The Challenger is always driving forward, excited by taking risks and trying things that don't seem easily doable (or doable at all!) so it can find out what happens.

That "excitement of the unknown" is what makes a challenge - if you know you will win, it's actually really boring, and if you know you will lose it's both boring and discouraging. The Challenger would always rather win, but not without a good hard struggle, and it would rather give it everything and lose than win automatically.

Remember too that "win" and "lose" are not mostly about other people - it's just the sense of pitting your will against a desire, and driving hard to achieve it and either getting there or not. No matter what happens, the Challenger's next response is, "On to the next one!!"

This archetype is very restless, gets bored easily, prefers short, intense bursts of experience, and is entirely sure that rules and limits are for other people and that it can do whatever it wants.

This can be glorious, inspiring, fun, powerful, improbably effective - and it can also lead to serious overextension, a list of unfinished goals, difficulty sustaining long-term commitments, and sometimes active aggression.

Everyone with a moderate or strong Challenger also has other archetypes, so pay attention to the "plays well with" section to notice where you might have archetypal tension.

Also remember that our socialization affects how all the archetypes show up - but this one is more gender-influenced than most of them, so that people assigned a male gender will generally get praise and tolerance for expressing the Challenger and female-gendered, non-gendered, and gender-fluid people will often get criticism, pushback, or hostility for expressing the Challenger.

I hope you enjoy learning about the Challenger and for those of you who recognize yourselves, I hope this helps you to have a better relationship with this part of you!

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This is a weird word for us, because it has specifically religious connotations, but redemption is actually an archetypal experience that goes beyond and beneath any specific religious or spiritual belief framework.

Listen to the Mermaid episode for more on that - I talk about it quite a lot in there, and if you're not familiar with the Mermaid archetype, that might be a very helpful prelude to listening to this one.

Basically the Neptune cohorts are a kind of collective Mermaid - a particular way (through the sign Neptune is in) that we feel that longing to be merged, to be saved, to be redeemed (bought back), to have our sense of sin and wrongness washed away and made clean.

Needless to say this can and does have HIGH CHARGE for people, just as high (or in some cases higher) than the Plutonian instinct toward physical and psychological survival.

I work through all the Neptune cohorts for humans that are still possibly alive, starting with Neptune in Leo and working up to the current transition from Pisces into Aries just in the past 12 months.

I talk about the prevailing trends and movement of the zeigeist, the collective unconscious, during the 13-14 year periods of Neptune in a sign, and also talk about what gets "stamped" into the people born during that Neptune sign, which they then carry through their lives.

I am really enjoying bringing this collective view of some of these archetypal energies to you all, and I hope you are finding these useful - I've gotten tremendous feedback on the Pluto cohort episode so I'm hoping this one is equally illuminating!

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This inner figure is full of optimism and enthusiasm - I often refer to it as "Tigger" - so it's easy to think it's just all fun and "let's do it" and continually seeking out an unfolding sense of the meaning of life. It certainly can be all of that, in really beautiful ways.

It also has a shadow that can be quite destructive, as all the archetypes do, and I think it's well worth remembering the damage that can happen underneath the bright, cheerful face of this figure.

When it's healthy, it does more than any other archetype to help us not be crushed under the weight of being human. When it's in shadow, it can do a lot of the crushing itself.

I hope this episode gives you a deeper sense of this very important dimension of human nature!

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Because generations tend to be in different Pluto cohorts (even though they're not actual generations), these different survival imperatives can directly contribute to friction and conflict between people.

Nothing activates us faster than this - it tends to be a part of us that, once it's switched on, makes it very difficult to keep perspective, see other points of view, be flexible and open-minded, or consider other possibilities. It's SURVIVAL - even when it doesn't "make sense" in any rational way, it has tremendous urgency.

These differences can of course also crop up between siblings, partners, coworkers, and other important relationships in our lives. They leave an imprint on larger collective movements like politics, and show up in everything from media to fashion to finance.

I don't go through every nuance, of course, but I go through a basic shape of each of the Pluto sign cohorts that covers people alive on the planet right now (Cancer through Aquarius). Pluto moves so slowly (246 years to orbit the Sun) that only a handful of Pluto signs are ever alive in humans at one time.

This bit of information has turned out to be deeply useful and insight-generating for many people, and I hope it will be for you too!

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With the help and encouragement of MANY people, especially my producer Mattia Mauree, I made 18 episodes last year and kept them coming in a pretty steady flow.

I have a background as a data analyst, and when I realized we were almost at this year mark I was fascinated to see that those 18 episodes had been downloaded over 3,200 times in FIFTY-FIVE different countries. :-O

And that's just from my podcast host - that's not including those of you who listen from the Patreon.

Forty-four of those countries have repeat listeners, and 27 have more than 10 downloads.

These are TINY numbers compared to most podcasts, which I totally get - but for me it's really a big deal. I'm not out promoting it, trying to drive up numbers. I don't run ads. If new people are listening, it's because someone told them about it, and that's the most incredible thing to me.

I never thought I'd do this at all, and to know that there are more than a handful of people out there who find these ideas interesting, helpful, and worth giving time and attention to? That's WILD. Entirely wonderful and still wild!

This thank-you ep is about 23 minutes and I talk a bit about how I got here, and what it means to be here, before having a fun time with the location data and giving many shout-outs to many places around the world who have dipped into my work.

I'll be back to the archetypal goodness next episode - but for now, THANK YOU. Thank you. Thank you!

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It is NOT "astrology" telling you you'll never have a happy relationship, or that it's your karma to be a mother, or that your chronic health issues are punishment for past-life mistakes.

I wish I was making this up, but these horrifying examples are things I've heard from clients.

I know a lot of people will want to fight me on this, but astrology CANNOT tell you things like that. People have been told that it does, but believe me, after 42 years of watching it in action, if it could really provide those hard-coded "answers" we would know by now.

(Personal pet peeve - karma is not even from the same cultural lineage as western astrology and has no connection to western astrological practice whatsoever. People have imported it - inaccurately and inappropriately - from Buddhist and Hindu beliefs they didn't really understand in the first place.)

The way western astrology is used is part of a bigger "spiritual" framework that encourages people to outsource their own agency and authority to people with ostensible "spiritual" credentials who claim to know who you really are and what is really true for you.

There are countless people out there who have read a couple of astrology books or watched some stuff on TikTok and are confidently charging vulnerable people hundreds of dollars to tell them things like "your chart shows that your karma is to never have a happy relationship in this lifetime because you were bad in the previous one".

The problem here is not astrology. It's PEOPLE. And more than that, it's this entire faux-"spiritual" worldview that is wildly destructive and insulting.

Many of the people pronouncing these "truths" to their clients really are trying to help - they believe what they're saying is true, because they were told it was true by whoever they learned it from, and they genuinely care about their clients.

That doesn't excuse or offset the extraordinary damage they do to people with these attitudes, which I have spent 20+ years cleaning up after with person after person.

If you hear something that is ostensibly from astrology that makes you feel anxious, powerless, self-critical, hopeless, despairing, confused, ashamed, or terrified, THE PROBLEM IS NOT ASTROLOGY. (The problem is also not you.)

It's the person presenting that information, however well-meaning.

This of course doesn't mean astrology, handled with integrity and compassion, doesn't get into some painful and difficult territory - I do that in most of my client sessions and a lot of my teaching.

And, when I go there with people, we can honestly face the difficult or painful stuff in ways that leave them feeling MORE agency, clarity, self-trust, compassion, and possibility.

A huge part of that is because I know astrology cannot tell them what to do, and neither can I.

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The Responsible Adult/Elder is the archetype that is most concerned with the pragmatic needs of living together in groups, and since that is the fundamental basis of human experience, it's an incredibly important one to know about.

Because of what it is, and the world we live in, this is also the archetype that gets imposed on ALL of us through socialization, whether we actually have much of it in us or not - every single one of us is taught somehow in childhood that we need to be practical, responsible, structured, contained, tough and capable, and a good member of whatever layers of society we are part of.

We do have to live in bodies, and those bodies really only survive well in groups, so the skills and values of this archetype are extremely important for human existence. I just want to keep identifying the distortions of it that are endemic to modern western/ized culture, and keep bringing out the true, powerful, beautiful nature of this figure so it can contribute its medicine to all of us.

I hope you enjoy learning more about the Responsible Adult/Elder!

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We all have an innate speed (pace) and an innate rhythm (pattern) to us, as a baseline broad-spectrum way that we work.

We also live in a world that generally says there is only one right way to be, and that includes both speed (basically: fast) and rhythm (basically: continuous).

As always, this is bullshit, and extremely unhelpful bullshit, because in my experience that baseline speed + rhythm DOES NOT CHANGE.

We can force ourselves out of it, and that always, always sucks. It's destructive and unhelpful over the long term.

This is also a serious issue in relationships, and it's one I've run into often (both personally and professionally).

As with most of our own nature, we unconsciously expect other people to work at both the speed and the rhythm that we do, and we tend to assume there's something wrong with them if they don't. Needless to say this creates real friction in a relationship, and long term it can be deadly.

Learning more about your own innate speed and rhythm, and then bringing more curiosity and space for others to move at their own speed and rhythm, can improve your relationships more than you might believe possible!

It can also just help you to live more effectively, which is always more satisfying, by working YOUR way and not the way 1) other people do or 2) you've been taught/pressured to do. I hope this episode can move you in that direction!

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This is why I think it's so important to talk about it instead of just shutting down the conversation, or (as many people do) focusing only on the "wounded healer" part and not talking at all about the wound the healer carries...that he himself is never able to heal.

I also talk more in the episode about why I see that the unhealable wound part is inevitable and universal, but the wounded healer part is optional and not necessarily common.

All of us have this unhealable wound in us somewhere, but the people whose woundedness is really woven through them have this archetype as part of their core nature.

Because it's so difficult to carry this well - and since we can't get rid of it, carrying it is all we can do - I am deeply devoted to helping people get more familiar, skillful, and clear-eyed about this archetype.

As all the archetypes do, it has gifts, strengths, and profound contributions along with its challenges, sorrows, and bleakness.

Holding that all together will help all of you with the Unhealable Wound/Wounded Healer as a significant part of your nature live more deeply into what that means.

For more in-depth information on the qualities of the unhealable wound in people, you can check out an interview I did called "Working With Unhealable Wounds" with Simone Seol in 2023.

I go through the list of Chiron (the solar system body at the heart of the Unhealable Wound) in each sign of the zodiac.

https://karenhawkwood.com/interviews/

You might or might not have the archetype of the Unhealable Wound/Wounded Healer, where it's really prominent in your nature, but you have that wound somewhere, and knowing those qualities specific to your Chiron group can be helpful.

You can find out what sign Chiron is in by going to www.astro.com and putting in your birth information, and then looking at the "legend" box in the lower left and finding Chiron on the list with the sign it's in.

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The issue with this is that if we're really confused, the effective response is to 1) gather more information or 2) weigh and analyze the information we already have so that we can come to clarity.

But if we're not actually confused, those things don't help, and we struggle more.

I talk about the two main experiences (archetypal complexity and lack of safety) that get unhelpfully labeled "confusion" and how each requires its own distinct response.

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That last bit, of course, is the kicker.

Remember, the Visionary isn't necessarily political - the vision isn't always about sociopolitical change on that level or in that side of life. There are many scientists in many fields of science, many artists in many media and styles of art, many people innovating in ways that don't get Wikipedia entries.

But this is the common thread - the absolute conviction that the current way is irretrievably corrupt and ineffective, and we need the radically better way that they can see, and that the better way must be pursued with unwavering determination that will dismantle any obstacles.

Remember this conviction doesn't mean they are correct, and the details of the better way can and do vary wildly - but without that conviction, no Visionary-infused human would ever be able to stick with the vision long enough to help it become real.

This is often a lonely archetype, because they see things most others don't (which, again, doesn't mean they're foretelling) and it's hard to be so different. This archetype also has real difficulty with the ordinary, embodied dimension of human nature, in themselves and others.

Without the Visionary, though, humans simply wouldn't change, largely because no one would be able to perceive or understand anything beyond what already existed.

This is a really important one to understand, because it's part of many, many people, and you will hear the Visionary speaking in corporate team meetings, across the dinner table, at parent-teacher conferences, in your church or sangha or surfing group or Pilates class.

This one can be really tricky to navigate, both in ourselves and with others, so I'm hoping once you can recognize it more, you can bring more skill to being in relationship with it!

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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 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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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 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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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 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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