Everyone has a story. Research indicates that we unconsciously change our life stories over the course of time. If we choose to give creative expression to our personal experience, we can discover the beginnings of a myth that may provide hints to our true destiny. In the New Testament, the Christ is quoted as saying “truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The following is an example of using Jung’s Divine Child Archetype to creatively express my faith as a Contemplative Christian.
Once upon a time there was a young blonde child who was born into a Navy family that traveled near and far. With every move, she grew more accustomed to turning on a dime and moving forward into unknown territory making friends where she could. She learned how to read people, who to trust and who to avoid. She learned how to swim in the Gulf of New Mexico and the Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans. Most of her days were spent outside. When she couldn’t be outside, she passed time daydreaming, writing poems and singing like Ethel Merman. Her mother told her that she was not meant for this world. Finally she realized her mother was right – she was not meant for her mother’s world.
So. . . she moved to New Orleans where everyone called her doll and asked her if she’d had enough to eat. She learned to dance, write, sing and love in this town called the Big Easy. Some years later, the travel lust born of her early experiences caused her to move across the Sabine River to Austin, Texas. There everyone called her by her real name and asked if she’d invested in Dell stock.
Then one day a bad thing happened. During a routine exam, the doctor told her he had detected a disease that would eventually cripple her. So she searched far and wide for a healer, going to real doctors and to fake doctors. She talked to shaman, spiritual teachers and even visited a fortune teller looking for the majic that could change her future. She traveled to the Yucatan Jungle to find a healer named Daniel that lived south of Akumal next to a cynote. She did everything anyone told her to do so that she would not have to be crippled. When she thought she could go no further, she met a true human being who told her she already knew everything she needed to know, and that she should trust herself.
Then the young blonde child she once was awakened within and helped the woman to remember that she knew how to turn on a dime and move forward into unknown territory. The woman then recalled how to read people and who to trust and who to avoid. She remembered that she is blessed and a daughter of the most high God. She remembered that her destiny is to help others, and that her real name is Nance.
Today, Nance is writing, teaching, counseling and living happily ever after with her husband Dr. Dennis McSeveney, and the black cat called Monsieur Romeo du Bay Bay. Together they spend their time dining, listening to music and having fun with their friends in the fine city of New Orleans, where people are learning how to turn on a dime and move forward into unknown territory.
