jankp's Full Review: Caroline Myss - Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your D...
I’ve never read Caroline Myss before, but I’m willing to ordain that I would enjoy her other books, namely the bestselling The Anatomy Of The Spirit and Why People Don’t Heal And How They Can, better than her latest undertaking of divine proportions, Sacred Contracts, at 416 spiritually-challenging pages. I did find a fair bit of it entertaining and even thought-provoking to imagine that before we were born we chose our “sacred contract” or divine potential by choosing the people we would meet and challenges we would face.
According to this theory, there are no accidents, no coincidences, no random occurrences or choices, no “luck.” As Myss first proposed in Anatomy Of The Spirit, our biography becomes our biology.
Predestination, it would seem. A blending of divine and free will since we freely chose our biographies while divine spirits.
How convenient. Now Myss helps us to “awaken our divine potentials” through the examples of spiritual, philosophical and psychological masters in history, such as Jesus, Buddha, Muhammed, Abraham, Plato, Freud, Jung and Ram Dass. Then she explains how we can realize our own contracts by finding our twelve archetypes, which tie in to the twelve astrological signs.
Archetypes, as popularized by Joseph Campbell in recent years, are our energy guides to our highest potential, the fulfillment of our sacred contract’s five stages. The four universal or constant archetypes are the Child, the Victim, the Prostitute and the Saboteur.
The rest of the book helps us to choose our archetypes through reflection on many questions concerning past events mainly, past intuitions or dreams, patterns of behavior. If we cannot speak or write a letter to the archetypes we choose, then have them respond, they are not the best choices. After learning about chakras and their influences, Myss has us building our “chart of origin” and divining which archetype goes with which astrological house.
Contents
An Appreciation by C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. (Coauthor of previous books)
Chapter 1: What is a Sacred Contract?
Chapter 2: Contracts of Myths And Masters (already started skimming)
Chapter 3: The Stages of a Sacred Contract (Contact, Heeding the Call, Renaming, Assignments, Surrender—nothing new here for me either)
Chapter 4: Speaking Archetypes: Your Four Principal Energy Companions (Child etc)
Chapter 5: Identifying Your Archetypal Patterns (asking the questions only)
Chapter 6: The Chakras: Your Spiritual Backbone (Eight in all correspond to body parts)
Chapter 7: Reinventing The Wheel (how astrology plays in)
Chapter 8: Creating Your Chart of Origin (skipped this after first few pages)
Chapter 9: Interpreting Your Contracts and Your Archetypal Wheel (skipped)
Chapter 10: Using The Wheel For Everyday Guidance (skipped)
Chapter 11: Healing Challenges of the Archetypal Wheel (stories of people with diseases who could understand why they got their disease through Myss’ archetypal therapy)
Appendix: The Gallery of Archetypes (most interesting 50+ pages of book)
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Template for the Twelve Houses of the Archetypal Wheel
Template For Archetypal Cards
Closing Thoughts
If this all sounds pretty hokey to you, you've discerned well. There are some good spiritual insights in the beginning about the emotional, physical and spiritual need to be the person you are meant to be and finding your purpose and joy in life if you haven’t found it. I just don’t quite buy the theory that we mapped out our divine potential before we were born and now, if we’ve been feeling lost, we must find our true way through divining our archetypal chart!
I did find the limited listing of archetypes fascinating. I find most consistent to my personality the archetypes of Rebel, Student, Healer, Poet, Lover, Nature Child, Eternal Child, Athlete, Seeker, Storyteller, Judge, Companion and Servant. That’s thirteen because I couldn’t decide between the Childs. One note, though. There’s more to an archetype than a literal interpretation. It’s symbolic, like an Athlete doesn’t have to be a Body For Life graduate or a marathon runner, but can be a person determined to overcome a physical weakness. A Healer doesn’t have to be a medical representative, but can be someone like me who enjoys giving support or opinions to encourage healing.
So while some of this concept was quite stimulating, in the end I’m wondering how it’s changed the way I see myself or my life. I didn’t chart my archetypal wheel because I saw no point to it. If you, however, are amused by magical or astrological efforts, or are bewildered by the person you’ve somehow become seemingly beyond your control, then maybe you need this book. I’m already a reflective, intuitive person and don’t need the guidance.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have a predetermined Sacred Contract that I have to fulfill. Life means surprises, new opportunities and the constant need for choices on a growing spectrum of things that cannot be predicted. Spiritual growth seems more authentic if chosen by a human and not a prehuman spirit.
On the other hand, maybe I really was born to be a rebel. Here again I’m rebelling, not just for external freedoms, but my inner freedom!
P.S.--I picked this up at the local library, but if you want to get serious about using this book, you'll need to buy it to have the time for all this effort.
We all come into this world with 'Sacred Contracts,' according to bestselling author Caroline Myss. Some know it as a calling. Some see it as a life m...More at Bostic Media
Bestselling author Myss teaches the all-new material her book is based on as she reveals the relationship of our personal lives to archetypal patterns...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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