3 Unconventional Tools For Growth and Self-Discovery
Outlandish but pragmatic and exciting to use
The outside world is a beautiful phenomenon best exemplified in the belly of a great forest, rocky mountains, icy lakes, and warm oceans. It’s vast and it seems almost impossible to discover everything on earth and see it with our own eyes.
And as wonderful as the external world is, our internal world deserves the same recognition.
Our psyche — or soul — is also full of mental mountains and great forests waiting to be discovered.
And just like our external world, we might not discover every last bit of it. We may never truly know ourselves.
But this should not stop us from trying.
We must always be questioning our motives, our beliefs, our desires, and our ideas. In doing so we explore parts of ourselves that once remained unknown. We get one step closer to knowing who we are.
We are one step closer to becoming the best version of ourselves.
We are becoming a more wholesome and self-actualized being.
And on this journey of self-discovery, there are many tools that we can use to navigate the uncharted territory of our conscious and unconscious.
Below are 3 tools that at first glance may seem irrational, ineffective, and unscientific. But once their potential is realized they become exciting tools to use on this great journey. I hope that as mystical as they seem I am able to show the practicality behind them and convince you of their advantages.
Archetypes
Throughout history, there is a set of patterns that repeat themselves in the actions of human beings — like introversion and extroversion. These patterns in themselves make up what is called an archetype.
These archetypes don't reside in the physical plane rather they are unmoved and unchanging in the realms of our psyche that are just below conscious awareness. In the collective unconscious of humankind.
Awaiting to be embodied in our actions.
They are neither good nor bad.
But sometimes we can let one archetype gain a great deal of influence over us and we begin to neglect the rest of the archetypes resulting in an imbalance within our psyche.
The goal is to not favor one archetype over the others but aim for balance instead.
There are almost an infinite amount of archetypes but there are 12 that are most commonly seen.
Initiation to the 12 archetypes and their essence
The Innocent/The Child: This archetype is incredibly imaginative and hopeful. It‘s always trustful of those around it. But it is weak physically or power-wise and naive to the harsh reality of the world. This causes it to be taken advantage of a lot.
Its motivation is to learn, obtain happiness, and find Truth.
It fears punishment.
The Orphan: The orphan is a survivor and it commands respect. This archetype has admirable empathy for the common folk and those who have been ostracized. But too often the orphan is driven by what others think of it causing it to be overly eager to please others. Most often this archetype has no self-confidence.
Its motivation is to be understood, accepted by others, and to connect with people.
It fears exclusion.
The Hero: This archetype is known for its mental and/or physical prowess. It is confident, collected, and always ready for anything. But this can cause it to become egotistical and overconfident. Which leads it to underestimate its opponents or obstacles in their way.
its motivation is to save the day.
It fears weakness.
The Caregiver: This archetype has a big heart and is generous. It is always committing selfless acts for those around it. But this can cause it to fall into a one-track mind and be easily deceived by those around it. It also tends to value other people’s survival over their own.
Its motivation is to protect those they love at all costs and live to serve.
It fears selfishness.
The Explorer: This archetype yearns to discover the unknown and seeks liberation and self-discovery. It always wants an adventure. But this can cause it to be in a constant state of restlessness and never commit to anything.
Its motivation is freedom.
it fears entrapment.
The Rebel: This archetype never gives up in whatever task they are undertaking and they can most often inspire the masses. It knows how to make something out of nothing. But this archetype often has to learn things the hard way and they hardly ever have a long term plan or clear way forward. It is always on the totem pole.
Its motivation is to improve the world.
It fears having no power.
The Lover: This archetype is always devoted to another person. It is passionate about the object of their affection and open with their feelings. But this archetype is often ready to die for the person they love and can lose their own personality pleasing that person.
Its motivation is to give everything they have to another person. They want to build strong relationships.
It fears isolation.
The Creator: This archetype has an inexhaustible drive and is a creative genius with a big vision. But it often has an inability to communicate that vision properly to the outside work and tends to be a perfectionist. This can cause others to perceive them as thinking they are better than everyone else.
Its motivation is the lasting impression of whatever they build. They seek a lasting legacy.
It fears mediocrity.
The Jester/The Fool/The Trickster: Everyone likes this archetype as it is fun to be around and has a deep soul. But it is unreliable in times of need and is usually motivated by selfish goals. It can be a constant distraction is serious times.
Its motivation is to make life easier and find whatever makes it happy.
It fears boredom.
The Sage: Wisdom and knowledge take precedent for this archetype and it most often has a calm presence. It’s a great listener. But most often this archetype has an inability to solve its own problems and it has learned from some very dark mistakes.
Its motivation is to teach the next generation the knowledge it needs.
It fears deception.
The Magician: This archetype has an abundance of knowledge and a profound understanding of past events. It is never short of strategies for life. But it is prone to anger if it doesn’t get its way and it can most often take a war-like mentality when one isn’t warranted.
Its motivation is power and organization. It seeks to create order out of the chaos it sees in the world.
It fears unintended results.
The Ruler: This archetype has fantastic leadership skills and great power. It also astute at communicating. But it can become a control freak and overly paranoid.
Its motivation is peace and order by obtaining power.
It fears to be overthrown.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” — Carl Jung
Seeking balance
As you can see each archetype has its own advantages and disadvantages.
It is up to us to identify which archetypes we have, which ones are overdeveloped, which ones are underdeveloped, and which ones we don’t have but need.
This requires us to look inward and be honest with ourselves.
If there is an imbalance with let's say the caregiver archetype that has resulted in us taking too much care of other people to the point that we have neglected our own lives maybe we could empower the Ruler archetype to take back control of our lives.
Or maybe our Creator archetype has possessed us to the point that we are too busy making art to spend some time with our friends and family. We could develop our Lover archetype more to counteract this imbalance.
These archetypes whether we notice or not have a great deal of influence over us and the people around us. And identifying them in our lives and seeing them in action can prove to be beneficial to those on their journey of self-discovery.
Tarot
The first and biggest misconception of tarot is that it can tell you the future.
Do some people that use tarot believe this? I'm sure some do.
But I don't.
I see tarot as a fantastic way for the person using them to project their psyche unto the symbols in the cards and interpret their implications within the context of the question asked. It is an intellectual exercise and stimulates both the analytical and intuitive parts of the brain.
Tarot is a pictorial representation of the many forces of nature — this includes mental phenomena. And each card has its own symbol and its own meaning.
So when you ask a question and spread out let's say 3 cards you are forced to interpret the story that the tarot is telling you. The interpretations vary from individual to individual because no two psyches are exactly alike. But looking at each tarot card forces the reader to think and make connections between cards.
The reader is essentially using their own psyche to answer their own question while the cards stimulate their imagination.
Maybe a card is pulled that represents a restriction of some sort. Well, then the reader is forced to think about what restrictions are in their life. This may lead to a discovery that the reader is being restricted by the friends in their lives that are holding them back.
Or maybe a card is pulled that is showing interference. The reader may be forced to take an inventory of their life as to what might be interfering with their work and discover that they are the ones interfering with their own work by watching too much Netflix.
It’s also a great builder of intuition as well. I have found myself drawing cards sometimes and “getting it” right away. It’s like the answer to my question just clicks and comes out of nowhere after seeing the cards I've drawn.
I believe these symbols stimulate the unconscious parts of our brains where we have knowledge that lies just below conscious awareness. Little tidbits of books we've read, knowledge we've heard from our grandfather, conversations we've had, experiences we've been through that we seem to have forgotten but not lost reside in the unconscious. And seeing symbols, which is the language of the unconscious, allows us to access these elements.
It’s like our mind is making connections and interpretations on its own with the abundance of data within the unconscious and then we experience this instantaneous answer to the question we asked and call it intuition.
Will tarot fix all of life’s problems? No. But it can definitely point us in the right direction and compel us to answer our questions via the cards in front of us.
I personally use the Thoth tarot deck but the raider-waite deck is a great deck for beginners.
Astrology
Is astrology a real science? No.
Is it empirical? No.
But it doesn't need to be a ‘real’ science in order to function the way its intended to.
Let's imagine our psyche is a forest.
One section of it is lit up. We can see all the trees in this section and the different bushes and wild animals that reside within it.
This is our conscious part of our brain.
We know the type of food we like, the type of friends we want, the clothes we like, etc.
But then there is a section of the forest that is completely dark. We don't even know how big it is. It might be smaller than the portion we can see but it might also be much bigger.
This is our unconscious part of our psyche.
We aren't always aware of what drives us, what memories lie dormant, what influences us, and why we do some of the things we do in life.
This is where astrology comes into the picture.
Astrology is a flashlight and map of the dark part of the forest. We don’t know if this map is 100% accurate. Yet we still grab it and descend into the darkness. We look around at the trees and landmarks we've never seen before and compare them to the map in our hands.
Maybe the map was 90% right but there were some areas that were wrong so we had to correct them on the map.
But Maybe the map was completely wrong and inaccurate.
Yet thanks to the map we have traveled into the dark side of the forest and mapped it out ourselves. Something we wouldn't have done if it weren't for the map and flashlight.
This is exactly what happens when we use astrology.
Our birth chart may or may not be 100% accurate but we have to be incredibly introspective to know whether or not this is the case. And in taking an inventory of ourselves based on this astrological birth chart we actually discover parts of ourselves that we weren't aware of before.
Maybe we didn’t realize we always react a certain way to stress.
Maybe we discover that were aren't actually as independent as we think we are.
Maybe we realize what truly motivates us.
You see in order to know whether we truly embody our astrological signs we have to know ourselves first. We have to know ourselves through and through.
We have to have made the unconscious conscious. And astrology can help us do just that. It doesn’t have to be a ‘real’ science to help explore our mysterious psyche.
Takeaway
There shouldn't be any limits on what we can use for self-discovery and we shouldn't feel guilty about trying what others may deem as irrational.
There are many tools for self-discovery and self-actualization these are just 3 of the most unconventional ones. But they deserve recognition and they deserve a chance to be tried.
Tarot forces us to think and interpret symbols within a peculiar context. This allows our intuition to shine.
Astrology gives us a map of the unconscious for us to go out and confirm whether or not it is accurate. And in doing so we learn more about ourselves.
Archetypes help bring balance to our psyche and illuminate us as to what parts of ourselves are under and over-developed.
