You may already do it unconsciously....allow the patterns and imagery around you to influence you. I mean, advertisers and marketing people hope you do. Its part of being impressionable and oriented to connecting that humans make relationships and meanings in correspondence with their environment. Its part of how we are wired.
So I'm not talking about that - the unconscious version. Im talking about what happens if we consciously seed our creative imagination with something we believe will do us good. Will re-source us. Of course, an archetype lives beyond our day to day reality - is part of the mysterious patternings that we get glimpses of. So how to do this? How to draw on this collective wisdom?
A group of us gathered on Saturday at a Soul Shed community event - you might have seen it - with this intention : to walk with the archetype of the Waterbearer together and see what she had for us. We shared our witness of the bodies of water we live near to, we connected with imagery - including those four beautiful representations of the Waterbearer above. And some brought along their SoulCollage® cards connected with this archetype, and we heard from them. Indeed one participant even made a card while we were gathered. We journalled, both for ourselves, and for the collective. And we consciously made contact with water in a new way - as something sacred that is life-giving. In short, we tended to the inner Waterbearer within ourselves.
Who is she? This imaginal Waterbearer? She is one who holds life, bears life, and allows life to flow through her. Tending to her within us is then, surely sacred work.
Its a core part of the ethos of The Soul Shed, that gathering in creative community is a way that we can offer this kind of tending to one another, and to ourselves, and then by extension, back into our lives. Finding your personal connection with a creative seed that really speaks to your soul, and then allowing it to grow, is a powerful way to come to be more present to the imaginal and the ways it can can touch your life.
If you would like to explore with this archetype, here are some things you can do:
Notice how your body responds to each of the images in this post. Journal about that - where do they touch you? in your gut knowing? Your hearts emotions? In the inspiration of your imagination? Follow the threads as they arise....where do they take you?
The image that makes the strongest impression on you? Stay with that one and ask it to tell you more about itself.
Ask it for three words it wants you to remember. Write them down.
Set an intention: "This month I invite the archetype of The Waterbearer to offer me more of its wisdom"
Keep notes in a journal. Where did I see the waterbearer revealed in my life today?
Wear colours and textures that you associate with the archetype.
Correspond with the archetype: Write a poem, sing a song, go on a walk with the intention of getting to know the archetype better.
And if you are loving the sound of all of this - book yourself an online Soul Shed one to one session with me and we can explore all of these connections and more - so you can allow this archetype to be the resource it can be in your life.
You can also do this online with a friend - you create space to collage together, and I join you on Zoom.
There is an offer of 15% off for these sessions booked during April!
I look forward to creating with you soon.
"Look for your own well, pet, for there's a hard time coming.
There will have to be a going back to sources"
- From 'The Well' by Cathal O Searcaigh