The Saboteur Archetype
Welcome back to your archetypal journey. In our first article, we explored what an archetype is and the four survival archetypes. In last month’s edition, we took a deeper dive into the child archetype. Today, we’ll meet our inner saboteur.
The saboteur is the archetype responsible for our patterns of self-sabotage. We have all experienced times in our lives when we found ourselves making choices that we knew, on some level, were not in alignment with our highest interest or the highest interest of all. The saboteur archetype not only sabotages ourselves but also sabotages others.
Why do we self-sabotage? This is one of the most common questions I get asked in my holistic health coaching practice. Why do we continue to make the same disempowered choices repeatedly? Why do we start new diet and exercise programs, only to find ourselves back at square one after a couple of days or weeks?
From my experience, the saboteur archetype sabotages because of three root causes. The first is fear. We most often sabotage out of fear. We each carry our unique, individual core fears. This may include the fear of rejection, abandonment, judgment, the unknown, or even success. We end up sabotaging as a means of attempting to avoid that which we are most afraid of. To begin this exploration, I invite you to explore what your core fears might be. The way you answer this can likely relate directly back to your child archetype and what he or she experienced growing up. The orphan child’s core fear might be abandonment. The eternal child’s core fear might be responsibility. We may sabotage ourselves or reject ourselves out of the fear of others’ rejection. The first step is to get clear on the fear.
The second root cause of self-sabotage is called secondary gain. Secondary gain refers to the aspect of ourselves that benefits from sabotaging. When it comes to healing, there is often a part of us that benefits from not healing. For example, we may be receiving more empathy and compassion from others while sick, or we may receive recognition or rewards for our illness by starting a foundation or charity. There is a part of us that develops an identity through illness, and healing may become a threat to that identity. We may use our illness as an easier way of setting boundaries or saying no to the things we were afraid to say no to.
We may sabotage our success because we are afraid of the responsibilities that come along with it. We may sabotage our relationships because we are afraid of intimacy or getting too close to another. We can only be as intimate with another as we are with ourselves. So, if someone begins to penetrate or access parts of us that we have yet to connect with, the saboteur will often step in. The most important question to ask ourselves when it comes to secondary gain is, ’What part of me is benefiting by sabotaging?’
The third expression of the saboteur is based in our relationship with truth. Very often, there are certain truths that our ego wants to avoid because they are inconvenient, painful, or uncomfortable. While we are always being divinely guided through life, we also have free will. Many people debate whether there is a divine plan or free will, but what if there is both? What if the divine plan is the path that our soul has chosen for this lifetime, and free will is the choice as to how we choose to experience it?
Our soul is constantly guiding us towards our highest potential, a path that often includes twists and turns that challenges the ego’s focus on instant gratification, security, and attachment. As the old saying goes, “Spiritual growth is the ego’s biggest disappointment.” When we make choices that align with our higher self but disappoint our ego’s laundry list of expectations, the saboteur archetype may step in to prevent us from experiencing pain, discomfort, or disappointment – even if it ultimately hinders our soul’s evolution.
Caroline Myss, a world-renowned teacher of archetypes, explains how every human being is psychic and intuitive. However, the difference between those who access it and those who do not is simply our relationship with truth. Our intuition or psychic abilities are directly connected to “Source” or “Divine Intelligence.” This intelligence will always give us the highest truth, which is often disappointing to our ego’s expectations.
The more attached we are to security, instant gratification, and expectations, the more we will filter our intuitive or psychic guidance because there is a strong part of us that does not want to hear it! This is why the saboteur is simply your relationship with truth. We self-sabotage to avoid the truth that a part of us does not want to face.
We may get an intuitive hit that our partner is cheating on us. Our ego mind then negotiates all the reasons why that is silly. We compartmentalize that intuitive hit and store it deep in our unconscious until 10 years later we find out that our partner was having affairs the whole time! We then say, “I knew it!” (But at the time we did not want to face it because of the inconvenience it might cause.)
There might be a deep truth that our marriage isn’t working, our career path needs to pivot, or our environmental needs have changed. We may intuitively know this, but on some level, we are afraid to take that leap of faith. We begin to sabotage ourselves to keep us in our comfort zone, connected to what is familiar, and away from discomfort and disappointment. We often develop addictions to self-medicate the pain of the disconnect between the head and the heart. The heart is guiding us one way and the head is rationalizing another. This is the cause of addiction and patterns of self-sabotage.
To heal the saboteur, we must first identify our deepest fear. We then get clear on the secondary gain. How are we benefiting from sabotaging? Once we have identified this, we can then explore the higher truth that we were avoiding seeing. Once we connect with this higher truth, we realize what our inner saboteur was protecting us from. We see what we were afraid would happen if we didn’t sabotage ourselves.
As the old saying goes, “The truth shall set you free.” First, we must embrace the truth we were not willing to see. Then we can fully embrace and move towards our potential.
Greg Schmaus
CEO of Healing 4D, a Holistic Health Practitioner, Shamanic Energy Healer, Massage Therapist, the creator of “Healing The Mind,” a 21 day holistic mental health program.
https://www.healing4d.com
