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| The Unlived Life Is Not Worth Examining Review of Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss By Tom Averna Carolyn Myss’ book Sacred Contracts is an incredible work providing valuable tools to help us understand and cope with and understand the basic questions of existence – who we are and why we’re here. It also goes a long way to explaining how we develop and as such it addresses the three basic issues on which theories of human development take a stance according to Laura Berk’s textbook, Development Through The Lifespan. Those issues are “(1) Is development a continuous process, or does it follow a series of discontinuous stages? (2) Is there one general course of development that characterizes all individuals, or are there many possible courses depending on the contexts in which children grow up? (3) Is developed determined primarily by nature or nurture?” (41) Of the many theories presented by Berk, the Lifespan Perspective seems to come the closest to Myss’ beliefs. and opportunities that yield some similarities in development across many individuals. Nevertheless, throughout life, the challenges people face and the adjustment they make are highly diverse in timing and pattern….” (9) It is at these times according to Myss that our Archetypes are developed. Echoing Berk’s words Myss says, “Because of the complex challenges of everyday life, however, this spiritual maturation varies for most people. From an archetypal point of view, when these cycles are not followed in some way, adults will find it difficult if not impossible to be responsible for themselves in their physical world and to create successful relationships.” (Myss, 113) So human development, according to Myss occurs in both a continuous and discontinuous method. a continuous and discontinuous method. Myss also clearly presents the idea that development follows many possible courses. Each person has a different configuration of archetypes based on their individual responses to events and people in their lives as well as to their Sacred Contract. This is the heart of the book. Myss presents the idea that we each have a mission that we come into life with that guides our choices and experiences. Recognizing that purpose in our lives enables us to make better use of our life energy. “Discovering and working with your archetypes and other elements of your contract will change your view of your own destiny. You will bring new meaning to your life and move from seeing it as random and haphazard to accepting that it is carefully planned and new directed with you as an active participant.”(Myss, 22) So our individual Contracts or mission influences our choices. This produces very varied and multilayered options for growth. Again we see a very similar comment regarding the Lifespan working with your archetypes and other elements of your contract will change your view of your own destiny. You will bring new meaning to your life and move from seeing it as random and haphazard to accepting that it is carefully planned and change.” (Berk, 28) directed with you as an active participant.”(Myss, 22) So our individual Contracts or mission influences our choices. This produces very varied and multilayered options for growth. Again we see a very similar comment regarding the Lifespan Perspective. “Development is embedded in multiple contexts that vary from person to person, leading to diverse pathways to change.” (Berk, 28) The remainder of the concepts in Myss’ book can be categorized generally under the category of nature vs. nurture. Berk points out the dual nature of the Lifespan Perspective explaining, “Development is multidimensional, affected by an intricate blend of biological and social forces. The individual as open to change: emphasizes high plasticity at all ages.” (Berk, 128) Myss would agree with this duality with one major addition to this and that is the idea of reincarnation and the effect of past lives on our present one. According to Myss we carry these memories in our DNA (Myss, 112), so even this could be broadly looked at as biology. It is from these past memories that we understand archetypes. Archetypes go back millions of years according to Jung and Joseph Campbell said they were expressive “of common human needs, instincts and potentials.” (Myss, 109) These archetypes help us look at our life as symbols within a story in much the same way we look at myths. And this is how we are to look at our mission or Sacred Contract. Our mission in life is not reduced to one thing; it has to do with jobs, relationships, goal, and beliefs. (47) It is a business agreement and part of the agreement is to discover what you are meant to do. Like a business agreement, two parties agree, use sub-contractors if necessary to complete the project, it must be completed in entirety before contract completed, there is compensation involved, consequences for non-completion, contracts can sometimes be renegotiated or reunderstood, and you are given a certain amount of freedom as to how you accomplish contract fulfillment. Myss gives a wonderful example of that freedom to choose how you accomplish your contract. Her example involves an agreement to become master of how to use a knife. “If you grab it blade first, you will cut yourself, bleed, and see knife as instrument of pain. You will learn to use it as weapon and inflict pain on others. If you grab it by the handle, you will see it as a tool and use it to create. Either way, you will have mastered use of knife.” (51) Your choice determines personal suffering or pleasure. “You can learn to choose by wisdom or by woe.” (51) According to Myss we are each on a Hero’s journey as we work on fulfilling our contract. The Contract itself has five stages as we discover it. (79-105) The first is contact, the AHA moment. Second is heeding the call as we apply our new wisdom to our life now. Third is renaming where we go through a significant change. Fourth are the assignments or lessons. Here is where we make continual adjustments and transitions. This is the examined life of Socrates. We are not to judge these times but look for unexpected results. And fifth we must surrender and go with the flow. We need to combine good judgment with sense of risk taking. The heart, mind and soul must work together as partners, not as enemies. At this point Myss formally introduces us to the idea of archetypes. There are four primary archetypes: child, victim, prostitute and saboteur. They symbolize how we make our survival choices: issues, show how you sabotage creative opportunities and dreams, fears of being victimized, make you conscious of your vulnerabilities as well as spiritual strengths. These archetypes are four legs of a table. They are often represented by people you have contracted to meet. The certainty is that you’ll meet them, but your reaction to them is choice. (106-108) Each of these archetypes has two sides. One side is the shadow, which is not necessarily negative. Myss quotes Jung’s colleague Marie Louise Von Franz who says: “The shadow is not necessarily always an opponent. In fact, it is exactly like any human being with whom one has to get along, sometimes by giving in, sometimes by resisting, sometimes by giving love – whatever the situation requires. The shadow becomes hostile only when it is ignored or misunderstood.” (124) We are then introduced to the process of finding our archetypes, connecting them with our Chakra energy centers and casting them on a Zodiacal style wheel to help us discover our twelve individual ruling archetypes and how they impact our past, future and the only true reality, our present. It is this process that will be explained in the workshop as my final project. So stay tuned. Caroline Myss in her book Sacred Contracts has presented a viable and powerful new theory on human development worthy of study and practice by anyone wanting to work with others or themselves to understand the meaning of life and our place in it. This book clearly answers the three major issues in human development. Is development continuous or discontinuous? Is there one course of development or many? And is nature or nurture more important? Myss’ theory is very close to the theory presented as Laura Berk’s favorite, Lifespan Perspective, but it goes beyond it significantly by looking not only at biological and social perspectives, but at spiritual ones as well. Works Cited Berk, Laura E. (2001). Development through the lifespan. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Myss, Carolyn. (2001). Sacred Contracts. New York: Harmony Books. |