The morning outside is cold and clear. Blue sky; ground white with frost. The room around me alive with energy, a feeling of completion, of good work being done. The people around me are a new family.
December 1999. I’d just emerged from a life changing three-day rite of passage. Something I‘d been looking for since my teens. This had been a journey down to soul, into old wounds and up, into a new kind of healing.
This journey had been physically challenging but more importantly, had taken me inwards. We had been guided skilfully by those who had trodden the same path. Walking alongside us into the trenches of memory, the hidden places; wounds to heart and soul that we’d tried to hide, repress and deny.
During those three, cold days, we’d navigated our way together using key archetypal images and symbols taken from ancient fireside stories. At that point I was eleven years clean from drugs and alcohol. My recovery till then had been primarily 12 step along with with many therapeutic models. I’d found a way to live a good life, free from chemical addictions. I was functioning day to day as the saying goes, as a responsible, productive member of society. But there were old shadows gaining hold. Darker stuff growing in me, core wounds needling me, calling for healing. These shadows rose up in the form of behavioural addictions, some deeply damaging. I was being called in to pay closer attention to these untapped parts of my psyche and soul. If I didn’t explore this cracked inner world, I knew I wouldn’t make it past 30; I was sure of that.
I found the imagery in the archetypes we worked with immediate and completely engrossing. My life began to shift on its axis, opening up and changing for the better.
The main focus was on the Warrior, the Magician/Sorceress, the Sovereign and Lover archetypes. Each one possessing key attributes and themes that all humans experience and hold within them, found in all cultures and throughout human history. I‘d seen them embodied a thousand times in my favourite stories.
The way we were encouraged to look at and understand each archetype on that weekend and beyond was new but the essence of each of them and how they showed up in me was reassuringly familiar. I was in old ground with new eyes. I started to see my childhood adventure stories in different ways; more of a mirror into my own journey and life. I realised this was why archetypal imagery is so important in storytelling - we see and feel our own struggles and triumphs in the images inside all archetypal myths. Think Lord of the Rings. The Red Shoes. Beowulf. Cinderella. The list is long.
It’s been over 20 years since I stood in that sunlit room. The healing I’ve found has been profound. I was sure that offering the archetypes to support addiction recovery would be an alchemical healing force. It is. Bringing this timeless model to facilitate the healing work we do in Write to Freedom has achieved all and so much more than I hoped for. The same inspiration and passion I have, has taken root in the existing community and the wider addiction recovery world. The archetypes are a treasure map. A mythic compass point, guiding us through shadowy halls and sunlit valleys. It gives colour, purpose and focus to a life that can sometimes feel overwhelming. It connects me, inspires, giving me a sense of adventure, a spark for the long, gnarly road ahead into healing and meaning.
- Caspar Walsh