The Archive: Interpretation of the Medicine Woman (33)
The Medicine Woman
RETREAT – MEDICINE – STORYTELLING
Internal Motivator:
Sharing the akashic records
Positive Attributes:
Infinite capacity to remember
Has the unique medicine
Brings revelations through storytelling
Achilles Heel:
Needs retreat to not burn out
Goes through many trials
WHO IS THIS ARCHETYPE?
Here we find a voice that says–I remember. This is the Medicine Woman–the wise storyteller, the elder, the shaman–embodied in one being. She has the power to express all sides of any story as well as show us what we might learn from it. Her purpose is to reveal the underlying secrets or lessons of any experience.
The Medicine Woman is a collector of authentic life experience and weaves this into a magical moral. Her memory is infinite. The Confidant (13) is the archetype who collects stories and to whom people naturally tell their secrets. Together these two archetypes carry the memories of their whole lineage–everyone that came before them, everything that came before them. They know what is going on under the surface that other people see, and the Medicine Woman is here to pass on the wisdom of individual experience to others.
Her story is strong and healing medicine. The Medicine Woman’s favorite way of sharing is through the container of ceremony and the shamanic energy field it creates. Like in old times, the tribe gathers around the bonfire, each of the members ready to feel it all and receive their unique revelations. The Medicine Woman never points fingers. She doesn’t need to. She holds it all. The ceremony carries the energy and wisdom that transforms, integrates, and unveils.
Her sister is the Euterrian (19) who also is deeply connected to Mother Earth, ceremony, and the magic of the natural world. The past is gone, the future isn’t here yet, and the Medicine Woman shares the mystery of the Eternal Now– the place where all revelations reside.
The Medicine Woman is comfortable with discomfort. In the ceremony, we often have to descend into the underworld. Accept the darkness, face our shadows, sit with the pain, the wounds, much like her friends the Idealist (11) and the Daredevil (28). It’s through this medicine that humanity remembers why we came here and what our individual purpose is. The first step in awakening is realizing that we’ve been asleep. To look at what we’ve walked around, avoided, ignored, silenced.
The Medicine woman knows when to retreat and integrate. Through silence, mindfulness and alone time, she constantly refines and purifies her nature. She shows that retreat and integration bring strength and clarity about wisdom garnered during an experience or ceremony. Through this archetype, we start perceiving life itself as the sacred experience it is and through which we all have a unique and essential role to play.