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incantations

week 4. the carnevale

love your fate with the

freak-charmer method

Radically embrace fate. We all have parts of ourself we'd rather not love. We all contend with objectionable realities. We all have desires that are inevitably bound to equally strong, contrasting aversions. We'll bring balance to the contrast by deep diving into our shadows and meet our freak-show "monsters" with rich, freak-nasty compassion.

homework - week 4.

Revisit your archetypes. Give them a home. Draw a wheel with 11 spokes radiating out of the center.

Cast your archetypes: Over the course of this week, give yourself a set time to construct your reverent grief ritual. Notice how allowing yourself to feel into this space strengthens your integrity and fortifies reverence for your heart. Write about the impact and experience daily.

Journal prompt: Maybe some of your archetypes feel out of place in their houses. Get curious about how the archetypes have acted out in these arenas to serve your growth.

Week 4 - Lesson 1.

Casting Archetypes

You are your best fortune teller

The Archetypal Wheel is an intuitive tool that makes symbolic information accessible to you.  Your 12 archetypes become even more significant when you observe them at work in the houses that signify 12 different aspects of your life.  Like other intuitive tools, including Tarot cards and the “I Ching,” the Wheel helps you decode the behind-the-scenes patterns of your life.  It shows you how your experiences and relationships are spiritual dramas filled with opportunities for personal transformation.

The 3 realms

The Chronos contains our everyday understanding of physical time and space—minutes, hours, days, years—and it’s what carries the most weight in ones psyche.  This is where our history lives.  Things are static and happen very slowly.  The archetypes here are the ones we were born with.  They can move around between the different houses, but it’s always those primary 12 you’ll find in Chronos because they are the ones that are always with you.

The Kairos is present time, the here and now.  In Greek, the word means “the right or opportune moment.”  This is where choice lives.  In this model, the archetypes in the Kairos are chosen consciously because we can sense the energy of them as something that we are either experiencing now or could call upon to help us in the present.  For example, I may not be born with the Engineer archetype, but if I were to find myself stranded on a deserted island, it would serve me to enlist the help of the Engineer in that moment to help me to build myself a shelter or a raft.

The Cosmic is the realm of timeless time and spaceless space.  It’s the realm of heaven and endless possibilities, where spontaneous healing and “miracles” occur.  It is not bound by any physical laws of time and space.  It’s where guidance lives, and grace.  The archetypes that land here are chosen blindly and viewed as divinely selected soul companions to inspire and assist you on your journey.

The twelve houses

The Archetypal Wheel houses are divided as follows:

1. Personality, Ego: the face you present to the outside world

2. Life Values: ownership, finances, your relationship to earthly power

3. Self-expression, Siblings: the power of choice

4. Home: establishing your emotional foundation

5. Creativity, Good Fortune: erotic energies, including creativity, sexuality, and synchronicity/chance

6. Occupation and Health: seeking security in the physical world

7. Relationships: marriage and partnerships

8. Other People’s Resources: stocks, inheritance, death and closure

9. Spirituality: wisdom, publishing, travel

10. Highest Potential: completing the integration of the self

11. Interaction with the World: relating your creativity to humanity

12. The Unconscious

casting director

The Round Table: the Carneval of your life

1. Create a container for your casting ritual by lighting a candle and incense and inviting your guides and guardians into your poetic ritual.
2. Lay your archetype wheel on a table or on the floor.  Consider surrounding the wheel with 12 tea lights to honor each house.
3. If you did the homework assignment from Week 2, your archetypes should be written on a piece of paper, crumpled to hide the name and placed in a bowl to "charge" on your altar (or special spot) for a couple of weeks or so. Remove the bowl from your altar (or special spot) and thank the spirits and yourself for giving it energy and presence to incarnate.
4. One-by-one, place each crumpled paper on the wheel in the Chronos realm. Do not reveal the name. Let the energy of the paper guide you to place it in the house that feels right.
5. Once all your papers are in place, unfold them and write them into the Archetype Wheel. Consider the implications and how this serves your growth. Consider making your archetype wheel a work of art.
6. Choose 12 more archetypes from the list and place them in the Kairos realm. These are like the guardian angels that you deliberately choose to serve each house and the archetypes therein. You don't have to cast them blindly or crumple them.
7. Choose 12 more archetypes "randomly", without looking or considering the implications. Close your eyes and allow your hand to be moved by divine guidance. Crumple them, like before, and cast them blindly. These are your cosmic servitors. Feel free to choose a repeat if it feels right. Once they are in place, unfold them and write them in. These are your divine servitors and guides.

your wheel is cast

refresher

Archetype list

An Abridged list of Archetypes

Click here for a detailed description of over 70 archetypes, including most of those in the above list.

• What events or personal characteristics led me to choose this archetype?
• How long has this archetypal pattern been a part of my life?
• What role has this archetype played for me?
• Which prominent people have interacted with the aspect of my nature supported by this archetype? (For instance, if it’s the Teacher archetype, think of the people who have played important roles in your own education or inspired you to be a teacher to others.)
• What relationship might it have to my personal unfinished business – to those people I haven’t forgiven, or to events in the past that I can’t let go of? And might this archetype now help me in healing those situations?
• What myths, fairy tales, or spiritual stories do I associate with this archetype?
• Has this archetype appeared in my dreams?
• Does thinking of this archetype make me feel empowered or disempowered?

You should also look for spiritual resonance in your archetypes. Ask yourself:

• What impact has this archetype had on my spirituality?
• What have I learned about my own shadow aspect through this archetype?
• Has it caused me to block or forgo change that needs to happen?
• What immediate guidance might this archetype have to offer me in the present moment?

After questioning each prospective archetype, weed out those that are not genuinely part of your round table, and then return to the list to select replacements. Continue this process until you have eight additional archetypes that you feel confident play a major role in your life. Combined with the four common survival archetypes, you now have your 12 round table archetypes.

Week 4 - Lesson 2.

charm the freaks

lA drama du carnevale

The greatest creative works of your life may arise from your mythos. You've played the Casting Director and cast your archetypes into the archetype wheel. Now, you get to play the Screen Writer. After the course is done, you may choose to create a mythos for every archetype in your house, but now we will only focus on the freaks. 

Why the freaks?

If our magic isn't going the way we want, wither our subconscious archetypes are likely driving the ship. The freak-charmer method is a 1-2-power-punch to solve this problem.

When we really allow ourselves to feel compassionately connected to the motivations of our inner-freaks and give them full permission to be what they are, we create a container for them to act as wildly beautiful as they need. We nurture ourselves. We feed our demons and pacify their anger because we are actually seeking to understand them, rather than battling them.

This brings them into balance. They are the more difficult actors in your cast. The ones who get the stage all the time can be given more attention later. In this course we will only focus on our freaks because they deeply need our love in order to serve our liberation.

What makes a freak

Simple put, rejection. Think about some of the things you deeply desire. Aside from sense gratification. Now consider the corresponding aversions.

For example: If we deeply desire love, we are averse to being without love. If we deeply desire a mother who nurtures us, we are averse to a mother's inability to nurture. Consider how your most rejected archetype plays into your greatest aversions.

How do you continue to shame this archetype? How does the archetype sabotage your success or dreams?

Compassion charms & coaxing

This may be some of the most challenging work you'll do in your life. It's never easy, but the rewards are exponentially fulfilling.

Write a poem, or story, or song for your freak archetype. In this story, you are a Mistro or Mistress, directing a Carnevale of Wonders. Your work of art is an official invitation to join the Carnevale. It is both a job offer and a love offer. Create your work in such a way that you let your archetype know that even though it is grotesque or violent or unreasonable or ill, it has a home in your freak-show. Let them know that you are willing to see them, feel them, listen to them, and understand them. Let them know that they will be given a voice and a spotlight. Let them know that they will be given love and they will be nurtured and loved. Let them know that the dark days are over and you will take them into your house (err gypsy trailer.)

Make your work of art/song/letter elaborate. Paint it, perfume it, sprinkle your alter wax on it. Make it count. You archetype may be very shy to trust you after many years of rejection. They may act out and make you feel angry. They may stay hidden for a while. Make your intentions known.

Week 4 - Lesson 3.

contracts

fetish meditations

Once you've composed your prose and constructed your art, it's time to actually do the work. Prepare a sacred space to profess your intentions. Make it a space where you feel safe to cry or wail or meditate for a very long time.

fetish for the fetish

Fetish A: The part of you that is oh so kinky to do things the rest of you feels is wrong. For example: I am deeply empathic and I have had a kinky habit of falling in love with narcissists and sociopaths.  It was really "kinky" to prove my worth, show the depths of my compassion and it was a thrilling black-hole. The anxiety turned me on. I couldn't see the why behind the pattern until I did this work.

Fetish B: The object that represents the archetypes you'll call upon in order to unearth your sacred contract and bring compassion to your freak archetype. Check out your Archetype Wheel. Find the house of your most rejected archetype, a.k.a. the freak - they would be in the Chronos realm. The other two servitor archetypes in that house will serve to give you compassion and strength in your meditation. 

Make or find 2 objects to hold during your meditation - one for each servitor in your freak's house.

The archetype fetish in your left hand will serve to call wisdom into the empty space of your meditation. It usually represents the feminine aspect.

They archetype fetish in your right hand will serve your indestructible strength as you meet your rejected archetype with great compassion. It usually represents the masculine aspect.

Consider giving your fetishes auditory finishes so that you can shake them or ring them as you call upon their strength

reviewing the contract

Contracts with our Chronos archetypes are life-long. They will always be with us and rejecting them never makes them go away. Shadow-work and deep-dive meditations are essential for maintaining healthy partnerships with our archetypes.

1. Set a sacred stage for your fetish meditation.
2. Hold your servitor archetype fetishes in your hands. 
3. Begin with your electric fire breath-work
4. As you practice, call in the blessings of your guardians and guides
5. When your electric-fire breath-work is done, focus on your rejected archetype
6. Create hollow space in your heart for the freak
7. Notice the thoughts that arise. Come back to the hollow space and just let it be front and center in your freak show.
8. If/when you feel like rejecting the freak, allow your right-hand fetish to give your strength to make hollow space for that part of yourself you've rejected.
9. If/when you feel like the space is there but your rejected freak is not filling your heart-space, allow your left-hand fetish to call wisdom into the empty space, thereby calling the freak in - like a dog whistle. 
10. The left hand allows compassionate presence and curiosity while the right offers strength and poise to accept truth.
11. When you finally feel deep compassion in the truth of the rejected part of yourself, consider their motivations. Consider the implications on your desire and aversions. Consider the experiences that inform these truths.
12. Continue using your fetishes to bring compassion and wisdom to your fetish.
13. When you are ready, take three deep breaths, holding each one for a bit. First breath, thank your left hand archetype for the support. Second breath, thank the right hand archetype. Third breath, thank yourself for your courage.
14. End your meditation and journal about your experience.

Food for thought

Now that you have fed your demon and pacified a bit of shame, give your inner-freak a voice. You've invited it to be a star, now they get to shine.

Journal about your findings. Journal about how the inner freak may sing. What would the voice be like? How would they dress? How would they feel special and loved? You've spent some time in compassion so you'll have a bit of a better feeling about how they can be who they are in a special space. What kind of poetry might they write? How might they dance? What do they need to say to the world.

Write it all down. Let it marinate over the next few weeks. You will conduct an elaborate public ritual to honor your inner-freak.