Author: myspiritualshenanigans

Archetypes: What They Are & 5 Ways to Heal Your Archetypal Patterns

What are archetypes and how can you use them to become more self-aware in your spiritual journey? Here are 5 powerful reading resources!

The term archetypes was first introduced to me by the amazing spiritual teacher, Caroline Myss.

Archetypes are simply a framework or categorization created around our different behaviours and personality types, to help us understand our nature. And as an effect, make more conscious choices about how we want to be, going forward.

We have archetypes in everything. Whether it is the zodiac signs which are determined by birth date, time and location, or the gender we associate ourselves to as we mature, an archetypal structuring helps everyone to logically understand why they are the way they are, and know how to do differently.

For instance, you may generally consider a Taurus to be bullish at lock their horns in an argument. This however, may not be true for all Taurus-born people.

So the limitation of archetypes is that they are not absolutely, always true across the board. This is because we are all a unique mix of different behaviours and patterns which interweave with each other. But we can use this very limitation to our benefit.

Those tendencies which we relate to the most from an archetypal categorization can help us see where we need to expand our nature, and move out of the conformity of this personality type.

So as an example, if one of the drawbacks of being “feminine” in nature is to let life happen, it may serve us to develop our masculine energy to step into a more active role in our own lives.

Studying these patterns and behaviours for a while, we begin to see ourselves fitting into almost all categories. Then, we get a sense that we are more integrated and wholesome in our being, and its easier to believe in the infinitude of our existence. 🙂

This is actually the end goal – to not be limited to one or two patterns, but to be able to ascend and evolve into a full range of existence.

It can be really interesting to study about archetypes, to know yourself in deeper ways. I’ve been gradually making my way through different programs and ideologies, and have experienced tremendous healing and AHA moments, simply by studying archetypal frameworks.

The biggest benefit I’ve found is that I am able to bring awareness to the unconscious patterns, and so many times, I catch myself halfway in the act. This allows me to slowly but surely move into better patterns that I would like to associate myself with.

There are of course many great studies and resources out there, but today, I would like to introduce you to my top 5 favourite archetype studies.

5 Different Archetypes that Will Help You Become More Self Aware

#1 – Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss

Starting off with the very first book I read, called Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss.

She beautifully describes our soul contracts and was monumental in setting my foundation on the topic. Caroline then dedicates several sections of the book to learning more about your archetypal patterns in context to your soul contracts.

She starts by introducing us to the primary four archetypes that she considers are always at work in our life, namely:

  • Child
  • Victim
  • Prostitute
  • Saboteur

These sound extremely strange at first, but she explains them in a brief but convincing way in this entry-level article.

These four archetypes of survival collectively represent how we show up in life and the major challenges we pursue. Then, she dives much deeper into the other patterns of our psyche and how learning about them can help you heal your relationships at a spiritual level.

Her book is extremely in-depth and sheds such powerful light on our patterns and unconscious conditioning. I think this makes a brilliant starting point for anyone that likes to explore their behaviour and tendencies with the blend of spirituality and psychology.

#2 – The Classic Jungian Archetypes

Carl Jung pioneered in the study of psychology and one of his groundbreaking contributions to society was the framework of these archetypes. His belief was that our minds aren’t just a clean slate which gets filled at birth, but that we inherit a lot of ancestral conditioning, which also influence our psyche.

psychology, carl jung, archetypes, mindset, behaviour, patterns

He explains the four primary archetypes as:

  • persona,
  • shadow,
  • anima/animus,
  • and the self.

For those that are interested in learning from the lens of psychology, the Jungian archetypes are explained with a lot of simplicity in this article. At some point, I might expand deeper on his study as well, so stay tuned. 🙂

#3 – The Nine Enneagram Archetypes

You might have heard of the nine personalities of the enneagram, and in passing taken some free quizzes online as well. But in my honest opinion, the enneagram can only be properly understood if you take the comprehensive RHETI test. Most free quizzes have not been accurate for me or any of my clients.

And after taking the test, use your results to study your personality type using the book The Wisdom of the Enneagram.

This is a dense book, and an even more dense subject, which talks about the core wounds and core strengths of each personality type. So, no shortcuts. But this will be such a refreshing and rewarding framework for you! Especially if you’re inclined more towards healing your shadow self.

#4 – Your Life Purpose Archetypes by Sahara Rose

Another important question I’m often asked is about the purpose of our life here, on Earth. I always recommend that people try out my Purpose Matrix Tool. And then, I typically try to educate them about the way the Universe guides us into our Higher Calling.

But if there’s another resource that I consider deeply insightful in this regard, it’s Sahara Rose’s new book, called Discover Your Dharma.

She simplifies the knowledge of Ayurveda and Vedanta to describe nine different ways to share your gifts here on Earth. There’s a lot of great information on the three doshas (body types) and what role they play in our purpose here.

I genuinely enjoyed the quizzes and revelations that she shares. So much so that I had my husband do them with me! They also help you understand what professions might drain you versus fueling your inner fire.

Her book was a huge affirmation for me as well, as I step deeper into the role of coaching people for their spiritual journey.

#5 – The Human Design Archetypes

This was my most recent of introductions. I learned about my human design from a dear friend, April, who beautifully taught me about my tendencies as a “projector”. This was the one of five different types of human design.

The human design is also based on our birth chart, and introduces us to some interesting archetypal patterns. These include insights such as –

  • what energy type we are (projector, generator, manifestor, reflector, manifesting generator),
  • how we can be in most flow with our energy type and maximize our potential,
  • what chakras or energy centres are more open to outside influence,
  • whether we’re structured or creative in different settings, and so on.
April shared that the Human Design is different from other archetypal structures in that our type does not change over time. We simply become more optimized in our energy type.
human design chart, projector example, bodygraph, human design archetype
Example of a Human Design Chart

This all starts by generating a Human Design Chart, called a BodyGraph. You can either decrypt the results on your own, or learn more about through a specialist in the field. Having worked with April personally for my own learning, I would recommend her work as a good option!

Concluding Thoughts

It’s important to not typecast anyone into an archetype, knowing that we’re not limited to its description. But instead to use these categorizations for our evolution. This study should free us from our limitations, and not give us the permission to continue being certain ways.

So for instance, don’t justify someone’s behaviour because they are “a Capricorn sign”, or they are “a martyr” archetype. Instead, help yourself and others around become aware of these tendencies. And learn the different ways you can step into healthier patterns.

I hope this resource gives you a vast variety of frameworks to take your journey deeper. Start with the one that sounds most interesting. And then sit down and really take your time with learning the strengths and weaknesses of each personality type.

I’d also love to know in the comments below, if you’ve read any of these resources. What benefits have you personally experienced from studying archetypal patterns? 🙂

Ready to take your healing deeper? Let’s talk about it! You’re welcome to setup a complimentary 30-minutes call using this form, and learn how you can set your spiritual plans into action. See you soon!

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Remembering Your Soul’s Natural Manifestation Abilities, by Shivangi

Through a quantum dream, Shivangi explores the soul’s natural manifestation abilities. Join her in this thought-provoking article!

The law of attraction and manifestation have been trending ideas, especially since the book, Secrets came into publication. A dear friend and spiritual writer, Shivangi shares her reflections from a quantum dream, in this post. I hope you enjoy it, just as much as I did while readying it for this blog!

For the longest time ever I had this innate desire to see what proceeds behind the scenes. I am talking about the theory that says, “All of our reality is a simulation”.

I am sure some of us have already come to this realization and are ready to see the world from a new lens. For those that are skeptical of it, I urge you to keep an open mind and let your experiences talk for themselves. 

For those who are ready to sink deeper, here we go.

Seeing things from the perspective of the spirit takes practice. First, we need to detach from the limited mindset that the world is only the tangible reality that we are living in. We know that as we go into much subtler realms, we start delving into what’s called “spiritual” or “of spirit”.

Then, after letting go of our programming that does not serve us, we can finally embark on the journey of knowing our true nature.

 

One such instance happened to me recently where I became aware in my dream state at the right moment in time. It was around 3:00 am on the day of Mahashivratri ‘21 (significance: it’s the time of the year when the veil that separates both the physical and spiritual worlds is the thinnest).

The following was the dream I had.

Dream sequence 

The place was dark and there were faint lights here and there. All souls were gathered on the edge of the crater-shaped hall. They were composed of light itself, therefore the need to see the place illuminated was not necessary. 

In the middle of the crater was a tall structure composed of a slit in the middle (reference image provided).

This highly advanced pillar (that looked like a monolith) had a special purpose of assigning a unique code to the light beam. There, I was talking to another soul that was explaining the scene to me. A universal commentary was continuing as each soul’s name was being announced. 

One by one, the souls were called to the centre of the crater.

My friend-soul was telling me that, “it’s the process of manifestation”. A soul goes in the middle of the crater and stands right in front of the tall frame. It then gives out a light beam from itself which is captured by the slit and gets converted into a single beam of light. 

This beam of light was exactly how a single thread of spider-web looks like in sunlight. All the glimmer and shine made it look like a white light composed of several different colours.

This was a manifested wave and the process itself was something that I would call a “light transformation”. The unique code assigned to the wave then allows it to be placed at the exact position it’s supposed to.

This wave would then be a part of the larger web that runs through every manifested structure in the universe.

Be it the galaxies, containing several different planets, going through all multiverses on a macro-level and on a micro-level. It encompassed all the things that you can see around yourself, wherever you are. The dream ended at this point.

My reflections 

How do we understand something that is God (the intangible, omnipresent, omnipotent) manifested? What does manifestation look like, technically? 

This dream sequence gave me a sneak preview of how manifestation takes place in the higher levels. 

We make symbols that represent a certain idea. Artworks that speak of an inexplicable concept, light language that can be perceived by the spirit directly, idols that relate to the representation of the most-realized divine incarnations.

Similarly, the light ray in the dream represents a single unique sound/light frequency which comes from an individual expression of the whole. That’s the process of perceiving the intangible in its manifested form. That was a way in which I was shown the greater truth. 

 

Our attempts in making sense of the world with our human minds is quite limited. The quantum dream that I was shown portrayed every thought/desire as a wave, which when gets packed into bigger bundles of waves, makes it manifest physically. 

The light wave itself has a characteristic called frequency. The lower the frequency, the denser and more solid it’s perceived. The higher the frequency, the more spirit-like it is. Related to this is the next point which is the crux of this topic, which we already know as the wave-particle duality. 

All of the matter that we see or not see is a light wave. 

We know human beings have a limited spectrum from which they can perceive light. The electromagnetic spectrum itself might give you an idea about different realities. Since all the realities are separated by the frequency ranges, that makes us think that other beings (faeries, ETs) must be living in different frequency spectrums. 

The concept of reality is so brilliant and the closest I can take this entire dream sequence to, is the scene from the movie Interstellar in which Coop enters the book kaleidoscope-like structure called the tesseract, which was created by “them” or the highly-evolved beings.

Fun exercises for you to try

On a similar note, here’s a small fun exercise that I’d like you to try out now, to see these waves of reality with your own eyes. Be in a dimly-lit place and squint your eyes while looking at a light source, like a lamp. 

What do you see? Does it look like the bundle of light rays keep extending in a few directions? If you squint them further, you would be able to see all the objects’ waves. The same exercise can be done in a well-lit room but light rays from the source are more defined when the surrounding light is minimal. 

Another exercise you can try is, when in a well-lit room, try focusing on the space in-between the objects. 

Something magical that I’ve recently found out is right after waking up, when it’s still dark, go outside and see the moon or any bright light source. You might see a halo of perfect light around the object, even with your eyes wide open. You might even blink a couple of times but that bright halo would remain around it. Seems interesting, eh? 

I’d like you to leave with a thought alongside the above exercises. Do you think that if you unfocused your eyes from the physical, you would actually tune into the spiritual?

Take a mental note of what you are seeing, when you’re un-seeing. And do let me know how it goes!

Closing thoughts 

With this dream I’ve come to a certain level of understanding about the reality that we live in. And I hope to get more pieces of the Reality puzzle to be able to draw a clearer picture going ahead. At the end of all this, I would like to say-:

Well, this was a quantifiable dream and for you dear reader, dream lite! (puns intended)

Sending you love and appreciation,
SS

Shivangi Srivastava
Shivangi Srivastava

Shivangi (Skee) is a spiritual blogger, artist, nature & healing music-lover. She is a Lightworker dedicated to creating heaven on earth.

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Is Smoking, Drinking Or Eating Meat Bad For Your Spiritual Growth?

Can drinking, smoking or eating non-vegetarian food be bad for your spiritual growth? Here is an educated answer to these questions.

Should you quit drinking alcohol or become vegan if you are on the spiritual journey? Is it really important to stop smoking if you want to be spiritual? These are common questions that crop up in our mind, from time to time because we want to know what’s bad for our spiritual growth and then get rid of it. Same as why we leave old jobs and toxic relationships behind.

I want to address this sensitive topic with utmost respect and love for everyone, regardless of what you eat, drink or inhale. At the same time, letting all readers know that after my own spiritual awakening, I did not feel the need to continue casual drinking with office colleagues, have milk, or to eat egg.

As a matter of fact, my body reacted pretty bad to all that, and I naturally weaned off everything that no longer served my wellbeing. I am a vegetarian, and for most parts, caffeine-free (minus the chocolates).

That tone set, let’s address both frames of mind, and educate ourselves on how we want to proceed.

What IS Bad For Your Spiritual Growth?

If we speak high-level, and I mean really high level, there really is no right or wrong. It just is the way it is. And as Michael Singer beautifully reinforces in his book, it’s really us humans who have ‘preferences’ of how things should or should not be.

So, is there anything really bad for your spiritual growth? Yes, and no.

The Universe (and you) are self-correcting. This means, whenever you are off-balance, you automatically feel it and know, deep down inside, that this was too much or too little of what works for you.

It’s kind of like a pendulum inside of you, which naturally swings until it reaches equilibrium. And everyone’s inner pendulum is unique to them.

collection of retro wall clocks in antique store

So when it comes to personal preferences like downing shots of vodka or eating chicken wings, the first person that needs to decide if this works or not, is YOU.

Because every person’s spiritual quest is unique. While some get to their destination meditating, some choose to never sit still. There isn’t only one right way to attain enlightenment.

Related Read: The 4 Ancient Paths of Enlightenment

If you feel like those things don’t serve you anymore, give yourself permission to change your mind. Take a moment, and pause here, to answer this question:

If I never did (activity) again, would something feel missing in me?

Whatever your answer is, is your truth in the moment. And now what?

Step into the why. This is an optional step for those that want to explore their dilemma deeper.

You know that you still get charged inside when you think of doing this activity. It’s important to now ask yourself why it feels necessary to you.

As an example, if you’re using alcohol as a way to numb pain, then it may not be serving you long-term. Of course, pain is painful, and because we aren’t taught how to face it, we are scared to do that. And so, we develop different coping mechanisms.

is drinking bad for your spiritual growth, alcoholic

And if you are using alcohol to numb pain, then its grip on you will be quite intense. There’s a reason why Alcohol Anonymous has a 12-step recovery process – addictions aren’t purely physiological needs. They are rooted much deeper in lack of self-worth.

Asking yourself why something is so important to you, whether it is drinking, smoking or for that matter, staying in an unhealthy relationship will help you become aware of the unconscious desires that you are fulfilling. Even if at a conscious level it can seem to you that there isn’t anything in this for you.

Does science matter in all this?

Initially, when I was reading through different spiritual books and teachings, I was deeply inspired by two people. Sadhguru and the Buddha. And they both had an energy and wisdom in common, which did not need drinking.

It left an impression, and my search led me to scientific inquiry, about the actual disadvantages of alcohol. It might give us a high in the moment, but it does slow the body down. Just like caffeine, which can temporarily recharge you, but can make you crash a few hours later.

scientist, jnana yoga, is alcohol bad for your spiritual growth
The science only matters if you are on the fence, and want to approach the answers logically. This serves people who are deeply rationale and left-brained in their day-to-day life.

But when you want to let a habit go from its root, you have to move beyond education and into the unconscious level patterning of it.

This is one space I am being trained in, to help people become aware of their conditioning and let go of habits when they are ready to. Not because they “think they should”. If that’s something you’d like to talk about, feel free to set some time up on my calendar, here.

Are you doomed if you don’t quit what’s bad for your spiritual growth?

The idea that God will punish us or banish us from heaven because we are not perfect, is outdated. I want to challenge that idea with a simple example.

Let’s say that you call an old-time friend, and they start yelling and hurling curses at you. You are startled, and feel hurt for their actions. After a few days, your friend’s family member reaches out to you, to let you know that your friend is undergoing an episode of bipolarity. And that they’re not really their true self right now.

black couple arguing with each other at home

From being hurt and feeling misunderstood, you would rapidly move into an AHA moment and a state of understanding. It would make sense.

The same is for God. The creator is omnipresent, and thus, always aware of the deeper why in every situation. Therefore, there is no judgment, just compassion.

Knowing all of this, it isn’t to say that you carry on doing what you’re doing because God will forgive everything. There’s nothing to forgive, but if you’re not in alignment with how you really want to live, you won’t live your full potential. And then what? Reincarnation, mwahahaha!

Spiritual jokes aside, I think the conclusion for us to understand is that we are not necessarily being held accountable ‘up there’. But we do need to hold integrity towards ourselves.

It isn’t about what you do, but why you do it that will be your compass.

Concluding Thoughts

Ultimately, the spiritual journey isn’t about living in the duality of what is right or wrong. Rather to transcend it, by neither being charged by what is right, or wrong.

One step at a time, keep asking yourself what serves you, and walk down that path, without judging yourself for doing what wasn’t serving you anymore.

Accepting all parts of you is also a big part of your healing journey. Are you ready to be imperfectly perfect? 🙂

Ready to take your healing deeper? Let’s talk about it! You’re welcome to setup a complimentary 30-minutes call using this form, and learn how you can set your spiritual plans into action. See you soon!

Add some Love & Light to your inbox. Come join the monthly newsletter to get self-healing tools, insights and exclusive spiritual highlights. 🙂

Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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