Know Your Team

Nope, we're not talking sports teams, we're talking Archetype Team.

The concept of Archetypes has been around since the time of Plato.  Swiss psychologist Carl Jung expanded on them and brought them into the realm of modern consciousness.  While each archetype is a generic version of a personality, they become personalized when they become part of your psyche.

Just for fun, think about the many faces and roles you play throughout the day.  Who are you to your family? To your boss? Who do you see the in the mirror? 

Based on the work of Caroline Myss, the belief is we each have a number of archetypes within our psyche which help to shape who we are in this lifetime.  When we become conscious of the roles and patterns they create within our lives, we are then able to gain a better understanding of ourselves and our place and work in the world.

What if, just for fun, you look at four key Archetypes, the four which everyone on the planet has, just to see how and where they appear in your daily life and what form they take.  Would you be curious enough and honest enough to really explore these aspects of yourself through the symbolism and patterns in your life?  Would you be willing to put yourself under the microscope if what you discovered would give you new insight into who you are and your highest potential in this lifetime? Would you really like to understand why some things seem to recur in your life and what you could do to change that?  To hold within you the feeling of knowing yourself at a deeper level and using that knowledge to live a more fulfilling life?  Then read on and actively experience with new awareness, these key archetypes in your life.

Keep in mind that archetypes are merely the psychological patterns we hold within our unconscious mind; they do not control us, we consciously or unconsciously access these patterns based on the circumstances we are experiencing.  They are neutral in nature, it is how we choose to access the behavioural patterns they represent that determines if we are choosing their Light aspect or their Shadow aspect.  Our choice is reflected in the interactions, relationships and choices we make throughout our lives.

Consider the key 4 archetypes that we all have:

1. The Saboteur
2. The Victim
3. The Prostitute
4. The Child

Just reading their names is likely to resonate with you.  You know them for they are all aspects of you along with as eight other archetypes (based on the work of Caroline Myss, it is believed we each have a total of 12 archetypes which make up our core team).  Of the twelve archetypes, these four are likely the ones we are most conscious of, simply because we all have them.

The Saboteur 

When we are behaving from the Shadow aspect of The Saboteur, our intention is to sabotage, either consciously or unconsciously, ourselves and/or others.  Whether we are sabotaging our relationships, our health, our career or any other part of our life we need to look no further than the Shadow Saboteur archetype.  Who hasn't had a moment in their life when they said "I KNEW I shouldn't have done/said.....but I did anyway and everything fell apart."  We knew we shouldn't do it, yet we did, knowing full well the outcome would not be what we wanted.

Behaving from the Light aspect of The Saboteur, we learn when we are in situations where we run the risk of sabotaging ourselves or others.   From this aspect we gain understanding and insight into our actions, giving us  the opportunity to look more closely at our true intentions and what triggers us to sabotage ourselves or others.  Being able to see the pattern and be conscious of it then gives us the opportunity to change it.  It is our Guardian of Choice.

The Victim
How well we know this one!  Whether we are 'playing the victim' to gain sympathy, attention or some other emotional or material gain, the Shadow Victim is front and center.  It is so easy to slip into the Shadow aspect of the Victim and some people practically live in it, bemoaning how much worse things are in their life, how much harder things are for them, etc.  From the Shadow, The Victim is powerless and has no choice; they cannot do anything to change their circumstances.

The Light aspect of The Victim is where we learn to stand our ground and not allow others to victimize us.  It is also where we learn how we have been victimizing others and choosing to stop doing so. We recognize choice is always available to us and we have within us the power to take action and control in our own lives rather than passively allowing others to tell us how to live.  It is our Guardian of Self-Esteem.

The Prostitute
Likely the most misunderstood of the four, The Prostitute shows us 'what we are willing to sell and for what'.  The Shadow Prostitute "sells out" for what matters most to the individual.  Becoming a yes-man to get ahead in the company, is selling out your integrity for a promotion.  Staying in a broken relationship because of the material benefits, is selling out your happiness for material comfort.  The saying: "Everyone has their price" refers to the Shadow Prostitute within us.

The Light Prostitute helps us recognize when we are at risk of selling out, in essence, it reveals to us what our price really is by uncovering the situations/events in our life which make us feel like we are willing to sell our soul for and teaching us we do not have to sell out.  It is our Guardian of Faith.

The Child -
There are many forms of the Child archetype, however everyone only has one child archetype.

Those with an Eternal Child archetype are people who remain young no matter how old they are.
The Shadow aspect manifests as the inability to accept responsibility and grow up.

Those with a Nature Child archetype are people who have always had an affinity to animals and nature as a whole.
The Shadow aspect manifests as a tendency to abuse nature and the environment.

Those with an Orphan Child archetype are people who feel they never fit in or never belonged.
The Light aspect allows the Orphan Child to develop independence from a very young age.
The Shadow aspect creates the need to find a way to fit in rather than moving on.

Those with a Magical Child archetype are people who hold the belief that anything is possible; miracles happen.
The Shadow aspect manifests as pessimism and the belief that energy and action are not required in life.

Those with a Divine Child archetype are people with a special union with the Divine.  Their faith is their anchor in life.
The Shadow aspect manifests as an inability to deal with negative forces/events in life.

Those with a Wounded Child archetype are people who were abused or traumatized as children and are able to overcome their early life experiences and use those experiences to help others.
The Shadow aspect manifests as self-pity, blame and resistance to moving into forgiveness making their experience their reason for their inability to live life.

Your child archetype is your Guardian of Innocence.

The beauty of archetypes is that they are neutral, giving us the choice of how we are going to respond to any given situation or event, allowing us to create change when we recognize the need to change, the flexibility of moving from the Shadow to the Light, and the deeper understanding of the symbolism and patterns in our lives.  As we gain awareness of archetypal patterns and energies we gain new knowledge of ourselves, our interactions with others, our weaknesses, our strengths, and our greatest potential.

Know thy self is the first step towards understanding others.

Blessings.