Sacred Contracts

Have you ever reflected on why you are alive? Although you may not have ever really explored that question in depth, I bet there is a knowing within you that believes there is more to your life than driving to a job that does not fulfill you, interacting with people you don’t enjoy and generally living a passionless life. At least for this article, consider that there is a purpose for your life and you made agreements prior to your birth that would help you fulfill that purpose and bring your unique gifts into this lifetime, gifts that would serve humanity. These agreements are our sacred contracts, according to Caroline Myss, internationally renowned motivational teacher, spiritual instructor, and popular theologian.

Caroline teaches that prior to our birth, we set in place situations and people that will help us unfold into the person we are destined to become. These agreements are made for us to learn certain lessons. It is important to understand our contracts or agreements, as our response to them will determine the level of empowerment we experience as we move throughout our every day life. We have the free will to respond any way we want, however, if we live our life unconsciously and without depth, as many of us do, we will most likely be more reactive and fearful. If we had been living our life consciously, would we be experiencing such internal chaos? We resist being conscious, otherwise we would not demand drugs for anxiety and depression at such alarming rates. They keep us unconscious. I am not proposing that there is not a place for these medications, however, we need to ask ourselves if they are being abused in an effort to numb us from feeling what we need to be feeling in order to live our lives more consciously.

So, we all have sacred contracts in place to help us live more consciously so we can ultimately live our destined lives. Our sacred contracts are contained within a set of 12 archetypes that are unique to each one of us and provide the foundation for our beliefs, attitudes, motivations and personality. Carl Jung, a 20th century Swiss psychologist, brought archetypes to modern consciousness many years ago and Caroline Myss has expanded on his work so we, in our modern life, can use them and work with them as tools to reveal the magical us. Don’t we all really want to know the essence of us and the essence of others? If we understood the archetypes of our children, what powerful guides we could be for them!

I want you to leave this article with some practical information, so I will briefly discuss one of the survival archetypes inherent in all of us. I hope to provide clues to recognize when it is influencing your life. This archetype is the saboteur. The saboteur archetype will alert us when we are faced with choices that may undermine, betray or block our success. Suppose for a moment that you express a desire to change jobs. A friend then proposes you meet her and a colleague for lunch the following day to discuss options the colleague may have for you within a new company she is creating. You respond by saying, “I am too tired to meet tomorrow”, or “I am not feeling well”. You have just wallowed in the shadow energy of the saboteur archetype. You have blocked a potential success, an opportunity to fulfill your desire. When we are on the cusp of empowerment, the saboteur will yell the loudest. If you have ever been in a meeting overflowing with a desire to share a great idea, but don’t because of a fear of humiliation; you have just shared the seat with the saboteur. If you have ever said, “I wish I would have”, the saboteur took center stage. We all have saboteur archetypes. There is nothing wrong with the saboteur or any of our archetypes. We just need to be aware of their animation, work with them and make empowering choices.

The other 3 survival archetypes are the prostitute, the child and the victim. Perhaps we will discuss these three in a subsequent article. The remaining 8 archetypes are unique to you. By the end of September 2009, I will be a Certified Archetypal Consultant and will gladly assist in helping you discover the unique you!

Paula Neys is an Occupational Therapist and the owner of Energy Medicine Services in Northville Michigan. She can be reached at pneys@wideopenwest.com or visit her website at paulaneys.net.