Run the Play
Archetypes can be used as plays are used in football. You practice recognizing the patterns that result in a particular outcome when a particular action is taken or as the result of a particular circumstances.
When the opportunity arises, you run the play. Its about using a generalist toolkit to try to be ready for what cannot be predicted. Also, there is the use of the word “play” in a theatrical performance that is rehearsed drama.
If we have the ability to think from a bird’s-eye perspective then something with that perspective must exist. The God perspective has predictive power based on observed patterns throughout time. We sometimes like to think of this observer as an evil villain that is detached from the final outcome. I like to think it could be the ‘coach’ archetype instead. The coach is a lot more involved and invested but also cannot know the end result because the coach is not an authority over the game. The coach has a higher level understanding of all possibilities from experience. The player has a narrow scope that is based on the knowledge they have of their own skills. So the first step to finding a coach is figuring out which game we are well-suited to play. It is good to visit that perspective to allow it to train your mind through mentorship.
The yin archetypes are powerful in ways that don’t involve brute force. Feminine energy has time on her side. Manipulation is one of the most potent superpowers of this archetype, but there are less deceitful ways of embodying the divine feminine like: strategizing, enchantment, opening and receiving, containing, tantra, defending, foreplay, and the slow, steady, long-con. Its about being reserved and waiting-it-out while applying sustained pressure. Its not the masculine quick and dry method. Feminine energy wants masculine energy to feel her energy separate, while not requiring she be any different than how she inherently manifests. When we look to nature, we see the laws by which we evolved. We do not fight our need to express who we really are under the cloak of what is acceptable or expected. If we turn attention back on itself by observing nature we can balance some of this out-of-control thinking.
The real power in being able to understand archetypes is when you realize you can embody many of them. The dualities we mentally construct are only a temporary way of making sense of our surroundings to get oriented. To be clear, that doesn’t render differences non existent. I hope you can see how this logic can lead some very imbalanced individuals into thinking they have to be one gender all the time when they use this model. When we construct spectrums the very act of doing so does not reduce the value of recognizing the extreme poles of them. Only a mind that is heavily preoccupied by the projected thoughts of the external Observer Mind will feel the need to perform a certain way to invoke predictable behavior from the observer. It is not a mind that is capable of co-creating, but rather, falls victim to a perceived judgement that is merely one state of the Observed Mind.
Originally written on Feb 10 in Collective Journaling at The Stoa
