Witness to the Fire

Here are some archetypes of PART TWO: THE FALL that I found fascinating and also I have to say very heartbreaking after reading some of the stories from these certain archetypes

1. THE MADWOMEN:  is typically at the heart of every addiction. Her energy is so destructive that it may lead insanity. Madness and addiction have been linked together forever. However through the madness one can find resolution and rediscover the creativity within. Although the Madwoman is scary place to be, it is basically being face to face to your polluted addicted self and that alone is scary and fatal, almost like meeting your death many times. Leonard spoke of the story of a woman named Sasha who from what it seemed to me was taking the process of aging pretty hard. She was miserable most of time and felt that people were constantly making fun of her when she stepped outside her home, like look at this old woman, etc. She would also never let herself really be loved for the simple reason that she felt unworthy of its essence. Drinking was her only way to momentarily escape these feelings of insecurity. The problem was that she needed to drink more and more to acquire some type of satisfaction. Soon enough she had some sort of euphony while being intensely intoxicated, and realized that she was the one putting forth these projections of feeling that the world was against her. She had to hit rock bottom in order to see that that whole time she was the one that was creating this world of unworthiness.
2. THE WORLD’S NIGHT- this I found to be very fascinating, because this is a type of addiction you see in everyday life to a lot of people. The main addiction here is the will to try to control every aspects of your life. Anything that threatened this control is thwarted away. Leonard adds, “We try to control love and human relationships through noisy small talk and gossip, which escalates through alcohol, rather than opening up ourselves to the surprise of genuine conversation.” Personally I am not like this, I am more about living in the moment and really feeling the moment for what it is, however I do notice as I get older it is harder to do. Because this sense of control seems to come into play more as I have reach my adulthood years, when I was younger I hardly had any responsibilities so living in the moment was much easier to do. It all seems to date back to this paradoxical way of life, how to find peace within the paradox of life. This is a daily mission that we all as human beings must constantly endure and most importantly try to succeed from.

In this last section of the book Leonard speaks about the archetypes of THE CREATION, where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

1. THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL- this archetype reaches a point where the person known they have reached rock-bottom, and from that point you can only go up. So although it a Dark Night of the Soul, it is only temporary because here on after is the start of a creation and healing. Leonard claims, “The growth process requires a period of chaos that intervenes between the old state breaking down and the formation of the new state of being. We such a state dramatically manifested in adolescence, the transition between childhood and adult life.”  This quotes sums up the essence of letting go of whatever that was holding you back before and venturing forward to a new life, hopefully a life that brings much spiritual growth.
2. THE BATTLEGROUND- this archetype allows the person to continue the healing process by confronting all the dark feelings of pain and resentment that were repressed through their addiction and allowing it to resurface. Then the person works through these emotions with the twelve step program that Leonard advocates a lot throughout this book. Here is where we see Jungian theory of individuation come into play. Jung states, “The fight against the paralyzing grip of the unconscious calls forth mans creative powers. That is the source of all creativity, but it needs heroic courage to do battle with these forces and to wrest from them the treasure hard to attain. Whoever succeeds in this has triumphed indeed.”  This archetype is one that is most significant because it is the beginning of learning to own your shadow and face it, never deny it. It may very well be a Battleground essence because you are in a type of a spiritual fight if you will to find peace within our own shadow. I do not think it should be anything that we should ever be ashamed of, because we ALL have a shadow. It starts with recognizing it, then accepting, and letting it go as it pleases.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; I thought it was very touching and made to acceptable to read and understand people who are suffering from addiction through, along with the people who are closest to them as well. I found instances in some of these archetypes where it relates to my life. Even though it may be sometimes hard to admit that we all have this figure of addiction in our lives whether it is food, shopping, romantic relationships, sex, drugs, and alcohol, it does linger around are lives. The best thing to do is own it and then learn ways to create a more spiritual/ creative way to express yourself. Now there are so many way to do this, we can take yoga, begin to mediate, drawing, painting, creating music…etc. whichever way you can feed this creative force that can be beneficial for you in return, helping you to grow spiritually to find that peace within the paradox of life.