Healing, the Archetypes, and Patterns of Wholeness
Carl Jung said healing happens when one is put in right relationship to the archetypes—or patterns of wholeness. All true healing systems incorporate the process of putting the patient back in touch with these patterns.
My spiritual teacher, Norma T., whose teachings I discuss much more fully in Farming Soul, taught me a number of things which may seem apparent to many, but weren’t to me. One of these teachings had to do with energetics of the patterns of wholeness. She said that our job here on earth is to make ourselves as big as possible. By this she meant we need to learn to expand our auras.
Certainly this is not something I learned in my training to be an analyst, although it was implied. Many of us drawn to Jung and analytical psychology are drawn to this expansion which comes when we listen to the unconscious through dreams or imaginings and incorporate what is missing into our conscious acceptance of our whole selves. We are larger. Larger energies of the Self are accessible.
Norma T. took this a step further. She said this is reflected in the human aura. Constriction of the aura (reflecting dis-ease) results from suppression of unacceptable qualities or feelings, or from too much criticism from self or other. Expansion happens when we are joyful, grateful, and loving life.
She carried this further: when we enlarge our auras, this impacts others. I have learned that if the energies are truly from the Self and in right relationship to the ego, this expansion doesn’t eclipse the other, but provides stimulus for the expansion of his or her own aura.
This is the alchemical operation of multiplicatio, an extension of the one to the many. The student learns by transmission, or resonance, from the higher resonances of the Self stimulated by the teacher’s own personal work. My most important learnings have come from certain teachers in this way. Although these unique teachers—including Norma T.—were ahead of me, I never have felt lesser-than. Rather, I knew just a little more than I could have on my own. My growing edge expanded!
I grow increasingly aware of how important these patterns of wholeness are. Called or not called, they are here, and impact us profoundly. In these next blogs I will explore how some of these patterns have come into my own life, some of them unexpected: the proportions of our home, the scent of the essential oils we grow, walking the age-old pattern of a labyrinth, or simply, like Sabien emerging from the laundry basket, through enjoying life!