Caroline Myss - The Martyr (The Power of Archetypes)

murders oftentimes find themselves in situations where they do like for example the heavy lifting in a family there could be a needy person in the family there could be you know an addict in the family there could be some situation where the the amount of acknowledgment that's needed um is never provided it's just never provided often the the person from whom they're looking for that acknowledgment is incapable of giving it [Music] hi everybody time for a new video on archetypes today this week I'm doing the Martyr archetype um which is an archetypal pattern that I've encountered in uh numerous people and of course they tell me that they have the martyrs so I thought well I'll jump into it and of course it's Holy Week so it is the um great murder as it were now before I get into this particular archetype I thought it would be a good time to present a template through which you can you know look at all archetypal patterns but it may just help to understand even more how power progresses through us and how an archetypal pattern manifests through us so um in the Journey of life is about empowerment I've said that before Powers the fundamental ingredient of The Human Experience everything is a negotiation of power why is that because from my point of view I'll offer it this um I think that our soul our essence is so extraordinary and our task is to learn how to distribute our power into acts of creation and I think that's why every single spiritual teaching at the mystical level is all about learning to understand the laws of creation so that we follow these laws wisely and in learning that we write we learn how incredible every choice we make is and in learning that we finally realize how powerful we are as individuals really if if that were to sink in and be realized to become what's called a realized or enlightened person you'd never experience hopelessness again never never so this is the model I want you to think about we move and from a position of power we move think of it as moving from having a job to a career to a calling from a position of power so that we all start out with jobs and at the job level we have the least amount of power we like kids we get a job and we have to take our instruction from our boss we don't give our boss instruction we take instruction and we um are subject to the the laws of the land whatever employment we have we have to show up on time it's usually hour by hour and we can't um reorganize the company we we simply are task oriented so when we're at the job level we have the least amount of power and so from that if you think about the job level of life that's and that's when the outside world has the most authority over us and we have the least amount we we live in the Consciousness that we have the least amount of power inside of us to change the outside world we and it's at the job level that we think about if I only had enough money so we think in terms of physical resources at the job level if I only had enough money or enough status or enough whatever then I could make a difference so at the job level we think in terms of if I only had enough stuff then I could make a difference because we don't think about the resources in our self and that it is a position of all of that has more authority over us than anything inside of ourselves and that's what the job level of life shifting to the career level requires that we develop resources in ourselves we get an education we educate ourselves about our own skills we develop something inside of ourselves that activates choice that extra activates inner power we have choice we develop we become Carpenters electricians therapists something we move to the career chat level of life the operative word is Choice something that gives us the capacity to say I don't want to do this I want to have Choice over what I do so that I'm not taking orders but I am directing my own life and so we strive for the next level of power in life which is career the career level of life and archetypal patterns follow this at the job level think of that as the most unconscious level where every archetypal pattern has its most authority over you you are most unconscious and reactive to any archetypal pattern no matter what it is whether it's the Martyr or the wounded child or The Advocate or whatever it is pattern is most influential when you are when you see yourself as most at your most powerless in the world an unconscious pattern has the most authority over you why because your position of choice is at the weakest you feel like your power of choice is dependent upon it could be acknowledgment from other people it could be safety from other people it could be you think it you need money you think you need someone to to guarantee the outcome of how a choice will will um unfold but because you load a choice with um requirements in order for me to make this choice I have to have this I have to have guarantees I have to have this I have to have legal papers I have to whatever it is your choices your Power of Choice you've handicapped it you've you've regulated it you've parametered it and so you're parameting what you're saying is I don't have power this has power this I my I need enforcements I need influence I need I need recognition I need all kinds of things for me to make to exercise my Power of Choice when you move on to the career level what you're actually doing is moving on to a level where you you feel like well I've acquired skills and paperwork and maybe a degree or two that says now I have authority I've acquired an inner Authority that has activated my power and it gives me a right now now I've acquired the right in this world to make a choice so now I can make choices that if someone says what by what right do you make this choice I can pull out a document that says see I have the right to I am I'm an authorized psychologist I'm an authorized this this is how we work in this world I mean it's quite extraordinary but I now I have the right to do this I live in this neighborhood so I can I have the right to to have my own fence I have the right you know this is how we work we progress in power everywhere that's how it works and at that point we become what we're we're doing is we're becoming more conscious of we're engaging even if it's unconsciously with our patterns we are working our patterns more consciously for example as you progress in power within the victim you may not realize it but as you progress to the career level you are no longer feeling as victimized you have resources to challenge feeling victimized in life you no longer see yourself as being victimized all the time because you can't protect yourself in the same way now you can perhaps you have more physical resources but also more intellectual resources more power resources so the patterns that you have are you're also empowering them so that you operate differently within all of your patterns you can take on your wounds differently maybe you'll seek therapy maybe you'll see yourself like I I used to be wounded this way but now I'm I'm healing that I'm choosing to heal whereas at the job level the wound has the authority and then there's the calling level the level of calling and it's called a calling because it is the Transcendent level it is the impersonal level it is the level at which you are um called to move your life act in your life in a more impersonal way on behalf of others on in in a bigger Arena that may not be your choice but you are chosen by circumstances by um I could say divine intervention to act on behalf of a greater cause that you are you are um you have the resources that you don't even know about that serve This Moment In Time so now let's talk about the Martyr the and I'm going to go back to Power the role of us as I said is to develop our inner resources no matter the archetype but with the Martyr at the job level at any archetype at the job level is going to be seeking methods through that archetypal pattern to fill in the emptiness of feeling disempowered if it's the wounded child it'll be through wounds if if it's the victim it'll be through constantly telling stories of being victimized this is at the job level with the Martyr it is through doing things um having relationships seeing seeing them through the lens of suffering of look at how I've suffered for you for you now in at the job level oftentimes people with the Martyr archetype find themselves in circumstances where they do a lot for family members do a lot for the people within their group and they seek support they seek acknowledgment for what they're doing they they find themselves doing a lot of heavy lifting and wanting acknowledgment for all their and here's an operative word sacrificing on behalf of what their children on behalf of their husband on behalf of their wife on behalf of their Community the job levels small but that acknowledgment never comes to their satisfaction there's a reason I mean the the martyrs Martyrs oftentimes find themselves in situations where they do like for example the heavy lifting in a family there could be a needy person in the family there could be you know an addict in the family there could be some situation where the the amount of acknowledgment that's needed um is never provided it's just never provided often the the person from whom they're looking for that acknowledgment is incapable of giving it like an addict for example or a narcissist or it could be that they're in a situation where they're offering to do the heavy lifting they're constantly doing that because they're wanting to be needed and wanting to be loved and wanting to be acknowledged at the same time they're in a situation where people are just unaware that that's what's going on within the Martyr and they're constantly saying look what I'm doing for you look what I'm doing for you and they're like we'll do it hey do it I'm not asking you to do it you're always doing it and and it's your choice and so they're at odds with what you're doing and their their response is like look if you want to do the heavy lifting that's your choice go ahead and do it and the absence of the capacity to care and it's and nothing in those circumstances ever changes for the Martyr unless what they what what the Martyr archetype at that level doesn't understand and will never understand until the light goes on is that nothing changes until they change until they change the rules that suffering meaningless suffering doesn't get you anywhere and at the job level the suffering and the sacrifices are meaningless now let's advance to the career there's that prayer that says help me accept what I can't change um I've met many people who are in situations where they've had handicapped children and they are the caretakers of that child for the rest of their forever it's not going to change or they have a parent that they have to care for or whatever um it's very easy I mean if you have even the slightest inclination toward the Martyr it is very very easy to fall into that I'm just it's just a suffering it's just a horrible horrible suffering and to stay in that because you it's a situation that can't be changed but the Martyr becomes at the career level that is it begins where you are not disempowered by it but you are empowered by it when you realize I I'm choosing now to accept this it is a circumstance I cannot change but I won't be defeated by it it is my life and therefore I will serve this circumstance this is a different choice of the same circumstance that you accept something you cannot change but the suffering doesn't become something that you see as why me why me and nobody's nobody's acknowledging how hard it is and blah blah blah and and this type of thing rather it becomes something that says this is my life path it is very difficult and once you get to that level the support you need actually becomes begins to flow into your life because you're not begging for that support it starts coming because of acceptance because you've accepted it you're you're field of group you have you enter a field of Grace and that Grace is a magnetic support system that you find people then willingly come up to you and say what can I do for you how can I help you out it becomes a very different energy field that you are generating and this is what I mean from generating the power from within that doesn't heal perhaps your child or or the circumstance that you must live in move through but what it does do is it changes the atmosphere in which you are enduring something so difficult and the suffering seems to be alleviated in your day-to-day life that's what I mean by advancing in the empowerment of something murder at the calling level is yet again a different different phase entirely and that's where a person is by circumstances unplanned or the result of something committed to others they find themselves being martyred or suffering on behalf of others in a way that they would not have chosen but the cause chose it for them for example Nelson Mandela he's a perfect example of someone who experienced being in prison for decades on behalf of others he didn't choose I think I'll just go and be disempowered in a prison for decades it happened because his cause on behalf of others was greater than himself and he was willing to put himself there even if it meant his death even if Gandhi is another person and I'm picking these because they that is a calling where you are called to be of service to the whole so that the whole is transformed because of your suffering because of your death because of Martin Luther King Jr because of a calling greater than yourself and in the end to we have two Martyrs there who really were killed on behalf of others and how often do you hear they're not going to kill that person we don't want to make a murder out of them we don't want to make a martyr out of them because making when someone reaches a place in the social mind where they are now the voice of a Cause they are at the potential of truly being a martyr to something much greater than themselves and that voice then that they represented they represent lives on long after they're gone and the fear is if they're killed you will activate the martyr at this greater level and then there's no stopping its power there is no stopping because then you unleash the holy power of the archetype the the true power of the archetype now it's it's interesting the there were several as I mean this is going to sound like a crazy segue but there were several attempts to assassinate for example Hitler now would he have been a martyr and I'm going to risk something because I can't prove this but I'm going to say no I think he would have been for the darker forces that found his diabolical life and his diabolical message they might have made an underground hero of him but he was not a martyr even though he might have been assassinated it it would have been a different outcome when Mussolini was killed but he was not a martyr and so he didn't live on into some great cause even though he had a cause during World War II no matter there so that dying on behalf of others is truly there's a difference between killing a a tyrant and really recognizing this person had a holy calling on behalf of the whole and people's lives were changed for the better because this person lived now if you're someone who identifies with murder or knows or is living someone who has martyr inclinations look what I've done for you look what I've done look what I'm doing foreign it's very hard for people at the job level of an archetype at the really unconscious level of the archetype to recognize I have this archetype and I'm doing this and I'm always complaining and I'm always begging for power from others through you know screaming I'm not appreciated and I'm not this and I'm not that they those people they don't realize how much they're literally draining people because what they're actually asking for is I want your power because I don't have anything inside of me and it's very very hard to deal with that and one way to deal with it is to sit them down and say you know what I know what you're doing and I think I need to start doing some of it on my own but I have to tell you that you're also free not to do this if there is a choice involved the only way to talk to someone is to say I know how much how difficult this is but what are you going to do when it can't be changed you have two choices you either accept it bitter or better you either choose the route of bitter or you do your best to get better the way to deal with a martyr at the job level is to do what you can to empower them in a way that actually really moves them to their career level of accept what cannot be changed and if you have that archetype and you're at the job level where you really are exhausted by that then I urge you to pray to accept what you cannot change and find Grace in that and just realize stop fighting what is in your life and just say if I have to accept this then give me the grace to accept what I cannot change and see if that in fact begins to change and move you forward to the level that even the the most dire circumstances begin to shift in a way that feels like I can carry this okay that's the Martyr thank you everybody

Channel: Caroline Myss

Views: 31,092

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Id: Ryec9lOXO8E

Length: 28min 16sec (1696 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 12 2023