Shirley Williams

The Hero(ine)’s Journey:

Third of a series on Spiritual Growth and the Process of Healing

Ready to take the journey of your life? This journey is about to begin and you have the opportunity to share this journey with me and with others. The destination of our journey is wholeness, wellness, self-empowerment, alignment, and integration, which will enable each of us to open with purpose just as our world and all that grows within it opens with purpose as the season changes from winter to spring. We have had the long rest of winter and now we are invigorated to begin a journey which will lead us more deeply into our individual springs and discover at a deeper level who we are, our uniqueness, our wonder and our glory. Join me as we develop the stages of the hero(ine)’s journey. Be prepared to move into a more expanded level of consciousness as we move toward the Millennium. The time is NOW!

The spiritual journey is the journey of the hero(ine). It is the journey which helps us find ourselves and in the process, transform our world. It is the purpose for our being on the earth and helps us as we spiritualize matter or walk as spirits upon the earth.

Our journey is aided by the presence of inner guides – archetypes – who preside over a stage of our journey and who provide us with a task, teach us a lesson, and ultimately gift us with wholeness. As we make the journey, we create our world from the archetypal energy we are presently experiencing. We need all of the energies of the archetypes and we need to have the flexibility to move among them as we make the journey to wholeness.

Four of the archetypes are extremely potent as they form the container for the soul and it is through the soul that we contact spirit. These four archetypes are the Innocent, the Orphan, the Warrior and the Caregiver. They help us balance our two major polarities-our/feminine or yin/yang.

The Innocent is our beginning and end. We begin in naiveté well steeped in our own denial, learn discernment and when we return are gifted with trust and optimism. The Innocent helps us establish our persona – the mask we wear in the world giving us a sense of who we are and what we expect of others and ourselves.

When we have chosen our mask, our Orphan determines which parts of us will have to be sacrificed or repressed to fulfill the image we have chosen. This is our survivor instinct which tries to protect us from being hurt, victimized, or abandoned, Our internal cynic, it is threatened by the sense of powerlessness. While valuable, it requires that we orphan or banish parts of us which we need to reclaim. Energetically we wall these parts of us off, destroying our own flow of energy and eventually creating a state of dis-ease within our own bodies. As we remove these walls, we face the world realistically and are able to achieve a sense of interdependence or connectedness.

Another archetype necessary for the formation of the container for our soul is the Warrior. Early on in our development, this manifests as a goal of winning and we fear weakness. Our desires emanate here and when we work with this energy, we learn to recognize and confront our weaknesses and thus develop our courage and self-discipline and attain our goals. We learn to use these skills morally, ethically, and for the good of the group. We recognize this archetype at work when we perceive everything as a slight, a threat, or a challenge to be confronted.

The last archetype which forms the container for the soul is that of the Caregiver. When we are working with this energy, we view ourselves as the suffering martyr who controls others by making them feel guilty. We rescue others with our own agendas foremost – we give to get. This has been called codependency.

When our Caregiver is healthy, we have a strong sense of morality and concern for others as well as ourselves. We give with no personal agenda balancing what is good for us with what is good for others. We do not sacrifice either ourselves or the other and we have the capacity to comfort and support others as they learn to care for themselves. We learn to live in interdependence.

These are the energies which form and strengthen our boundaries – our sense of self. The trained healer is skilled at helping you discover and work with these archetypal energies. These energies need to be healthy and free flowing if we are to be whole and healthy. The healer you choose helps you access these disowned or unhealthy parts of you with hands on and process work and supports you as you learn to reclaim and reeducate these parts of you. The goal of healing is empowerment. The work of the healer is to support you as you learn how to empower yourself.

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