The Truth About Security
The knowing that you are secure is generated from your inner world. Truth or illusion?
The prostitute archetype’s core focus is security-being safe physically and emotionally. When your safety is threatened, you will prostitute your power unless you trust yourself to know your truth and to live it. Truth is your power.
A story for you
Allessandra: Tanisha, I am so happy that we have been able to connect. I want to hear all about what is happening with the project you are leading.
Tanisha: Thank you Allessandra. It has been a crazy time. The team and I have been interviewing perspective attendees for the project. We have space for twenty-five women in the project and we have had over 500 applicants.
Allessandra: Wow! I didn’t realize that there would be so many women in need of this kind of self-development program. How do you choose the applicants?
Tanisha: That is the biggest challenge. It has become obvious that the selection criteria that we have been using is too limiting. We have chosen to step back and clearly define the project’s purpose and value. I believe that the alignment between the purpose and the values of the project, the company and the team is the key to choosing the ideal participants and to truly serving them.
Allessandra: Tanisha, as you know I am a very logical gal. Purpose and values and everything being in alignment is not what you need. That is all woo woo talk. You need a solid plan with daily, weekly and monthly goals. With a plan in place you can’t go wrong. Just choose twenty-five candidates using the criteria that fits the plan. Logic makes it simple and maintains security for all involved.
Tanisha: I am no longer sure that is true Allessandra. Interviewing these women has allowed me to see this project‘s potential. There is an opportunity to truly serve these women by supporting them to change their lives and hence the lives of their children. Choosing twenty-five women who have the potential to benefit from this project, requires more than logic. I care deeply about these women and their children. What if the way to serve the highest good of the company and the women is by having the purpose and values all in alignment? I have no proof it will work and there is certainly risk, but, at the same time there is a possibility that it will serve in ways I haven’t even dreamed of.
Allessandra: There you go again getting all sentimental, dreaming about possibility and losing sight of logic. You care too much about others and not enough for yourself. Your security is dependent on how well this program serves the company, not how well it serves the women. You need to think about yourself, not the women. Just follow the plan, meet the goals and the company will be pleased, you will be in line for a promotion and all will be well for you. The women may benefit from project and if they don’t, it is not your responsibility.
Tanisha: Allessandra, you have made a good point. I know I have a brilliant idea, however, I obviously don’t feel secure enough to take the risk. Maybe I just need to care less about others and be more logical until I learn how feel more secure in the unknown. It certainly feels lighter to not be responsible for the participants, the success of the project and the outcome for the company.
Let me explain
In this story, Tanisha has accepted the lead on a project that will allow her to expand and grow in ways that are unknown to her. She can see the possibilities for this project to serve the women in life changing ways. She wants to find a way to serve the highest good of all involved in the project. Tanisha has an idea of how it could work but she trusts Allessandra and her logic more than she trusts herself to take the risk. In making this choice she prostitutes her power for security. In the fear generated by the shadow of the prostitute, Tanisha has forgotten her learning of being ‘responsible to’ versus being ‘responsible for’.
Allessandra is fearful of Tanisha stepping into the unknown and risking her security. Logic is Allessandra’s safety net and she cast the net perfectly to catch Tanisha in it. The sister’s respective relationships with trust are enabling them to prostitute themselves.
A new story
Allessandra: Tanisha, I am so happy that we have been able to connect. I want to hear all about what is happening with the project you are leading.
Tanisha: Thank you Allessandra. It has been a crazy time. The team and I have been interviewing perspective attendees for the project. We have space for twenty-five women in the project and we have had over 500 applicants.
Allessandra: Wow! I didn’t realize that there would be so many women in need of this kind of self-development program. How do you choose the applicants?
Tanisha: That is the biggest challenge. It has become obvious that the selection criteria that we have been using is too limiting. We have chosen to step back and clearly define the project’s purpose and value. I believe that the alignment between the purpose and the values of the project, the company and the team is the key to choosing the ideal participants and to truly serving them.
Allessandra: Tell me more.
Tanisha: In the interviews, it is apparent that the biggest hurdle these women face is feeling secure. They need to feel physically and emotionally safe enough to make choices that support them to have work opportunities that will enable them to be autonomous. These women have credentials and life experience that have incredible value. I see their potential but they don’t see it. They have been trying to prove their worth and in doing so they are keeping themselves small. They are not able to meet their financial needs and living the opposite of what they desire. In this program, they will have the opportunity to become aware of how they are prostituting themselves and of the cost. They will have the opportunity to know their power and engage from it. In order to achieve this, the purpose and values of this project need to be in alignment with enabling these women to step out of fear and to learn to trust themselves.
Allessandra: Tanisha, this is so inspiring. Your idea of the alignment of purpose and values between your team, the company and the project and then choosing participants who are in alignment is brilliant and powerful. Alignment is the energy of creation, of expansion and growth and the possibilities for all involved are endless. My heart if filled with joy for you and for all involved. What an opportunity to serve the highest good of all.
Tanisha: Thank you Allessandra. Sometimes I feel insecure in the unknown and as the fear rises and I don’t trust myself to be in the process. However, when I remember that I am responsible to and not for and when I allow myself to be supported, I believe I can do this and the risk feels small. Thank you dear sister, for seeing the potential in this project and supporting me as I traverse this unknown landscape.
Allessandra: I sit here with you sister, in a state of humble greatness. What an inspiration you are as you embrace the unknown and step into the realm of possibility. It is truly a service of love and I am honoured you trust me to support you.
Awareness
Tanisha is leading a project unlike any she has lead previously. She is in the unknown and is practicing trusting herself to make choices that will meet her own needs as well as the needs of the women. She is fully engaged in the practice of being responsible to versus being responsible for.
Allessandra supports Tanisha in a way that empowers Tanisha to expand and grow while learning to trust herself and the process. She sees very clearly that Tanisha is walking the same path as the women who will be selected for the program. Tanisha is ahead them on the journey and will guide these women to trust themselves to make choices from the light of the prostitute, just as she has learned and is continuing to learn. Making choices from their power versus the fear of not being safe and secure. In time these women will trust their ability to be secure without prostituting themselves in the process. In supporting Tanisha, Allessandra expands and grows her trust. They are supporting each other to engage with life from the light of the prostitute.
Archetype Cards, Caroline Myss
Self-awareness practice
Closing the gap between reacting unconsciously and responding consciously.
The shadow of the prostitute archetype is activated when your physical and/or your emotional security is threatened. In the patriarch, you are conditioned to believe that your security comes from the world outside you versus from within you. For example, when you trust others to know your needs and what is best for you, you are trusting them keep you safe. This is akin to a child who trusts her parents to keep them safe. If the child is not taught to trust her ability to be secure within herself, she grows and transfers that trust from her parents to friends, co-workers ,people she views as experts and to the systems that govern.
To have autonomy means to have self-governance, to act on your own values and interests. It is about know your values, knowing your purpose, learning to trust your intuition, your body and trusting yourself make choices from your truth — your power. This allows you to move with what is unfolding in the moment and to be safe. This requires practice as living from fear and believing your security is dependent on others and the world outside of you, is the primary conditioning of the patriarchal story.
Big life questions:
1) What does being safe feel like?
2) How would you live if you knew you could trust yourself to move with what is unfolding in the present moment and feel safe?
I encourage you to set a daily intention to deepen your awareness of your relationship with security.
The following questions have been created to guide you:
1) Where in your life today did you trust that you could keep yourself safe?
2) Where in your life today did you hand your power over to something in your outer world to keep you safe?
3) How did your body alert you today when you didn’t feel safe? How did you respond to your body?
4) Where in your day were you aware of your intuition? Did you listen? Did you act on it?
I suggest you take a few minutes before bed to journal your daily observations. Awareness of your relationship with security will support you in deepening your relationship with trusting yourself.
You are on the journey of trusting that you are secure despite what is unfolding around you!