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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.

Hestia – Our "Rest and Recharge" Archetype

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Our Hestia Archetype – The “Power Behind the Throne”

It might seem a little confusing.

In Unveiling: The Inner Journey, I write about six core power archetypes. But lately, I’ve been referring to eight. What’s going on? Where did these two “extras” come from?

And more to the point, how important are they?

Well, what my research showed – fully disclosed in Unveiling – is that we have six core power archetypes. These are the ones that we have to master – in order to be on top of our “life gamee.”

But what was not so clear when I was writing Unveiling – and what has become more clear since then – is that we have two more power archetypes. These are ones that we typically don’t have to learn. They come to us naturally and innately. What is more significant is that they provide us with two essential “rest and recharge” modes. They’re the means by which humans (men and women both) naturally “regroup and refresh.” I call these two modes Hestia and the Green Man. Today’s post discusses our Hestia mode.

Do you remember watching the movie Hannibal? A bit of a grisly tale, to be sure. But there is one telling scene in this movie. Clarice, the young FBI agent, runs afoul of the FBI “system.”

Clarice is suspended from active duty, pending an official “investigation” into her performance. She returns home, suddenly divested of the two most potent symbols by which she defines herself – her official FBI badge, and her (phallic-identifying) weapon.

This is a horribly challenging moment for Clarice. For about ten years, this young woman has defined herself through her Amazon role. The badge and weapon were not only “tools of the trade.” They gave her identity. Now, her core identity has been taken from her, and her future is in jeopardy.

The next scene in the movie is telling. We see Clarice cleaning out her kitchen cupboards, glass of scotch close at hand.

Under stress, Clarice does what many of us do to get a “clear head.” She enters into her Hestia mode.

Who – or what – is Hestia?

In goddess mythology, Hestia is goddess of hearth and home. But more than that, she is often our portal to one of our most necessary modes; our inner High Priestess.

Clotilde Dusoulier, author of the lovely cookbook Chocolate and Zucchini, is quoted describing her mental process while trimming green beans for a salad:

My fingers busy themselves instinctively – much like those of people wh knit without looking – while I let my mind wander, thinking about therest of the menu, plans for the weekend and whether I should cut my hair.” [Food and Wine, January, 2007, p. 58]

The Hestia mode is not exclusive to women. Men use this mode – they need it – just as much as women do.

Think of the character Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the hit TV series NCIS. What does he do to unwind from stress? He builds a boat in his basement. Without power tools. That’s a man in his Hestia mode.

And to quote another of our favorite characters, Hierophant classic Mr. Miyagi, instructing his young protege in the Karate Kid, “Wax on, wax off.”

More on Hestia in a future blogposting.

Press Release on "Unveiling" published at the Grand Forks Herald, Jan 6, 2012

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Unveiling: The Inner Journey in the News – Grand Forks Herald

Unveiling: The Inner Journey was noted by Grand Forks Herald writer Paulette Tobin, on January 6, 2012.

With “Unveiling: The Inner Journey,” successful, mature, professional women can chart their way to personal fulfillment and happiness. It helps women access all of who they are instead of being limited to one or two roles.

Alay’nya is the pen name for Grand Forks native Alianna J. Maren, who lives in northern Virginia. She built on years of study of the martial arts and Oriental dance before writing “Unveiling.” Her father, Edward J. O’Reilly, was part of the UND chemistry department faculty. Maren, after attending UND, earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at Arizona State University.

For the full article, see Ms. Tobin’s full set of book reviews in the Grand Forks Herald.

The "Hierophant" as Guru/Guide

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The Hierophant Archetype – A Way of Life, Not a Jungian Psychological Type

Last night, I was talking with my dear friend Artie. Somehow, the conversation swung around to Jungian Psychological Types, as expressed by the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). “I used to be an ENFJ,” he said, “but now I’m much more an ENFP.” He’s right, but his comment brought a great insight to me on the relationship between our archetypal modes (Magician, Emperor, Hierophant, etc.) and our “Types” – usually denoted by the MBTI Type-coding such as “ENFJ.”

This is important. Artie really has made a shift, over the years. When he was in his corporate career, he really was an ENFJ. His life and his world encompassed the three major masculine archetypes; Magician (NTJ), Emperor (STJ), and Hierophant (NFJ). (Artie was and still is an Extrovert, making him ENTJ, ESTJ, and ENFJ as he expressed each of those modes.) During his professional career, he really did have excitement, energy, and enthusiasm for each of these modes. He led teams that devised new technical approaches, several different times (Magician). He was effective as a team leader and as a project manager, getting projects funded and successfully accomplished, and leading performance demos and reviews for his clients. (All Emperor-related tasks.) And don’t get me wrong, he loved each of these roles.

But what was the underlying base for his being? The “river” that flowed consistently through his personailty? It was always his Hierophant mode. He was, and still is, a born teacher.

During the earlier stages of his career, he expressed this as a lot of “career coaching.” He also brought together interesting people, and created environments in which they flourished.

In all of these situations, Artie was still dominantly “Judging,” or “J.” That is, in all of his career roles, he was driven to “come to closure.” He may have been coaching a junior member of the team, but the focus (for example) would have been on “how to put together a Powerpoint presentation that will wow the client.”

Now, retired from corporate life, Artie is still a Hierophant. He is still a coach/guide/guru. But he is a lot more open-ended about this.

In part, this is because his life is structured differently. In retirement-mode, without the stringent performance demands of today’s corporate world, he is able to shift into being more “Perceiving” (open-ended) than “Judging” (coming-to-closure). In a broader sense, he is also more separate from our overall cultural zeitgeist that is very performance-driven, and which tends to demand “Judging” behaviors from us, from childhood on.

In part also, Artie’s shift is due to the kinds of people with whom he interacts. He does a great deal of what I’ll loosely call “service work.” He spends a lot of time just talking with people; being the “wise old man” with whom they can consult as they work out life issues. The people who seek him out the most are themselves a bit more “open-ended” in how they approach life – or at least they are in this mode when they seek out Artie.

So Artie is probably right. He has indeed shifted from being dominantly ENFJ to being ENFP. But according to our archetypal mode system, the NFP “mode” is what we call Hathor – playful and pleasure-seeking.

So is Artie dominantly in Hathor mode now? Becuase he has shifted from “closure” to “open-ended,” does that shift his fundamental orientation – that of being a teacher – to being more of a pleasure-seeker?

Heavens, no!

Again, don’t get me wrong on this. Artie would be the last one on earth to decline a good dose of pleasure and fun. He may even be more able to enjoy the “pleasurable” aspects of life more now than when he was younger. But at the same time, his fundamental orientation towards life – that which gives him meaning and purpose – that which helps him “define himself for himself” – that which gets him up and going in the morning – is not about “pleasure.” Or at least, not about “pleasure” per se. It is about teaching. It is about connecting. It is about making a difference in the lives of the people who come to him.

His shift from “J” to “P” reflects a shift in the way in which he goes about being a Hierophant, but not the fact that – in his absolute core – he is a Hierophant.

But more on how this “shift” is expressed in a later blogpost.

Your "Inner Magician" – Part I

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Your “Inner Magician” – Creative Fire

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium!
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, Dein Heiligtum.

Lyrics by Schiller, later used by Beethovan in “Ode to Joy,” Symphony #9.

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
We approach, drunk with fire,
Heavenly One, your holy shrine.

Translated by A.J. Maren.

Creative fire! Genius! Divine inspiration!

It is moments like these in which we feel uplifted; exalted even.

Moments of inspiration, in which we are seemingly infused with the “fire of the gods,” set us apart from the “dailiness” of living. They seem to redefine us and reframe our lives with new meaning. In such moments of creative passion, we really do feel ecstatic.

When we are consumed with the “inner fire” and totally absorbed with our creation, we are accessing our inner Magician.

Being in this mode – which can even take us to exaltation – is a transcendent experience. It can even become addictive! We desire to fulfill our creative potential to our utmost.

For this reason, many “creative types” have been willing to forego many of life’s amenities. The mythology of the artist, starving in a garret in order to devote himself (or herself) to creative passion – there actually is some truth to these stories!


Thomas Edison

Not only does our “creative fire” give us some immunity to our body’s (and even our psyche’s) demands for comfort, this “fire” also embues us with seemingly supernatural powers of endurance. Thomas Edison, for example, was known to work around the clock for days at a time. He took short naps in which he recharged, and required relatively short sleep at night (only four to five hours).

In Jungian terms, our Magician mode is iNtuitive, Thinking, and Judging (NTJ). That is, we use our “intuition” to gain insight into what we desire; what we are creating. We leap beyond the “what-is-so-right-now” to “inwardly know” the final product, and then work backwards, filling in the details. A composer, for example, “hears” the music in his or her head at first, then writes down the melody, and then the full orchestration.

The Magician – The first of eight Core Power Archetypes
 – Jungian Type NTJ

Our inner Magician is very much a “Thinking” mode as as opposed to “Feeling.” “Feeling” modes are dominated by the neurohormone oxytocin, which induces bonding. The bonding can be with a spouse or lover, with a parent or child, with a group of friends, or even with a pet. Physical touch (cuddling, petting, grooming someone else) and even conversation all contribute to a warm, gooey, oxytocin-induced good feeling.

Our Magician mode operates on a more abstract and logical plane. When we are in this mode, we do not require connection with others. In fact, attempts by others for connection may seem like intrusions to our concentration; they become distractions that break our focus.


Ludwig van Beethovan, drawn by Klober

Finally, our Magician mode is definately a “Judging” state. This does not mean that we “judge” others, forming opinions of whether they are good or bad, or even opinions on someone’s daily habits. (“Oh, Mary is always late,” or “John always talks too loud.”) Rather, it is a desire to come-to-closure. When in this state, we desire to see our creation emerge in final form. We want the invention to work, we want the symphony to be completed and performed, we want our newest marketing campaign strategy to be launched in all its glory.

Our inner Magician is the first “core power archetype” that we seek to access and master. As we gain competence in this realm, we define ourselves – and our creative gifts – uniquely. We become who we truly are. This is one of the most exciting and sublimely fulfilling of our core archetypes, of our personal “V8 power car engine.”

The "Unveiling Archetypes" and the Jungian Dimensions

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Eight Core Power Archetypes Correspond with the Psychological Types

The previous post presented the basic diagram for the Unveiling archetypes. Here it is again, for easy reference.

Core archetypes octant chart - each archetype (each octant) corresponds to one of Jung's Psychological Types (discounting the introversion/extroversion distinction).

Core archetypes octant chart – each archetype (each octant) corresponds to one of Jung’s Psychological Types (discounting the introversion/extroversion distinction).

There are three “dimensions” in this figure, and each corresponds to a specific aspect of our personalities.

The first “dimension” is the Thinking/Feeling distinction, shown as the top/bottom of this figure. The four octants (the “orange slices”) here that are in the top half are all those where the person is dominantly in a Thinking mode, and the bottom four are all “Feeling.”

One distinction that I’m particularly making here – somewhat unique to this approach – is that the “Feeling” corresponds to oxytocin-related states. That is, the “Feeling” is connected to how we feel good by connecting with others. The “others” can be children (particularly our own, especially if they’re young), our husbands or lovers, our girlfriends, or even our pet animals.

The “Thinking” is of course our logical, rational aspect.

The second main distinction is Judging/Perceiving, shown on the left/right sides of the diagram. The “Judging” is not about “judging” someone, as in saying to ourselves, “Oh, I don’t like her hair.” Rather, it is a desire to come to closure or completion on tasks. It is a “get-things-done” and “get the problem solved” mindset.

The “Perceiving” mode is a contrast to “Judging” in that it is open-ended. It is willing to tolerate ambiguity. It is willing to just be with something without having a firm, clear resolution.

Just for fun, I’ve put “Judging” on the left, and “Perceiving” on the right – not really trying to say “left” and “right” sides of the brain – but it’s a useful mnemonic!

Finally, within each of the four Judging/Perceiving and Thinking/Feeling quadrants, I’ve subdivided further into two more dimensions: Sensing/Intuition.

When we are in a “Sensing” mode, we are concerned with real, tangible things – things we can pick up, taste, feel. We can measure and analyze. Even abstract things – such as numbers on a spreadsheet – appeal to us when we are in “Sensing” mode, because we can be analytic about them.

In contrast, when we use “Intuition,” we make leaps of logic, connect beyond the obvious, and follow our gut. We interpret patterns, often very subliminally. While we may not be able to “analyze” our understanding – in terms of putting it under a microscope or counting up numbers of things – we trust this aspect, becuase we’ve learned that it serves us well.

Three dimensions, and a total of eight different combinations. (Thats 2x2x2=8.) That gives us the different Personality Types often used as a simpler form of the Jungian Psychological Types. It also gives us a handle for correlating the Unveiling archetypes with the Jungian system.

The basic organization of the archetype-to-Psychological-Type matching starts when we make a very simple distinction. We’re going to assign the entire “Judging” dimension to the masculine archetypes, and the “Perceiving” dimension to the feminine ones. Simplistic, yes. But we’re talking about archetypes here – knowing that each person combines multiple archetypes within their own being.

Second, we note that any feeling-oriented state is going to connect with a dominantly feeling-oriented archetype, and vice versa. This makes some of the matches very easy!

Thet next posting will walk through the assignments.

Very best wishes as discover and empower each of your core archetypes during your own inner journey!

Alay'nya - author of "Unveiling: The Inner Journey"

Alay’nya – author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey

Alay’nya
(Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.)

Author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey
You are the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus. Become the Jewel!

The Unveiling Journey blog details the theory – archetypes, life journeys, integration.

To experience your own Journey in a structured, safe, and gentle (yet effective) setting, visit Alay’nya’s website, and consider either a workshop with Alay’nya or one-on-one coaching.

Resources

Connect with Alay’nya and the Unveiling Community

Unveiling, by Alay'nya, currently has an overall five-star Amazon rating.

Unveiling, by Alay’nya, currently has twenty five-star Amazon reviews.

This blog series develops themes originally published in Unveiling: The Inner Journey, published by Mourning Dove Press.

Unveiling currently has twenty 5-star Amazon reviews, and has been recommended by luminaries:

  • Dr. Christiane Northrup – “This book is delightful”
  • Midwest Book Review, in Bethany’s Books – reviews by Susan Bethany – “highly recommended”
  • Nizana al Rassan, writing for (the now out of circulation) iShimmy.com – “a fascinating read with so much wisdom and solid advice.”

 

 

Julie Marie Rahm, aka America’s Mindset Mechanic on Unveiling: The Inner Journey

What does Julie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic and author of Handle Everything: Eight Tools You Need to Live Well and Prosper have to say about Unveiling: The Inner Journey?

Julie writes:

Unveiling is the definitive guidebook for women who want to experience lives of joy and fulfillment, and who just want to exhale into each day. Alay’nya reveals powerful, personal stories of her own life journey to fascinating womanhood, sensuality, and self-acceptance in ways that struck me like a velvet hammer. Her fresh approach to living illuminated my own bind spots. It is impossible to read Unveiling without awakening to new and possibly shocking self-awareness. For women ready to make real and lasting changes toward enlightenment and bliss, Unveiling is a must-read..”

Read this and more reviews of Unveiling: The Inner Journey.

 

Paper

Kindle

 

Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic

Check out Julie Marie Rahm!

Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic and author of Handle Everything: Eight Tools You Need to Live Well and Prosper and also Military Kids Speak (great for parents, teachers, and coaches of military kids) uses a great technique that can help you clear energy blockages, ranging from those from this life through the influence of your ancestral karma. Connect with Julie at info (at) americasmindsetmechanic (dot) com to learn more about how she can help you.

Books by Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic

Kindle

Kindle

Copyright (c) 2013, Alay’nya (Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.). All rights reserved.
Blog originally posted December 28, 2011. Revised and updated, October 22, 2013.

Related Posts: Archetypal Roles and Everyday Life

The Eight Core Power Archetypes

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Mapping the Eight Core Power Archetypes to the Jungian System

The “eight core power archetypes” – our personal “V8 power-car engine.”

One of the key points in Unveiling: The Inner Journey has been that we need all eight; we can’t be rigidly stereotyped into just one. This is a significant departure from the line of thinking first popularized by the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, which suggested that not only were we predominantly in just one of these archetypal modes, but that we stayed there all our lives.

In contrast, a primary teaching of the Kabbalah (as depicted in the Major Arcana) is that we need to access each of our “power archetypes” – and integrate them, or develop the ability to call upon them at will.

In Unveiling, I defined six of these eight in some detail. I showed how these archetypes related to the Jungian-based Psychological Types, and the more recently-espoused (and simpler) Personality Types. I also showed how the types correlated with the the first six “cards” of the Major Arcana, which provides the connection to the Kabbalistic system. And I further showed how they referenced back to the four core archetypes first intuited and defined by Antonia Wolff, in her breakthrough work Structural Forms of the Feminine Psyche.

More recently, in these blogposts, I’ve been showing how the archetypal systems used by various current thinkers – e.g. Moore and Gillette – have components of the full system. (I also identify where they miss a crucial archetype or two.)

In short, I propose that the archetypal system that is described here is essentially a “periodic table for the human soul.” We need each of the ones described, and in the order given. Each is essential.

The following figure shows, for the first time, the full set of eight core archetypes, and their correlation with the Jungian system.

Core archetypes octant chart - each archetype (each octant) corresponds to one of Jung's Psychological Types (discounting the introversion/extroversion distinction).

Core archetypes octant chart – each archetype (each octant) corresponds to one of Jung’s Psychological Types (discounting the introversion/extroversion distinction).

In future posts, I’ll walk through this figure in some detail, describing not only each archetype, but its relation to others and also its role in our personal growth and integration-journey.

To your health, well-being, and life-integration in this year ahead!

Alay'nya - author of "Unveiling: The Inner Journey"

Alay’nya – author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey

Very best wishes as discover and empower each of your core archetypes during your own inner journey!

Alay’nya
(Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.)

Author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey
You are the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus. Become the Jewel!

The Unveiling Journey blog details the theory – archetypes, life journeys, integration.

To experience your own Journey in a structured, safe, and gentle (yet effective) setting, visit Alay’nya’s website, and consider either a workshop with Alay’nya or one-on-one coaching.

Resources

Connect with Alay’nya and the Unveiling Community

Unveiling, by Alay'nya, currently has an overall five-star Amazon rating.

Unveiling, by Alay’nya, currently has twenty five-star Amazon reviews.

This blog series develops themes originally published in Unveiling: The Inner Journey, published by Mourning Dove Press.

Unveiling currently has twenty 5-star Amazon reviews, and has been recommended by luminaries:

  • Dr. Christiane Northrup – “This book is delightful”
  • Midwest Book Review, in Bethany’s Books – reviews by Susan Bethany – “highly recommended”
  • Nizana al Rassan, writing for (the now out of circulation) iShimmy.com – “a fascinating read with so much wisdom and solid advice.”

 

 

Julie Marie Rahm, aka America’s Mindset Mechanic on Unveiling: The Inner Journey

What does Julie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic and author of Handle Everything: Eight Tools You Need to Live Well and Prosper have to say about Unveiling: The Inner Journey?

Julie writes:

Unveiling is the definitive guidebook for women who want to experience lives of joy and fulfillment, and who just want to exhale into each day. Alay’nya reveals powerful, personal stories of her own life journey to fascinating womanhood, sensuality, and self-acceptance in ways that struck me like a velvet hammer. Her fresh approach to living illuminated my own bind spots. It is impossible to read Unveiling without awakening to new and possibly shocking self-awareness. For women ready to make real and lasting changes toward enlightenment and bliss, Unveiling is a must-read..”

Read this and more reviews of Unveiling: The Inner Journey.

 

Paper

Kindle

 

Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic

Check out Julie Marie Rahm!

Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic and author of Handle Everything: Eight Tools You Need to Live Well and Prosper and also Military Kids Speak (great for parents, teachers, and coaches of military kids) uses a great technique that can help you clear energy blockages, ranging from those from this life through the influence of your ancestral karma. Connect with Julie at info (at) americasmindsetmechanic (dot) com to learn more about how she can help you.

Books by Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic

Kindle

Kindle

Copyright (c) 2013, Alay’nya (Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.). All rights reserved.
Blog originally posted December 28, 2011. Revised and updated, October 22, 2013.

Related Posts: Archetypal Roles and Everyday Life

Moore and Gillette, "King, Warrior, Magician, Lover" – 2 1/3 Out of Four Ain’t Bad!

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Moore and Gillette’s “Archetypes of the Mature Masculine” – Most (Although Not All) of the “Mature Man”

I’m enormously grateful to authors Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette for their in-depth and fascinating work, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Archetypes of the Mature Masculine. They do a great service to all of us – women and men alike. And as this book is a prequel to a further set of four books (addressing each of these specific archetypes in the masculine context), I suggest each of them for further reading.

I particularly like and appreciate that in their introduction, authors Moore and Gillette identify that the reason that we have a hard time cultivating mature masculinity in our culture is a combination of three factors:

  1. The breakdown of family, in which we all too often have a weak or absent father,
  2. Current lack of an effective “initiation ritual” so that boys can become men, and
  3. A “patriarchal system” that really is based on an immature, rather than mature, masculinity – and is thus wounding both men and women in our culture.

Their insights and exemplars are excellent; well-thought-out, well-worked, and well-explained. Their work can help men of all ages – and women as well as men – understand masculine psychology in depth.

What is missing? Only one of the core masculine power archetypes – and a somewhat “bundled together” set of the three core feminine power archetypes.

Kindle

Paper

As often happens in our culture, for all their insights and true wisdom – and even their reference to this role – Moore and Gillette do not make a point of the Hierophant archetype.

Let’s look a bit more closely, because they do implicitly identify the role of the Hierophant, throughout their book. From Chapter 1:

“Ritual process is contained by two things. The first is a sacred space and the second is a ritual elder, a “wise old man” or a “wise old woman” who is completely trustworthy for the initiate and can lead the initiate through the process and deliver him (or her) intact and enhanced on the other side.” [King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, p. 6]

Throughout their book, Moore and Gillette clearly acknowledge both the need for and the significant role of the Hierophant. The Hierophant is precisely this “wise old man” or “wise old woman.”

But it is entirely in keeping with our society’s loss of “initiation rites” that we don’t have much of a clue about what a Hierophant really is! That is, we can’t look at someone and say, “Yes, this person really has a realy strong Hierophant essence!”

It’s a blind spot.

But it’s also a solvable blind spot.

Because as soon as we “get a clue” that we should be looking for Hierophant-instances, they pop up all around us. For examples, see Are Hierophants Really Important” (MacDonald’s Thinks So!) and also Who and What is a Hierophant?.

The fact that we don’t have as strong a concept of the Hierophant as we do of the King and the Magician is yet one more instance of how in our society, we greatly need to identify and honor this role.

Now, I’ve said (in this blog’s title) that Moore and Gillette have “2 1/3 out of 4.” Yet they identify four core archetypes. What’s missing?

First, they’ve introduced the Warrior as a core masculine power archetype. What I’ve been showing in my last several blogposts is that our Warrior mode – the “who we are” when we are on a Heroic Quest – is a means of “getting there.” It’s a transition mode. Really, in our society right now, our Warrior-path is our initiation process.

Further, we need to call upon our Warrior-selves time and again. We do this every time we step out of safety and comfort and venture into something dangerous and new. (For relevant posts, see Hero or Hierophant? Warrior or Wise Man? and also The Hero’s Quest and the Hierophant: Part I.)

Ideally, we use our inner Warrior to break through some limitations in our self and take on a new level of power or leadership. But we don’t need to stay in our Warrior mode.

So now, what do we have?

Replace Warrior (a transition mode, a means of activating one of our core masculine archetypes) with Hierophant. Warrior is a transition. Hierophant is an end-state; one of the culminating “archetypes of the mature masculine.” This gives us 3 1/3 out of 4.

To complete that remaining 1/3? We need to acknowledge that the Lover is a bundling up of the three core feminine power archetypes; High Priestess, Empress (Isis), and Love-Goddess (Hathor).

This is not a bad bundling. For simplicity, the bundling of three core feminine archetypes into one (the Lover) works for men, just as bundling three core masculine archetypes (Magician, Emperor, and Hierophant) into one (the Amazon) works for women.

But as men move further into their own integration journey, they would do well to identify, cultivate, and own each of their specific feminine strengths – the wisdom and intuition of their inner High Priestess, their love for wife, children, and community (as Empress/Isis), and their ability to revel in physical love and sensuality (Love-Goddess/Hathor).

The balancing of all these for men is different than that for women. But for all of us, all six core archetypes are necessary – as well as the two “reserve archetypes,” which I’ve not yet discussed in detail. (These two aspects will be subjects of later posts.)

Very best wishes as discover and empower each of your core archetypes during your own inner journey!

Alay'nya - author of "Unveiling: The Inner Journey"

Alay’nya – author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey

Alay’nya
(Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.)

Author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey
You are the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus. Become the Jewel!

The Unveiling Journey blog details the theory – archetypes, life journeys, integration.

To experience your own Journey in a structured, safe, and gentle (yet effective) setting, visit Alay’nya’s website, and consider either a workshop with Alay’nya or one-on-one coaching.

Resources

Connect with Alay’nya and the Unveiling Community

Unveiling, by Alay'nya, currently has an overall five-star Amazon rating.

Unveiling, by Alay’nya, currently has twenty five-star Amazon reviews.

This blog series develops themes originally published in Unveiling: The Inner Journey, published by Mourning Dove Press.

Unveiling currently has twenty 5-star Amazon reviews, and has been recommended by luminaries:

  • Dr. Christiane Northrup – “This book is delightful”
  • Midwest Book Review, in Bethany’s Books – reviews by Susan Bethany – “highly recommended”
  • Nizana al Rassan, writing for (the now out of circulation) iShimmy.com – “a fascinating read with so much wisdom and solid advice.”

 

 

Julie Marie Rahm, aka America’s Mindset Mechanic on Unveiling: The Inner Journey

What does Julie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic and author of Handle Everything: Eight Tools You Need to Live Well and Prosper have to say about Unveiling: The Inner Journey?

Julie writes:

Unveiling is the definitive guidebook for women who want to experience lives of joy and fulfillment, and who just want to exhale into each day. Alay’nya reveals powerful, personal stories of her own life journey to fascinating womanhood, sensuality, and self-acceptance in ways that struck me like a velvet hammer. Her fresh approach to living illuminated my own bind spots. It is impossible to read Unveiling without awakening to new and possibly shocking self-awareness. For women ready to make real and lasting changes toward enlightenment and bliss, Unveiling is a must-read..”

Read this and more reviews of Unveiling: The Inner Journey.

 

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Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic

Check out Julie Marie Rahm!

Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic and author of Handle Everything: Eight Tools You Need to Live Well and Prosper and also Military Kids Speak (great for parents, teachers, and coaches of military kids) uses a great technique that can help you clear energy blockages, ranging from those from this life through the influence of your ancestral karma. Connect with Julie at info (at) americasmindsetmechanic (dot) com to learn more about how she can help you.

Books by Julie Marie Rahm, America’s Mindset Mechanic

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Copyright (c) 2013, Alay’nya (Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.). All rights reserved.
Blog originally posted December 13, 2011. Revised and updated, October 22, 2013.

Related Posts: The Hierophant – the Missing Archetype in King, Warrior, Magician, Lover

Hero or Hierophant? Warrior or Wise Man? (Part I)

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Heroic Journeys: A Part of Our Growth Path (But Certainly Not the End!)

A dear friend and colleague – someone who is already successful with her own business – is on a Heroine’s Quest. She’s forming a new business – one that is much more in line with her core heart’s desire – and one which has potential for being solid and profitable. Yet it will not take advantage of the government regulations, her advanced degree, or the well-identified corporate needs that give her current business such a solid and stable base.

Nevertheless, she feels impelled towards her new calling, and launching her new business.

Another colleague – someone whom I love and respect dearly – is at the peak of her career with a major organization. She has respect. She has influence. She is comfortable with, and intimately knows how to “work,” her current organization. She is financially – and organizationally – secure. Yet she is also preparing to leave her “nest” and start a new business.

Anytime that we leave the comfort of our known, safe, and familiar surroundings to take on a new venture, we are “questing.” And in order to find the strength and courage to leave known, safe, and familiar, we have to posit ourselves as Heroes (or as Heroines – this blog is gender-indifferent).

There’s a huge amount of emotional charge that we get by identifying ourselves as a Hero on a Quest. This defines our role, and gives us ego-identification. It pulls us out of being a “cog in a machine.” The sense of difficulty and danger becomes galvanizing and even energizing. We know who we are in the sharp crispness of taking on an “impossible dream” – which perhaps even involves conquering certain “forces of evil.”

Heroic Quests are alluring – and they are necessary. Without them, we would never find the courage to buck the status quo, to step out from the norms, and to do – very literally – “great things.” All the great adventures of humankind have sprung – one way or another – from such Heroic Questing.

Yet there is a danger hidden within the addictive nature of such quests. We can use them as a means of repeating life-stages through which we’ve already gone, and often with great success.

One man whom I know, let’s call him Theo (yes, the same “Theo” from Unveiling) had a brilliant military career, from his youth to retiring – with high rank and numerous accolades. He then had an equally stellar career with a well-known company, and then – with a band of comrades – started his own company, which became very successful. Theo’s unique insights, his tenacity and will, his total dedication to his cause, was a significant element in his company’s growth.

Theo has had a great career; a culmination of Heroic Quests.

And yet, there is an Achille’s heel to such exploits.

Ponder on it. (I’ll take this story up in the next blogpost.) But ask yourself: Is there a potential downside to repeating a known “success pattern”?

The "Lord of the Rings": A Classic "Inner Journey"?

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Frodo the Ring-Bearer, selected to convey the Ring of Power into Mordor where he can cast it into the fire, is weary on his journey. He is not yet into the dark lands, but already the responsibilities of bearing the Ring of Power wear heavily on him. Frodo and his band, the Fellowship of the Ring, spend their last moments traveling together as guests in Lothlorien. There, they meet the Lady of the Woods, the Lady Galadriel.

Lady Galadriel welcomes the group of travelers, and gives each a special gift along with an Elven cloak. To Frodo, she gives the Phial of Galadrial, which provides light during their journey. More than that, by touching the vial, Frodo can ease the corrupting power-thoughts induced by the One Ring. Similarly, the light from this vial (Phial) frightens away the voracious spider Shelob, whose web would ensnare him after he’s entered Mordor.

The Phial of Galadriel also seemed to inspire both Frodo and his companion Sam to call out in the Elvish language. Frodo, in particular, called out a reference to Earondil the first time that he used the Phial against Shelob.

Just two days ago, I chanced to watch a segment of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and released in 2001. This was the segment in which Frodo was brought before the Lady Galadriel. He was mesmerized by her ethereal beauty, and awed by her gift to him.

Rachel Pollack, in her book, The Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, describes this first stage of our adult life-journey as the Worldy Sequence. This is the time in which we come to know, access, and integrate each of our core power archetypes. Two of these are like “reserve batteries,” and I don’t discuss them in Unveiling. The remaining six are our “power modes”: we need each of them to gain our full adult powers.

If this is the case, the Frodo might be a stand-in for each of us. This is not surprising – each of us feels a bit “smaller” than others, and we are each daunted by life’s challenges from time to time. And let’s recall that the purpose of these “heroic” stories is to exaggerate contrast. We are not simply trying to introduce a new process or product into our company, we are saving truth and freedom by delivering the ring to Mordor and sundering the forces of darkness!

So what does Frodo’s encounter with Lady Galadriel, the Lady of the Woods, mean to us? She would have to be one of the three feminine archetypes of our six core power archetypes. This means that she could represent the High Priestess (wisdom and inner knowing), the Empress (or Isis, love and nurturance), or Hathor (the goddess of pleasure and sensuality).

Really, there is not much of the “pleasure and sensuality” aspect in The Lord of the Rings! Hathor, as a choice for the Lady, is clearly out. Also, the Lady is a somewhat remote figure. She is not about warmth and nurturance. When we connect with our “inner Lady Galadriel,” we are not getting the oxytocin feel-good surge that we get when we curl up with our dog, cat, young child, or our “special someone.”

No, there is only one role for the Lady: she represents the High Priestess, or inner wisdom. And her gift to Frodo is precisely related to her role in his life; she gives him light, the ability see – and also to repel dark forces using this power of light.

This is reinforced with an earlier scene, in which the Lady pours water into a silver mirror-bowl, and invites Frodo to look within and see. This, very literally, is the role of the Lady in each of our lives. Our inner High Priestess is that aspect of us that gives us wisdom; she helps us “see rightly.”

When we access our own inner High Priestess – our own Lady of the Woods, we gain not only vision and clarity, but also wisdom. Read about her in Unveiling: The Inner Journey, Chapters 7 & 11.

P.S. Who, in The Fellowship of the Ring, would represent the other two female power-archetypes? There are really only two other women of note that the Fellowship encounters during their travels; Goldenberry and Arwen. As a little test for yourself, why not research each of these two – and think them through in terms of the remaining two feminine core-power archetypes: the Empress (or Isis, in Unveiling terms), and Hathor. Which is which? And why? And do we need them? What roles did each play in The Fellowship of the Ring? What would the story be like without them?