The Integration of an Archetype Hurts.
It started the other day at the hot springs, the pain, the anxiety, the twisting in my gut.
My friend tried to talk me through it and when he saw the obvious discomfort he apologized.
I said “no, keep going, she’s rising.”
I knew a new archetype was constellating, getting ready to integrate.
I’m starting to see the patterns, the way themes begin to collect. The cognitive bias of the brain begins to shift.
Something is playing curtain games behind the consciousness, casting shadows that bring the focus of the mind to new points, new details of its experience, memories, the odd things that stick with us through the day.
It takes work to see the archetypes.
If we’re living unconsciously the activity of the archetypes gets projected or we become possessed by the unconscious, we act “off,” have friends ask “what’s wrong, you’re not yourself.”
If we’re a detective in our own minds and bodies, if we pay attention to the shifts in stomach that something is different we may catch sight of it, the archetype approaching.
People will need to find their own ways to keep tabs on the unconscious. Jung used dream work and associations with his clients. He painted, invoked visionary states within himself, wrote out conversations, carved stones, and built houses to work with his unconscious.
I write, stories, poetry, journal entries, whatever comes to me. I also use active imagination, meditation, and feeling to my body. On occassion, I use dream work when there’s a bit more time and the dream has its own gravity.
Others paint, draw, dance, whatever allows you to tap into a state of flow and see the patterns, the themes, the difference in the experience of what moves through you.
I’m having a damn slow day but that’s ok. I’m gestating.
I’m not hating the change in pace like usual; the drifting, this state that feels like depression, the need to sleep, the want to hold still, the apathy to movement and choices.
It feels somewhat like depression but I know it isn’t. I’m familiar with depression, this isn’t the same, this is what I go through before big things, new stories, new book ideas, new revelations, new archetypes.
I’ve seen the same in creative clients and those on their spiritual path. The mind and body need to gestate things, need to let them brew.
The difference from depression is that something inside is saying this is exactly what needs to be done. It knows this is only a phase, a needed portion of the cycle.
Depression doesn’t give a promise like that, depression is depression because the only thing it promises is more of the same, a hollow ache.
Archetypes can be uncomfortable.
I’m picking up on a personal pattern, for me it starts with the slight shift in focus, then comes the trigger, the anxiety, “somethings coming,” then its the inertia, the forced rest, the gestation.
People often talk of the archetypes like they’re trading cards ready to be collected or that friend with good advise you call after that crazy night out to get your head on straight.
But the inner world is dynamic, chaotic, and powerful.
It’s not an ethereal voice that tells you how perfect you are in a blissed-out meditation, these are instincts, the conditioning of billions of lives, the stories that live through us. Live in us.
They’re in the body, they’re felt, they’re in the mind, they shape our consciousness.
The conscious mind resists the unconscious.
Jung’s theorized that the conscious mind would rather avoid most of the archetypes because the ego wants to think it calls all the shots, that its the only one in the show.
When archetypes become activated, and even more so if integrate, they are going to be uncomfortable.
The image that comes to mind is the sowing of Peter Pan’s shadow. Except in this case, neither Pan nor his Shadow wants to be sown and yet both need it because that’s what drives the story.
It’s the paradox of the unconscious to not want to be seen and yet to need to be seen and its the paradox of the ego to not want to change and yet through the deep need of the Self to be realized, to have to change, to have to face the archetypes.
I’m not saying every archetype starts with anxiety and moves you through depression.
I don’t even think that is a universal in my own personal experience, its just one of the ways they manifest for me and I’ve seen similar cases in clients.
After this, the cycle might repeat a couple time or I’ll feel the dawning, that new presence that’s always been there but feels more distinguished, more refined, more accessible now.
Slowly I’ll start to see how life changes with this bit of the dark made conscious and a year or two from now when everything has gradually shifted to the point life is radically different, I’ll look back and say “I see you. I saw you inside after all that struggle, and now, now I see you in my life. Thank you.”
What about you?
What has archetypal integration felt like for you? What does the process look like?
Love and share.
I’m starting something new. Writing every day as I put my random thoughts down on binary paper.
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