SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM FALLEN GURUS

& THE PERPLEXED SEEKER # 4

(Apologies if the colors are distracting - Google or the tricksters sometimes have their own way. Tried to change it but couldn't)

So, finding the "way" is a balance between the light and dark polarities of what's inside of us, 

faced with the challenges that life brings, 

as well as whats outside of us on the dark side of the veil between the worlds. 

What we do with them - succumb or prevail?

The Higher Self, Good Inclinations, Spacious (Christ or Buddha) Mind and our spirit guides of the light help us subordinate our; Shadow (Evil Inclination,) Ego, Monkey or Narrow Mind and the tricksters or dark spirit forces to a higher good. 

Spiritual practice is critical in helping us make good decisions.

These obstacles are always present and we are continually being challenged by Free Will and Choice, now, ever increasingly with the allure of rapidly advancing technology.

We should ask ourselves if we can attend to needs and not wants.

Samsara is the ever present challenge of a life bound to a sensory body and its evanescent pleasures which cause the ongoing cycle of death and rebirth. How committed are we to finding our way to a Causal vibration or having to come back again to the Astral realm and reincarnate ?

Krishnamurti said; 

Discernment is choice-less 

especially when we become fully aware of the consequences of our Karma.

"It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has himself prevented from becoming realities..." Kiekegaard

Click to highlight then play 

_-_MP3s/15_Do_Not_Bend.mp3

We have talked before about the Four Basic Archetypes 

HEALER

TEACHER

WARRIOR-LEADER-ADULT

VISIONARY

If we go clockwise around the Native American Medicine Wheel  we can create our own wheel to suit. I should add that the Four Directions are nature bound and belong to everyone - Isaiah the prophet had a vision about the six directions millennia ago.

This is my concept, based loosely, with respect, on Lakota tradition with help from Angeles Arrien when it comes to the archetypes. I have also introduced a chakra and used the elements that coincide with that chakra and the increasing vibration we should attain as we travel from child to adolescent to adult and to visionary; i.e.

 from earth (the child) 

to water (the adolescent) 

to fire (the adult or leader or warrior) 

 to air and ether (the visionary.) 

All four upper chakras are more part of the Visionary direction. Ether would relate to the 7th chakra in the East and the highest vibration (? the "true" wisdom teacher and not the fallen guru.)

The seasons and colors are retained though where you put them is arbitrary and even varies from tribe to tribe.

I have omitted power animals. 

 I wanted to focus on the shadow side of each direction in relationship to its age group, its chakra (or chakras in the case of the Visionary) and their archetypes and how these may affect us later in life. 

The child needs a loving attentive parent or caregiver. 

The adolescent needs a wise elder/s to guide them skillfully to the adult in the north. 

The adult will need good roll models to help them in the warrior phase of their lives 

and the visionary will need wisdom teachers with integrity.

The Wounded Child and Healer Archetype of the South

The South is colored red because it represents summer in the northern hemisphere. The first chakra is our survival chakra and a secure upbringing is critical in childhood. Again with apologies for not being a psychologist, I think that Attachment theory is where problems could begin, in the severely wounded child of the south. 

The Ancestors

and if we cannot embrace our own child more completely how damaging can that be since the child is in "survival" 1st chakra mode.

"Attachment theory states that a strong emotional and physical attachment to at least one primary caregiver is critical to personal development."

 Secure children feel "seen, secure, soothed and safe" and that their caregivers always have their backs. Therefore they will also feel free to explore their environments safely. 
The "Insecure Avoidant" child resulting from an inattentive neglected childhood may result in low self-esteem which possibly leads to psychopathology if unattended. They are classically devoid of emotion, detached, independent and only live in a physical reality. Unless recognized and healed this can follow them through all of the four directions. 

The "Insecure Ambivalent or Resistant" child who has a fickle ambivalent parent or attendant may learn not to be able to rely on  attention. This child may become needy and fears to explore the environment. S/he may withdraw from relationships and intimacy because she cannot trust any attention they receive as being reliable. They may also be needful of validation and admiration. 

More subtle and common, however, is the 
"Wounded Child of the South" 
who never received 
Unconditional Love. 

Although the wounded child of the south can manifest in any archetype later in life, the wound needs to be acknowledged to be healed. Hence the implication of the Healer Archetype being in the south may also be that the wounded child of the south needs or will need a healer to be healed. Sometimes that wound if attended and healed facilitates them becoming a healer later in life.

These children usually have attentive, even overly attentive parents who have achievement rather than wholeness as their goal. e.g. The child who comes home with excellent grades and gets constant accolades and "love" because of their efforts. This can be burdensome to their happiness.

They will often tend to be attached to;

Perfection rather than excellence.

Knowledge rather than wisdom and have "the need to know."

Are more interested in intensity and another's persona rather than love.

Since the parents are often performance oriented, some children - if they fail - could develop a victim mentality especially if they have a sibling who receives more "love" because of greater competence.

Some who are empathetic and heart felt, if they become healers,    may absorb too much of their client's hurtful burdens. They may even blame themselves for the client's shadow projecting undeserved criticism on them for things that the client themselves should own.
(The wounded child of the south who understands his own wounds and heals them may also become a healer because she has the compassion and later develops the skills to help others.) 

The Shadow of the Teacher Archetype of the West

It's not so much that the wounded adolescent becomes a teacher but rather s/he needs a skilled teacher/s or elder/s to guide them to the north. If the teacher has a lot of wisdom s/he may even be able to guide the adolescent through the North (the Adult) to the East (the Visionary) and to their ultimate destiny.

This Shadow side may be;

Attached to outcome and control.

All knowing rather than open to ideas.

Detached from the student.

Judgmental rather than discerning.

Critical rather than supportive.

Curriculum rather than learning based.

Emotional and reactive rather than passionate. 

Often a disciplinarian who is punitive rather than corrective while being encouraging.

It doesn't help that our educational system stresses results rather than learning and many teachers would like to be different but cannot. Finland supposedly has the best, most effective eduction system and their principles are somewhat alarming to us in the U.SA. The children do not get homework and so have more time to play. They are not tested because testing is thought to be valid for only one type of learning. They learn to think and explore and love learning, not be burdened by it. Finland's main premise is in having happy children by allowing them to be children. There may be a good case for effective home schooling.
I am reminded of Roger Federer the brilliant tennis player who was instructed by his overattentive, ambitious father from a very young age and admitted to hating tennis.

These four basic archetypes were present in indigenous communities when life was hard but more simple. These communities usually also had rites of passage to help the youth through the West which is often the dark night of the soul (therefore black in color.) The season is fall - the time for "hibernation," introspection and going inward. Hormones are raging (second chakra) and emotions are hard to handle. The adolescent often is confused as to who he is and where she may be going. 
The basic principle of the rite of passage was for the elders to take the adolescent away from the parents  - in the case of a girl, at menarche, to be guided by the crones but not the mother - in the case of a son, the elders but not the father. Rites of passage sadly have fallen by the wayside in modern societies but are being reintroduced, unfortunately only rarely. These rites were arduous and their intension was to help groom the adolescent into a responsible adult.
Sadly with a 50% divorce rate, a single parent upbringing and no meaningful rite of passage, the primal urges of the adolescent may  be unfulfilled. We need to take steps to fill the gap in some way with an embodied rite of passage or some form of initiation.

Next week we will discuss the Adult and Visionary archetypes.