across-the-year basis? (We'll ignore the times that the dog's thrown up on the new carpet.) How happy are you in specific areas of your life? This includes job, relationships, where and how you live, your friends, and other factors. And how much do you feel that you are in control of the evolving nature of your personal happiness?

That last one is crucial, isn't it? It suggests that each of us, alone, is in charge of our personal happiness - and that we can do something to adjust our "happiness factor" along the way.

This isn't a new question. In fact, I believe that the "happiness question" is what led certain people - sages and mystics, for the most part; certainly "seekers of truth - to receive the Kabbalah. I'm saying receive in a loose sort of way; I don't think that the Kabbalah was discovered; and I certainly don't think that it was invented. It seems to be the sort of thing that certain seers grew to understand - that they communed at some level with a higher wisdom. "Higher wisdom," in fact, is what the Kabbalah is all about; it is a roadmap to God-consciousness. And it's been around for a very long time; it was oral tradition long before Jewish scholars wrote about it in the Middle Ages. In fact, there is some research that suggests that the Tree of Life theme, central to the Kabbalah, predated even the formation of the Hebrew peoples.

This is not to get too far into historical dating; rather to support our central notion that our human search for happiness has been linked, for many millenia, to our search for connection with God. That is, we seek to experience the "God Within." We seek to know God; personally.

Now we're not going to get into religion here, and we're not going to become Kabbalah students, either. (At least, not right now.) But we are going to note a very important point; one that I made in Unveiling, and one that many other scholars have made as well: The Kabbalah is the foundation on which the Major Arcana of the Tarot is based, and the Minor Arcana as well. We'll concentrate, in the majority of these blogposts (as in Unveiling itself) on the Major Arcana.

The Major Arcana consists of 22 cards, or "Trumps." Not the "Donald" sort of Trump, but rather, the notion of a major, big, important idea - the kind of idea that we call an archetype.

Now get this: There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet (also in the Phoenician alphabet, and in the Pre-Phoenician as well - as in - in our very oldest Indo-European alphabetic system). There are 10 "Centers" in the Tree of Life, and while there are numerous possible "graph links" between them, there are only 22 connecting "pathways" defined in the Kabbalistic system. And there are, of course, those 22 Trumps or cards in the Major Arcana.

So for scholars in this area, the connection is clear - and has been clear for hundreds of years. The Trumps - the Major Arcana cards - correspond directly to the pathways, or to steps that we take enroute to knowing God.

So suppose that you were a seeker of knowledge, several hundreds of years ago. Perhaps even a few thousand years ago. And you had reached that point in your life - children grown, career stable - when you were asking yourself, "What next?" For all your success in the world (let's presume that you were moderately healthy and wealthy, and let's even throw in "wise" for a good measure), you felt there was something missing.

So you did what many men and women had done before you, and what many would do in the years thereafter. You went to your local Mystery School or Temple, and consulted with the best teacher that you could find; someone who was kind and gentle, and who seemed to emanate a sense of both loving-kindness and wisdom. In short, you set out in search of your own Obi-wan Kenobi or Yoda. And you asked your question.

And because you were not the first to do this (nor the last, to be sure), this kind, wise teacher spent some time talking with you, but then, ultimately asked you the question: Were you ready to take on the next level of life-study?

And your answer was, in all likelihood, yes.

Thus you found yourself, at the next time that their "academic year" started, in a class with people like yourself - and some not-so-like. There would have been other local business-people and professionals. There would be society matrons. There would be the occasional itinerant seeker-after-truth, whose whole purpose in life was to visit the various temples. But together, you would be undertaking the first steps in a course in God-realization, in personal mastery, and - ultimately - in happiness.

Now, here's where the archetypes come in.

The Major Arcana are designed to have a single starting card representing you, setting forth on your "search for wisdom." (And for personal happiness, for enlightenment, for the meaning of life, etc.) This card is called the Fool. (No real insult intended; this just means an open mind, a sense of lightheartedness, and - most importantly - that you're not carrying a whole lot of "baggage" with you as you set forth on your journey.)

The remaining 21 cards are grouped into three sets of seven, and - this is where our connection to "happiness" comes in - the seventh card is a sort of "completion" of a life-journey-stage. That is, you attain a certain kind of happiness - unique to each journey-stage - as you reach the seventh card (or completion) of each stage.

Interesting idea, isn't it? There are various kinds of happinesses. And they correlate to certain levels of life-mastery.

The very last card, called the World, shows a naked woman (sometimes a hermaphrodite - a being both man and woman, or combining the qualities of both genders), dancing in space, surrounded by a laurel wreath which contains the heads of four animals, each looking outward. These are the traditional four "powers" (lion, ox, eagle, and a human head as well). The central figure is lightly draped in a purple veil, she holds the two scrolls of knowledge in her hands, and she is simply - dancing. She represents complete joy and freedom; the successful completion of our life journey. And yes, she represents happiness.

But it is not as though we need to get through all 21 cards (or life-lessons) in order to experience peace, freedom, and happiness. At the end of each of seven-card sequence, we have a card that represents some level of integration, mastery and well-being, and - yes - happiness.

So the World card is the end of the whole journey. But prior to that, we have two other sequence-completion cards. They each represent completing a big portion of our life journey. It is somewhat like saying that reaching the World card is like getting your Ph.D.; before that, you get your Master's degree, and before that, you get your Baccalaureate.

Everything that I've been writing about for the past several months - all of these blogposts on "archetypes" - has paved the way for you getting your "Baccalaureate in personal happiness." This is what seekers-after-truth did hundreds and maybe even thousands of years ago. And it's what you're doing now, when you focus on archetype mastery and integration.

Now, here's where things come together - at least for a while. There are six core archetypes in the first set of seven Trumps, or cards. These are the six "core power archetypes" that I've been writing about for several months, and which I've described in some detail in Unveiling (Chapters 7 and 11).


These archetypes are the ones that you would - essentially - have "gone to school" to study and master. Of these six "core power archetypes," three are masculine, and three are feminine.

Masculine Core Power Archetypes:

• Magician
• Emperor
• Hierophant

Feminine Core Power Archetypes:

• High Priestess
• Isis/Empress
• Hathor ("Love Goddess")

There are two other core archetypes as well; I call these the "reserve" archetypes, or the "rest and recharge" ones. They're not a part of the set of six that you need to master, because they come to each of us more naturally and easily. These are Hestia (Goddess of Hearth and Home; essentially - the one who "keeps the fires burning" - and keeps our personal lives in good order), and the Green Man (the one who returns to nature for balance).

Now, here's the summing-up point - where all these archetypes "come together." The seventh Trump in this series is the Chariot. Essentially, at this point, you have it all "under your control." You really, truly, literally do "have your life together."

It's a fantastic feeling. And also, for many of us, it's hard-earned. Just as no college curriculum is easy for everyone - each of us finds some courses hard and some easy - getting to the Chariot stage, our first waypoint in our big life journey - is a huge completion. But it is at this point that we really do experience a very real sense of happiness.

This happiness doesn't come from having developed any one particular archetype, but rather, from having them all - and having them in working order and in balance with each other.

Think about this. Many women reach their early forties with two archetypes that are almost over-developed; their Emperor (a big component of their inner Amazon, which they use not only on the job, but to organize their lives and their families), and their Empress (nurturing and caring).

But if that was all that we needed, why would so many of us feel - as our children leave home for college - that we're eager to get back to ourselves? We seek to find those aspects of who we are that were pushed aside during career-building and child-rearing. In short, we're ready to discover - and to integrate - those other core archetypes. And this is where we get our "happiness." It's not just in two or three, but rather in using all six (actually, all eight, since we call on our reserves from time-to-time). This is the basis for personal happiness. It is also a basis for personal freedom.

So here we are, at the beginning of a new year. (The Chinese and Druidic New Year, at least.) Why not make this a year of starting your archetypal discovery, mastery, and integration journey? Make this the kick-off point for entering your own "school of happiness" - and also well-being, awareness, and total life mastery? Join me, because I'm beginning aspects of my own journey along with you!

Where to Look for the Latest

Archetypes, Pathworking, and the Fountain of Youth

There are three core themes in Unveiling: The Inner Journey:

• Archetypes: Our "high-level roadmap" for personal power. This is the 10,000-foot-high view of our life-journey.
• Pathworking: What we do on a day-to-day basis; this includes using a body art (such as Oriental dance, or the martial arts) for body awareness and integration. This also includes tension release and processing our emotional "stuff" - the emotional tensions and reactions that we store in our bodies.
• Fountain of Youth: Intrinsic vital energy (ch'i) cultivation and circulation, and what we can do with our ch'i once we've cultivated enough to have something that lets us be effective.

In this Unveiling blog, I am currently focusing on the archetypes. This is largely new material that builds on the subjects of Chapters 7 and 11 of Unveiling.

In the Alay'nya blog, I focus on the Pathworking and creating our very own Fountain of Youth. The Pathworking develops material presented in Part II (Chapter 8), and Parts III - VI of Unveiling. The original Fountain of Youth material is in Chapter 29, "Pragmatic Esoterics" of Unveiling. What I'm developing in the Alay'nya blog has more to do with practical steps; the Unveiling material itself was more high-level and conceptual.

Are "Hierophants" Really That Important? (McDonald's Thinks So!)

Why Do We Need Hierophants?

Gandalf the Grey (later the Gandalf the White), Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, and Professor Albus Dumbledore are all Hierophants. Mr. Miyagi, of Karate Kid fame (whether the first or second film release), is also a Hierophant. With this established, is a Hierophant something (or someone) that we really need - or is this just a nice artifact for certain film and story genres?

McDonald's, a Fortune 500 company, certainly thinks that Hierophants are important.

A Hierophant is more than a teacher, coach, mentor, or guide - although he (or she!) is typically all of those roles. The "more than" is that the Hierophant is the means by which the traditions, "secret knowledge" (whether of spells or corporate plans), and values are transmitted from one leadership generation to another.

According to a Robert P. Gandossy and Nidhi Vermma, in "Passing the Torch of Leadership", the implicit role of Hierophants is essential in ensuring that strong companies maintain their competitive edge. Quoting a study carried out by Stanford University researchers James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, as described in their best-seller Built to Last, these two researchers found that companies maintaining a stellar performance and managing 20th-century endurance had one essential ingredient: a culture of succession management. In other words, internal Hierophants trained the next generation of leaders.

Further, as described by Collins and Porras, and summarized in this article:

Organizations that embrace a formal, ongoing, top-to-bottom succession process that is a fundamental part of the corporate fabric--what we call best-in-class succession management--have developed a key ingredient for long-term success, as Collins and Porras demonstrated.

Is this sound advice? McDonald's, a Fortune 500 company, certainly thinks so. In a Fortune article on Why McDonald's wins in any economy (August, 2011), author Beth Kowitt describes a culture instituted by CEO Jim Skinner, who created "Hamburger U," McDonald's management training facility. According to Kowitt:

This push for talent development may be Skinner's greatest legacy at the company, which has 700,000 employees in the U.S. alone...

His push for in-house talent development creates a substantial pool of leaders-in-training:

[Skinner] requires that all executives train at least two potential successors -- one who could do the job today, the "ready now," in McDonald's parlance, and one who could be a future replacement, the "ready future." ... Every year the executive team, including Skinner, reviews the top 200 positions in the company and the feeder pool, which means it ends up looking at about 400 people. "We talk about all of them," says HR chief Rich Floersch.

This is an excellent example of the Hierophant notion internalized into corporate values and training. We pay attention to that where we put our money. Clearly, McDonald's is putting both attention - and money - into internalizing the Hierophant role within its culture.

Who - and What - Is a "Hierophant"?

Hierophant - Leader of Leaders, and Teacher of Teachers

Those of us who've been following Unveiling: The Inner Journey - both reading the book and this blogpost - have probably wondered about this notion of a Hierophant. We never hear the term in any of our "leadership books." The subject of "hierophants" is not covered in the Harvard Business School, or in the military's leadership academies. So how can this notion possibly be important? And - perhaps most essential - how can it be one of our "core six power archetypes"?

For the longest time, the idea of a Hierophant puzzled me also. In fact, it was still something of a puzzle as Unveiling was going to press. I still hadn't figured it out! But here, in a sort of "post-Unveiling epilogue," a lot of the concepts I'd worked on earlier are becoming much more clear. And surprisingly enough, it was the work on the Hero's Quest (and the Heroine's, as well - see Chapter 6 in Unveiling, on that theme), that made the notion of a Hierophant much more clear.

Let's start with one of the classic Hero's Quest examples from Chapter 6; Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute. The young hero, Tamino, seeks initiation into a "higher order." He undergoes trials of initiation, overseen by the High Priest, Sarastro. At first, we might not have a good "felt sense" of Sarastro's role, other than that he seems to be a necessary figurehead. But let's move on!

Our next example (also from Chapter 6) is Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. Young Luke also goes through trials, much as does Tamino. He trains first with Obi-wan Kenobi, and later with Yoda. In Star Wars, this stage of training - of both learning and proving himself - is essential before the young hero takes on his true, defining challenge. But in the early stage, a teacher is essential. As a similar example, Mr. Miyagi is the necessary teacher in the Karate Kid movie series.

The same is true of young women, facing their Heroine's Quests. Young Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz, has Gilda, the Good Witch of the East, to guide her.

But is this consistent? Is this something necessary?

Let's look at a few more Hero's Quest stories. The Lord of the Rings is a great one. We have young Bilbo Baggins first in The Hobbit, and later Frodo and his hobbit-companions, together with warriors from men, elves, and dwarves. But throughout, we also have a certain special character - not Aragorn (who really is a Hero, joined in Quest with Frodo and the others). No, the character who deserves our attention is Gandalf. That's right; Gandalf the Grey, later Gandalf the White.

One essential component of the Hero's Quest - since it is really the Hero's story - is that the Hero needs to be guided by his teacher, the Hierophant, in the early stages. Yet later, he needs to confront challenges on his own. Usually, the Hierophant is killed in this process - in order to make the Hero's isolation during his final challenge most real and concrete.

During crucial portions of The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf is unavailable to Frodo and his companions; he sacrifices himself while fighting the ancient and fearful Balrog. Similarly, Obi-wan Kenobi sacrifices himself in a duel with Darth Vader, allowing Luke and other to escape. We're seeing a pattern here; can we find another instance?

One of the greatest "mythological sagas" of our time is the Harry Potter series. We meet young Harry when he is only twelve years old, and is whisked away to Hogwarts to study magic. He meets the Headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore. In a manner similar to that of Obi-wan Kenobi and Gandalf the Grey, Professor Dumbledore dies in the last book - forcing Harry to have his final confrontation with Lord Voldemort on his own.

We see that the Hierophant is a powerful figure. He is essential to the growth and training of a young Hierophant. Often (but not always), the Hierophant sacrifices himself, although this is usually a plot device - and not a necessary Hierophant characteristic!

Our culture focuses on the drama of the young Hero/Heroine, in their respective Quests. We see, now, that the Hero or Heroine does not gain skill, insight, or understanding on their own. Before they go on to their "great challenge," they must undergo training. The Hierophant is their teacher; their guide.

So in your own life, are you being a Hero/Heroine, or a Hierophant? Learning to see this distinction in yourself, and in those around you, will be the subject of the next blogpost!