You Were Born With This Knowledge.

Remember?
About three years ago, my wife Michelle gave birth to our first child, River, and our
lives have taken on a whole new meaning ever since. As one of my teachers once told
me, If you think that shamanic medicine is strong, watch out! Children are the
strongest medicine of all. I cannot express how right he was! What an incredible
growth experience. My son River is like a cosmic mirror who reflects every emotion
and thought pattern that we show him. Were constantly learning from this little one.
The most profound teaching to date has been the realization that River came into this
world with a unique personality already in place. From the moment he could open his
eyes, hes had a certain relationship with the world that couldnt have been taught by
us. The midwives all chuckled at how alert and coordinated he was on the day he was
born, as he deftly smacked their probing hands away. By the time he was a month old
he was already demonstrating an understanding of how the world worked.Intrigued by
this phenomenon, I decided to do some research on these innate abilities and found
some pretty mind blowing information from a couple of the greatest thinkers in
human history, Plato and Carl Jung.Both Plato and Jung taught that we humans are
born with a variety of built-in knowledge sets that each relate to a particular
archetype. Jung defined archetypes as innate, universal prototypes for ideas that may
be used to interpret observations. He felt that these patterns of behavior were
embedded in a collective unconscious. A few that we commonly identify with are:
the hero, the sage, the martyr, the jester, and the teacher.
Jung referred to them as psychological organs, because both are morphological
constructs that have developed through
human evolution.
Harnessing the healing potential of archetypes:
In more recent times, legendary healers like Caroline Myss have taken Jung and
Platos work a step further by teaching patients how to work with their dominant
archetypes in order to achieve substantial physical and emotional healing.
*One of the first steps in many of the archetypical healing modalities is to hone in on
what archetype(s) you are currently leading with in your day to day life.
This may sound strange but this strategy is not new. Although Jung and Plato made
the archetype concept popular, these symbols have been used in folk medicine and
folklore for thousands of years. Ive come across many of these archetypes in my own
healing work, but under different names. If you scan the list of Carl Jungs 5 root
archetypes below, you will probably recognize some of them.
Jungs Famous Five:
The Self: the regulating center of the psyche and facilitator of individuation.

The Shadow: the opposite of the ego image, often containing qualities with which the
ego does not identify, but which it possesses nonetheless.
The Anima: the feminine image in a mans psyche.
The Animus: the masculine image in a womans psyche.
The Persona: the image we present to the world, usually protecting the Ego from
negative images (like a mask), and considered another of the subpersonalities.
Looking at the above list, I noticed quite a few parallels between Jungs five
archetypes and the sacred symbols used by other indigenous cultures. For example,
Jungs Shadow is what the Lakota Tribe of North America refers to as the Shadow
Man. Both of these terms refer to the darker side of our persona that can sabotage us
but also help / teach us.
It doesnt matter which one youre referring to, these powerful symbols of our psyche
and spirit are almost always looked at as being an innate aspect of who we are. In
most schools of traditional healing, there seems to be a strong emphasis placed on this
ancient, yet extremely relevant phenomenon.
One of my favorite aspects of each archetype is that they always possess dualistic,
positive and negative characteristics. You might have helped someone greatly today
and are beaming with The Hero archetype, but watch out because this archetype also
comes with a potentially dangerous and self-destructive dose of individualism (I can
do anything, and I dont need your help!) which can get you in to trouble.
On the other hand, some of the less appealing ones, like The Prostitute, have some
very redeeming and useful qualities. This particular archetype has been associated
solely with women for hundreds of years, but according to Carolyn Myss, this is
100% inaccurate. Myss sees the prostitute as an innate male and female trait of
demonstrating a willingness to negotiate the sale of his or her power. Not just the
act of selling the physical body, but any service we have to offer, including hard work
and creativity in our professional life. Myss says that the potentially dark aspect of
embracing our inner prostitute is that one needs to admit to themselves that I can be
bought. However, if we acknowledge that we use certain positive aspects of the
prostitute, we turn it from scandalous to sacred.
Throughout my day, I can see 2 to 5 different characters within me at play from hour
to hour, sometimes in combination. Although Im a novice in this particular school of
wisdom, I can say this: when I fully embrace the archetype that I am currently
exhibiting, without guilt, pride, or shame, I harness a deeper source of empowerment
and inner peace.
My question for you: Which archetypes do you associate most strongly with, and how
have they positively or negatively affected your life?
Stay curious, Nick Polizzi
Director, The Sacred Science