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Title: Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential by Caroline Myss ISBN: 0517703920 Publisher: Harmony Books Pub. Date: 02 January, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.49
Rating: 5
Summary: Multiple Mirrors to See Your Soul and Its Commitments!
Comment: Sacred Contracts engages you in an extensive, self-exploring expedition to unearth the core ingredients of your unique, spiritual identity. Because there are so many assignments to do in the book and it is so detailed, I suggest you get the hardcover version rather than one of the audio versions.
Of all the many books I have read about finding and following the dictates of your own true self, Sacred Contracts is by far the most unusual and detailed. The author calls upon major religious traditions, Eastern ideas about energy centers in the body, Jungian psychological archetypes, and astrology among other sources as context for seeing yourself as unique. Although few of these references are ones that I relate to very often, I was impressed by the way that they centered my focus by helping me see what life roles are not important in my life, as the contrast for seeing what is important. In my past experience with increasing self-understanding, the focus was on what was important. Cutting away the unimportant makes those important areas stand out much more clearly.
This is a book that can help you learn for the rest of your life. Unlike many books that are aimed at helping you find "the answer" and then getting you off working with "the answer," Sacred Contracts is designed to help with new challenges and issues in the future . . . as well as the ones you have today.
I found myself particularly enriched by reviewing the very long list of potential archetypes that are developed in the book. These are explained by stories of individuals, references to popular books and movies, and examples of how one archetype differs from other, similar ones. As a result, the archetypes and my own reactions to them came into much clearer focus in my mind. When I had read about these in Joseph Campbell's work, I often found them to be distant. Here, they are immediate.
Sacred Contracts focuses on "what is our mission in life?" This includes both "where am I going?" and "who will go with me?" The answer is unique for each person to each of these questions. A sacred contract is "your overall relationship to your personal . . . and spiritual power." The contract is "a plan to help you develop your divine potential." This is to fulfill "an agreement your soul makes before you are born." As I read these concepts, I found them to be most closely identified in my mind with the beliefs of Buddhism as they relate to the reincarnated soul. The author takes care to show that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also contain these points of view.
The book contains a lot of material to help you absorb the context of these perspectives. In that sense, I felt a little like I was reading a condensed version of The Golden Bough.
After you understand the archetypes and their manifestations, you are directed how to engage in an extensive mental dialogue with and write about the positive and negative forms of each important archetype for you. These will include the four universal ones (child, victim, compromised person, and saboteur) as well as your selection from dozens of others for the ones that seem most important to you (such as addict, angel, bully, gambler, Midas, poet, and thief). For example, you will ask, "Why did I choose this archetype?" "In what way do I feel the archetype serves my Contracts with other people?"
The focus of all this remains on keeping "your attention on reaching your highest potential." To do this, you must "surrender to self."
Most people will find the list of what to think about and the exercises to do to be a bit intimidating. I certainly did. The work is based on a successful seminar that the author has been developing over many years. So it is intended to take quite a bit of time to do and implement. I suggest that you find blocks of time of at least two hours in length to work on these assignments when you will not be disturbed. If you are single, you might go someplace where you can be alone but see the splendor of nature. If you live with your family, early morning or late at night would probably be the best time . . . while others are at rest. Naturally, if you like what you read here, you could also consider doing a seminar with the author. I'm assuming that that is much more expensive than working with this book on your own. Some people might find it helpful to find someone to do this with, so that you share your results with one another. This could help provide the discipline to keep working on discovering your sacred contracts.
May you fulfill your highest purpose in ways that bring great joy and benefit to you and all whom you meet! God bless you.
Rating: 2
Summary: Lots of guess work....
Comment: While I can appreciate the risks Myss takes with this book, and her highly creative mind I do have a some serious concerns with some of the underlying assumptions. They are these........
1.First, how do we know for certain that we make Sacred Contracts before we are born? This seems to be highly speculative. I mean, it could be, but how do we know for sure? Also, what objective criteria would one use in discovering the content of the contract? Is it just intuitive? There's a lot of guesswork here -- to be sure. It gets fuzzy right from the start.
2.With whom is the contract made, and what are the consequences if one does not fulfill the contract? Are their negative consequences for breaking one's vow? Is the vow made with God? I'm still not clear on this.
3.Myss is specific on the classification of archetypes, but admits there may be dozens or hundreds more. How does she know that these are all legitimate archetypes? This is a very different view from Plato's understanding of eternal forms. Plato believed the forms are universal, perfect, incorruptible, and all participate in the ultimate form of the good. Jung takes the forms re-works them, and ends up with a rather splintered and fragmented view. (the archetypes seem to be persons or spirits as Jung presents them.) Then Myss gets takes Jung's archetypes, splinters them further, and adds a dark twist -- confusing more than clarifying. I wonder where all of this is going to end?
4.I think Myss is correct with her diagnosis of a metaphysical disease which effects all people and expresses itself through depression, anxiety, fatigue, and physical illness. Humans are ill. However, her prescription for curing that disease (being one's own spiritual doctor) is unconvincing. If the source of the disease is external then why is an external cure not needed? What I mean is, if we are truly ill, why is that not a result of our failure to keep our contract? If it is, should we not seek the forgiveness of the One we have broken the contract with? Myss seems to say, 'no - we just try harder.'
5.If Myss wants to promote her view over other metaphysical views, it would may be best for her to explain why the other views are wrong. Either we have entered into sacred contracts in a pre-existence or we have not. Since so many other worldviews don't acknowledge this belief, I don't find it very compelling. If Myss is right, then so many others are wrong, as many religions deny a pre-existent state. Yes, she presents some similar views found in other religions, but these are obscure and an extreme minority.
In short, Myss's ideas are interesting, but I believe this book ends up being more fictional. If it is fiction I begin to wonder if it is leading people from the truth instead of towards it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Immense achievement ... archetypes and divinity
Comment: Maybe it's just me, but I'm finding this book the most fun in the author's library of excellence. Sacred Contracts is an immense accomplishment, well written, with admirable scholarship and clarity. Myss addresses the roots of archetypal thinking, most especially in Plato and Carl Jung. She adds her own, unprecedented, contribution and details her history, as a medical intuitive and psychic, of working with the archetypes. She offers solid definitions, a fascinating list in the appendix, of archetypes, and provides workshop techniques for learning consciously with the guidance of archetypes.
I don't want to define archetype because she does it so well. Suffice me to say that these are, as in Jung's view, energy bundles of symbolic qualities that live in the collective unconscious and offer guidance to human beings through various life challenges. Jung defines archetypes such as the Shadow, Trickster, Child, and Mother. Myss adds a few hundred more and suggest that we all have four in common and eight electives, 12 archetypes for each lifetime, a zodiac of chosen lessons, challenges, and life adventures.
Myss suggests that these archetypes, universal and personal, can be discovered as a way to consciously work with the commitments we make (our sacred contracts) before entering each lifetime. That we've made promises to ourself and God, come to life, and then forget what we intended to do is not a new idea. It is well detailed in works of Sylvia Browne and in many ancient texts. Myss explains that when doing medical intuitive readings for people she began seeing the symbols for universal and personal archetypes in the energy field of people getting readings.
In this book, she shares this gift and tells us how to find out what our own Sacred Contracts are through discovering our archetypes, and, o yes, interviewing them ... by having a dialog with these energy bundles, we learn our divine intentions and can work with our challenges, setbacks, and opportunities to fulfil our divine purposes.
This book is good enough, rare enough, and a stunning achievement to own it in hardback. For those who cannot, and cannot wait, there is the library ...
I know this is a work of solemn importance but that doesn't keep it from being great fun ... getting acquainted with the archetypes is a little bit like a class reunion ... sounds impossible ... try it ! It's fun.
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Title: Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing by Caroline Myss ISBN: 0609800140 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Why People Don't Heal and How They Can by Caroline Ph.D. Myss ISBN: 0609802240 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle ISBN: 1577311523 Publisher: New World Library Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Three Levels of Power & How to Use Them by Caroline Myss ISBN: 1564555917 Publisher: Sounds True Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Advanced Energy Anatomy by Caroline Myss ISBN: 1564559076 Publisher: Sounds True Pub. Date: June, 2001 List Price(USD): $59.95 |
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