Greetings Anne!
 

THE PROSTITUTE ARCHETYPE

Symbolic Living Through the Lens of an Archetype

The Prostitute: The Guardian of Faith
 
The Prostitute archetype engages lessons in integrity and the sale or negotiation of one’s spirit due to fears about physical and financial survival or for financial gain.  This archetype activates the aspects of the unconscious that are related to seduction and control, whereby you are as capable of buying a controlling interest in another person as you are in selling your own power.  Prostitution should also be understood as the selling of your talents, ideas, and any other expression of the self – or the selling-out of them. 
 
The act of prostitution is generally associated with selling one’s body for money, but that is perhaps the least significant example of the Prostitute archetype.  The Prostitute thrives most bountifully in subtle ways and in ordinary, every day circumstances.  It comes into play most clearly when our survival is threatened.  Its core issue is learning to birth and refine self-esteem and self-respect.  How much  are you willing to sell your morals, your integrity, your intellect, your word, your body, or your soul for the sake of physical security?  The Prostitute archetype also dramatically embodies and tests the power of faith.  If you have faith, no one can buy you.  You know you can take care of yourself and also that the Divine is looking out for you.  Without faith, however, you will eventually meet the price you cannot turn down. 
 
Confronting the Prostitute within you transforms this archetype into your guardian.  It will watch over your relationship to faith.  It will be the ally who puts you on alert every time you contemplate shifting your faith from the Divine to the physical.  Anytime you are in crisis of faith, try to become mindful of your thoughts and fears.  Name exactly what you are afraid of, especially those fears that try to talk you into compromising yourself in any way.
 
People who are meant to bring out the Prostitute in you represent your most painful relationships.  Because Prostitute interactions make us confront our fears of survival, they are often terrifying and humiliating.  Once you get away from a circumstance that costs you too much – money, energy, dignity, or time – lasting transformation is possible. 
 
 
Work Cited pgs. 407, 118-119
Myss, Caroline.  Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential.  New York:
      Three Rivers Press, 2002, 2003.  Print.

A PROSTITUTE TESTIMONIAL

The Prostitute – In My Experience
by Glenda Roos

Staying in personal relationships that are toxic often mirrors the Prostitute archetype.  We stay because of our fears and insecurities:  financial, power, love, and even sex.  The journey becomes a roller-coaster ride of emotional chaos, thus releasing floods of extreme reactive chemicals. Some of these chemicals are healthy, but most of them are ill producing, which set up shop in our physical bodies as disease. One minute we feel blissful; the next minute we are in shambles.  The pattern can become destructive to each other and to numerous family members; it can even be addictive.

At the root of this archetype is the inevitable hell of low self-esteem.  Betrayal of self, when it is finally surrendered to, is the deepest betrayal of all.  We “sell” ourselves out: our integrity, honor, respect, spirit, and self–love. We forget to “Love Thyself First.”

The beauty of the Prostitute archetype becomes the guardian that awakens us to look in the mirror and remember we are Love, to become self-full and not selfish, and to realize we cannot give anything away unless we are 100% full at all times. We become “NOT FOR SALE.”

 

IN MY EXPERIENCE

Using our "All Things Alchemical" Tools

An Interview with "All Things Alchemical" Contributor Anne Barton

Tell us something about yourself (perhaps something that we would not know from the rest of the interview) ...

From the time I can remember, I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up.  I graduated from college with a teaching credential and taught Kindergarten, 4th grade and 6th grade science, and P.E.  It was very hard to find teaching jobs in California at that time; so, I moved on to other things.  But I’ve expressed my love of kids, teaching, and learning in everything I’ve done since. In seven words or less, tell us about yourself ...

My intention is to enlighten, energize, empower.

What first inspired you, or whom, to do this work?

When I was in my late twenties, I was introduced to a unique system for doing readings that combines numerology and astrology in a book called What’s Your Card? by Arne Lein.  I had a reading with Arne and then took a class with him.  I was already reading a lot about spirituality and exploring all sorts of things at that time, and this really resonated with me.  I was raised by an aerospace engineer father and mathematician mother; so, I was a numbers person.  Math was sort of a hobby in our household!  Someone once said to me that astrology and numerology are very left-brained ways to approach spirituality.  It felt like all parts of me were being engaged with this system.  In my mid-thirties, I took a medicine wheel class, and that’s when I became interested in animal wisdom.  I added this kind of reading to my repertoire.  When I moved to Northern California 7 or 8 years ago, I found myself living in a woodland wonderland where I encountered many of my personal totem animals on a daily basis.  That’s when my understanding of and involvement in this work went deeper. What prompted you to begin your great mystical journey?  Was there any one event that occurred?

In my mid-twenties I read Out on a Limb by Shirley MacLaine, and I sort of relaxed and thought, ‘OK, this makes sense.’  Reading about her spiritual journey got me started on mine.  I felt like I was remembering information that had gotten lost somehow in the early part of my life.  Not an uncommon thing I’ve since learned!  I do believe when you are on a spiritual path, it’s not about learning but remembering who you really are.  I have read countless books since by spiritual teachers of all kinds, and each has influenced my own journey profoundly.
 
What is the most significant shift thus far you have experienced by aligning with your truth?

Almost 20 years ago I was introduced to an amazing set of tools for meditating and healing at a place called the Berkeley Psychic Institute.  When I walked into their building, it was like coming home.  I acted completely differently there than I did in the ‘real’ world.  While I’d usually been quiet, the last to raise my hand and ask a question in most situations, here I was the first to respond.  I was fully engaged, and I believe it was because of the way everyone showed up in that environment.  We were acknowledged as the spiritual beings that we all are.  Since then I have been through some really challenging times, but because of those tools I survived and have come to a place where I’m now thriving.  I continue to explore energy techniques and experience miracles in my life daily as a result.

What brings you joy?

My nieces.  I truly love spending time with them – we like to cook together, watch romantic comedies, go to musical theater productions, and play games.  I made a very specific decision to live near them and be a part of the tribe that raises them, and I’m very glad I did (and I believe they are too)!  

Also music, movies, and ‘Dancing with the Stars’!

Is there anything about animal wisdom that you would like to share that most people, if they didn’t know this, would be missing out on a valuable tool to use in their life? 

I think I’ve mentioned it often in the pieces I write, but I truly have found that everything that happens to us is a message from the Universe designed to answer a question we have, solve a problem we’re encountering, and ultimately help us remember more clearly who we really are.  Understanding a little bit about animals and the unique messages they carry - based on their habits, environment, and qualities - makes it easier to have a meaningful conversation with the Universe (or God, Spirit, however you see/experience spiritual energy).  In another part of my life, I work with technology, and I get messages from my machines – when they act up. If I choose to stop and take note, I always find something I need to know right in that moment. Ask for help and then be open to the answer coming anywhere and everywhere.

To find out more about Anne’s work, go to http://tinyurl.com/AnneBartonReadings.

INSPIRED POETRY

The Prostitute Archetype – By the Numbers
by John Morris

 
With this month’s focus on the Prostitute, we arrive at the last of the four survival archetypes all of us hold in common, according to Caroline Myss. I focused on another of the four, the Saboteur, in last month’s column, and if you haven’t checked out that article yet, you might want to do so (find last month's newsletter here) as a way of gaining additional insight about the Prostitute.
 
The Saboteur is the part of you that would undermine your forward progress by interfering, blocking, or tripping you up – or used consciously, it may serve to warn you of the potential to do so. The Prostitute, on the other hand, gives away entirely your power to move forward! Under the influence of the Prostitute, you may either give away your power, your principles, or your talent to someone or something else, or you might try to gain a false sense of power by taking away someone else’s. If you are working consciously with the archetype, you will be warned of this potential and be able to make the changes called for to maintain your own genuine power.
 
In numerology, the dynamic of the Prostitute might often be associated with the even numbers two, four, six, and sometimes eight, because, as I explained last month, the even numbers represent more feminine, passive, and connecting energy. The contracted or negative approach for working with this energy would include giving away your own comfort, needs, desires, wisdom, or ability into someone else’s control – with the perception that this action is needed for your own well-being and safety.
 
You might also rationalize this tactic by convincing yourself that it is really for another’s well-being or security, but this view really indicates that you undervalue your own well-being. Two and four energies in particular focus on the well-being of others with a strong sense of empathy that can be positive and constructive – or misguided when clouded by insecurity.
 
The imbalance comes from a lack of grounding energy, or sense of connection with your own essential nature, and may appear as an overabundance of even number energy in your chart. If you have prominent twos or sixes in your core numbers (the five major numbers that comprise a numerology chart), or if the same number pops up in different areas of your chart, or if your name contains several even numbers and is missing some of the odd numbers, you may be susceptible to the negative use of the Prostitute energy.
 
If that describes you, don’t be discouraged! It really means that with conscious focus, you can turn a potentially challenging influence into a great strength, where you maintain clear boundaries and don’t “sell out” your own spirit or place anyone else in the position of doing so. In fact, you may be particularly well-suited to use your sense of empathy and the enlightened aspect of the Prostitute in helping other people who struggle to stand up for their own power in the world.
 
I am a firm believer that we teach best what we ourselves have struggled to learn, because we have walked both the dark and the light side of the path. So if you have struggled to work in a conscious way with the Prostitute energy in your life, take heart; you have the capability to be of service in a way that empowers both you and others.
 
By the numbers, the other possibility for an unconscious use of the Prostitute archetype would be that you are willing to control someone else’s power in a misguided attempt to add to your own. This approach is more likely if you have significant odd number energy in the core numbers of your chart, keeping in mind that odd numbers represent more masculine, active, and initiative-taking energy.
 
In fact, one particular odd number might be expected to struggle with this possibility: five, derived from the number fourteen (by adding together the one and the four). Fourteen, along with the numbers thirteen, sixteen, and nineteen, is considered a karmic number. The fourteen may indicate that in this lifetime you are working out and clearing energy and experience from a previous incarnation– a good opportunity, but not always easy!
 
Fourteen, as karmic energy, represents “abuse of freedom.” With fourteen energy especially in the core numbers, you may have abused someone else’s freedom in a previous incarnation. This time around, you have an opportunity to learn more deeply about that action, perhaps by experiencing the opposite role, completing the experience, and transforming your sense of power and freedom forever.
 
Conversely, you may have been the one giving away your own power, lifetime after lifetime after lifetime… and now you are here to stop.
 
Remember, life is all about transformation, and however it happens is a beautiful thing! So the Prostitute archetype, as reflected in the numbers of our soul’s numerological blueprint, is not to be feared but embraced as a profound vehicle of transformation.
 
Worked with unconsciously, the archetype might make for rocky going sometimes! Worked with consciously, and with great self-respect and love, the Prostitute archetype may be the most powerful tool at your disposal. As always with all the numbers and archetypes, the best part is – you get to choose how to work with them!

WISDOM FROM ANIMALS

WISDOM FROM ASTROLOGY

Rahu Enters Libra and Conjoins with Saturn
By Vidya Dasi
 
Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully you have utilized our great opportunity for solving past victimizations and are gallantly and more clearly entering into this new phase of your life.  The changes we are presenting this month will be affecting our lives until the beginning of July 2014.
 
On January 14^th at approximately 7:45 a.m. PST, Rahu exits his debilitated sign of Scorpio and enters Libra, where he will conjoin exalted Saturn.  Rahu and Ketu are normally moving backwards through the signs, while all of the other 7 planets move forward.  So for the next year and one-half, Saturn and Rahu will move closer together, become conjunct, and then pass by each other but still locate in the same house.
 
Rahu brings illusion, challenges, obstacles, and difficulty with authority figures.  Saturn brings introspection, determination, hard work, delays, and seriousness and forces us to take responsibility for our choices.  They both will be transiting through the house in your chart that is ruled by Libra.
 
With Saturn and Rahu conjunct, we are going to feel unusually sober and may take ourselves very seriously.  We can become expert at navigating through life’s obstacles and delays.  If an individual surrenders to these conditions, an internal development of humility occurs.  Sometimes, however, a soul will react to this conjunction with rebellion, anxiety, and sometimes anger and fear.  If instead we envision this configuration as an opportunity for increasing our self-realization and our genuine character and to help us understand our purpose in life, it can be strategic in helping us advance both spiritually and materially.
 
At 10:30 a.m. PST on January 14^th, Rahu enters Libra in the Nakshatra of Visakha and will bring with it the tendency to fault-find, feelings of isolation, and a desire to dominate and push our selfish goals too strongly with a disregard for the means employed.  There is the possibility of allowing our inner demons to control our lives.  We must guard against all of these and being deceptive and cowardly. We must guard against being remorseless, impersonal, uncaring, and depressed. When our energy is channeled in more spiritual or occult avenues, the placement of Rahu in Visakha can be a vehicle for transformation.  It can give us the power to make and achieve various goals. 
 
Saturn exalted in Libra is in the Nakshatra of Swati and can provide us with disciplined energy to accomplish so much.  It gives self-control with an emphasis on right action.  Solitude and making an effort to remove negativity from our thought processes is suggested.  We must guard against extreme procrastination and blindly following mass trends.  We must guard against revengeful feelings and make efforts to be truthful, particularly with ourselves.
 
If Libra rules your 1^st house either in your birth chart or your Moon chart, the exalted Saturn/Rahu conjunction will give you great opportunities to progress in your process of self-realization.  It will make you inclined to spiritual and occult subjects.  You will be inclined to improve your life by becoming more disciplined.  Ingenious, eccentric, and independent thoughts will be there.  There may be some delays and obstacles to your self progress which will, however, improve your processing abilities.
 
If Libra rules your 2^nd house in either chart, you will reorganize your finances.  You will become more focused on personal economic choices.  You will have opportunities to speak your truth.  You may be inclined to take courses that will increase your speaking abilities and wealth prospects.  Family issues may arise that you must attend to.  You must endeavor to earn money in an honorable way.
 
If Libra rules your 3^rd house in either chart, you will feel inspired to put long-term plans in place that will fulfill your desires.  You will be more concentrated on communicating, and your communications will be cautious, insightful, introspective, and highly interesting.  It will be a good time to write or concentrate on fine arts of your choice.  Athletics and exercise may interest you more.  You may become adventurous and innovative.
 
If Libra rules your 4^th house in either chart, you may gain real estate, fixed assets, wealth, and happiness and become disciplined in those areas.  You will experience a great increase in spiritual interests.  You may begin the process for a higher educational degree, and family and mother figures will play a greater role in your life.  You might reside or travel to a foreign country.  You must guard against being hard-hearted and be careful of deception.
 
If Libra rules your 5^th house in either chart, you will experience profound love in your life.  Children will be of great importance during this period.  Your wisdom, discipline, and humility will be greatly appreciated.  Your sense of destiny will be enhanced, and you will perform good deeds.  Your endeavor to proceed in spiritual life will be accentuated.  Your eating habits will become transformed.  You must attempt to broaden your mind and gain perspective on issues of wealth and possessions.
 
If Libra rules your 6^th house in either chart, your position in life will be raised.  You will become more powerful and healthy.  Subordinates will be helpful, and your excellence and dedication as a worker will be appreciated.  You will be inclined to increase your selfless service.  Introspection will help you to relieve your dichotomous thinking.  You must try to control your fiery temperament and control habitual patterns that negatively affect your health such as smoking, drinking, etc.
 
If Libra rules your 7^th house in either chart, you may rise in leadership or gain more authority.  Your partner may become more wealthy and prosperous.  You may find a business partner or marital partner who is wise, mature, disciplined, and spiritual but older. You must work on your relationship and bring as much honesty as you can to that relationship. You may travel or move to a foreign country. You may meet a partner while traveling.
 
If Libra rules your 8^th house in either chart, you may gain some inheritance or insurance benefits. You must be careful with your finances and try to resolve any issues with them.  Your interest in occult sciences and metaphysical subjects will increase.  Your interest in the mystical and healing sciences will increase, and you must work at not disappointing or abandoning ideas or people.  Fears that have followed you throughout your life can now be healed. You must try to eat better and develop habits that will strengthen your thinking process.  Learning to not be discouraged by events in your life but rather see them as opportunities to transition or transcend will be beneficial.
 
If Libra rules your 9^th house in either chart, your dedication to gaining higher knowledge will increase.  You will experience wisdom and good luck and will be extremely interested in performing good deeds.  Your great leadership abilities will be utilized.  You will visit foreign countries and may practice religious or spiritual processes that greatly benefit you.  Wealth should increase, and your philosophical inclinations will also.  You will be capable of rarefied spiritual and intellectual thinking.  You must be careful to avoid misunderstandings with authority figures.  You may experience true dreams and prophetic intuition.
 
If Libra rules your 10^th house in either chart, your career should really flourish, and fame and power will increase.  Your life’s mission will gain great momentum.  You will be extremely thoughtful and introspective, and these qualities will be utilized in your career.  You will receive honor and respect and may develop a strong vision for an organization or society.  Your work will greatly benefit society.  You must expect that your mind may be worried.  Your career desires will be great.  Some disappointments may be there with friends and family.
 
If Libra rules your 11^th house in either chart, your wealth will increase.  There will be success and fulfillment of your dreams.  You will gain powerful, prosperous, refined, and spiritual friends.  You must guard against using unscrupulous means to gaining money.  You will be respected.
 
If Libra rules your 12th house in either chart, you will be adept at retaining wealth and will spend money wisely.  You will be successful in foreign lands.  You will enjoy much success and pleasure in the pursuit of higher consciousness.  You will seek to work or contribute in an educational, medical, or spiritual field or something that combines all three.  You must be careful not to engage in unscrupulous transactions and must not spend too much.  You must also be careful with whom you associate and choose good association rather than wicked.

Special Offer:  I am willing to map your Vedic Astrological chart for a nominal fee (to cover my costs) of $25.  If you email me the following information, I will mail your chart to you:

• full name
• address
• birth date with year
• birth place
• birth time

I think this will really help you follow the information I provide each month.  As you can see, I am getting more specific about the planets in YOUR chart.

Until we meet again……... Vidya

WISDOM FROM YOGA

Prostitute Archetype

In a society where we pride ourselves on our progressive approach to gender equality, it’s insane that our primary symbol for a woman’s sexuality is the Prostitute. The Prostitute represents a sort of reverse alchemy: transmuting the spiritual “gold” of a woman’s sexuality into the base metal of economic currency. Yet it hasn’t always been this way and need not be today.
 
The Prostitute shows up as part of a far broader pantheon of empowered feminine archetypes within the yoga tradition, most prominently within tantric yoga.
 
In tantric yoga, the Divine is conceived of as a masculine and feminine polarity. The tantric yogi, like all yogis, uses practices to forge a connection with the Divine. For the tantric practitioner, the masculine pole of the Divine, symbolized by Siva, is Divinity’s transcendent aspect. It is in one sense “beyond” the world yet is also what gives the world its purpose. The feminine pole of the Divine, symbolized by Shakti, is Divinity’s manifest aspect. Consequently, a central set of tantric practices involves worshipping the Goddess.
 
This can be a breath of fresh air in a society fixated on a purely masculine conception of the Divine. Indeed, such was the origin of tantra as we know it today – it emerged as an attempt to restore balance to the spiritual and religious practices of India over a millennium ago. When modern tantra first flourished in the first millenium A.D., its reverence for the feminine stood in stark contrast to the horrific devadasi tradition present in orthodox Hinduism, whereby women were “donated” to a temple to work as actual prostitutes in the service of the priests in the name of some “god.” The devadasi tradition continues today in parts of Southern India.
 
In modern America, there is also a strong need to restore an understanding of the Feminine Divine. Although women’s rights have been greatly advanced over the past century, we are still a long way short of true gender equality, which doesn’t involve denying gender difference but rather structuring our society in such a way that men and women have equal opportunities to find fulfilment on their own terms. At the same time, religious institutions have lost what moral authority they may have had in the past, and growing numbers of young people express a sense of spiritual emptiness in the world they now inhabit.
 
Rehabilitating the image of a spiritual life (rather than seeking anaesthesis in purely materialistic pursuits) is therefore of the utmost importance. The Divine Feminine is perhaps the best way to do this, given how jaded many people have become with the hackneyed images of macho Judeo-Christian Gods. (They even managed to turn Jesus, whose central message was universal love, into a vehicle for patriarchy! Go figure…)
 
The Goddess, as conceived of in tantra, takes many shapes, though there are ten canonical forms in which she is worshipped. The vama marga or “left-hand path” of tantra often gives these ten forms a particularly sinister or socially rebellious interpretation, which has often appalled and outraged orthodox religious hierarchies since the very beginning. Indeed, “sinister” actually means “left-handed,” which shows how deeply this concept has permeated our culture.
 
Seeing the Goddess as a prostitute is among these unorthodox “left-handed” ways of relating to her. However, in contrast to the mysoginistic Judeo-Christian conception of the “Whore of Babylon,” in tantra the epithet of prostitute has no negative connotation (to the worshipper at least – polite society may feel differently).
 
This is the origin of so-called “tantric sex,” which was originally a set of rituals involving sex as worship. Some of these rituals are relatively benign, while others are quite horrendous. The vama marga tantrics were and still are, in very small pockets, daredevils who pushed themselves to the edge of possible human experience. People claiming to practice or teach tantric sex today are probably (and hopefully) doing very different things from what the real vama marga tantrics engaged in.
 
At its finest, the Prostitute archetype in tantra is a way of honoring the Divine Feminine by recognizing its manifestation in every woman’s sexual mystique and power. As the proto-tantric text Devi Mahatmya extolls, "All forms of knowledge are aspects of Thee; and all women throughout the world are Thy forms." At its worst, it has been a justification for exploitation of women through coercive rituals and the horrific devadasi tradition. One can only hope that our generation will finally get it right: help men to be men and women to be women, so that our society may be – just like the tantric conception of the Divine – a brilliant and beautiful balance of masculine and feminine.



 - David

CONSCIOUS EATING

This month's recipe ...

Breakfast Casserole
from Alexandra Topp

Ingredients:

• 30 ounces shredded frozen hash browns
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 2 bunches of green onions, chopped
• 1 pound cooked ham steak (or any other meat alternative), diced
• 2 can (12 ounces each) evaporated milk
• 9 eggs
• 1 tsp pepper

Preparation:

• Place hash browns in a 9x13 baking pan.
• Sprinkle garlic salt and paprika over hash browns.
• Place 1 1/2 cup of the cheddar cheese, plus red peppers, onions, and ham on top of the seasoned hash browns.
• Mix the evaporated milk, eggs and pepper in a bowl.
• Evenly pour liquid mixture over the dish.
• Lastly, top with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until dish is set and brown on top.
• Enjoy with salsa or hot sauce.