Eeeny Meanie Miney Moe; How Do We Get Our Archetypes?
March/28/2009 07:58 AM Filed in: Ethics &
Archetypes
How do we
get our archetypes? I discuss this in the
introduction section of the Ethics and
Archetypes course.
There are several ways that we seem to acquire our
archetypes.
1) Some are probably universal to everyone, and teach us basic survival lessons. The "Child" and the "Victim" are two of these that are discussed in the course. They represent our process of going from disempowerment to empowerment as we grow up. The problem occurs when we don't learn the lessons they teach, and remain disempowered!
2) We seem to be born with certain archetypes. In the previous entry, I wrote about my relationship with the “Teacher”, and how it has been a constant theme for me since an early age. It is often easy to see archetypes in young children. Some are obvious “Leaders”, or “Nurturers” or “Artists.” If you spend time with kids, it can be fun to watch their archetypes emerge and “grow up” with the child. Look for all the ways they guide the child’s life.
3) We get some archetypes by going through rituals and initiations. For example, I tell the students at the school where I teach that our school’s orientation ceremony is actually inducting them into the archetype of “Student”. Students everywhere have certain things in common. Learning is a transformational process, involving interactions with the learning material, other students, and instructors or facilitators. Being a “Student” carries certain expectations and obligations. At the end of their formal studies, another ceremony called Graduation will conclude their relationship with the “Student” and they will be handed off to the archetype of “Professional”. The expectations, roles, boundaries, and lessons are different in each one.
4) Another way we can acquire an archetype may be by requesting or inviting it into our life. When one decides to begin a spiritual practice, they may be inviting an archetype in… perhaps the “Healer”, the “Sage” or the “Magician”. I’m actually undecided about this method, because I’ve known many people (self included) who tried to invite an archetype and it just didn’t work. Are there any other ways that archetypes come into our lives that readers can think of?
1) Some are probably universal to everyone, and teach us basic survival lessons. The "Child" and the "Victim" are two of these that are discussed in the course. They represent our process of going from disempowerment to empowerment as we grow up. The problem occurs when we don't learn the lessons they teach, and remain disempowered!
2) We seem to be born with certain archetypes. In the previous entry, I wrote about my relationship with the “Teacher”, and how it has been a constant theme for me since an early age. It is often easy to see archetypes in young children. Some are obvious “Leaders”, or “Nurturers” or “Artists.” If you spend time with kids, it can be fun to watch their archetypes emerge and “grow up” with the child. Look for all the ways they guide the child’s life.
3) We get some archetypes by going through rituals and initiations. For example, I tell the students at the school where I teach that our school’s orientation ceremony is actually inducting them into the archetype of “Student”. Students everywhere have certain things in common. Learning is a transformational process, involving interactions with the learning material, other students, and instructors or facilitators. Being a “Student” carries certain expectations and obligations. At the end of their formal studies, another ceremony called Graduation will conclude their relationship with the “Student” and they will be handed off to the archetype of “Professional”. The expectations, roles, boundaries, and lessons are different in each one.
4) Another way we can acquire an archetype may be by requesting or inviting it into our life. When one decides to begin a spiritual practice, they may be inviting an archetype in… perhaps the “Healer”, the “Sage” or the “Magician”. I’m actually undecided about this method, because I’ve known many people (self included) who tried to invite an archetype and it just didn’t work. Are there any other ways that archetypes come into our lives that readers can think of?
Get the Audio Recordings of Ethics & Archetypes!
March/27/2009 08:47 AM Filed in: Ethics &
Archetypes
You can
easily get the full course on Ethics &
Archetypes and
start earning your required Continuing Education
Hours while you learn more about this exciting
area! Order your Home Study Massage
CE Course now!
How Many Archetypes? Ten? Twenty? 100? Maybe More?
March/25/2009 06:42 AM Filed in: Ethics &
Archetypes
How many
archetypes are there? Dozens have been described.
Eight are discussed in the Ethics and Archetypes
course; these were chosen because of their relevance
in the interaction between clients and practitioners.
Caroline Myss, in her audio program “Language of
Archetypes” discusses approximately 60 archetypes,
which she groups into nine "families". While we
probably bump into dozens of archetypes through our
contact with other people, we each have a few main
ones that are our most important teachers.
I’ll give an example from my own experience. Apparently I have the archetype of the “Teacher.” My relationship with this archetype began when I started school at age 6. I loved school! I thought my teachers were fabulous! I worked hard and did well in school; putting me in school was like putting a fish into water.
When I was 8 or 9 years old, my younger brother was about 4, a pre-schooler. Every day when I came home from school, we would go into our basement where we always did a lot of our playing, and we played school. I was the teacher and he was the “class”. We had a little wooden school desk that he would sit at, and I had a blackboard and some chalk. I would get the extra mimeograph papers of our school exercises and projects from my teacher, and we used those in our play school. Whatever I learned in school that day or week, we covered in my afternoon teaching of play school with my little brother. By the time he started first grade, he had completed 4th grade at our play school!
When I was in high school, my mother suggested that I should become a teacher. It didn’t interest me at the time because I wasn't attracted to teaching children and I didn't realize that one could become an adult educator, However, when I was about 16 or 17 I was involved in a summer Bible study class with younger kids, where I would take my guitar and teach them folk songs as a way to keep them interested and having fun. That was alot of fun, and I somehow naturally figured out how to "plan a lesson". I chose songs to teach them, wrote out the lyrics for them to learn, and planned review of songs we had already been working on.
It wasn’t until many years later, in graduate school as a teaching assistant, and still later in massage school, that I realized my place for teaching was in adult education. The archetype of the "Teacher" has been with me from a very young age, and I continue to find a great deal of enjoyment through creating courses, leading a class, and facilitating change, growth, and expanding students’ bubbles! I have several other archetypes that have been major guides for my life.
Maybe you are curious about your own archetypes. You probably have at least one or two that have been with you from an early age. Think about the things that you have been attracted to since you were young and are still very prominent in your life. Did you become absorbed in coloring books and finger paints and drawing and compulsively create pretty things? Maybe you have the "Artist". Did you love races against other kids, climbing on the jungle jim, playing kick ball? Maybe you have the "Athlete". Did you play dress-up and put on makeup and create skits and plays? Maybe you have the "Actor/Actress". Did you figure out ways to make money with a lemonade stand, baby-sitting, or making something to sell? Maybe you are an "Entrepreneur".
I hope you have gotten some interesting ideas and new understanding of your self by reading today's entry!
I’ll give an example from my own experience. Apparently I have the archetype of the “Teacher.” My relationship with this archetype began when I started school at age 6. I loved school! I thought my teachers were fabulous! I worked hard and did well in school; putting me in school was like putting a fish into water.
When I was 8 or 9 years old, my younger brother was about 4, a pre-schooler. Every day when I came home from school, we would go into our basement where we always did a lot of our playing, and we played school. I was the teacher and he was the “class”. We had a little wooden school desk that he would sit at, and I had a blackboard and some chalk. I would get the extra mimeograph papers of our school exercises and projects from my teacher, and we used those in our play school. Whatever I learned in school that day or week, we covered in my afternoon teaching of play school with my little brother. By the time he started first grade, he had completed 4th grade at our play school!
When I was in high school, my mother suggested that I should become a teacher. It didn’t interest me at the time because I wasn't attracted to teaching children and I didn't realize that one could become an adult educator, However, when I was about 16 or 17 I was involved in a summer Bible study class with younger kids, where I would take my guitar and teach them folk songs as a way to keep them interested and having fun. That was alot of fun, and I somehow naturally figured out how to "plan a lesson". I chose songs to teach them, wrote out the lyrics for them to learn, and planned review of songs we had already been working on.
It wasn’t until many years later, in graduate school as a teaching assistant, and still later in massage school, that I realized my place for teaching was in adult education. The archetype of the "Teacher" has been with me from a very young age, and I continue to find a great deal of enjoyment through creating courses, leading a class, and facilitating change, growth, and expanding students’ bubbles! I have several other archetypes that have been major guides for my life.
Maybe you are curious about your own archetypes. You probably have at least one or two that have been with you from an early age. Think about the things that you have been attracted to since you were young and are still very prominent in your life. Did you become absorbed in coloring books and finger paints and drawing and compulsively create pretty things? Maybe you have the "Artist". Did you love races against other kids, climbing on the jungle jim, playing kick ball? Maybe you have the "Athlete". Did you play dress-up and put on makeup and create skits and plays? Maybe you have the "Actor/Actress". Did you figure out ways to make money with a lemonade stand, baby-sitting, or making something to sell? Maybe you are an "Entrepreneur".
I hope you have gotten some interesting ideas and new understanding of your self by reading today's entry!
What Good Are Archetypes?
March/21/2009 07:16 AM Filed in: Ethics &
Archetypes
Why are
archetypes such a useful vehicle for exploring
ethics, roles and boundaries in a bodywork (or other
holistic health) practice?
Archetypes are universal energy patterns that we can all relate to. An example of an archetype is the "Leader". Leaders exist in all cultures throughout the history of human-kind. Natural leaders have certain traits and characteristics where ever you find them; they can't help but gravitate into leadership roles, even if they resist! Of course some people who end up in leadership roles don't necessarily have the archetype of the "Leader", and they may be ineffective leaders, or even corrupt leaders. The role of the "Leader" includes guiding those who are led into effective and empowering ways of living.
Because archetypes are universal, we can study and learn about them outside our personal experience. By looking at these patterns in a detached way, we can gain clarity first and then apply that clarity to illuminate our life experiences.
In bodywork practice, there are several archetypes we run in to all the time! We have all known many “Victim” and “Child” types; we know the discomfort and upset they can generate when they hook into our tendency to rescue or nurture. They can create all kinds of havoc with our boundaries, emotions, and ethics! The Ethics and Archetypes course provides a good basis for identifying the archetypes in our clients and ourselves, so we can begin to recognize the patterns in our clients (and ourselves) from a few early clues.
It is much easier to maintain appropriate professional and personal boundaries if we can see the situation developing before we get hooked in. And the better we get at this, the more effective (and happy) we can be in our massage and bodywork practices!
Archetypes are universal energy patterns that we can all relate to. An example of an archetype is the "Leader". Leaders exist in all cultures throughout the history of human-kind. Natural leaders have certain traits and characteristics where ever you find them; they can't help but gravitate into leadership roles, even if they resist! Of course some people who end up in leadership roles don't necessarily have the archetype of the "Leader", and they may be ineffective leaders, or even corrupt leaders. The role of the "Leader" includes guiding those who are led into effective and empowering ways of living.
Because archetypes are universal, we can study and learn about them outside our personal experience. By looking at these patterns in a detached way, we can gain clarity first and then apply that clarity to illuminate our life experiences.
In bodywork practice, there are several archetypes we run in to all the time! We have all known many “Victim” and “Child” types; we know the discomfort and upset they can generate when they hook into our tendency to rescue or nurture. They can create all kinds of havoc with our boundaries, emotions, and ethics! The Ethics and Archetypes course provides a good basis for identifying the archetypes in our clients and ourselves, so we can begin to recognize the patterns in our clients (and ourselves) from a few early clues.
It is much easier to maintain appropriate professional and personal boundaries if we can see the situation developing before we get hooked in. And the better we get at this, the more effective (and happy) we can be in our massage and bodywork practices!
Archetypes for Massage & Bodywork: Know Your Power!
March/20/2009 06:58 AM Filed in: Ethics &
Archetypes
The Ethic
& Archetypes classes (home-study and in-class
versions), and the responses provided by the many
people who have taken the course, provide rich
material for discussions. As massage & bodywork
therapists, we are constantly encountering new and
interesting clients, who bring with them their
personal history, experiences, archetypes. There's no
end to the things we can learn about communication,
healing, effective bodywork, and OURSELVES from our
clients!
This is the first installment of a blog to explore some of the questions and issues that have emerged from participants in the Ethics & Archetypes course.
I'd like to invite massage and bodywork therapists to share your ideas and experiences involving ethics, boundaries, and archetypes in the therapy room. I'm new at blogging, so I haven't figured out how to set it up so that visitors can make comments. But you can email your questions or comments to me, and I'll post them manually.
Over time, I would also like to introduce topics relating to some of the other CE courses I offer, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupoint energetics, and Fibromyalgia.
This is the first installment of a blog to explore some of the questions and issues that have emerged from participants in the Ethics & Archetypes course.
I'd like to invite massage and bodywork therapists to share your ideas and experiences involving ethics, boundaries, and archetypes in the therapy room. I'm new at blogging, so I haven't figured out how to set it up so that visitors can make comments. But you can email your questions or comments to me, and I'll post them manually.
Over time, I would also like to introduce topics relating to some of the other CE courses I offer, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupoint energetics, and Fibromyalgia.