Marble 17
Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves. Although they may feel very alone during the quest, at its end their reward is a sense of community: with themselves, with other people, and with the earth.
Carol S. Pearson, "The Hero’s Journey"
Yesterday’s marble on the Four Kingdoms of Consciousness reminded me of the above book by Pearson. In it, she describes the six archetypes from which we live our lives: The Innocent, The Orphan, The Wanderer, The Warrior, The Martyr, and The Magician. Each archetype is associated with varied levels of consciousness similar to yesterday’s Four Kingdoms. According to Pearson, “The Innocent and the Orphan set the stage: The Innocent lives in the prefallen state of grace; the Orphan confronts the reality of the Fall…The Wanderer begins the task of finding oneself apart from others; the Warrior learns to fight to defend oneself and to change the world in one's own image; and the Martyr learns to give, to commit, and to sacrifice for others. The progression, then, is from suffering, to self-definition, to struggle, to love.”
There have been many times in the past marble year that I have functioned from various archetypes from orphan to warrior to wanderer but my goal is to recognize the magician inside. The magician looks at every situation, every disappointment, every breakup as “an unfolding of God.” As a magician I can step into the situation of a breakup and ask, “What else can I create?” I can grab a jar of marbles and attempt to dismantle all the places that I still act in ways that are not in line with the magician.
Perhaps this whole year has been a heroine’s journey from the prefallen state of (pseudo) grace of pre-breakup reality, to the orphaned state of being dumped, to the warrior state of wanting to fight back, to the wanderer’s journey down to New Orleans. Oh, and as for the martyr, well unless I can resolve that one, I probably won't be paid for my work as a writer.
Pearson explains how important it is to resolve the closet archetypes. Unless I can give up the orphan's idea that the Magician does magic for me or is an evil force that can victimize me, I can't take responsibility for being a creator of my life. The power of the Magician could be used in a damaging way unless identity and vocation issues are resolved. The Warrior may use the power of the Magician destructively to demonstrate superiority and control over others. And, as suspected, unless the Martyr is resolved it will be difficult to experience the power of the Magician because doing so requires giving up my life "fearlessly to the universe."
And The marbles have been a wanderer’s journey in themselves, identifying where my internal reality of my thoughts and beliefs intersects my external reality of my life. Each marble has brought me closer to embodying the magician within.
Which archetype do you relate to? What can you learn about your life from the archetype that you associate with? (The Hero Within - a very cool read).
For more about archetypes, check out http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Caroline-Myss-How-to-Discover-Who-You-Really-Are
In Carol S. Pearson's words, this is the equanimity I'm stumbling towards:
At this point the Magician learns that life need not be so hard...Magicians believe that in fact we are safe even though we often experience pain and suffering. They are part of life, and ultimately we all are held in God's hand. Similarly, Magicians see that it is an unbalanced focus on giving that creates selfishness. The task is not to be caring of others instead of thinking about oneself, but to learn how to love and care for ourselves as well as our neighbor.
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