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Natural Passages Newsletter

AUGUST 2008

In this issue we revisit the Magician energies of manhood. We refer to it archetypally as the Sage/Raven/Cougar where we learn to create and manifest the life we seek physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It is where we learn to analyze, assess and contain any situation, while being able to say what is so, when it is so without blame or judgment.

I hope you enjoy the information.

Bountiful Blessings
Herb Stevenson
One White Horse Standing


The Magician:
Sage/Shaman or Innocent/Trickster

The Magician/Sage/Shaman

The magician is the keeper of wisdom and transformative processes. At an early age, men learn to assess, analyze, and contain so that they can create with their minds and their hands. Reading, writing and arithmetic are magical processes that unravel and reveal the magic of life. In time, the man matures sufficiently to not only assess, analyze and contain, but to do so in such a way that enables him to be able to "say what is so, when it is so without blame or judgment". A healthy magician allows us to live our lives as mature men, consciously and intentionally, with deep reflection.

The mature magician is like a shaman...a holy man. Through deep reflection (assessing), he understands himself and his place in the world. He is able to reflect deeply (analyzing) in the inner sanctums of himself and bring wisdom to the day-to-day world. He learns to balance inner forces so that instead of dancing with shadows, he is able to bring conscious awareness (containment) to these darkened areas so that he can learn from the depths of himself. He learns to be an expert at containment--for himself, his shadows (demons & angels), and of his inner journey of life--by learning how to observe and witness himself, moment to moment and then choosing how to be in the world. The mature magician is always seeking ways to implement the moral application of his insights into the world. "He is the kind of man who is committed to an inclusive community, joining and leading" others’ in their efforts to make the world a better place. He heals others by stewarding his knowledge in support of self and others.

The mature magician looks inward often and reflects widely and deeply upon himself and the affairs of others. He makes time to be alone to ensure that he is comfortable with himself. "By doing so, he maintains communication with his own unconscious. Others gravitate to him, because of his inner order and calm. He sees the shadow in himself and others and faces the reality of death." At the same time, he lives out of a deep sense of contentment and occasionally deep inner joy, knowing that ultimately life triumphs over death by staying fully present and choosing how to live each moment.

The mature magician connects with his Center, the source of his authenticity and internal authority. He tends to have an aura of great depth that creates a large presence and sense of unusual insight within his eyes. Some feel he knows things he is not sharing about them and often have the unsettling experience of being "seen right through". Yet, because of his own in-depth experiences, this man values the psychological space of other people. By honoring their inner worlds of thought, fantasy, feeling, and symbol, he supports them to value these dimensions of their own being more fully. As such, the very act of beholding a person helps to heal, mirror, and contain him.

The male magician supports us to feel worthwhile and self-validated by listening to us, and empathizing with our position, even when he does not agree with our interpretation. He will be devoted to supporting himself and others to arrive at the truth in any given situation; however, he will be careful in making decisions about how much truth to reveal and how best to reveal it.

This man is an important facilitator in the initiatory processes of the individuals in his life. He works to integrate various perspectives and levels of reality, hoping to support those around him find their true centers.

When he needs to be, this man is self sacrificial. He will support others, so that they may develop without harm, even when it will be so to himself. Nonetheless, he will invoke another’s shadow when necessary so that it is brought out into the open where it can be viewed, struggled with, and overcome.

He conserves and transmits the norms and values of his particular specialty and culture. He brings forth the founding principles of his work from which he innovates and encourages other to do the same. Often, these principles and innovations are brought forth in particular rituals that can support others to grow into themselves more fully.

Unfortunately, often, we are NOT supported as men to fully embrace and grow into our mature magicians. Often, we are under supported internally and from others which results in creative adjustments that lead to shadow behavior. These creative adjustments attest to the skill from which every man is able to survive in a difficult world. As we age, these creative adjustments can become habitualized and rigid behaviors that no longer serve us. The shadow behaviors of an under supported magician are the Innocent and the Trickster.

The Innocent--the deflated pole

The passive shadow of the Magician is the ability to seamlessly move into a childish naiveté, where an act of innocence is feigned to hide a clever, cunning and refined manipulator. The innocent acts ignorant, naive, and with little drive or motivation, when it truth they are much like the old cliché’ of being "dumb like a fox", and are only hiding their true identity. When pushed, pressed, or cornered, the innocent will often respond with petulance, evasiveness, or veiled irritation that surface in various forms of "I don’t know". When further pressed, he will resort to acting surprised or become indignant as a means to manipulate the situations back to his favor. "But, just below the surface, his Shadow knows perfectly well what is happening and what he is doing. The man possessed by the Innocent claims not to understand himself, his relationship dynamics, or the consequences or his behavior." (Moore & Gillette, 1993, 156)

Two examples of this personality are the Dependent person and the Passive-Aggressive Person. The dependent person cannot claim let alone see that he has any actual power to manifest or create. He is so afraid to claim his power to manifest or create, that he believes that everyone else has the power and knowledge to shift the world. To ensure that he does not have to claim his rightful place in the world, he claims that it is his purpose in life to serve others. Hence, he is able feign the need to establish clear boundaries between himself and others. "He avoids asserting himself, because unconsciously he thinks that if he asserts himself he will be abandoned." (158) Therefore, he will denigrate himself and his accomplishments through self-effacing acts and deflection of any compliments. "Often ingratiating, he sugarcoats the veiled demands he makes on powerful others, lest they withdraw their good will from him. He falls all over himself in an attempt to present himself as completely harmless. Generally, untrustworthy, sooner or later, we know he will knife us in the back out of his envy for real or imagined power we hold over him.

Dependent men are very threatened by their repressed feelings of hostility, and their manipulative motives. As the repression barrier begins to break down under pressure from this unwanted, hidden hostility, the dependent experiences a rapid rise in anxiety. They ultimately fear being abandoned.

Moreover, the dependent man dreads responsibility and will do anything to avoid assuming it; especially, responsibility for his own life. Asking him to assume new responsibilities regardless of the amount, leads to extreme acts of manipulation. In basic terms, "he does not want to move into the adult realm of making worlds." He prefers to sit on the sidelines, criticizing and denigrating the efforts of other, while professing the hopelessness of it all. Unable to own his disowned behavioral parts, he projects them onto others as people that are overly demanding, overly unreasonable, and attempting to manipulate him. Because the dependent man is constantly withdrawing from the world, more specifically, withdrawing from the responsibility for the creation of his world, he can experience bouts of depression.

The passive-aggressive man rears his ugly head when the innocent can no longer repress the hostility of feeling powerless. The aggression is palpable, clever, and secretive. When the repression barrier fails, an underlying rage surfaces in intellectual and verbal attacks. Denial of manipulative motives will permeate the ruse as the passive aggression is against his own disowned parts being projected onto another person. In the extreme, when he has behaved badly and been seen by others, he will deny the presence of his manipulation by professing that "everyone is basically good" which enables a shift of focus away from him to a bland, group level statement that is difficult to discuss let alone refute.

Because the Innocent (shadow) refutes his manipulation and his inability to assume responsibility for his life, he is often naive or incapable of accepting his sexual motives of women. He can be easily implicated in sexual harassment, even though he will consider his actions as "friendly", "misread" or "misunderstood" as sexual advances, even though those receiving his advance will know better.

The Innocent actually believes that someone else holds his point of power and that he does not have a "tree of life" within himself. Unwilling to access and claim his own power, he projects it onto others. Through his passivity, he allows others to locate, define, and steward his life. He relies on others to provide the "compass of life".

To fully claim the magician’s power within, the man must be willing to create his own inner world and to accept responsibility for the creation of his outer world. In doing so, "he would come to know and be comfortable with himself in his vital, life-giving depths. He would know and steward his own psychological boundaries. He would feel strong, safe, and contained, rather than lost in the definition of other’s views of who and what he should be".

The Trickster--the inflated pole

The Trickster is the inflated magician that tends to be the detached manipulator. Similar to the Innocent, the trickster does not assume responsibility for his actions. He is the power shadow that builds atomic bombs and can only see the genius in the creation and cannot ever accept responsibility for the destruction caused by his creation. In more modern times, the trickster is responsible for the "careless pouring of toxic materials of all kinds into our ecosystem".

The trickster is a man that has the capacity of to lie, cheat, and steal in the "unbridled scramble to acquire materials goods and personal wealth, at the expense of millions of powerless people." In many ways, he is a sociopathic1 pole of the Shadow Magician.

The trickster is controlled by a mixture of fear, hate, and envy. It is derived from the pro-social use of humiliation to drive people to perform against the nature of their own soul at any cost in school and within some family, religious, and social structures. This fear, hate, and envy manifests in whatever it takes to avoid feeling the sense of "not having the right to exist". The moral tones, for example, of some teachers is indicative of the subtle emotional sadism used by the trickster to instill subordination and imprint the behavior of the trickster onto the child.

Men possessed by the trickster are detached from the common concern for the welfare of others. They tend to make intimate contact not with other people but with their work or their learning or their materials possessions. Because other people are objects to be manipulated, the trickster feels justified to withhold information and to be secretive in ways that can be cruel and sadistic. Trickster can be exploitative, deceitful, and untrustworthy as they destroy the worlds they are trying to build.

Narcissistic Trickster--Full of Himself

The Trickster differs from the Innocent in that he generally recognizes his manipulative skills, and revels in them. Often the trickster in his worst case scenario can be Narcissistic, Schizoid, and/or Antisocial. The narcissistic trickster is an exaggerated compensation for his feared, hated, and repressed dependency on others to mirror the world as he wants it to appear. Often men who crave and seize power do so because of their desperate fear of their own unclaimed weaknesses which they cannot face. Hence, they project these weaknesses on others and sadistically belittle them for their deficiencies. The narcissistic trickster’s self esteem is based on a blind and naive assumption of personal worth and superiority, which he then uses to justify belittling other’s inferiority. In other words, he often tricks others into believing lies about his effectiveness and power. He knows no truth but his own. Hence, he "displays pretentious self-assurance and exaggerates achievements ad talents. He is seen by others as "egotistic, haughty, and arrogant." He often displays interpersonal exploitiveness, takes others for granted, uses others to enhance his self and to indulge his desires, and expects special favors and status without assuming reciprocal responsibilities. The narcissistic trickster has no social conscience and lacks any personal integrity

Schizoid Trickster--Void of Intimacy

The Schizoid Trickster is emotional and cognitively deficient in his capacity to develop warm or close relations. He prefers to concentrate on hobbies, work, things and not people. They are often cut-off from the intimacy of life. "While trying to deprive others of joy and enthusiasm, they destroy their own capacity for a rich life. Every facet of life becomes reduced to the...avoidance of intimacy and mutuality required to be part of a community. Instinctual energies are not coordinated for community and relationship building. They typically isolate and alienate and therefore dehumanize themselves and anyone in relationship with them.

Antisocial Trickster--Void of Humanity

The antisocial trickster is a sociopath willing to exploit and cannibalize all others with extreme prejudice. He is morally immature and incapable of accepting responsibility for his thoughts or actions. He can only see the pleasure of the pain that he has created by exploiting or cannibalizing their lives.

Alchemical Response

The trickster’s role is to find who is willing to be taken advantage of and to exploit him until nothing is left. If we are centered, we will realize that we have been tricked and will begin to reclaim our power and negate the tentacles that suck the breadth of life from us. We begin to fully accept responsibility for the creation of our own life and therefore free our selves by accepting that no one has the right to create our lives or can choose how we should live, but ourselves.

Adapted from Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette, (1993) The Magician within: Accessing the Shaman in the Male Psyche. New York: William Morrow & Co.

Footnotes

sociopath >n. a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior. The lack of a social conscience, the lack of the capacity to assume responsibility for the effects of one self and one’s behaviors upon others. -DERIVATIVES sociopathic >adj. sociopathy >n.

 


Upcoming Programs,
Workshops and Retreats

Norwegian Program

Luster in Sogn, Norway
September 15-19, 2008

This is a five-day experience that develops into the four laws of change applied through exploring the archetypal energies of the deep masculine, deep wisdom, deep feminine, and deep caring.

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Intimacy: The Road to Wholeness

Novelty, Ohio
October 2-5, 2008

Intimacy for men is often confusing and bewildering. If we listen to the general world, women believe that it is merely a case of our being more vulnerable, whereas men would suggest that it involves sexual closeness. In reality, intimacy for men is the ability to balance presence with vulnerability. Too much presence leads to a stoic, mechanical existence with little real relationship with others. Too much vulnerability leads to a sense of over-exposure, embarrassment, and possibly humiliation.

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