Caroline Myss - The Hermit (The Power of Archetypes)

foreign [Music] the inner self stirs paths within us stirs caverns and depths and needs and emotional patterns and psychic patterns spiritual patterns mystical patterns that people before did not encounter Mystics did Mystics did they knew all about they they knew so much about that that's why I love the work of Theresa of Avila even in her 16th century language she was identifying what she called The Mansions of the Soul [Music] hi everybody time for this week's archetype uh video and this week I'm doing the hermit and I think um well the hermit's one of my favorite archetypes but partly the reason is because I think it needs to be modernized I think it needs to be brought into our common parlance because it people associate I think that hermit with a reputation from centuries ago that is no longer adequate for what the hermit really represents in the Contemporary psyche so you know going back The Hermit earned its reputation as someone who would seek out residents in the forest or a cave to to get away and oftentimes to do um spiritual meditation or you know like the desert fathers from 300 A.D 400 A.D to do to leave the world and Retreat into one spirit Jessica Hermitage which is something I'm going to speak about and of course as time went on there were the monastic communities developed and that became the Hermitage of people who went to to leave society and devote their lives to a spiritual path and so Hermits even among the monastics um would seek out space to be within themselves so the hermit was someone who sought a path for Spiritual reasons and that was or for personal reasons of creativity um oftentimes The Hermit is associated with someone who sought an individual path because there was an element of the sage in the person the wise person who couldn't live among ordinary Mortals and had to you know find a way to um incubate wisdom so there's stories about people like that um people like Henry David Thoreau for example who went and lived on Walden Pond and and so he could produce his Masterpiece welding upon but um but they did he doesn't say that he would sneak into the village for his beer but the point is that he sought solitude so the hermit is associated with the need to seek solitude one of the more renowned Hermits of our time is Emily Dickinson who really you know had a life where she sought Hermitage and lived it from the time she was about 20 years old in Amherst Massachusetts and and her life really is so fascinating and I I find her poetry to be mystically so profound so outrageous so unbelievable that she could live in this little home in Amherst Massachusetts where her sister-in-law and brother took care of her and from her room this small room write this poetry about the world about nature about love about just where she would send her imagination on to go and do it do work for her where her body couldn't go but she sent her imagination and in order to live in this incredibly delicate space she couldn't bear contact with the physical world and in fact she only wore white because it was that was what she could tolerate so she could tolerate only white I mean the the stories of how delicate she became as her so was so enlarged um it was as if she vibrationally kept um expanding beyond the field of what she could tolerate in the physical world in contact with it so she had to have that Hermitage and these the loving protection of her family who at the time didn't even realize they were dealing with the greatest poet America would ever have poetess actually and um a poet well I don't even know what political correctness is anymore so you'll have to excuse me I don't even know I thought I turned this off what political correctness is so whatever um but I love Emily Dickinson and she's a perfect example of someone who need needed desperately needed a Hermitage you know at one point in her life she actually couldn't take light and she had to stay in a dark room for three years for three years I mean honestly I think if I could you know how they you play that game well if you could meet three people blah blah blah she would be one of the people I would want to meet is that and I'm sure it would be a massive disappointment I'm sure what would happen is I would meet this quiet quiet humble woman who would say a thing to me and I would be like Emily Dickinson and I would lose myself in front of her because this is the kind of person that I just this is the genius in front of which I go I can't even I can't even speak that's the genius that I can't even maneuver words in front of and I'm sure she would just sit there and then I would think I chose that as one of my three people at any rate Hermitage required for Emily Dickinson and then there's Thomas Merton who I'm sure many of you know but if you don't Thomas was a Trappist priest and he lived in Gethsemane Kentucky and he died I think in the late 60s there are those who believe he was murdered by the CIA I don't know what to say about that but my dear friend Jim Finley who was Thomas Merton was his spiritual director when he was in that monastery um he believes he was murdered by the CIA Merton was um a Cloister and that's what this Trappist monastery is is cloistered now Francis of Assisi said the whole world is a Cloister Monastery which I think is one of his greatest teachings but Merton even Within the life of a Trappist cloistered priest sought a Hermitage away from his monastery so there's a small little Hut that he lived in and when he requested Hermitage which is what it's called the Abbot was so incensed because he was intimidated by Merton's brilliance he was so incensed that he he agreed to it but he wouldn't let Windows be put in and so I mean Kentucky gets snow in that one I mean it's not pleasant but Merton made Merton looked at that as all part of what he had made a commitment to and so it was from there that Merton lived his life in in silence and in contemplation which is what we're going to discuss as part of what it is to be a hermit um there are Gandhi sought time every day two two and a half hours every day and you see pictures of Gandhi weaving and that was his time in his Hermitage to recharge himself to reboot to recharge now it's been my experience that when people talk about being a hermit they do it because they say I I need my own space I need my own space so I just I'm a hermit I need my own space I need to be alone and there's always kind of a chip about it I mean I I have rarely met a person who said I'm I'm a hermit because there's a part of me that seeks Hermitage because this is what I require I require Hermitage my home is my Hermitage it is where I live where I work where I replenish myself and I seek this not because I'm angry at the world not because I don't like the world not because the world exhausts me not for any of those reasons it's because of who I am it's because of the way I am it's because of what I recognized early on that I need to sustain myself I need my Hermitage and so it's filled with my books and it's filled with my dog and it's filled with I I designed it to nurture myself and people who come in here but I also knew that if I was to sustain the kind of life I wanted to teach to write to be to pray that this I needed a Hermitage and I needed a place where I knew that after being on the road after teaching after working I had to have a place for myself that was not full of chaos I could never come home to chaos I I it was not it was not on the from the time I was a child I knew I could never reside in chaos not allowed not permitted no that was the big no and so that is the hermit in me and it's not because I'm I've got to get away from people no it's because I cannot reside in sound I can't reside in sound my home is usually silent unless I'm watching the news which I do in the evening or in the morning and that's it I don't play music during the day it really is a Hermitage right so my point in saying this is this the the kind of people we are today we are very different obviously every generation is different than the generation before we can make that argument but no if we look at how we have exponentially evolved from the 60s 70s 80s from the people before then to who we are we are people that have clearly decidedly deliberately consciously focused on our Inner Space on our inner self and self-empowerment and self-development and self-care and healing the operative word itself you know prior to the 60s self went with selfish and now we've taken that word we have the inner self and self-improvement self-empowerment the self means something totally different totally different and so as we pursue Inner Space as a kind of new frontier inner and outer space are really the two New Frontiers the micro and the macro pursuing the inner self stirs paths within us stirs caverns and depths and needs and emotional patterns and psychic patterns spiritual patterns mystical patterns that people before did not encounter Mystics did Mystics did they knew all about they they knew so much about that that's why I love the work of Theresa of Avila even in her 16th century language she was identifying what she called The Mansions of the soul but she knew there was a trek inside of the human being that once you start unfolding Buddha knew this this is what are this is what our Eternal self looks like that hasn't changed but what has changed is the world in which we take the Trek and how we think about the world and the values we have from the outside when we start the Trek on the inside and the values we have on the outside do not support the Trek in the same way that they once did with environments with languages with the nature of God that was very close to people many centuries ago when it is not today so now when we start the track it's usually started because of a trauma because of healing not because of the the recognition that I I that the need for contemplation is simply a need for contemplation that in order for me to know what kind of choice I want to make I got to think about that I can't make decisions on important subjects without reflection without contemplation without thinking about what happens as a consequence of this choice I need time alone to silence the voice is talking to me so I can really think about what's pooling me what's what's the shadow inside of me saying what's the light inside of me saying what's what are my fears what I have what are my fears telling me to do what what is guidance telling me to do it's the kind of dialogue that you have to remove yourself from ordinary space in order to pursue this type of truly in-depth inner dialogue Rich dialogue with yourself you have to kind of go into your Hermitage your Hermitage now um the my my experience is that the way people phrase it today in modernity in common parlance is I need my own space be my own space and I really am surprised at how often times that said to me with a kind of hostility with a kind of defensiveness like I need my own space I have to tell you this kind of thing as if it can't be said with the same kind of confidence or self-awareness as saying you know I I'd have to tell you I really like I need eye drops okay so I need I don't have to say that I need eye drops and push you away I mean there's there's ways of saying what we need that do not have to come through having to explain to other people why we need what we do or having to get angry at other people in order for that need to come forward to express itself to it how many times someone will say I gotta get out of here I just need my own space I just got to get away from these people I need my own space I have to get away away so by the time someone recognizes that they quote need their own space they've become exhausted or that what they do is they need to find someone to blame or find someone to Target as the culprit that gives them permission to say I get to break out of my tribal system to claim time for myself there's a there's a um I don't know what to call this um social constructing I don't know now I hear people talk about when they are you know picking out homes they need a quote man cave for their partner or their husband or their boys a man cave which is to say they need their own space to get away what's this Man Cave thing what's a woman cave called I don't know but it's a way of saying this is my Hermitage this is my Hermitage and you're out of it why can't they just say I need a Hermitage in the house why can't you just say this is my Hermitage and I want to be there when I need time to reflect that when I need time to recharge this is where I'm going I don't need to get angry at you to walk in there I simply need to say this is my time and I'm just going to kick back and I need to to just recharge I don't need to be broken I don't need to be angry I don't need to be exhausted I don't need to be any of those things what I realize is that I do need self-care I need to reflect on how's the day going and sometimes the day's going great sometimes it's the best day of your life and you still need to reflect on that like what does a best day feel like this feels like I'm floating in Grace what as a death a best day feel like even that is worthy of you withdrawing and say I I actually need to absorb the grace of what it feels like when everything is in Harmony when everything is just I really need just leave me alone for a minute I really need to absorb this so that I know things really do work in harmony I need a moment to be grateful for this you seek out your Hermitage because this is now part of the human need now I don't think everybody is a hermit like I'm doing a workshop online Workshop now I'm I'm really if archetypes could talk it's and I'm having a blast with that and this next Tuesday night I start on sacred contracts which is part of this and that's identifying your personal archetypal patterns and and I bring that up because I want to say that not everybody has the each archetype that I'm talking about obviously it's not possible we can have visitations you know we can have times in our lives when certain archetypal patterns join in because that's what's required like we may go through a trauma or a time when we want to isolate because something we want to retreat I should say I don't want to say is like we want to retreat because something has happened that requires that we really remove ourselves from the mainstream of our life maybe a trauma maybe really difficult news maybe an illness maybe something so we retreat and Retreat is a part of seeking out a Hermitage but you don't live there not everybody is like an Emily Dickinson or a throw or a Gandhi or or an artist that really requires a a Hermitage or someone like me who's you know who really thrives in a Hermitage um not everybody wants to live it full time and and realizes that if I'm out of this I am not in a Hermitage because I'm anti-social not at all um but it allows me to be more social that's the last thing I am is anti-social it is my comfort zone the shadow side of the hermit is that is associated with someone who could be anti-social in the extreme it's the isolate or the anti-social person who decides to go live up in the hills when I I used to live in New Hampshire I spent 10 years in New Hampshire and um New England was at the time I don't know if it is anymore but it was at the time um littered with many um veterans from Vietnam who were shell-shocked who really were traumatized from the Vietnam War and they sought Refuge they sought Hermitage In the Backwoods of New Hampshire Maine and Vermont and they wanted to live alone and they really wanted to live away away from the maddening world so to speak and that is one again an expression of and I don't know how many of those people were Hermits by nature or in fact were so traumatized that healing drew them to that which can happen um and then I look at someone like who just passed away the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski I think his name was bazinski and he chose the Hermitage way up in Montana and he was anti-social and he did see Society in a certain way but his if you read his read his any of the commentaries about his philosophical position he saw the world from a a vast Viewpoint he had a genius that was simply unmanageable for the way he thought Society should be I didn't say that correctly he had a genius about um he saw people harming society and he I guess that struck a rage I'm not in a position to examine his psyche indepthly but his way of living was then to really remove himself and genuinely genuinely almost live like a desert father I mean he didn't even have water he lived on rabbits he created a kind of uh uh he lived on what he could find and eat and he became kind of a pantheist and what just a a rare mind that became violent in his way of dealing with the world that he created behind his eye that's the negative side of the The Hermit isolate the person angry at Society who decides Society is so horrible that it instead of using your life to step forward and do something to help it you Retreat and you decide to harm it either by not participating or by doing things doing destructive things doing destructive things but um I do think that because we live now in a world that directs us inward to to think about the quality of choices we make to realize that our choices are power that every word we use is packed with the universe that every word we use sets Creation in motion that we are being called inward to become more and more reflective and aware of the power that exists behind our eyes and because of that we are going to find that we each of us needs to create a Hermitage in some way in our life either you know to to think of a few minutes that you take each day as a reflection of saying I wonder where my power is how have I used my power I wonder where my am I all here is my powerfully present is is my power um all within me or have I hemorrhage someplace today you have to track yourself in a way that you never did before because we're becoming aware of ourselves as systems of power and that awareness requires that we caretake our system of power and that requires that we do that in the same way that you set aside time to exercise your body you have to set aside time to reflect on where your power is so that you don't end up being someone who says I've got to take my power back from that person and and and and I'm just exhausted you don't you don't respond to your power when you realize it is gone and expended and and then you have to use anger and blame and that type of thing as a way to finally say I just need my space you have to start work in your life with the acknowledgment that I'm that what I need is um time to caretake my non-physical world with the same Consciousness that I caretake my physical world and that is how you manage your power and to that I will end this one saying that knowing that you really do need what we could call Hermitage time and a Hermitage practice you have to also be willing to give that to the people you live with to recognize when they need this to be able to say to someone I think you need some time alone I think you need to get into the practice of recharging yourself of figuring out why you make the choices you do of of really managing your own power better and in order to do that you have to begin the practice of saying why didn't I make the choice I do why am I making the choices I'm making and and and and how they're draining me they're not recharging me why am I am I making choices from fear and if so I've got to stop that how am I going to stop that this is the type of inner discussion that you have in a Hermitage you have it in a Hermitage because you have to have it with yourself and you have to go deep in yourself and into your blood and bones to actually feel where you're losing power your biographies your biology where you're losing power how fast you're losing it and why and sometimes you need to really think I I'm I have to really pray on this I have to really pray on this I have to really excuse me I have death find some courage to make some very different decisions this is what comes out of having the practice of Hermitage of having the practice of realizing your energetic your soul system is as significant as your physical body and and food does not nourish this food does not replenish your soul oddly enough your soul can replenish your body but your body can't replenish yourself not possible so that's a lot to say um I could go on and on I mean I I actually could do a wonderful workshop on entering your Hermitage really living life in the Hermitage getting your life as a Hermitage it's a really rich thought isn't it okay well that's all for today though and thank you bye

Channel: Caroline Myss

Views: 38,938

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Id: DweqJO_1hlY

Length: 31min 29sec (1889 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2023