Archetypes: Who Are You?
Posted on January 9, 2013 5 Comments
I just read this amazing book by Caroline Myss, called Archetypes. These are collective symbols that everyone in the culture understands; patterns, habits, and behaviors that people can all describe. When we speak in archetypes, we speak in common terms.
For example, if I were to say my uncle’s sister’s daughter’s son’s mom is such a martyr, you would immediately get an accurate picture of what I mean by her personality. If I told you my brother’s grandma’s daughter’s son-in-law’s wife is an amazing mother, you would also understand what it is I am trying to say.
Did you catch that both of these people link back to me? No family members were harmed in the making of these examples. Hmmm…is that a Caretaker tendency…?!?
Identifying archetypes is helpful for understanding yourself and others. When I can step back and look at a situation, myself, or another person through the lens of archetypes, I am able to see the impersonal patterns of consciousness that connect us all. When I encounter a person who is a Drama Queen, for example, I can keep my own energy and not lose myself in theirs. And I no longer resent either the person or myself for the situation! Yaay!
Archetypes help clarify our human interconnectedness as “the universal language of the human soul,” as Caroline puts it. This book is like a workbook, helping the reader to identify some of their primary archetypes.
It is organized into ten parent categories that reflect today’s common expressions. These archetype families group similar expressions, making it easier to start identifying. As an example, the Creative family includes the Artist, Creative, Performer, Storyteller, etc. At this point I don’t necessarily need to define my nuances of a specific archetype (Author? Artist? Storyteller? Scribe?), it is enough to begin with the parent category (Creative!).
I found this book to be highly inspiring! If you would like to know more about archetypes in depth, take a look at the same author’s book Sacred Contracts, or visit her website salon for more information. Spiritual Seekers who have already read and experienced her previous work will still greatly enjoy Archetypes, it has great nuances.
One more important and fun aspect of this book: there is a companion website that is an archetypal community for everyone! Go to www.ArchetypeMe.com, read The Concept and How Our Site Works for better descriptions than I do justice here. Take the identifying quiz, then enjoy content created for and tailored to archetypes. Have fun, see you there!
Hay House, Pioneer Spriritual Visionary, gave me this book in exchange for my honest Detective, Intellectual, Seeker, Spiritual, Nurturer, Teacher, Mother opinion of it. My Goddess, Warrior, Creative, and Writer truly Advocate(s) this book!
Hold Yourself Dearly
Posted on January 6, 2013 4 Comments
Reading Tama Kieves’ writing physically hit me in the chest and knocked my spirit into alignment: Hold yourself dearly. Here are some excerpts:
Hold yourself dearly. No one has walked in your shoes but you. Hold yourself dearly. This is a practice, a prayer, an amulet and a portal.
…know the gospel of [your] own brilliant nature.
…know that even if life wasn’t going the way [you] thought [you] wanted it to go, this [is] a really cool moment in a really cool life, because all of life is really cool when you stop judging your circumstances and start loving your own spirit.
Hold yourself dearly. Hold all of it dearly. Breathe deeper…just breathe deeper, and drink in the love that is always here for you.
As I move into a New Year, I remember to speak in terms of I am–thank you, Dr. Wayne Dyer!. And thank you, Tama Kieves, for also sharing your brilliant nature.
I am enough. I love my own spirit. I am grace. I hold myself dearly.For Ms. Kieves’ full writing piece, please visit http://www.tamakieves.com/all-i-want-for-christmashanukkah-is-me-a-practice-to-calm-and-claim-yourself/. And sign up for her awesome free newsletter–it’s something I’ve stumbled across and it’s made a difference. Happy New Year.
photo from FMU Photo @ WordPress
God’s Bountiful Table
Posted on December 31, 2012 Leave a Comment
Our kitchen table is a central part of our family, serving more than just meals with its purpose. Guests are honored here. Parenting occurs here. Friends connect over coffee here. Family members intertwine and enfold here. Homework is learned, bills are paid, opinions are shared, books are read, writing is released here. Tears are shed, laughter is shared–life’s richness of relationships is created at our kitchen table.
I’ve had on my list for a long time now, a kitchen table that fits. With gratitude for the current one, my eyes have been open for the “real” one that is coming. Although we haven’t met, I’d know it anywhere: wood, rectangular, sturdy corner legs, solid, large opening up to even larger.
It’s good to dream! Live boldly, create wildly, embrace gratitude yet decline complacency. Envision great things for yourself, and then go manifest it!
God’s vision for you is much greater than you can ever imagine for yourself. (And I know you can imagine pretty darn greatly!) Accept this Truth, and honor your spirit with this gift.
I accidentally (!) found a furniture store with a Magic Back Room of scratch & dent pieces, sold as-is. Their main feature is $79 dinner tables—of course. Being out of town, I spoke on the phone with a very helpful gentleman who replied that they have a table that fit my description—and he gave me its name so I could find an example of a new one online. It looked perfect! Excitedly my husband and I (okay, mostly me but he was on board) drove out the next week.
Standing over the table, it was everything I envisioned! Inspecting the scratches and dents, I accepted its condition and was already mentally placing it in our vehicle when suddenly—my husband lowered the boom and emphatically declined the table. He noted that it was not solid wood, and the particle board/veneer construction was not something he could live with.
“This one is a definite No…” Even as my spirits plummeted, I agreed with him wholeheartedly. However, in the same breath he gestured to the table behind him: “…but what do you think about this one?”
Oh. My. God.
Hesitantly, I stepped over to it, marveling at its beauty. Its shape, lines, and deep color were actually humming. With my sweetie noting its solid wood construction, we further investigated its potential. Going from size larger to ginormous, it had even greater capacity than I thought possible. There was only one minor blemish to be found, we had to look hard to find why it was in the scratch & dent selection.
This wasn’t the table of my dreams—it was greater than my imagination. It came home with us that day and now enhances our lives with its grace.
This table embodies God’s bounty. I dreamed big, He dreamed bigger for me. I had a preconceived idea of what would appear, He presented it in a different package. It reminds me to do my part in life, yet remain open to what God can do for me—and then let Him. We each have a reserved chair at His table, we just must accept the seat.
Thank you God, for your bountiful blessings. And for my allowing of them. Amen.
photo by gina drellack
Merry Christmas
Posted on December 24, 2012 Leave a Comment
As with the nativity, oftentimes the most significant happenings in our lives occur in the humblest of packages. May we see the Divine in our mundane, for there is God.
Beautiful Girl
Posted on December 19, 2012 1 Comment
Beautiful Girl, by Christiane Northrup, M.D., is a fabulous picture book for a girl of any age. The reader feels a sense of reverence and respect for her own personal self, while at the same time feeling welcome in community with the feminine. I am grateful to Dr. Northrup for extending her wisdom to a younger set–which ends up being helpful to everyone in between as well.
While not specifying these special gifts, changes and body wonders (which is good–it allows room for those discussions to occur on an individual basis), this book elevates girls without devaluing boys–one of my favorite lines occurs right away: “These special gifts are just for girls! Boys have their own.”
Although I myself do not have daughters, I am one! This book will be appreciated by daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, female family friends, and any person who has anything to do with raising healthy, happy girls. Which, really, is all of us. Single dads of daughters, go get this book right now!
The book is a treasure to be shared. My copy will be donated to the local elementary school library, and I will use it when I have the annual spring “The Talk” with the fourth-grade girls!
Hay House was gracious enough to give me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion of it, through their Book Nook blogger program. Check it out!
gina drellack 