Chapter 2: Guides and the Self
I am most aware of these parts through synchronicities, dreams, intuition, or, at times, a loud inner voice that speaks up. There are numerous times when in a conversation, or even a relationship, where consciously, I am thinking, “Something feels a little off, but I am probably just being critical, or my expectations are too high (I am a Virgo, so I do have to work to be aware of this shadow aspect of myself :).” Then, I will hear from inside, “You need to get away, now,” and it startles me. I have had to learn over and over to listen to these guides, and have suffered consequences when I have not. I remember letting my less intuitive, empathetic parts hold too much of the inner conversation I was having regarding a male client I had been seeing for about a year and a half, about seven or eight years ago. I had dreams depicting fire escapes in the background, which my dream ego was not paying attention to. In my daily life, there were numerous, really wild synchronicities happening. The daimon, guide, part of Self, whichever it was, finally yelled at me, “YOU HAVE TO FIRE HIM AND GET AWAY FROM HIM NOW!” I still remembered where I was in my office when it happened. I had been advised by someone I was professionally consulting with to continue to work with this client on his “abandonment issues”. My guide was NOT HAVING IT. It told me, “license be damned, get yourself safe.” Despite eventually being free of the situation, it ended up being a very frightening, ongoing situation that I feel like I could have headed off somewhat if I had listened to those parts that were desperately trying to warn me I was in a dangerous situation.
When I can get out of my own way and listen, I have guides that help in my work. They will bring things to my attention or bring clarity to a situation I am working with a client on. Most often that comes as intuition, but sometimes they do talk to me a little more forcefully, “You are missing something!”
My guides help me enormously with both mundane occurrences and the tectonic plate-shifting parts of my life. I wanted to teach people about these resources that have become so invaluable to me. It is now really difficult for me to think of doing “psychology” without the involvement, for both myself and my clients, of the Archetypal Imagination.
