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Sacred Contracts
by Caroline Myss
reviewed by DeBora M. Ricks
[book review]
Your life has a divine purpose. That’s right. You
did not incarnate to buy a nice car, build a fine home, or get a university
degree. No, we came to this realm for something much grander than the
material things we accumulate. Caroline Myss, author of Sacred Contracts,
maintains that our souls make an agreement before we are born to fulfill
certain sacred contracts upon our incarnation. She writes, “You
promise to do certain things for yourself, for others, and for divine
purposes. Part of the Contract requires that you discover what it is
that you are meant to do. The Divine, in turn, promises to give you
the guidance through your intuition, dreams, hunches, coincidences,
and other indicators.” So God gives us the gift of life. Our gift
to God is the fulfillment of the divine contracts that we entered into
with God before our spirits took a body.Without going into any details,
here is a list of the five stages of a Sacred Contract, according to
Myss: 1. Contract 2. Heeding the Call 3. Renaming 4. Assignments, and
5. Surrender. For an in-depth discussion on the stages, pick up the
book.
But what do you think, about the stages? A piece of cheesecake? Well,
nobody told you life would be easy. And if you’re like a lot of
people, you are so far removed from stage five that you seriously doubt
the possibility of getting there this lifetime. Just getting clear about
what your sacred contracts are can consume the greater portion of most
lives, even the most passionate truth seeker. But don’t despair.
If you are willing, the Universe will guide you.Now we venture into
the part of the book that gave me pause. Myss tells us that within every
one of us there are four neutral energies, what she calls the archetypes
of survival, that essentially influence how we handle power, authority
and make choices. Myss says, and I agree, that most of us fear our own
power. Well, if we are to fulfill our sacred contracts, we must confront
this fear.
Okay, are you ready for the four archetypes (think patterns)? They
are Child, Victim, Prostitute & Saboteur.
The Child: When our Child archetype dominates, we have difficulty
taking full responsibility for our lives. We lean on others, looking
to them to validate us, rescue us, save us, give our lives meaning and
direction. We are needy, dependent and afraid.
The Victim: When the Victim energy controls us, we believe in our powerlessness.
We act as if we are weaker than other people or circumstances, so we
capitulate and let things happen (rather than making them happened)
then wonder, “What happened?” The Victim opts not to use
her power of choice on her own behalf, then complains that life is unfair.
For the Victim weakness is their source of power. Victims will often
be heard saying, “I didn’t know…blah, blah, blah.”
Ignorance is one of the Victims’ most reliable escape hatches.
The Prostitute: For the right price, compromises parts of her being
for comfort and security. If you only see the act of prostitution as
the exchange of money for sex, then like most women, you are quick to
distance yourself from the idea, even the word. We prostitute ourselves
every time we barter away a piece of our mental, emotional, spiritual
psychological or physical selves for safety, security, material. The
Prostitute doesn’t believe in herself, her abilities or that God
will provide for her every need, so she trades parts of herself for
the things, experiences, comforts she thinks she can’t acquire
on her own. If one has faith, says Myss, no one can buy you.
The Saboteur: Fears success so she resists opportunities and undermines
her growth and progress.
At the core of all of these energy patterns is a fear of power &
a belief that you are unworthy. Choice, says Myss, is our greatest power.
Use it, wisely!