Your Problem is Already Solved

As I've written in previous posts, I'm a huge Caroline Myss fan. Lately I've been listening to podcasts of her archived radio shows from Hay House Radio, and they are magnificent. This woman is so incredibly wise, insightful, and brilliant. One of the things I've learned from listening to her is a method she recommends for dealing with any frightening or stressful situation, including illness. Her advice is to see the situation as already healed by God. She emphasizes the importance of accepting that everything is as it should be, even if we can not understand why. Accept that, and then view the issue as already healed.

This can be a difficult exercise to perform, especially because our rational mind makes us believe that we must try to figure out why things are the way they are, and that we need to remain frightened until the situation is resolved. Yet the power of surrendering to God is enormous, and it is not a rational process. Our rational minds are certainly important and useful in our everyday affairs, but we are mistaken if we believe that the rational mind is useful for every situation - especially a spiritual crisis. A spiritual crisis calls for a different approach, a spiritual solution rather than a rational one. Try it for yourself - see your problem as already healed, and have faith that it is.

The Road

Last week I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. When I bought the book at my local bookstore, the clerk got very excited and told me the book was "brutal" but excellent. I agree with the brutal part, but I had mixed feelings about the excellence of the book.

Without doubt, this book is Fine Literature. It is creative, moving, and rich with symbolism. Yet I did not have a feeling of overwhelming admiration for it. The story was not exactly inspirational, and in some ways it felt manipulative to me. The extreme post-armageddon setting and the tender father-son relationship at the center of the story feel too easy to me, too much in service to the Big Themes the book ultimately conveys. Although I can understand why the book is so highly praised, I frankly would only recommend it to bookworms and English majors. I have nothing against "parables" or stories heavy with symbolism, but I prefer novels that are also rich and entertaining on the simple level of story and character.

Power Loss

I just watched a DVD of Caroline Myss from about 10 years ago, with a dual program of lectures called "Why People Don't Heal" and "Three Levels of Power." In these lectures, she was talking about how we lose or give away our power, and the impact this has on our health. I was so impressed by this discussion, because I have never thought about the ways in which I give away my own power.

For about five years I worked for a woman who was a terror. She was manipulative, harsh, and overbearing. She was also very good at her job and very smart, but at the same time she was petty and vengeful. When I watched these lectures by Caroline yesterday, I realized how much of my power I gave to my boss back then. I was scared of her. I was afraid of her wrath, and her spiteful behavior. I did everything I could to appease her and keep her happy, but I did that out of fear. I worked for her for so long because I was afraid that if I asked to be transferred to another department, she would sabotage me as vengeance for leaving her department.

I eventually quit my job, primarily to get away from this woman. I got myself to the point where I would rather leave the company entirely than ask for a transfer out of her department - that's how afraid of her I was. I've never had a boss like that before or since then. When I thought about how much power I gave to this woman, I was shocked at my capacity to compromise myself out of fear.

To whom do you give away your power? Who or what are you afraid of? Do you make decisions based on what other people will think of you? Why? It is important to contemplate these questions, because sooner or later your health will be compromised if you continue to lose power to other people and things.

Sacred Contracts - My Natal Chart

After this post, I will move on to other subjects. But to end this particular series of posts on Sacred Contracts, I will list the archetypes in my natal chart, and the houses they are in:

1. Saboteur
2. Magical Child
3. Seeker
4. Dilettante
5. Mediator
6. Healer
7. Warrior
8. Victim
9. Prostitute
10. Lover
11. Hermit
12. Writer

Each house is associated with the same themes as the astrological houses. So, for example, the seventh house is associated with relationships. This is where my Warrior archetype landed. At first this bothered me, then it greatly intrigued me. I needed to consider how this Warrior energy plays out in my relationships, and I needed to look beyond the first association that came to mind: "Love is a Battlefield"!

There has certainly been plenty of that in my relationships, but there is more to all of the archetypes than the literal meanings. They are, by definition, symbols, and need to be understood symbolically (although a certain amount of obvious literal energy does manifest). In this case, the Warrior is the archetype in my chart with the most "male" energy. That is certainly welcome in my relationship house. The Warrior requires me to fulfill the active principle in my relationships, meaning that I frequently must be the initiator in my relationship dynamics. Also, the Warrior is committed to his cause and has a huge amount of loyalty. Perfect for a committed partnership!

These are just some of the meanings I can read into this configuration, and there are eleven other archetype-house energies to integrate in the same way. Furthermore, as in astrology, the energy in each of the houses interacts with the energy in other houses. I am awed by the enormity of the Sacred Contracts natal chart, and the huge themes it highlights in each persons life.

More on Sacred Contracts

I have been writing about my personal experience with Sacred Contracts, a system developed by Caroline Myss. Yesterday I wrote about how I selected my archetypes, and how the Sacred Contracts Consultant I was working with then affirmed those selections by using a pendulum. We actually went back and forth several times with ideas and suggestions, and did not finalize all of them until we met face-to-face.

When we met and settled on the 12th and final archetype for my chart, we then used Caroline's process for determining which archetypes go into which of the 12 houses on the chart. This amounts to clearing your mind, setting your intent that the archetypes go to their true houses, then sorting them in a seemingly random way with cards designated 1 through 12. When I first read about this process several years ago in Sacred Contracts, I had a lot of resistance to the notion that this could truly lead to one's precise natal chart of archetypes. I felt rather disillusioned with the whole process, and more or less walked away from it. I have now reconsidered that position, based on Caroline's explanation that doing this critical process in what seems to be an irrational way is precisely the point - we need to bypass our conscious ego mind, which would interfere with the process and arrange these sacred assignments in a way that would feel rational and safe.

The results were surprising, but also surprisingly sensible. I wrote yesterday about one of the archetypes I chose, The Warrior. I was initially reluctant to choose this archetype because I could not see how it applied to my life, but eventually acknowledged that it should be one of the twelve. Well, this archetype landed in my 7th house, which is the house of relationships and partnerships. I immediately realized why I had some resistance to choosing this archetype, since I had not considered that The Warrior might be active in my relationships - especially so since my relationship could really use more Warrior energy.

Sacred Contracts - Choosing Archetypes

Yesterday I wrote about the basic concepts behind the Sacred Contracts system authored by Caroline Myss. Today I'll write a little bit about my own experience selecting my archetypes. To do this, I followed the guidelines in the book and on the website. Although some of my archetypes were immediately obvious, it was difficult to come up with eight (in addition to the basic four that everyone has). It took several passes through the descriptions of the archetypes, and a lot of contemplation on which ones might apply to my life, and why.

When I started this process, I decided I wanted to work with one of the "Sacred Contract Consultants" that are listed on Caroline's website. These people have undertaken an extensive program of study at Caroline's CMED Institute, and I liked the idea of working with an expert on this project. I was already familiar with the book, and my first thought was that I would cast my own archetype chart, and then meet with the consultant to help me with insights on my particular combination of archetypes and houses. When I discussed this with her, however, she recommended that we work together even on the selection of archetypes, because often we have archetypes in our Contract that we don't really want to see or deal with. This immediately made sense to me, since I was already having difficulty coming up with eight.

What happened next may be a turn-off to some people, but I thought it was exciting. I emailed my list of archetypes, along with a few possible alternatives, to the consultant. She analyzed all of them, using a pendulum to determine their energy level in association with me. I didn't know she was going to do this, and at first I bristled at the archetypes that she rejected from my list based on her work with the pendulum. However, I decided to go with it.

What was also interesting is that she suggested an archetype back to me (The Warrior) that I had not considered. The pendulum showed a lot of energy with me and this archetype. At first I resisted the suggestion, but it is actually one I really like. I just didn't see how it applied to my own life pattern. Later, I unexpectedly came across some notes I had written 6 years ago when I first read Sacred Contracts, and I found that I had chosen The Warrior for myself back then! I had even written out my thoughts on why. It was a striking synchronicity. There were several other synchronous moments during the process, which I will continue to write about.

Sacred Contracts

As I've mentioned previously, I am a huge fan of Caroline Myss. For the past few months I have been working with her most recent book, Entering The Castle, and it has been an incredible experience. But a few weeks ago I took a detour back into her Sacred Contracts program, which I started working with 5 years ago but then put it aside before I had completed it. This too is a phenomenal system.

The focus of Sacred Contracts is on establishing your own personal archetypal wheel, which is based on agreements you made before you were born. According to Caroline, nothing in life is random - including the moment of your birth. This shares a similar philosophy with astrology, and indeed the wheel that Caroline uses as the template for the archetype chart is the same 12 house wheel used in an astrological chart. However, with the archetype wheel, each house is populated by an archetype rather than astrological signs and planets.

According to Caroline, every person has four fundamental archetypes in their chart: The Child, The Victim, The Prostitute, and The Saboteur. To complete the chart, a person must study and evaluate any number of other possible archetypes, based on their own life experience. To help with this, in the book Caroline has outlined descriptions of many archetypes, and these descriptions also appear on her website. She has also created a deck of archetype cards that are useful during the process of selecting your archetypes.

Once you have figured out your 8 archetypes, in addition to the basic 4, you are ready to cast your archetype chart. All of this is explained both in the book and on the website. When you have completed your chart, you are then able to analyze it to gain incredible insights on your life path. I'll be writing more about my experience with this process.