Angry Groom VS Innocent Bride

Awareness of archetypes dates back at least to the time of Plato, who called them Forms. Plato believed that these eternal Forms were reflected in material objects. The Form of Beauty, for example, was abstract and applied to all beautiful things. As different as the individual manifestations of Beauty may be--a beautiful person, animal, or flower--the Form itself never changes. The great Swiss psychologist and founder of analytical psychology, Carl Jung (1875-1961) developed this idea further. For Jung, archetypes, were mythological or primordial images, and comprised of psychological patterns derived from historical roles in life such as the Mother, Father, Child, Trickster, Servant, as well as universal events or situations, including Initiation or Death and Rebirth. Along with our individual personal unconscious, which is unique to each of us, Jung maintained, "there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature that is identical in all individuals." This collective unconscious, he believed, was inherited rather than developed, and was composed mainly of archetypes.

In 2001, Medical Intuitive Caroline Myss, took archetypes to another level. Her book Sacred Contracts describes how we operate predominantly within 12 archetypes from birth, while also having access to the limitless collective unconscious that Jung described and the multitudes of archetypes. We express these 12 dominant archetypes through our personality, and they affect our belief systems and values. This the main determining factor for bringing them into conscious awareness--to understand why we do the things we do, the way we do them, and act the way we act in certain situations. According to Myss, everyone on the planet shares four archetypes, the Child, Victim, Saboteur and Prostitute, while the other eight are unique to each person. The four shared archetypes are Guardians of various inner aspects or qualities. The Child is the Guardian of our Innocence; Victim, Guardian of Self Esteem; Saboteur, Guardian of Choice; Prostitute, Guardian of Faith. While being neutral in and of themselves, each archetype is expressed  through a person either positively or through its negative or shadowside.

Before reading Sacred Contracts I had already identified the four shared archetypes in all my clients, so I really resonated with Myss' work. And once I understood how the archetypes worked, I understood why they play such a a big part in relationship challenges. While no one would consciously admit to expressing the Prostitute archetype because of the negative connotations it holds, when you understand that if you stay in a loveless marriage for security, or a job you loathe for the money, that you are selling some aspect of yourself for security; or maybe you're selling yourself out by agreeing with others so you'll be accepted, then it makes sense that this is the shadowside of the Prostitute Archetype in action.

Most of us have been in one of these situations at one time or another in our lives. Yet as Guardian of Faith, the Prostitute Archetype has the potential of showing us that when we have faith in ourselves we can say no. That when we have faith in ourselves we can walk away and create a better life for ourselves, a life that we are deserving of having.

The other three shared archetypes are more self explanatory. If you have low self-esteem and believe you're a Victim, you will stay in an abusive relationship, for example. Most of us have experienced the Saboteur at action, where you sabotage your success, or your relationships through the choices you've made, usually unconsciously. The Child I will go into in more depth in Part Three.

The Marriage Archetype is the archetypal pattern a couple activates when they get legally married, and while not being personal, the archetype affects every couple. It began in the dark ages where the bride became a part of the man's property, and where the bride vowed to love, honor and obey her husband, 'until death do us part.' This archetypal pattern has not changed in the last fifteen hundred years. By the end of the first night of married life, the groom is feeling trapped and the bride is feeling subservient and now believes she must to ask her husband permission before she does anything.



OMG!!! Angry Groom by worldtalk