The Imago Dei
Welcome back to our journey through our core archetypes. During our first few months together, we explored the nature of the four survival archetypes. These are the child, victim, saboteur, and prostitute. These represent the four legs of survival. Anytime we are under stress or feel unsafe, we shift into these archetypes. They allow us to survive, but not necessarily thrive.
Last month, we took a dive into the mother and father archetypes. These represent our relationship with our inner masculine and feminine. All inherited patterns from our mother and father lineage show up through these archetypes. They also relate to how we parent ourselves, how we receive ourselves, and how we anticipate being received by the world.
This month, we are going to dive into The Imago Dei. The imago dei represents “your image of God.” This image significantly influences all other archetypes, serving as the original pattern informing all others.
To begin this exploration, think back to when you were a child. What was your first introduction to God? Were you a divine child who already felt a connection to Source? Or did you find yourself in a church or temple being taught that God is a father figure that lives in the sky?
We then want to begin to explore how our relationship with God has evolved over the course of our journey. Has it stayed the same? Do we find ourselves in the same orthodox religious ideas that were introduced to us as children? Or has it evolved over time through our own journey of introspection, contemplation, and exploration?
When you begin to explore the roots or origins of this archetype, you can begin to see how it relates to all other archetypes. The imago dei archetype informs when we move into the child or victim. Our image of God informs when we sabotage or prostitute ourselves. In addition, many of the qualities of the mother and father archetype often get projected onto our image of God.
If we project God as “the father,” it can archetypally keep us stuck in the child. The child tends to always project authority outside of it and often outsources its power of choice and self-responsibility. This could be the danger of seeing God as any sort of external “parent figure.”
In addition, many of us who grew up in orthodox religion have a spiritual equation set up in our mind. We believe that if we do good things, we deserve a spiritual reward. We also believe that if we do bad things, we deserve some karmic or existential punishment.
But what happens when we do something “good” but do not receive the reward we were looking for? We feel victimized. What happens when we receive an undesirable outcome or circumstance but cannot identify something “bad” that we did to deserve it? We feel victimized. Our polarized thinking and spiritual equation actually set the stage for the victim archetype.
Anytime we have belief systems around what God “wants, needs, or desires” from us, we set ourselves up for self-sabotage. If we believe that God wants us to do for everybody else at the expense of ourselves, we may sabotage our health. If we believe that we are God’s chosen people or believe one religion is better than the other, we may sabotage others! Anytime we personify God with having wants, needs, or desires, we set the stage for sabotaging behavior.
The prostitute archetype represents our relationship with self-compromise and negotiation. The prostitute is always looking for a guaranteed outcome. This could be a guaranteed paycheck, loyalty, or security. How much of our prayer life is an act of spiritual negotiation? How many times have we found ourselves saying to God, “Please I want this (outcome). I promise if you give me this I won’t do (fill in the blank) anymore.”
The prostitute most often shows up in our prayer life. When our prayer is an act of negotiation, we are moving into survival archetypes. In addition, receiving messages from Spirit through our intuition often requires us to surrender personal preference. Quite often, the message from Spirit goes against our ego’s preferences. It is very common for the prostitute or saboteur to run interference on Spirit’s guidance because it usually goes against their agenda of safety and security.
When it comes to the mother and father archetypes, we often take our parental qualities and project them onto God. If our father was judgmental, we might perceive a judgmental God. If we had a loving mother who said yes to everything, we might perceive unconditional love as never saying no! If our parents only recognized us for our achievements, we may turn spirituality into a competition.
There are infinite ways in which the imago dei informs all other archetypes and how all other archetypes inform the imago dei. It is a two-way highway. Therefore, it is essential to begin to deeply explore what our relationshipwith God truly looks like. This journey of exploration must be an inward one. We can easily get caught in the consumption of other people’s ideas, beliefs, and teachings, but if we have no connection to our own inner truth, we do not yet have a true inner compass or reference point.
Practices such as meditation, tai chi, qi gong, breathwork, or even the use of sacred plant medicines can be supportive in this regard. These practices take you inward and allow you to access your center point or zero point. From this zero-point, one can then access truth. Remember, truth is always true so anytime there is debate or argument about what God is, what God wants, or what God desires, you are probably not in the presence of truth.
This article is not going to tell you what God is, what God isn’t, or where to find God. It is simply an invitation to go on your own inner journey. Your inner exploration will take you into your inner temple. This is where all wisdom and truth will be found. This process is usually not a means of learning anything new. It is simply a process of unlearning and letting go of that which no longer serves you. And once you have emptied yourself of all ideas, you will stumble across the truth.
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
