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The Healer and The Ruler are both archetypes concerned with power. This would have been even clearer if I had stuck with Carol Pearson’s name for the The Healer – The Magician. (In Awakening the Heroes Within – a book I recommend highly.)
Where there is power there is the potential for abuse. Lord Acton said: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The complement to this I think is: powerlessness corrupts and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. If you think about the times you have been violent (or been tempted by violence) it was probably when you were feeling powerless – this is certainly the case for me. Violence is often born out of desperation and impossible situations. At the humblest level a child picked on by a teacher goes and kicks the cat. At the frightening level a group who believes they have been constantly discriminated against resorts to terrorism.
This is from the inside point of view. We know our own motivations and feelings. We know that we feel frustrated and powerless. We have the insiders view.
Others don’t – they usually see us from the outside. They see the bullying. They see our violence and judge us on that basis. This can be confusing – as we get to know a bully we find that they feel they are the one who is the victim (and they don’t see that they are victimising others – or they think it is justified because they are a victim too, or a bigger victim).The expression of our power can be a tricky business.
So what can we do to give us a better chance of staying uncorrupted by power or powerlessness?
I think the first step is to focus on our environment. Those obsessed with their own power or powerlessness are focussed on themselves. The good Ruler and Healer use their power for the benefit of others. The first question is: how do I want to make a difference? What is it that interests me or fascinates me? When I am interested in something then I am not pre-occupied with my self.
The second is to ask: what am I good at? Also: what am I bad at? (Although it is, strangely, usually harder for people to answer what they are good at?) When we are interesting in something we find that we can do something with it, but can’t do other things with it. With concrete I can make certain kinds of structures, with glass a different kind. With music I can do things that words can’t do, with this blog I can do things that painters can’t do. In my exploring what I am interested in I also learn about myself and my abilities. Our delusions of grandeur or inferiority usually come at the beginning of learning something. As we learn about it our delusion decreases.
A personal example.
When I first got fascinated with emotions and counseling I was impressed with people like Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls and Moshe Feldenkrais. I thought these guys were incredible (I still think this). I wanted to understand what they did and how they did it. And I wanted to put it all together – to be as good and better than all of them, my system would take all of them into account and build a grander system as well. At the same time I was depressed about how brilliant they were and thought I’d never be even a tenth as good as any one of them. (Our delusions about power and powerlessness tend to go together).
As I gradually learned the craft I found I was good at some things and not others. I found that I was more intellectual in my approach than Carl Rogers (who is an absolute genius at staying with people’s emotions), less confontational than Fritz Perls (who pick the weak spot in where someone was meeting him in a second) and more emotionally focussed than Feldenkrais (who uses movement – either through verbal instructions or hands on – to improve awareness and thinking). Eventually I put together my own style – low tech and direct (“Here we are facing each other, what is it you are wanting?”). This suits some people (who are frustrated and want to change, or who are looking for how to’s) and not others (people who feel shy or want to give a lot of detail). I hope this gives an example of getting a realistic idea of yourself by focussing on what you are interested in (apologies if you can’t follow the stuff about counselling – if so I hope it is clear enogh in general).
This second question is about what I can do. I find that I can do some things and not others. That I am neither completely powerful nor entirely powerless.
The third question we can ask ourselves is: what contribution do I want to make? What kind of world do I want? What kind of life do I want? How would I like to help others with what I can do? This is the Ruler and the Healer focussing on the good of their realm. This is to focus on doing what we can. And we usually that there is enough work for us to do to keep us busy. In this way we are occupied with our activity and not trying to look good.
I have found this with elite athletes. Others might be impressed with their performance, and they will be happy when they do great. But they are focussed on the how of their doing. Whether they win or lose they look at their personal goals and whether they did what they could. They are much more focussed on learning than results. Whatever they are like in other areas in the field of their sport the elite athletes are usually egoless to a quite surprising extent.
So these three questions I think will help us negotiate the expression of our power. I think in our world we desperately need healthy expression of our Ruler and Healer archetypes.
I’m sure there are many other ways of checking that we are expressing our power well. If you would like to tell me how you do it I’d love to hear.
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