The Voice of Your Spirit 

A dialogue with your archetypes can connect you to the spirit of your true, Self, which is sacred. To do this, you can use a stream of consciousness approach to complete a simple mental contrasting exercise that allows the opposing archetypal elements to unify. It’s a matter of alchemy. The positive and negative archetypal forces coalesce because of a third, catalytic agent. That catalyst is your spirit. It triggers the process of personal transformation.

Archetypes represent and influence your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. By intentionally engaging each archetype in a mental contrasting dialogue, you can bring hidden wisdom into your awareness. Mentally contrasting an archetype allows the spirit of your Sacred Self to speak to you through archetypal symbols, images, sensations, feelings, or intuition.

There are two sides to every archetype. Developed and undeveloped. One side will describe your obstacles. The other side will describe your opportunities. Profiling your archetypes gives you strategies to move forward.

Gail Goodwin 2025

Archetypes can show you what parts of you are aligned with your highest calling, and which ones are wounded and in need of transformation and integration.

Creating a dialogue with your archetypes is a collaborative process. You’re building a relationship with your archetypes and at the same time, developing trust in your inner knowing. The more you listen and respond to healthy archetypal guidance, the clearer the voice of your spirit will be.

My go-to ways to create a dialogue with my personal archetypes are to:

1. Keep a Journal. With kind attention, I like to write to my archetypes, one at a time, as if they’re separate beings. I encourage them to “write” back to me with their wisdom.
2. Meditate by entering a relaxed state. I invite an archetype to step forward, then I ask questions and receive insights.
3. Pay attention to recurring characters, symbols and themes in my dreams, because they often represent archetypes that want to be heard.
4. Have an internal conversation with an archetype as if I’m speaking with a specialist, mentor or guide.
5. Pay kind attention to a sense of discomfort, tension, or tightness in my body. This tells me that an archetype is reaching out at a physical level, (instead of mental or emotional) trying to send me a message.
6. Focus compassionate attention on any pain points in my body. Sometimes, pain tells me that I may have overlooked a message from an archetype. Then I turn to journalling with the archetype to ask for the message.

By engaging with your archetypes, you will learn to refine your ability to hear the voice of your soul above the voice of your Inner Saboteur, Inner Pleaser, Inner Perfectionist, or your Inner Taskmaster. But don’t take my word for it. Test it for yourself.