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January 2013 Newsletter
ARCHETYPES: Who Are You?
My second book on archetypes, ARCHETYPES: Who Are You?, was officially launched today. It's a bit overwhelming to think about how long ago Sacred Contracts, my first book on archetypes was written, but as they say, time does pass swiftly. I've been teaching and writing about the subject of archetypes for twenty plus years now. That's a long time, relatively speaking. It's quite something how the subjects you teach live inside of you, breathe inside of you, and actually do shape the way you relate to the whole of life itself. This is certainly true for me when I write about mysticism and it is equally true when I talk about how I understand the archetypal theater of the cosmos.
I remember the first time I received an intuitive impression of an archetype while doing a medical intuitive reading with my dear friend and colleague, C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. I'd done literally thousands of intuitive medical readings with Norm through the years, as well as with other physicians, but I was always focused understanding the psychological/emotional patterns that caused the breakdown of health and likewise those interfering with a person's healing. Norm always called me for a consultation from his office in Springfield, MO, while he was with the patient. I was living in New Hampshire at the time. On this particular occasion, Norm asked if I could offer any insights to assist his patient and the only impression that kept coming to me was that of a crying little boy who had been seriously battered again and again. It was shocking, actually. Not yet knowing about archetypes, I told Norm that I couldn't help him, as all I could see was an image of a "wounded child", and what use was that to a man suffering from a lifetime of depression?
Norm relayed the image I saw and this man, aged 54, broke down and wept, revealing to Norm horror stories of his early childhood that he was ashamed to tell any one else. That reading changed my life, not to mention the life of Norm's patient. I was gripped by this other world, our inner world - the world that drives our feelings, our attitudes, our belief patterns, our dream characters, our ambitions, and our fantasies. Trying to figure out the connection between an illness and a negative attitude became child's play for me next to discerning a person's archetypal patterns. The new challenges for me eventually became a three-part dynamic: First, define archetypes for people. You might think that's easy, especially many of you now well into my work. But actually, it's not easy at all. Now here comes an archetypal lesson about human nature: We approach everything personally. We, in fact, think the world revolves around us, right? The problem is, of course, that we live in an IMPERSONAL universe that does NOT revolve around us. Thus, it's very challenging to "think impersonally" when, by nature, you think, "Is this mine? What about me? What's in this for me? How is this supposed to help me out?"
The study of archetypes and their influence in our lives became my passion and would remain so for decades. I realized that absolutely everything in our lives was threaded to one or more of our archetypes - even the choice of our clothing and certainly the choice of partnerships in life. If archetypes had so much influence at the micro level of our personal life, it made sense to me that we, collectively, created archetypal dramas at the macro level of social and global events. How could it be otherwise? This thought ultimately inspired me to record, "The Sacred Contract of the United States of America," in which I explored America's history according to its archetypes.
Years have passed since Sacred Contracts and another generation has become a very active and dynamic presence on the social scene. This is the generation of my nieces and nephews, the younger people who are Internet savvy and looking around landscape of this world as it is undergoing the most dramatic transformation in human history. My nieces and nephews, for example, have always been interested in my books, but curiously the only book they actually have read is my new one, Archetypes: Who Are You? (I sent them early copies, in case you're wondering how they managed to read a book that was just released.) My niece, Angela, said, "I finally understand what you do. I can read this book."
Obviously Angela knows I teach about archetypes, but she never really understood what archetypes were or why having a personal understanding of archetypes made a difference in a person's life. She's a woman in her 30's, a young professional who does not have a lot of spare time in her life. Her values, however, are driven around the "personal quest"; only that "quest" is directed more toward economic than spiritual survival at this time in her life. When I and my fellow sojourners were in our 30's, we, too, saw our lives as having that sense of quest, but it was more of a spiritual one. However, we could afford the luxury of a spiritual quest, as economic times were different. The economy was stable. 911 had not yet hit and we had not yet entered into two wars, one of which still goes on and on. Her generation has different challenges to confront by far.
But her generation also has talents and skills that mine knew nothing about. When I was her age, the Internet did not exist. When I wrote Sacred Contracts, the Internet was just getting started - can you believe that? The Internet and all the new words that it would introduce have actually become a language unto themselves and, in fact, "specialty archetypes". For example, "Google it" or "Hacker" or "Hacktavist" qualify for a subcategory of archetypes that come from my niece's generation - which might well be your generation. Do I really have to define those terms for you? I'm the one that requires help these days in terms of having new words defined.
Yet another change that is especially notable is the difference in how her generation (which may be your generation) and mine relate to time. Angela's generation - that is, people who are forty-ish and younger, are the pure Internet generation. Others have adapted to the Internet and to the computer age and all the technology that goes with era we are living in, but those who are forty-ish and younger actually grew up in it. As a result, all of those in the younger generations have a new relationship to time and space - specifically, a high tech relationship to time and space. Simply put: Everything for you is instantaneous, immediate, and global. That's your new normal. Instantaneous has become so ordinary that most all of us now do not even realize that timelessness is actually quite extraordinary. Even learning needs to adapt to this speed zone. Even I needed to adapt to this speed.
Because I essentially approach all things through the lens of archetypes first as my "locator guide", I recognize that truth and wisdom has to adapt as well. My niece and her friends represent a new way of learning - a new speed zone. They represent people who want to get to the heart of a subject as directly as possible and then, if that subject truly engages them, they will pursue it more deeply.
While my niece and her friends - or other people who definitely want to learn about archetypes, I wondered, given the difference in generations, which door would they want to walk through? Are they primarily seeking their Sacred Contracts or are they asking, Who Am I? Or are they, like I suspect, seeking both paths but one at a time. First, however, a person looks for a sense of personal security and identity. We want to know, "Who Am I?" before we go in search of, "And for what reason was I born?"
In, Archetypes: Who Are You?, I introduce archetypes in a way that makes them user-friendly. I chose this voice because archetypes are so powerful and so complex that it is often best to introduce their power in disguise because this is what I know to be true about the nature of the psyche: The question, "Who Am I?" ('Who are you?' personally directed, obviously) is itself a type of archetypal inquiry. It is, in fact, one of the most significant questions that a person can ask in life. That one question has the power to redirect the course of your life because you are asking to know the truth about the reason you were given the gift of your life. Who Am I? Beyond the clothing you wear, beyond the things you own, beyond your likes and dislikes, you want to know about your inner mysteries and the voice that drives you from within. The truth is, however, that you are drawn by some mysterious need to make contact with your archetypal patterns and the core of your soul. It's just a matter of time, even in this timeless world of ours.
Through my years of experience, I have found that most people prefer to tread lightly down that inner path, to go slowly into the depths of their inner Self. Though most people find that inner voice irresistible, they often resist just a bit because they know following it - asking that profound question, "Who Am I?" - will change everything.
And yet some things never change, like our need for companions along the way in life. Archetypes: Who Are You? is a book that emerged from a group vision about creating a global community through archetypes. Your entire world is an expression of your archetypal patterns, including your relationships, your occupation, and even your manner of dress. Our vision was to construct a web site that built a global community that could help people identify their archetypes, connect with people through their archetypal interests, and read news and articles by various writers on a vast array of topics that had an archetypal flavor. We've accomplished that: www.archetypeme.com. Come visit.....
With love and appreciation,
Caroline
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