The Spiritual Inheritance of Teenagers
Analisa Lee | 16.Jul.10
Sometimes when I’m doing psychotherapy with urban homeless teens, I think of the world’s great rivers. In particular, I think of how, in a world of myriad natural forms, it is the fractals in nature that give us an ample chance to see the whole, simply by looking at what’s right in front of us. Imagine the Colorado River, for example, and how the water’s eddies and circular back-flows have carved little mesas in the rock and clay along the shore. You could hold some of these mesa forms in the palm of your hand. And yet, they are tiny replicas of the huge massive stones that fill the desert landscape: structures that have been carved by eons of water and wind, and are so huge that it could take an hour or more to walk across one. So when I find the hungry ache of a homeless teen’s heart and soul sitting across from me, I know I also have before me a poignant fractal of the West’s aching condition.
What do these teens hunger for? They have no stable homes, no village to take them in when their families fail them, and most of them have been traumatized and abused in various and violent ways. Some of them have learned how to abuse others, because it’s the main thing they’ve known. They are the hurt heart of the West. A rowdy and beautiful bunch, these kids make me laugh on a regular basis; their stories also make me weep sometimes on my way home after work. But in the face of all that has happened to these kids, it seems to me that what they really respond to, and deeply desire, are authentic experiences of soul. They want healing, and to be able to make sense of their experiences in a way that feels real, and connected to something real. They don’t want to feel alone anymore. And they seem eager to touch something magical that will help them in their difficult journey, and allow them to evolve in the direction of abundant, peaceful and authentic aliveness.
Since the shelter where I work is only a temporary place for the kids to stay and get resources, and the longest that most of them will be there is thirty days (some of the kids have come back four or five times over the years), I have had to figure out a way to work with them in something like spirit/psyche triage. I see them twice a week individually in therapy while they’re at the shelter, so we have a maximum of nine times that we’ll work intensely together one-on-one (sometimes it will only be a few days before they leave again). What can we do together that will give them something substantial to help them navigate this world, and, more importantly, heal their souls and hearts?
To find the answer, I have had to look backwards in time, and to other parts of the world. I have had to widen my aperture to before Western Culture’s great rift between spirit /mind, and body/soul. I have had to tap into my own connection to the great collective human inheritance of archetypal, spiritual and cellular instinct and wisdom. In cultures all around the world, humans prove to be creators and magicians of metaphor, symbol, myth and meaning. So this is where the kids and I begin. After all, these kids (and our Western cultures) have been in a fire for some time, and one can only dwell in fire for so long before one will pray for rain, or dive headlong into a river.
My observation is that the homeless teens need to connect with something spiritual or spirit-based, but not dogmatic or religious (although if a kid brings religious icons in his/her cosmology, I will gladly use those metaphors with him/her). By “spiritual,” I mean that the work inspires and instills a sense of the ineffable, creative energy of the cosmos. It conjures a flavor of the mystical or holy. And these kids also need a framework for the birth, sustenance and death cycle that is ubiquitous in life. In the healing work of therapy, we tap into these things by using metaphor, archetypal narrative, magical imagery, and the wonderful desire that Western teens have in their hearts to be free. In short, I try in my short time with these marginalized youth to connect them into their own spiritual inheritance of being soulful humans living on an animated, living earth. I agree with the anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis in The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern:
“During the Renaissance and well into the Enlightenment, in our quest for personal freedom, we in the European tradition liberated the human mind from the tyranny of absolute faith, even as we freed the individual from the collective, which was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. And, in doing so, we also abandoned many of our intuitions for myth, magic, mysticism, and, perhaps most importantly, metaphor. The universe, declared Rene Descartes in the seventeenth century, was composed only of ‘mind and mechanism.’ With a single phrase, all sentient creatures aside from human beings were devitalized, as was the earth itself…. The notion that land could have anima, that the flight of a hawk might have meaning, that beliefs of the spirit could have true resonance, was ridiculed, dismissed as ridiculous.”
The hungry heart needs a storyline with which is can make sense of what’s happened and happening. It needs purpose, and a design or meaning that makes intuitive sense of the seeming chaos of life. I use “The Hero’s Journey” with the kids as a template. I should say here that I am forever grateful for Bret Stephenson’s book From Boys to Men: Spiritual Rites of Passage in an Indulgent Age. I found Stephenson’s book in a divinely inspired and desperate attempt to try and find some way to connect the teens to the ancient parts of their souls; I went to the library one day after work and searched every library listing with the key words “spiritual healing” or “indigenous” in it. His book made me realize how useful The Hero’s Journey is in this work.
Using a blend of cultural anthropology, transpersonal psychology and mindfulness training (which is my version of “Dialectical Behavioral Therapy meets ‘Lord of the Rings’”), the teens and I re-enter the world of myth that is their life. Every kid who has ever read a fairy tale, watched an adventure movie, or played an interesting video game knows The Hero’s Journey. I love “The Lord of the Rings” especially for this, because it has so many of the strong archetypes. And “Avatar” is also a visually stunning example.
To do this work, I made several beautiful gold posters with many images of male and female archetypes from around the world, both living people and also painted representations of energies, and we use this visual aid so that the kids can see and choose archetypes as companions in their inner work. When presented with the images, it only takes the kids a few seconds to recognize and know the companions they need; the psyche and heart are brilliant like that.
One of the things that Bret Stephenson points out in his book about working with at-risk youth is that teens need to experience transcendent states. That’s a main reason why drugs are so interesting to teens. In many indigenous cultures, creating and entering transcendent states is a part of ritual life, and part of coming of age. It is certainly a part of most traditional initiatory ceremonies. And the beauty is that transcendent states are actually available to any of us whenever we choose. Meditation, deep yoga practices, staring into a living fire, dancing like mad, immersing in the natural elemental world, all help our bodies move energy from the frontal thinking cortex of our brain into the creative, non-rational and imaginative realm. It is in this realm that visions are seen, soul is met, and the spirit is nurtured.
In the magical realm of meditation, I’ve had the blue male Avatar (from the movie Avatar) sitting on an ocean beach with a boy whose real father treated him like he was a prisoner living in a house run like a P.O.W. camp. When I suggested in the boy’s meditation that the Avatar had a gift for the boy, he later told me that his gift was one of those amazing flying reptile birds. I’ve also had the great American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. hugging and protecting a very young African American girl in a meditation; this girl was raped last year and has recurring nightmares, and she also tends to react with violence when she’s stressed. Clearly, choosing a powerful male figure of non-violence was deep medicine for her.
The images the kids use in their inner states are examples of archetypal energies: power-points of the human unconscious that empower the individual by helping her/him tap into an inner resource. And tapping into these archetypal energies also does something so vitally needed in the West: it re-connects the individual to a collective, in a realm beyond the material. It asserts that we are in a “unified field” and that that field is charged with mystery and nuance. It also actively acknowledges the magical fact that what is inside us is outside us; and if we want to affect what’s outside, we can begin by working within. Carl Jung, the Western psychotherapist, recognized that in a culture where “tribe” has been replaced by the individual, the human soul will still find a tribe; and if not in the physical realm, then in the collective unconscious realm. Interestingly, Jung experienced his own “psychotic” states of transcendent realities, much like in a traditional path of a shaman.
This kind of archetypal work can be a part of the awakening of soul. And, in my opinion, it is not just an idea or theory to be pondered. It is something that we can, in any moment, choose to embody and integrate into ourselves. Thus, I invite you to enrich the archetypal energy in your own life. Here’s one idea: when you close your eyes and focus in on the heart area of your body, what do you see? What do you hear, smell, taste or feel? Is your heart a sun, or a river of life? Ask your inner wisdom who or what could assist you in making your heart flow. Trust your instincts and whatever occurs to you. Your first impulse is the right one, and the answer you need right now. Then act upon that answer, by inviting that archetypal person/energy into your life as a healer/teacher. Let it teach you. Let the powerful inheritance of the collective unconscious assist you. Embody it.
It seems to me that the West is, in various ways, moving away from our historical over-emphasis on the rational intellect. It seems to me that we are ultimately being called to drop deeper into an awakened heart. Or at least that shift is where I am putting my personal energy. And connecting into the collective archetypal realm is one way to come into the heart. I personally imagine the collective unconscious as a celestial realm of constellations, and each star is a ray of light waiting for an open heart to recognize and receive it. It’s possible to let those rays land within you, and then to shine them into this world. This is how we resource ourselves from the inside out. The West has so much material wealth floating around, now is the time to concentrate on the wealth of our individual and collective soul. And, most importantly, when you awaken this for yourself, you awaken it for us all.
What do these teens hunger for? They have no stable homes, no village to take them in when their families fail them, and most of them have been traumatized and abused in various and violent ways. Some of them have learned how to abuse others, because it’s the main thing they’ve known. They are the hurt heart of the West. A rowdy and beautiful bunch, these kids make me laugh on a regular basis; their stories also make me weep sometimes on my way home after work. But in the face of all that has happened to these kids, it seems to me that what they really respond to, and deeply desire, are authentic experiences of soul. They want healing, and to be able to make sense of their experiences in a way that feels real, and connected to something real. They don’t want to feel alone anymore. And they seem eager to touch something magical that will help them in their difficult journey, and allow them to evolve in the direction of abundant, peaceful and authentic aliveness.
Since the shelter where I work is only a temporary place for the kids to stay and get resources, and the longest that most of them will be there is thirty days (some of the kids have come back four or five times over the years), I have had to figure out a way to work with them in something like spirit/psyche triage. I see them twice a week individually in therapy while they’re at the shelter, so we have a maximum of nine times that we’ll work intensely together one-on-one (sometimes it will only be a few days before they leave again). What can we do together that will give them something substantial to help them navigate this world, and, more importantly, heal their souls and hearts?
To find the answer, I have had to look backwards in time, and to other parts of the world. I have had to widen my aperture to before Western Culture’s great rift between spirit /mind, and body/soul. I have had to tap into my own connection to the great collective human inheritance of archetypal, spiritual and cellular instinct and wisdom. In cultures all around the world, humans prove to be creators and magicians of metaphor, symbol, myth and meaning. So this is where the kids and I begin. After all, these kids (and our Western cultures) have been in a fire for some time, and one can only dwell in fire for so long before one will pray for rain, or dive headlong into a river.
My observation is that the homeless teens need to connect with something spiritual or spirit-based, but not dogmatic or religious (although if a kid brings religious icons in his/her cosmology, I will gladly use those metaphors with him/her). By “spiritual,” I mean that the work inspires and instills a sense of the ineffable, creative energy of the cosmos. It conjures a flavor of the mystical or holy. And these kids also need a framework for the birth, sustenance and death cycle that is ubiquitous in life. In the healing work of therapy, we tap into these things by using metaphor, archetypal narrative, magical imagery, and the wonderful desire that Western teens have in their hearts to be free. In short, I try in my short time with these marginalized youth to connect them into their own spiritual inheritance of being soulful humans living on an animated, living earth. I agree with the anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis in The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern:
“During the Renaissance and well into the Enlightenment, in our quest for personal freedom, we in the European tradition liberated the human mind from the tyranny of absolute faith, even as we freed the individual from the collective, which was the sociological equivalent of splitting the atom. And, in doing so, we also abandoned many of our intuitions for myth, magic, mysticism, and, perhaps most importantly, metaphor. The universe, declared Rene Descartes in the seventeenth century, was composed only of ‘mind and mechanism.’ With a single phrase, all sentient creatures aside from human beings were devitalized, as was the earth itself…. The notion that land could have anima, that the flight of a hawk might have meaning, that beliefs of the spirit could have true resonance, was ridiculed, dismissed as ridiculous.”
The hungry heart needs a storyline with which is can make sense of what’s happened and happening. It needs purpose, and a design or meaning that makes intuitive sense of the seeming chaos of life. I use “The Hero’s Journey” with the kids as a template. I should say here that I am forever grateful for Bret Stephenson’s book From Boys to Men: Spiritual Rites of Passage in an Indulgent Age. I found Stephenson’s book in a divinely inspired and desperate attempt to try and find some way to connect the teens to the ancient parts of their souls; I went to the library one day after work and searched every library listing with the key words “spiritual healing” or “indigenous” in it. His book made me realize how useful The Hero’s Journey is in this work.
Using a blend of cultural anthropology, transpersonal psychology and mindfulness training (which is my version of “Dialectical Behavioral Therapy meets ‘Lord of the Rings’”), the teens and I re-enter the world of myth that is their life. Every kid who has ever read a fairy tale, watched an adventure movie, or played an interesting video game knows The Hero’s Journey. I love “The Lord of the Rings” especially for this, because it has so many of the strong archetypes. And “Avatar” is also a visually stunning example.
To do this work, I made several beautiful gold posters with many images of male and female archetypes from around the world, both living people and also painted representations of energies, and we use this visual aid so that the kids can see and choose archetypes as companions in their inner work. When presented with the images, it only takes the kids a few seconds to recognize and know the companions they need; the psyche and heart are brilliant like that.
One of the things that Bret Stephenson points out in his book about working with at-risk youth is that teens need to experience transcendent states. That’s a main reason why drugs are so interesting to teens. In many indigenous cultures, creating and entering transcendent states is a part of ritual life, and part of coming of age. It is certainly a part of most traditional initiatory ceremonies. And the beauty is that transcendent states are actually available to any of us whenever we choose. Meditation, deep yoga practices, staring into a living fire, dancing like mad, immersing in the natural elemental world, all help our bodies move energy from the frontal thinking cortex of our brain into the creative, non-rational and imaginative realm. It is in this realm that visions are seen, soul is met, and the spirit is nurtured.
In the magical realm of meditation, I’ve had the blue male Avatar (from the movie Avatar) sitting on an ocean beach with a boy whose real father treated him like he was a prisoner living in a house run like a P.O.W. camp. When I suggested in the boy’s meditation that the Avatar had a gift for the boy, he later told me that his gift was one of those amazing flying reptile birds. I’ve also had the great American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. hugging and protecting a very young African American girl in a meditation; this girl was raped last year and has recurring nightmares, and she also tends to react with violence when she’s stressed. Clearly, choosing a powerful male figure of non-violence was deep medicine for her.
The images the kids use in their inner states are examples of archetypal energies: power-points of the human unconscious that empower the individual by helping her/him tap into an inner resource. And tapping into these archetypal energies also does something so vitally needed in the West: it re-connects the individual to a collective, in a realm beyond the material. It asserts that we are in a “unified field” and that that field is charged with mystery and nuance. It also actively acknowledges the magical fact that what is inside us is outside us; and if we want to affect what’s outside, we can begin by working within. Carl Jung, the Western psychotherapist, recognized that in a culture where “tribe” has been replaced by the individual, the human soul will still find a tribe; and if not in the physical realm, then in the collective unconscious realm. Interestingly, Jung experienced his own “psychotic” states of transcendent realities, much like in a traditional path of a shaman.
This kind of archetypal work can be a part of the awakening of soul. And, in my opinion, it is not just an idea or theory to be pondered. It is something that we can, in any moment, choose to embody and integrate into ourselves. Thus, I invite you to enrich the archetypal energy in your own life. Here’s one idea: when you close your eyes and focus in on the heart area of your body, what do you see? What do you hear, smell, taste or feel? Is your heart a sun, or a river of life? Ask your inner wisdom who or what could assist you in making your heart flow. Trust your instincts and whatever occurs to you. Your first impulse is the right one, and the answer you need right now. Then act upon that answer, by inviting that archetypal person/energy into your life as a healer/teacher. Let it teach you. Let the powerful inheritance of the collective unconscious assist you. Embody it.
It seems to me that the West is, in various ways, moving away from our historical over-emphasis on the rational intellect. It seems to me that we are ultimately being called to drop deeper into an awakened heart. Or at least that shift is where I am putting my personal energy. And connecting into the collective archetypal realm is one way to come into the heart. I personally imagine the collective unconscious as a celestial realm of constellations, and each star is a ray of light waiting for an open heart to recognize and receive it. It’s possible to let those rays land within you, and then to shine them into this world. This is how we resource ourselves from the inside out. The West has so much material wealth floating around, now is the time to concentrate on the wealth of our individual and collective soul. And, most importantly, when you awaken this for yourself, you awaken it for us all.
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