Divine Child
The Divine Child is closely related to both the Innocent and Magical Child, but is distinguished from them both by its redemptive mission. The Divine Child also has a historical resonance all its own. At the beginning of the Piscean Age 2,000 years ago, the archetype of the Divine Family was introduced. That structure of the Father, Mother, and Divine Child (God the Father, Mary, and Jesus) was somewhat prefigured in ancient Egyptian mythology by Osiris, Isis, and their son Horus, but they do not share the warm-hearted union of love and divinity that the Christian motif developed. The Divine Child is associated with innocence, purity, and redemption, god-like qualities that suggest that the Child enjoys a special union with the Divine itself. Few people are inclined to choose the Divine Child as their dominant Child archetype, however, because they have difficulty acknowledging that they could live continually in divine innocence. And yet, divinity is also a reference point of your inner spirit that you can turn to when you are in a conscious process of choice.
You may also assume that anything divine cannot have a shadow aspect, but that’s not realistic. The shadow of this archetype manifests as an inability to defend itself against negative forces. Even the mythic gods and most spiritual masters — including Jesus, who is the template of the Divine Child for the Christian tradition — simultaneously expressed anger and divine strength when confronting those who claimed to represent heaven while manifesting injustice, arrogance, or other negative qualities (think of Jesus’ wrath at the money-changers in the Temple). Assess your involvement with this archetype by asking whether you see life through the eyes of a benevolent, trusting God/Goddess, or whether you tend to respond initially with fear of being hurt or with a desire to hurt others first.
Films: Terence Stamp in Billy Budd; character of the young Dalai Lama in Kundun; character of the young Pu Yi in The Last Emperor; Alex Wiesendanger in Little Buddha.
*Descriptions excerpted from Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss
image courtesy of crowolf / Flickr
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