We have been socialized, especially in American or American-influenced culture, to believe that the FORM of our experience is the important part.

This leads to obsession (not overstated!) with the structure and shape of jobs, careers, relationships, parenting, spiritual practice, creative projects...pretty much everything.

What I have found through the archetypal work is that form actually matters very little.

What matters is the FEELING. The vibe, as the youngs say. :-D

When that lines up with your archetypal nature, including all its paradox and complexity, the form can actually be almost anything - that ends up being more a pragmatic consideration, almost an afterthought.

I find that this bewilders people until they get the hang of it - I end up working on this with nearly every client and most of my students, because letting go of that belief in very prescriptive definition is a big deal.

To illustrate with a common area of focus - if someone's "public-facing self" is based in the archetype of the Adventurer/Pattern-Seeker/Philosopher, the vibe that they both bring to their work in the world and need from their work in the world is one of expansion, optimism, faith in the unseen, fitting pieces together to make that bigger pattern.

The FORM of that work can be anything from medical practice to bookkeeping (yes really) to writing to environmental science to fashion design.

Every single one of those FORMS of work can hold that feeling of discovery, of pursuing a world that becomes ever-bigger and more fascinating, of finding a sense of a benign and purposeful existence that we're all part of.

For that matter, every single one of those forms of work (or relationships or parenting or creative work etc.) can hold the vibe of ANY archetype.

Pay more attention to how it FEELS than how it's FORMED and see where that leads you!

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The archetype of the Mermaid is, in my experience, the single hardest one to live well with. Talking about it, teaching about it, and helping people to understand and integrate it has been some of the most profound work of my career. This episode is longer than usual because this archetype has some special dimensions to it that need more space to dig into!

The Mermaid is the part of human nature that wants to dissolve, to merge into something/someone/somewhere that can hold us so we can just let go.

It's the part of us seeking that state that feels like magic, which I call "the shimmer" - where nothing hurts, everything is flowing and exquisite, and you can just stop having to be a separate struggling human being and just float.

We can have that experience while we're alive in bodies, but we can't hold on to it for very long, and often the ways we achieve that state are extremely destructive, unfortunately. That doesn't mean the Mermaid is inherently bad or dangerous - just that it's difficult to live with this profound yearning for that "other place" and still manage to live a healthy life here in this place.

I'm here to say that it can be done, though, and the way toward that is to accept and understand the Mermaid yearning for what it is rather than trying to judge it and get rid of it. I've never seen that work, despite a LOT of effort, and it usually makes things worse. Accepting the Mermaid and learning to work with it, while also not letting it swamp and drown you, seems to be the most effective approach.

I hope this episode reaches a lot of you Mermaid-carrying humans out there, and that it helps you in as many ways as possible to live more skillfully with this beautiful and tricky part of human nature.

I'll be releasing archetypal episodes about every-other-episode until all 13 are out - enjoy the second of the series!

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We do a lot of discussion of paradox here from a more cognitive perspective - but ultimately, it's not a cognitive experience. In fact it tends to make our cognitive minds lock up entirely.

Entering the experience of paradox through the body is a crucial dimension of our exploration, and this conversation with Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Betsy Kudlinski is a fantastic window on the topic.

Betsy is my SEP, and working with Somatic Experiencing for the past two years under her care has reorganized my entire way of living. It's also taken me deeper into the lived experience of paradox in ways that delight me (because as you know by now, this is my favorite thing.)

We talk about a lot of the paradox inherent in understanding the human nervous system, like how it can feel safe to feel unsafe, how capacity actually works, and a bit of discussion around the way that archetypal nature and trauma interact and layer together.

You can find out more about Betsy's work and get connected with her here: https://betsykudlinski.com/

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The archetypes are the core of my work, and now that the previous episodes have laid out the worldsense and frame of ideas that hold the archetypes, we can start getting into these inner figures in detail.

The Primal Animal can be one of the more difficult archetypes to live well with, especially (because of socialized judgment) for nonbinary, gender-fluid, and female people.

Its raw, intense, and amoral essence (note I'm not saying people are amoral; this archetype is amoral) is the part of human nature that's closest to "apex predator animal" nature.

There are profound gifts, strengths, and skills that it brings, and challenges in living this animal side of us in the human world. When it's clean and well-integrated, it can be enormously generative and powerful - and when it's in shadow, it's as dark as shadow can get.

I'll be releasing archetypal episodes about every-other-episode until all 13 are out - enjoy the first of the series!

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This is my first interview-ish episode, with the FABULOUS Mattia Maurée who podcasts, teaches, does deep magic with neurospicy humans, and also happens to produce Human Equals Paradox.

We are jamming about my personal pet peeve - the way cultural biases have gotten plastered over the core framework of western astrology and then the whole mess presented as if that is what astrology is.

In this case, the cultural biases we're pulling apart are those around gender - this is really just an intro to the whole idea, so we might be back for Round Two at some point as there is SO much to talk about here!

Short form: astrology does NOT require gendered attributes to work brilliantly and effectively, and in my view, it works better without them.

Have a listen and let me know if you have thoughts, questions, or opinions on this!

How to find Mattia and their work:

Mattia - www.mattiamauree.com

AuDHD Flourishing Podcast - https://www.audhdflourishing.com/hello

 Playtime With Shadow Archetypes: https://app.paperbell.com/checkout/packages/96972

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I focus on understanding people through applied paradox - how it looks in real-world, real-human examples, from literary expressions to political behavior to relationship issues.

I also talk about common misconceptions about how people work, and why we get high-centered when we try understanding people that way.

This, hopefully, will illustrate why the lens of paradox is ALWAYS more effective, pragmatically speaking, for understanding and engaging with other people than pretty much any other approach!

Yes, that's a big statement. :-) I'm entirely happy to hear people's takes on this once you've listened - come over to the Patreon and tell me where I'm wrong and we can have a good vigorous conversation about it!

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