In Noah's time, humanity was corrupt and God decided to destroy the earth with a great flood. God commanded Noah to build an ark and to bring into it two of every animal, male and female, so that when the water receded the new beginning would not be missing anything.
The great flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights, covering the entire earth, killing all living creatures except Noah, his family, and the paired animals on the ark. When the flood subsided, they alone inhabited the earth. God made a promise to Noah not to destroy the earth again with a flood. This promise became a covenant with mankind, and is symbolized today by the rainbow.
The story of Noah and the Ark is analogous to life. Each and every one of us has an ark to fill, but our arks are different than Noah's. They do not contain animals, but rather elements of our persona.
One Boy's Archetypal Experience With Challenge And Choice
I believe before we are born, we make a contract with God. This contact outlines what we need to learn in life. It defines what we need to achieve in order to strengthen internal will during our present incarnation. God offers us as many opportunities as we need to face this challenge. He does not care how long it takes. He simply assures that his part of the bargain is kept.
I believe Noah, too, made a contract with God. When he successfully demonstrated the extreme courage and faith required to meet his challenge, God rewarded all of mankind by promising to never use a flood against us again. For our part, fulfillment provides opportunity to receive even more of God's grace.
Courage and faith represent only two of the features that completed Noah's persona. These qualities may be thought of as archetypes, traits we are given to survive our journey on earth. Modern psychology tells us that each of us has 12 different archetypes, four that we all share. They are the child, victim, prostitute, and saboteur. All archetypes have a light side and opposite side. An example of the light saboteur is the guardian, which protects others and self from sabotage. The shadow side of the saboteur may bring forth self-destructive behavior or undermine those in its path.
We cannot change our archetypes, but we can change the way we relate to them. For example, right now the American ethic is struggling because its guardian failed to protect it. We knew we were vulnerable, but did nothing about it. The terrorist saboteur acted and the American victim surfaced. Most certainly there will be a response. What remains to be seen is whether we will demonstrate Noah's character, receive Gods grace, and open mankind to greater insight in the future.
Crisis is not the only way we can learn about archetypes. Through self-inspection we can discover the 12 archetypes that compose our own persona. By studying their light and opposite sides we can gain insight as to what motivates our behavior. We can then begin to exercise greater choice when faced with our next challenge.
Noah's contract required extreme sacrifice in order to learn what it means to walk with God. When he accepted the challenge his contract provided, his life mission became self-evident. By embracing that mission, the jewel he possessed inside was allowed to shine.
Like Noah, we can work on refining our own vessel, archetypes, and jewel. My Bar Mitzvah has been an opportunity for me to learn about my archetypes. Some of them include the actor/storyteller, coward, puck, pioneer/explorer, and alchemist.
The light side of the actor/storyteller gives pleasure to others, while the opposite side tells false stories. I try to give pleasure to others, but if this fails, I become embarrassed. I don't want others to think of me as a something that I might not like, so I make up a lie. I hide behind a mask so they can't see who I really am.
Courage represents the light side of the coward. In some situations, I am just not courageous. I can be real shy, especially with some of the easiest of things. I cannot explain why, but don't ask me to call a stranger. I just don't want to. In another example there was a big spider in my room. I didn't want to kill it so I walked slowly to the bathroom in order to get a Kleenex to kill it with. When I got back into my room, the spider had crawled under my bed, and I couldn't find it. That night I slept on my brother's top bunk!
Other times, I can demonstrate courage, although I may need prompting. For example, a couple years ago, my brother and I were moving big rocks under the boathouse because beavers were making a dam there. My brother was doing all the work because I didn't want to go underneath. I was afraid a beaver would come out and bite me. He finally got fed up with me and told me I had to do it. I reluctantly did. There wasn't even a beaver there!
The puck is very playful; the tease is its opposite. My puck comes out more often at home. This is because I am comfortable in front of my family, so I loosen up around them. Sometimes I loosen up too much, and tease those who are vulnerable. Maybe I think by making fun of them, they somehow feel protected by the humor. Maybe I think they too want to hide behind a mask.
The pioneer/explorer loves to explore new things. I always try to look beyond the main idea to see what else there might be. When a question is asked, I think about it in different ways. I have a desire to travel and I want to learn about places in the world.
It is my pioneer/explorer that has given me courage to look at myself in this way. I have an Alchemist as well. I try and make things the best they can be, I try to make them even more valuable then they already are. This paper is an example of that, especially as it applies to me.
Knowing what fills my ark comforts me. While I have not yet discovered my mission, I know that I will. When I do, I intend to embrace it. I encourage each of you to look at life this way. It makes it easier to accept the challenges we face.
Once I started to understand archetypes and the role they play in life, things began to make sense to me. Now when I look at myself, I see how my archetypes fall in place. With the help of God, each of us can fill our own ark.
