Category Archives: Archetypes: Patterns of Power

The Search for a Meaningful Life – the Fool Archetype

Old compass on ancient mapAffirming the Fool Archetype Within
The beginning of your life is full of questions and doubts. “What will I be when I grow up? Who will I fall in love with? Will I be rich or poor? When will I die?” The purpose of your inner Fool is to humbly ask questions and to cultivate an open mind throughout life.

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If you find yourself asking and then seeking the answer to the question, “What’s my life all about?” -an enormous philosophical question – then you may also be a “Seeker” or a “Mystic” and someone who realizes life and happiness is about more then what you own or how much power you wield in the world.

The Search for a Meaningful Life
It seems almost everyone desires a life filled with joy, freedom and peace. But how do you get there? Where is my personal road map to living a meaningful life?

The truth is a meaningful life is a huge learning experience where your personal road map always redirects you back towards the questions that answer the ultimate truth of your heart and mind’s greatest fulfillment. In other words, learning about yourself and “self-knowledge” is the most empowered path to take.

Of course, it is always your choice whether you live your life consciously or unconsciously. Whether you decide to do so or not is often represented by the curiosity of your inner Fool archetype because it is this aspect of who you are that gives you permission to ask questions and get around the fears and conclusive answers of your know-it-all ego.

Which Path Shall I Take?
Whether your own life is currently full of all the joy the world can offer or full of despair, there is no way to understand the human condition without a personal act of faith and surrender to a bigger answer. It is a matter of your own free choice as to whether or not you want to begin the journey to greater self-knowledge.

The focus of these current times has become the satisfaction of endless desires that results in much outer wealth but very little inner wealth – joy, freedom or peace. As a result most people are living life unconsciously at the mercy of their egos, in a place of confusion, doubt, emptiness and fear.

If you are someone more focused on nurturing self-knowledge, you have realized that inner wealth and joy is the result of turning inward. Having the courage to be a “Fool” on your journey, you begin to understand that you are both a human being and a divine being and that living a life full of meaning is a very precious gift.

Choosing to live your life consciously is hard work, but it will bring you much joy, freedom and peace. At the end of your journey, you will have learned and understood who you really are and your connection to the nature of the universe. And most importantly, you will have experienced great joy, peace and happiness in the process.

If you have not yet begun, here is a handy checklist:

Beginning the Journey
1. First and foremost, in order to begin, you must ask the question, “What do I need to know about myself, other people, and the world?” You may be ridiculed and teased as you ask questions and seek answers. Sometimes the answers may not be part of your religious background, culture or heritage. Even so, you can move forward each time you feel doubt and fear by cultivating faith and love.

2. The second important task is mastering and understanding your individual sense of self by asking “Who am I?”

3. The third task is surrendering yourself completely to a higher Source of inspiration in order to gain wisdom about the human condition and the true nature of the world. The act of surrendering completely to this quest for truth is considered the greatest leap of faith and folly in the world. Here you must be willing to suspend what you think you know for what you long to know and you must have the curiosity and open mind of a child.

4. The final task is the process of living in congruence with a higher and universal code of conduct. To become conscious means sacrificing and growing your intellect to be placed in the service of the Creator. You will know the whole truth once your head and heart are united.

It does not matter in what name or form that the universal truth comes to you. You are simply to follow the path set before you. It will lead you in the best way to suit your particular nature. Whatever way you recognize, loving and taking in Divine truth is the way Source recognizes, loves and takes joy in you. So begin the journey!

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon–do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.
–Constantine P. Cavafy

Contemplation for the Fool archetype within you
1. Do I consider myself a Seeker?
2. Do I want to begin the journey?
3. What is the trial of contemporary times?
4. What was the trial of past times?
5. How do I know when I am living my life consciously?
6. What questions do I have about life?
7. What can I begin to understand and learn in the journey toward self-knowledge?
8. What do I give up in order to gain wisdom and knowledge about the human condition?
9. How does the evolution of my own awareness change the world?
10. What do I need to know about ___________?


Exercise: Write Your Life Story
Write your life story as a simple narrative time line. Start with your childhood and go on to adolescence and your early 20s. If you are older, continue on to midlife, maturity, and old age. Consider the influence of your family, culture, and gender on your self-development. Write about what you want to become and your greatest life purpose, dreams and inspirations.

Ask: “What do I need to know?”

ABOUT THE ARTIST AND AUTHOR PAMELA WELLS
I have been working as an artist, author and consultant specializing in creative work that leads to greater consciousness.In the commercial art field, I authored and illustrated a Collectors Edition guidebook and card set for understanding mystical wisdom titled “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess Spiritual Guidebook & 22 Wisdom Cards for Contemplation and Prayer”. It is available for retail or wholesale from ArtmagicPublishing.com, New Leaf Distribution, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or DeVorss & Company. It is also available at iTunes as an iPhone app (or through ConsciousnessApps.com).My blog has many articles about feminine spiritual empowerment.

    For those who want to know more about their own life purpose and soul’s work, I offer Sacred Contact readings.

For more information about a Sacred Contract reading, visit ArtmagicPublishing.com or email me at Goddessart@att.net. Please join me on my Facebook Fan Page “Goddess Art Creations”.

EDUCATION: Watts Atelier of the Arts, Boston University and George Washington University, Bachelor of Business Degree.

EXPERIENCE: Technical illustrator for advertising, health care and computer companies. Graphics and web designer for holistic businesses. Author, artist and publisher of “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess”. Sacred Contract consultant and fine artist.

The Return of the Feminine – the Archetypal Goddess

The feminine principle is reemerging in the collective consciousness of humanity.

By honoring and learning about feminine ways of perceiving, you enhance your own well-being and the well-being of those around you.

By honoring and learning about feminine ways of perceiving, you enhance your own well-being and the well-being of those around you.

Here are some of the most important developmental tasks of the feminine:

Learning to see behind your eyes is an inward task, requiring you first to learn about who you are. To develop this skill, it is essential to regularly reflect on your own behaviors and your ways of relating to others and to your environment. Over time your ability to perceive even more will grow and evolve. The greater the depth of your inquiry into yourself, the higher the revelations of truth and reality you will experience.

Integration is the task of combining parts together to form a whole. By looking at all the important truths of the great contemplative traditions and human transformational teachings and putting them together, you will discover what works best for you. By development of “looking at the big picture” and simultaneously fully participating in your own life challenges, you learn and become wiser.

Valuing all matter–living beings, nonliving natural objects and every part of all things is important to the health of the whole. The feminine principle in nature recognizes the mutual interdependence and interconnectedness of all things for survival, well-being and evolutionary vibrancy, and it will fearlessly protect and fight for all life. By placing a great deal of significance on having good relationships based on mutual cooperation and intuitive, instinctive knowledge, the parts come together to make systems more complex. Over time, matter and awareness expand and evolve. You are part of nature, and you can apply these principles in your own life.

The feminine is all about being in touch with your own body, imagery and truth. As a child, you were aware of your own body but the mental aspects of your development were probably emphasized more. As a result, over time your body becomes an abstract concept.

It is one thing for you to know something in your head; it is totally a different thing to know something in your body. The process of growing up is not only a developmental task but also about bringing your mind (masculine) and your body (feminine) together. When you learn to mother yourself with presence and love, all matter, including your body, becomes precious.

Intentionality, synchronicity, paradox, self-nourishment, surrender and holding boundaries are all feminine tasks that help you identify and open the doors to positive experiences while simplifying your life in order to focus on what you want to do. Becoming a healthy, free person is about turning off your negative voices, saying “No” to the negative people that control you, and saying “Yes” to your own authentic truth.

The feminine act of exploring your inner world will bring you great wisdom, peace and happiness. Peace with others and internal peace come about through your courageous acts of self-reflection rather than through blaming others. Self-knowledge, wisdom, happiness, freedom and solutions to your life challenges are the results of doing the feminine task of inner work.

ABOUT THE ARTIST AND AUTHOR PAMELA WELLS
I have been working as an artist, author and consultant specializing in creative work that leads to greater consciousness.

In the commercial art field, I authored and illustrated a Collectors Edition guidebook and card set for understanding mystical wisdom titled “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess Spiritual Guidebook & 22 Wisdom Cards for Contemplation and Prayer”. It is available for retail or wholesale from ArtmagicPublishing.com, New Leaf Distribution, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or DeVorss & Company. It is also available at iTunes as an iPhone app (or through ConsciousnessApps.com).

My blog has many articles about feminine spiritual empowerment. For those who want to know more about their own life purpose and soul’s work, I offer Sacred Contact readings. For more information about a Sacred Contract reading, visit ArtmagicPublishing.com or email me at Goddessart@att.net. Please join me on my Facebook Fan Page “Goddess Art Creations” http://www.facebook.com/GoddessArtCreations.

EDUCATION: Watts Atelier of the Arts, Boston University and George Washington University, Bachelor of Business Degree. EXPERIENCE: Technical illustrator for advertising, health care and computer companies. Graphics and web designer for holistic businesses. Author, artist and publisher of “Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess”. Sacred Contract consultant and fine artist.

The Healing Path of the Wounded Healer

What is a Wounded Healer?

If you are someone who is sensitive or very intuitive (clairaudient, clairessant or clairvoyant)*, from a family history of emotional or physical abuse, find yourself in the middle of solving family quarrels, and suffer from first chakra illnesses like joint, bone, autoimmune, skin or blood disease, you may be a wounded healer.

*Clairessant: The ability to gain extra-sensory information through feeling. Clairaudent: The ability to hear sound and voices that are outside of the natural range of hearing. Clairvoyant: The ability to gain extra-sensory information through pictures.

In home environments where chaos is the norm, wounded healers are the psychic gatekeepers of the family. They are intuitive or very sensitive to things beyond the range of normal perception either as a result of being born this way or as an acquired survival skill. Often considered by others to be different, scapegoats or the black sheep of the family, they are the intuitive conduits that keep a dysfunctional family together in an unconscious effort to meet their own survival needs. Their family of origin is the primary place where wounded healers learn how to communicate and trust other people and the first environment that teaches how safe the world is. Wounded healers raised in functional households may have survived horrible traumas such as war, rape or torture.

When a wounded healer survives their challenging past history they have an ability to thrive as a result of gaining greater awareness, understanding and empathy for the human condition as a result of their past trauma.

The Differences Between the Wounded Healer Archetype and the Healer Archetype

Why is a wounded healer different then a healer who may have also suffered from challenging past histories?

What distinguishes wounded healers from healers is their extra sensitive or intuitive psyches (highly developed right brain capabilities), experiences of intense and often long-term suffering in dysfunctional families, and a Dark Night of the Soul – which is the psychic equivalent of a near death experience.

Wounded healers who survive their challenging ordeals and the Dark Night can acquire healing skills for repairing the human spirit. Their special skills are a result of developing their intuition for survival – a skill that cannot be easily taught in a classroom. A wounded healer may or may not have training in mind or body healing but if they do, they can expand and illuminate their healing skills in both western healing modalities and alternative medicine. Wounded healers can also guide others and show them the way back from emotional underworlds of depression, dark thoughts and hopeless despair.

Healers serve others by repairing mind, body or spirit. They are gifted in their ability to help people transform physical or emotional pain into a healing process. Most western healers specialize in a specific healing modality although it is becoming more common to find healers trained in both western and alternative style healing modalities that help patients integrate and then apply a body-mind-spirit approach to health.

The Psyche’s Mortal Wound

Wounded healers often experience deep emotional and mental wounds in their early formative years of childhood and adolescence or through some kind of horrible trauma. This psyche wound can be mortal if it is not eventually healed and result in an early death. Sometimes the psyche’s wound manifests itself into a physical illness or injury where emotional and mental well-being is so deeply conflicted and unstable that a person’s thought patterns result in self-destructive behavior.

One of the unique characteristics of the psyche’s mortal wound is it can only be healed after the symbolic death of the egoic self. Another characteristic of this mortal wound is the wounded healer at some time realizes she has a conscious choice to heal the wound at any time in order to live. Even during what can become a long, slow decent into emotional underworlds of dark thoughts, depression and hopeless despair.

Soul Retrieval – Calling the Spirit Back and Discovering the Authentic Self

The most self-destructive and critical period in the life of a wounded healer is often referred to as the “Dark Night of the Soul”. Or it is referred to as “hitting bottom” by 12 step recovery programs. This period can last days, months or many years.

It is during the Dark Night that the wounded healer has reached a crisis of faith in themselves and others. This is when fragile belief structures collapse resulting in great internal conflict and confusion. This critical period is when every decision can result in tragic consequences. It is often during these times of deep suffering when relatives and friends of wounded healers feel helpless to stop the downward spiral of self-destruction and they constantly worry about their loved ones well being.

Some Shamans referred to people with mortal psychic wounds as lost souls. They understood that the human spirit was immortal and the only way to bring back the loss of vital power was to have lost souls send out their own guardian spirit or power animal to retrieve the lost soul. Navajo tribal elders knew that to bring the living dead back to life was to ritualize the process of having them call their spirit back into their body.

Western trained healers would understand the psyche’s mortal wound as an emotional and mental violation beyond what the human mind can cognitively comprehend. They would describe the symptoms as some kind of mental or psychological illness or disease. To treat the symptoms, they often prescribe antidepressants that can sometimes prolong the suffering and increase drug tolerance for even more mental and physical complications. The western healing approach may have good intentions but it often misses the third and most important component of a mind-body-spirit solution – spirit.

What western healers can realize is that successful treatment results in a psychic death not a physical death and what may be needed is a more integral approach of both western and alternative healing modalities that include mind, body and spirit. This is why 12 step recovery programs are often successful when other western healing solutions have failed.

The only way for wounded healers to become well is to retrieve the fragmented pieces of their mind, body and spirit. Of course, we never really loose our spirit or souls but to “call our spirits back” is an important and symbolic way to describe returning from the Dark Night – the emotional underworlds of lost souls and the living dead.

The Ultimate Solution – Ego Death and Finding God

Paradoxically the Dark Night is also a time of tremendous grace since deep suffering offers the wounded healer the opportunity to realize at any moment they don’t have control of everything in their lives. To heal, the wounded healer has to stop “playing God” and turn their life over to the care of a higher authority.

By choosing to surrender the egoic self to a higher authority in the name of the Divine, by ritualistically “retrieving the soul” or “calling one’s spirit back” a symbolic ego death can occur and physical death of the body is avoided.

The reason psychic death can feel like a real death is because of the amount of terror involved in not knowing what will happen after a wounded healer stops trying to control everything. Unfortunately, wounded healers often unconsciously or consciously choose to end their lives because dieing often means to stop the pain and suffering.

The Serenity Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous is the opening prayer at recovery group meetings and is a very helpful tool for wounded healers to use in letting go and beginning the healing process.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen”.

Also helpful are the first, second and third steps in a 12-step recovery program which are:

1. We admitted we were powerless over (fill in the blank) and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater then ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.

However the wounded healer eventually finds a higher authority (God, Divine, Allah, Goddess, Shiva, Creator, Govinda, etc.), it is through surrendering control – a symbolic death of the ego – and finding a new faith in self, others and God, that is the most immediate and penetrating healing solution for curing the suffering of wounded healers.

Rebirth of the Authentic Self

It takes great courage and internal strength for the wounded healer to retrace her challenging past history in order to alchemically transform it into a wellspring of self-knowledge, faith and wisdom. Like a salve that heals a wound but leaves a scar, wounded healer’s scar tissue is their past personal story that can be retold to inspire and heal others. This past personal story gives the wounded healer their unique healing skills to empathically understand and feel the fear, pain and suffering of others. Through their sharing of traumatic life experiences, they can help others transform their pain and suffering into faith of self, others and God. Love and faith in God can completely and miraculously heal the wounded self in one moment. So, without scar tissue, the wounded healer would be another kind of healer perhaps.

The Abundance and Joy of Life After the Dark Night of the Soul – Wisdom Through Experiential Knowledge

Like the Goddess Inanna, wounded healers internally strong enough to return from the Dark Night, bring back knowledge and wisdom about their own vulnerability and the necessity of sacrifice. They learn how the cycles of life are a thread of commonality for us all. Through the emotional dark underworlds their heart opens in compassion for all beings.

After the Dark Night of the Soul the past becomes a part of their bigger story about the eternal purpose of the soul. The past is understood as an essential component of bringing about universal lessons that grow consciousness and wisdom through surviving difficult situations, internal confusion and pain. The scar from the wound becomes a source of inspiration and empowerment. A new purpose is realized as wounded healers awaken to Divine Grace and the radiant wonder of the universe.

The Gift of Service

Wounded healers are often working in service to others through their careers. Because they have experienced a death of their psyches, wounded healers have the unique ability to fearlessly channel spiritual wisdom, combined with their own humanity and unfolding life story and through their passionate personal stories. They have the ability to go beyond mind and perceive life as a gift of evolutionary growth. They also gain the discernment and wisdom to choose a conscious life of power and purpose. Wounded healers empowered by their own healing path are mystics who have traveled the emotional dark underworlds of human misery and survived to tell others what a beautiful blessing life is.

About Author and Goddess Artist Pamela Wells

Pamela Wells has been working as a fine artist, graphic designer and illustrator for over 20 years specializing in creative work that leads to greater consciousness. Her artwork transforms and awakens others to the healing power of their own unconscious minds by exploring the meaning and power of universal archetypes.

Her current paintings of goddesses are about the transformational and mystical aspects of the Divine Feminine as an integral part of the One God. By creating paintings that resonate deeply with her own experience of the Divine Feminine, Pamela strives to create a shift in the viewers relationship to the feminine aspects of God by awakening them to integrate the love and power within their own mysterious depths. She believes when we learn to live from a place of love (the feminine), we become more compassionate about our own suffering, the suffering of all beings and more engaged in healing ourselves and the planet.

Pamela has pioneered her own unique style of painting and shown her goddess art throughout the country. She authored and illustrated a Collectors Edition guidebook and card set for exploring the divine feminine and the evolution of consciousness titled Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess – Spiritual Guidebook & 22 Wisdom Cards for Contemplation and Prayer. This boxed set is available from ArtmagicPublishing.com, New Leaf Distribution, Barnes & Noble, Amazon or DeVorss & Company. She is currently creating original one-of-a-kind soul portraits for women. For more information about your personal portrait painting and sacred contract, email her at Goddessart@att.net.

Blessings on You O Children of Ancient Days

May you grow strong and tall and full of grace.
May you run straight and true and keep your pace.
May God’s light shine for you your way ahead
and darkness and peril ne’er draw near to you.
O children, dear to my heart,
may you know joy in all your doings
and such success, strength and true happiness
that all who know you may count you truly blessed.
O sweet spirits,
knoooow love,
beeee loved.
And listen–softly now–to that sweet, siren song of your soul
that you may see all that is true
praying across the deep to you.
-Melissa Osborne (aka Lyrica)

Poetry by Melissa Osborne is a writer and the creator of Lyricalworks founded in 1995. Melissa can be reached at lyrica@lyricalworks.com or see more of her poetry at her website Lyricalworks.com.

Artwork by Lori Felix brings to life the goddess in the form of beautiful and symbolic figurative paintings. Originally from New York but now living in a tiny town in Mississippi, Lori’s goddesses capture the dreamy world of bayous, rivers and waterways that are a regular part of the Mississippi landscape. More of Lori’s work can be seen at her website http://www.LorFelix.com. Please contact Lori if you would like to learn more about her or ask permission to use her artwork.

The Relational Power of the Goddess Archetype – Power in the Service of Love

Sophia Goddess of Wisdom

If you have ever felt the power of love, then you have experienced the profound power of the Goddess archetype. Love is her highest human expression. How you manage this magnetic archetypal force and internal power will depend on the quality of your relationship to your self.

The Goddess archetype represents your relational essence: your ability to connect to other people, your body and emotions, the earth, and both sentient and non-sentient beings. Intuitively, She knows the mutual interdependence and interconnectedness of all things. If you have ever felt the power of love, then you have experienced the profound power of the Goddess archetype. Love is her highest human expression. How you manage this magnetic archetypal force and internal power will depend on the quality of your relationship to your self.

Because self-knowledge must be earned, it is helpful to understand the differences between external and internal power. It is also useful to understand the power of archetypes because they (including the Goddess archetype) are aspects of power you were born with. How wisely you use your power in the world will determine the quality of your life.

External Power – Survival and Positive Actions

You learn about how to use your external power in the world before you learn about relational, internal power. So in the first half of life you develop an ego strong enough to take on the world and also a sense of personal identity adequate to help you survive in the world. Once your survival needs are met, your external power could be directed toward positive actions that support yourself, those you love and all other beings. Using your power in these ways would empower you. But in these narcissistic times we think we can buy inner mastery and happiness. We mistakenly use our power for the satisfaction of endless desires resulting in outer wealth but inner poverty and unhappiness.

Internal Power – Relational Power in Service to Love

Internal power is the Divine feminine or relational aspect of your power. It is the distinct feeling of giving love, being known, being loved and being of service to whom and what you love. Internal power begins by learning about your self and growing your self-esteem based on the realization of your unique gifts, contributions and conscious actions in the world. Self-knowledge begins the process of guiding you to make wise choices that give you a meaningful inner life. Knowing yourself and loving yourself aligns you with your highest purpose and connects you with the eternal in every created thing. By shifting your power from outside to inside, from your ego to your soul you can begin asking “what and who are you now called to serve?” Being of service is not only self-empowering but also the most meaningful thing you can do for the planet.

How the Goddess Archetype Can Empower You

The cultural spell we are currently under is patriarchy, which is a culture of servitude through fear and “authority over”. Patriarchy animates the Indentured Servant and Victim archetypes in both women and men. The Indentured Servant is bound by conditions of service not of their choosing. This archetype can symbolically block you from becoming empowered because it prevents you from realizing you always have a choice. It also binds you to the Victim archetype through passivity, confusion and blame.

People sometimes make the mistake of thinking they are being of service when they are actually in a patriarchal based fear-state of believing they are under the control of another person. It takes a great deal of effort to break free of these cultural constructs because to do so you must have enough courage and stamina to take full responsibility for your own destiny and follow your own truth.

This is why the archetypal power of the Goddess is so important to understand and integrate. Through Her relational essence, She can free you from “authority over” and guide you toward more “personal authority” and a more holistic definition of yourself and the world. When women and men can define themselves in terms of honoring the unique way in which they experience and view the world, then they learn how powerful they really are.

So, to liberate ourselves from a culture of patriarchal servitude, we must not continue to be captivated by how a culture limits and defines feminine (internal) power as weak, unimportant or unreal. When we honor and integrate the power of the Goddess we break that patriarchal spell and gain access to the relational power of our own intuitive inner guidance system.

Becoming empowered liberates the Indentured Servant archetype and makes you aware of how you can be of the highest service to your self and to others.

Using Archetypes as a Guide to Greater Self-knowledge

An archetype is an aspect of power you were born with. Archetypes are the big picture road map of your life that can guide you to greater self-knowledge and help you discover your natural gifts and talents. Knowing your archetypes gives you the ability to ascend to a higher altitude, to see how your unique life-contract aligns you with your highest aspirations.

We all share the same archetypes (like the Goddess archetype) to a greater or lesser degree. However, the main archetypes in which you most resonate will point you towards your own personal mythology. Your particular combination of archetypes will guide, animate and trigger you to action and certain choices that energize your life. Learning about your own particular archetypes can help you wisely use your personal power and authority in the world. If you want to learn more about your own archetypes read Sacred Contracts, by author Caroline Myss. This is an excellent guide book for creating and understanding your own sacred life contract.

The Goddess Archetype

People who feel a strong connection to other people, living beings, the planet or the cosmos will resonate the most with the Goddess archetype in any one or more of her many primary forms, such as Mother, Lover, Queen or the hundreds of her other named forms such as Loxmi, Aphrodite, White Bison Woman, Pellia, and Shatki to mention just a few. Even if the Goddess archetype isn’t a primary archetype in your particular life contract, she represents the Divine Feminine principle within all men and women. So, in order to break the spell of cultural servitude, you must begin to develop an interior dialogue – a task of the feminine aspects of the self – and learn to act in accordance with those insights. If you deny or fail to integrate the feminine aspects of your power then the outside world will have the power to control the quality of your life.

This is why developing your own interior is so important because self-reflection connects you with what is of meaning and value to both yourself and the human community. The Goddess brings you back in touch with your own body, your own imagery and truth and awakens you to the mystical realm of spiritual truth and to the life your soul has been longing to live.

How to Come Into Your Own Internal Power Through the Goddess

Looking inward is a feminine principle of “learning to see behind your eyes” and an important developmental task for both men and women. The Divine Feminine way to power starts with getting to know yourself through rigorous and honest self-inquiry. If you don’t know who you are how can you make decisions that empower you?

Since no one is born with knowledge of their own power or self-esteem, we must all learn through life experience and a continual process of thoughtful self-inquiry. For most people self-reflection begins only after you develop a strong enough ego to survive in the world and come to realize that your external power is limited and the physical world cannot be controlled. You then must choose whether or not you strengthen your own interior so the outside world can’t destroy you.

The way most people end up in an endless cycle of disempowerment and self-betrayal is that they make their decisions based on their head rather then listening to their heart. This is because in patriarchal cultures we are taught the power of logic, reason, and cause and effect in the visible world. We are not taught about the importance, power, and possibilities of relational intelligence and intuition – the invisible quantum world or the world behind our eyes. So you won’t have access to relational power until you have enough self esteem to listen to your own intuitive inner guidance system.

The way you get to know yourself and build self esteem is by developing stamina and integrity and by becoming congruent in your words and actions to yourself and other people. If there are failures, you take responsibility for them rather then blaming others and becoming a victim. You become aware that every choice you make is an opportunity to empower or disempower yourself. This is why you need to build a strong interior so you don’t betray yourself. Otherwise difficult life decisions will become a power struggle between your head and heart.

Goddess Power is Empowerment (internal power united with external power)

Empowerment represents mastery of your emotions and thoughts in response to the outer world and gives you direct access to your own personal authority. By building a strong interior you shatter the illusion of the outer world having control of your life. A strong interior gives you the authority, stability and stamina to withstand anything that happens to you in your external life no matter how difficult and the wisdom to make choices in service to love that become creative acts of outer power that benefit everyone.

Integrating the archetypal power of the Goddess gives you the ability to stay in the sea of unknowing while knowing you are not lost. She puts you in direct relationship with your own body and other human beings in an intimate and manageable format. Over time your inner vision and awareness grows to include the profound sense of divine essence in all beings and the cosmos.

Tasks to Developing and Integrating Goddess Power

-Learn to see behind your eyes through acquiring self-knowledge. Regularly reflect on your own behaviors and ways of relating to others and your environment

-Be in touch with your own body, imagery and truth through the non-linear intelligence of your intuitive guidance system – the wisdom of your heart

-Learn to see the big picture by putting together the parts to make a whole

-Recognize the mutual interdependence and inter-connectedness of all things for survival, well-being and evolutionary vibrancy

ABOUT AUTHOR AND ARTIST PAMELA WELLS Pamela Wells has been working as a fine artist, commercial illustrator and graphic web designer for over 20 years and specializes in creative work that leads to greater understanding and awareness. Her goddess art incorporates her interest in the study of transpersonal psychology, integral transformative spiritual practice and the evolution of human consciousness. She cares deeply about both men and women and also about the ecological preservation of the planet which benefits all living things. To order a copy of Pamela’s most recent book and card set, Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess, www.ArtmagicPublishing.com

All articles may be republished or printed providing author credit (above) and a a link is provided back to the website http://www.artmagicpublishing.com.

The Healing Path of the Wounded Healer

What is a Wounded Healer?Pilgrimage

If you are someone who is sensitive or very intuitive (clairaudient, clairessant or clairvoyant)*, from a family history of emotional or physical abuse, find yourself in the middle of solving family quarrels, and suffer from first chakra illnesses like joint, bone, autoimmune, skin or blood disease, you may be a wounded healer.

*Clairessant: The ability to gain extra-sensory information through feeling. Clairaudent: The ability to hear sound and voices that are outside of the natural range of hearing. Clairvoyant: The ability to gain extra-sensory information through pictures.

In home environments where chaos is the norm, wounded healers are the psychic gatekeepers of the family. They are intuitive or very sensitive to things beyond the range of normal perception either as a result of being born this way or as an acquired survival skill. Often considered by others to be different, scapegoats or the black sheep of the family, they are the intuitive conduits that keep a dysfunctional family together in an unconscious effort to meet their own survival needs. Their family of origin is the primary place where wounded healers learn how to communicate and trust other people and the first environment that teaches how safe the world is. Wounded healers raised in functional households may have survived horrible traumas such as war, rape or torture.

When a wounded healer survives their challenging past history they have an ability to thrive as a result of gaining greater awareness, understanding and empathy for the human condition as a result of their past trauma.

The Differences Between the Wounded Healer Archetype and the Healer Archetype

Why is a wounded healer different then a healer who may have also suffered from challenging past histories?

What distinguishes wounded healers from healers is their extra sensitive or intuitive psyches (highly developed right brain capabilities), experiences of intense and often long-term suffering in dysfunctional families, and a Dark Night of the Soul – which is the psychic equivalent of a near death experience.

Wounded healers who survive their challenging ordeals and the Dark Night can acquire healing skills for repairing the human spirit. Their special skills are a result of developing their intuition for survival – a skill that cannot be easily taught in a classroom. A wounded healer may or may not have training in mind or body healing but if they do, they can expand and illuminate their healing skills in both western healing modalities and alternative medicine. Wounded healers can also guide others and show them the way back from emotional underworlds of depression, dark thoughts and hopeless despair.

Healers serve others by repairing mind, body or spirit. They are gifted in their ability to help people transform physical or emotional pain into a healing process. Most western healers specialize in a specific healing modality although it is becoming more common to find healers trained in both western and alternative style healing modalities that help patients integrate and then apply a body-mind-spirit approach to health.

The Psyche’s Mortal Wound

Wounded healers often experience deep emotional and mental wounds in their early formative years of childhood and adolescence or through some kind of horrible trauma. This psyche wound can be mortal if it is not eventually healed and result in an early death. Sometimes the psyche’s wound manifests itself into a physical illness or injury where emotional and mental well-being is so deeply conflicted and unstable that a person’s thought patterns result in self-destructive behavior.

One of the unique characteristics of the psyche’s mortal wound is it can only be healed after the symbolic death of the egoic self. Another characteristic of this mortal wound is the wounded healer at some time realizes she has a conscious choice to heal the wound at any time in order to live. Even during what can become a long, slow decent into emotional underworlds of dark thoughts, depression and hopeless despair.

Soul Retrieval – Calling the Spirit Back and Discovering the Authentic Self

The most self-destructive and critical period in the life of a wounded healer is often referred to as the “Dark Night of the Soul”. Or it is referred to as “hitting bottom” by 12 step recovery programs. This period can last days, months or many years.

It is during the Dark Night that the wounded healer has reached a crisis of faith in themselves and others. This is when fragile belief structures collapse resulting in great internal conflict and confusion. This critical period is when every decision can result in tragic consequences. It is often during these times of deep suffering when relatives and friends of wounded healers feel helpless to stop the downward spiral of self-destruction and they constantly worry about their loved ones well being.

Some Shamans referred to people with mortal psychic wounds as lost souls. They understood that the human spirit was immortal and the only way to bring back the loss of vital power was to have lost souls send out their own guardian spirit or power animal to retrieve the lost soul. Navajo tribal elders knew that to bring the living dead back to life was to ritualize the process of having them call their spirit back into their body.

Western trained healers would understand the psyche’s mortal wound as an emotional and mental violation beyond what the human mind can cognitively comprehend. They would describe the symptoms as some kind of mental or psychological illness or disease. To treat the symptoms, they often prescribe antidepressants that can sometimes prolong the suffering and increase drug tolerance for even more mental and physical complications. The western healing approach may have good intentions but it often misses the third and most important component of a mind-body-spirit solution – spirit.

What western healers can realize is that successful treatment results in a psychic death not a physical death and what may be needed is a more integral approach of both western and alternative healing modalities that include mind, body and spirit. This is why 12 step recovery programs are often successful when other western healing solutions have failed.

The only way for wounded healers to become well is to retrieve the fragmented pieces of their mind, body and spirit. Of course, we never really loose our spirit or souls but to “call our spirits back” is an important and symbolic way to describe returning from the Dark Night – the emotional underworlds of lost souls and the living dead.

The Ultimate Solution – Ego Death

Paradoxically the Dark Night is also a time of tremendous grace since deep suffering offers the wounded healer the opportunity to realize at any moment they don’t have control of everything in their lives. To heal, the wounded healer has to stop “playing God” and turn their life over to the care of a higher authority.

By choosing to surrender the egoic self to a higher authority in the name of the Divine, by ritualistically “retrieving the soul” or “calling one’s spirit back” a symbolic ego death can occur and physical death of the body is avoided.

The reason psychic death can feel like a real death is because of the amount of terror involved in not knowing what will happen after a wounded healer stops trying to control everything. Unfortunately, wounded healers often unconsciously or consciously choose to end their lives because dieing often means to stop the pain and suffering.

The Serenity Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous is the opening prayer at recovery group meetings and is a very helpful tool for wounded healers to use in letting go and beginning the healing process.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen”.

Also helpful are the first, second and third steps in a 12-step recovery program which are:

1. We admitted we were powerless over (fill in the blank) and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater then ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.

However the wounded healer eventually finds a higher authority (God, Divine, Allah, Goddess, Shiva, Creator, Govinda, etc.), it is through surrendering control – a symbolic death of the ego – and finding a new faith in self, others and God, that is the most immediate and penetrating healing solution for curing the suffering of wounded healers.

Rebirth of the Authentic Self

It takes great courage and internal strength for the wounded healer to retrace her challenging past history in order to alchemically transform it into a wellspring of self-knowledge, faith and wisdom. Like a salve that heals a wound but leaves a scar, wounded healer’s scar tissue is their past personal story that can be retold to inspire and heal others. This past personal story gives the wounded healer their unique healing skills to empathically understand and feel the fear, pain and suffering of others. Through their sharing of traumatic life experiences, they can help others transform their pain and suffering into faith of self, others and God. Love and faith in God can completely and miraculously heal the wounded self in one moment. So, without scar tissue, the wounded healer would be another kind of healer perhaps.

The Abundance and Joy of Life After the Dark Night of the Soul – Wisdom Through Experiential Knowledge

Like the Goddess Inanna, wounded healers internally strong enough to return from the Dark Night, bring back knowledge and wisdom about their own vulnerability and the necessity of sacrifice. They learn how the cycles of life are a thread of commonality for us all. Through the emotional dark underworlds their heart opens in compassion for all beings.

After the Dark Night of the Soul the past becomes a part of their bigger story about the eternal purpose of the soul. The past is understood as an essential component of bringing about universal lessons that grow consciousness and wisdom through surviving difficult situations, internal confusion and pain. The scar from the wound becomes a source of inspiration and empowerment. A new purpose is realized as wounded healers awaken to Divine Grace and the radiant wonder of the universe.

The Gift of Service

Wounded healers are often working in service to others through their careers. Because they have experienced a death of their psyches, wounded healers have the unique ability to fearlessly channel spiritual wisdom, combined with their own humanity and unfolding life story and through their passionate personal stories. They have the ability to go beyond mind and perceive life as a gift of evolutionary growth. They also gain the discernment and wisdom to choose a conscious life of power and purpose. Wounded healers empowered by their own healing path are mystics who have traveled the emotional dark underworlds of human misery and survived to tell others what a beautiful blessing life is.

About Author and Goddess Artist Pamela Wells
Pamela Wells has been working as a fine artist, commercial illustrator and graphic web designer for over 20 years and specializes in creative work that leads to greater understanding and awareness. Her goddess art incorporates her interest in the study of transpersonal psychology, integral transformative spiritual practice and the evolution of human consciousness. She cares deeply about both men and women and also about the ecological preservation of the planet, which benefits all living things. To order a copy of Pamela’s most recent book and card set, Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess, www.ArtmagicPublishing.com

Blessings on You O Children of Ancient Days

May you grow strong and tall and full of grace.

May you run straight and true and keep your pace.

May God’s light shine for you your way ahead

and darkness and peril ne’er draw near to you.

O children, dear to my heart,

may you know joy in all your doings

and such success, strength and true happiness

that all who know you may count you truly blessed.

O sweet spirits,

knoooow love,

beeee loved.

And listen–softly now–to that sweet, siren song of your soul

that you may see all that is true

praying across the deep to you.

-Melissa Osborne (aka Lyrica)

Poetry by Melissa Osborne is a writer and the creator of Lyricalworks founded in 1995. Melissa can be reached at lyrica@lyricalworks.com or see more of her poetry at her website Lyricalworks.com.

Artwork by Lori Felix brings to life the goddess in the form of beautiful and symbolic figurative paintings. Originally from New York but now living in a tiny town in Mississippi, Lori’s goddesses capture the dreamy world of bayous, rivers and waterways that are a regular part of the Mississippi landscape. More of Lori’s work can be seen at her website http://www.LorFelix.com. Please contact Lori if you would like to learn more about her or ask permission to use her artwork.

All articles may be republished or printed providing author credit (above) and a a link is provided back to http://www.ArtmagicPublishing.com. Please contact Pamela for permission to use artwork.