How do archetypes heal us?

When we think the gods want us to worship them we misunderstand their purpose. The gods don’t want to be worshiped. They want to be manifested. Life is a great gift and maybe they’re envious. Or maybe they need us as much as we need them; maybe they need a physical life to actually experience for themselves their own myths. When we resist (or when we, as their vessels, are so warped by our childhood traumas that they get frustrated) they will force themselves through us, like a swollen, raging river being forced through a blocked canal. When this happens not only is their manifestation more literal, it’s more compulsive. It’s also more unconscious; people living out compulsive archetypal myths can’t really understand or even see what it is that they’re doing, and they certainly can’t control themselves. And when we try to resist the gods in order to ease our suffering... or because someone tells us that what we’re doing is wrong... then they'll push through even harder.

I’m not sure how to break this pattern but I suspect that it’s not by trying to get other gods to act as counterweights, as Jean Shinoda Bolen suggests. Like I said, the gods are jealous, and the more you try to pull someone from their grip, the harder they’re going to hold on and then the worse things will get. I think if you want to heal your warped manifestation you have to work through your god(dess), not try to do an "end run" around them.

I do think other gods besides our own can help us... so long as we don’t deny our gods their rightful due. It’s fine. In fact, it’s great to give all the gods your respect, and they in turn will bless you with their gifts. However, any help from them usually feels alien, as if it's coming from outside of us, compared to the inner voice and being of our own god(dess.)

When we've been traumatized we become compelled to blindly, literally act out our archetype. The more traumatized we are, the more extreme, un-self aware and compulsive we become. Such "acting out" is the result of abuse, whether because our true selves were never validated, or from literal physical and emotional abuse. In abuse our archetypes become rigid and extreme, and we only express their very worst traits.

    Zeus as psychotic tyrant
    Aphrodite as heartless playgirl
    Hera as vindictive shrew
    Mars as violent thug
    Hades as literal abductor
    Hephaestus as an anti-social, compulsive creator (your stereotypical geek)
    Dionysus as out of control drug addict
    Demeter as the woman with twenty kids
    Athena literally resorts to criminal behavior to protect “her” boss, even murder
    Persephone, as a literal abductee of the “underworld,”  goes insane (Ophelia)

I don’t know if a person who's gotten to this extreme can be healed, but we must remember: Each one of us is the chosen of our god(dess), and the gods are jealous. They’re not giving up on a single one of us. And they are powerful – they are the generative, life creating energies of the universe. The gods are as compelled to live through us as we are to live them through us.

Becoming aware of what (and who) your archetype is, and why they do what they do, is a great place to start. Being shown a vision of your archetype at their best (your archetype's corresponding Minor Arcana tarot card) is even better. When people see their best selves reflected back at them they’re rightfully dazzled… and they’ll see how wounded and unworthy their present way of manifesting their god is. And then there’s each archetype’s divine gift, represented by their corresponding Major Arcana card. I have a hunch that this is the force that compels the gods themselves to, in turn, compel us to manifest them. We can only benefit by meditating on our gods’ spiritual gifts. This is completely different from being told you’re unacceptable as you are and have to change so you can fit someone else's idea of "normal" or "right."

Another way to heal is by becoming familiar with your god(dess)'s story. Their story can help us to see what it is we’re doing, why, and to put our lives and our actions into a mythically meaningful context. Perhaps most importantly, it can illuminate the path to our healing. Myths can be interpreted, just like dreams, from the symbolic level to the every day one, showing us the path out of the mire in which we may find ourselves, if we only have the courage to take it.