Archetype of the Saboteur

Tony Crisp

We all have something of a saboteur working in our life somewhere. It can be as subtle as the beliefs you hold, preventing a certain direction in life; or it can be a full time action destroying your own best interests.

I remember while at college with other adult students a woman telling me several times that women were not allowed - in a male dominated society - to do certain things. She was in her fifties and said that for instance in her youth women were not allowed to work. This struck me as some sort of story she was telling herself as my mother, nearly three decades older than her, had worked ever since I was born. I can't remember ever hearing my mother saying she wasn't allowed to do things. So here we have a solid belief that stands as a block to that woman's expression.

Another example is given by a man. Having had a few bad times with his mother from which he had developed anger and resentment, while using his dreams as a way to unfold, he dreamt he had crashed his car. He walked out from the crash unhurt, and actually felt glad the car was wrecked. We he examined his feelings, he saw with surprise the car was his means of getting to work and achieving things. When he dug deeper he came upon the desire to constantly ruin his own achievements or means of achieving. The reason being that he never wanted to give his mother the pleasure of seeing him succeed in life.

Saboteur

The Saboteur

The sabotage the man was undertaking might be expressesd in another way by attempts to ruin othe rpeople's lives by spreading rumours or directly attacking or damaging a relatiosnip they are in. And the saboteur in us is an influence leading us to constantly complain. If we have enough excuses lined up, it will enable us always to squirm out of making any creative changes in our life or in the world.

As can be seen, the saboteur hides behind a variety of guises, self preservation being one - if I don't stick my neck out I wont lose my head. The woman mentioned was probably using her saboteur as a way of avoiding action in which she might have felt she would fail. If so then it would have been a protection against failure.

The man's saboteur was an expression of his misguided anger. Another source of energy might be that of living by certain moral guidelines, and so putting oneself beyond the involvement that would lead to opportunity. Modesty could be another way of doing this. By maintaining that we are not worthy or capable, we avoid the challenges, and lose the excuses that we gain by being modest, or through being depressed or anxious. Through this we may avoid growing into a more positive and active person because it is 'safer' to remain in our own self destructive habits of thought or feeling.

Recognising the saboteur brings an enormous change. Then we not only gain insight into our own internal 'terrorists', but we can also see them at work in those around us. That is the positive side of the archetype; the insights gained from its awareness of the powers directed against our personal unfoldment.

Useful questions are:

Am I in any way aware of how my saboteur works?

Do I have the courage to step out of the defenses I build and face the possibilities of failure, of rejection or personal insight?

What action of the saboteur can I see in those around me, and how does that apply to me?

Archetype of the Shapeshifter

Tony Crisp

In Western society there is little understanding of the power and influence of shapeshifter. In fact most people only meet the negative aspect of this flow of influence in their life.

The source of the shapeshifter power is not in its ability to move between different guises. That is only the external expression of something very profound. Form is only one polarity of our existence. At the other pole is formlessness, the spirit without

physical shape, the void of Buddhism that is nothing but holds all possibility within it.

As we mature and realise these paradoxical opposites of our nature, and as we identify less with the form we have as a body, the power of shapeshifter comes more fully into our experience.

Shapeshifter

Shapshifter

What it brings with it is what might be called involved detachment.

Usually we might think of detachment as meaning a sort of avoidance of something, especially people or physical pleasure. However, the very term shapeshifter includes the word shape, and so implies form, even though the form can be changed. This is because the archetype of shapeshifter stands at the very balance between form and formless; identification and the void. With its power we can live in the world and yet not be possessed by it. We can be involved in events or relationships and yet not be dependent upon them for our identity o sense of self. In fact we know that we are paradoxical in nature, having form and yet at the same time existing as formless spirit.

Of course there can be polarities even in this. So someone who realises themselves as the paradoxical balance between form and formless, might polarise on the side of form, and live a life of change and detachment not centred on the eternal spirit. In this case they move from situation to situation, from relationship to relationship without bonds.

However, if we are to look at what it is to be a full human being, then we must look beyond the polarities of form and formless. We are also, in the structure and development of our very body, everything from a ting group of cells as seen just after conception, through a plant like growth, into fish and animal form, Our brain too carries this heritage of the past, having at least three levels, the human, the ape or mammalian brain underlying the human, and beneath them both the R or reptilian brain. All of these many forms of life ar within us, and as we are liberated from complete identification with our present human form and presonality, we inherit this wider wealth of being.

Or they can polarise on the side of the formless and exist as a type of ascetic not forming links with the everyday world, and remaining detached from it.

The balance produces that fully formed and mature man or woman who loves but not in a possessive way; who builds and creates, but is not egoistically tied to their work; who lives, and yet is somehow a lens for something more than human to shine through.

Useful questions are:

Am I identified so fully with my physical looks and bodily shape that I cannot recognise the formless in me?

Is the formless a reality to me, and does it release me from full identification with my physical life?

Where do I stand in the balance between form and formless?

Archetype of the Manadala

Tony Crisp

If one could produce a graphic image of the whole of human nature, many different forms might be integrated within an overall shape, such as a circle or square. Also, if it were possible to have a visual presentation of a person's inner world of mind, weaknesses, strengths, order, confusion, and quality, each person would appear differently. Some would be internally jumbled, divided and ugly; others symmetrical, integrated and beautiful.

Because the unconscious produces dreams, and because dreams are imagery that give form to the otherwise abstract elements of internal human nature, there arise in some dreams shapes or patterns which depict an overall view of ones own inner condition. Carl Jung drew attention to the circle and square designs in some dreams, calling them mandalas - which is a Sanskrit word meaning circle, and referring to religious symbols - and seeing them as representing the nucleus of the human identity. Although we are, in our everyday life, the magical and mysterious process of life, it is difficult for us to actually answer the question 'Who am I'? or 'What am I'? with any lasting conviction.

The mysterious essence of ourselves is met in dreams as a circular or square object or design; as the sun, a flower, a square garden with a round pond in the middle, or a circle with a square or quartered design within it, a circle with cross within, a revolving or flying cross shaped object. Classical symbols from all nations use this theme, and we can find it in the Round Table of king Arthur, in the centre of which the Holy Grail appeared; the healing sand paintings of the Navaho Indians; the zodiac; circle dances; stone circles; the Buddhist wheel of birth and death; and so on.

{short description of image}

A Tibetan Mandala

Astrological Zodiac

The circle usually symbolises a natural wholeness, our inner life as nature has shaped it. The square shows wholeness we have helped shape by conscious co-operation with our inner world or the healing power of the Self. There are two main reasons why one produces this theme in ones dreams. It occurs in children or people meeting internal or external shocks, and produces a strengthening of the vulnerable identity in meeting the varied influences they face. It arises in people who are meeting and integrating the wider life of their being existing beyond the boundaries of their usual interests, or what they allow themselves to experience. The contact with the Self is then part of an extending of awareness into what was dark or unknown, not only in ones own unconscious, but in external life. In touching the nucleus of ones being in this way, one becomes aware in some measure of the infinite potential of ones life. There is often an accompanying sense of existence in eternity and the many different 'mansions' or dimensions of experience one has within the eternal. See: self under archetypes; yoga and dreams.

Tony's in print Books in the UK or USA

Books - Stories - Poems - Articles/Features - Links - One Stop Shop - Home