The Magical Child

“Aha," I said to myself, "there is still life in these things. The small boy is still around, and possesses a creative life which I lack. But how can I make my way to it?" ... I had no choice but to return to it and take up once more that child's life with his childish games." - Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Though renowned Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung first conceived of the terms “inner child" and “child within," the concept itself is both timeless and universal. The Magical Child (also known as the “divine child" or the “wonder child") is an archetype, an energetic blueprint symbolizing an eternal aspect of the human experience, and it lives within each of us as a sub-personality. It has its own driving desire, namely, the pursuit of delight and expression through unfettered curiosity. Guilt, shame, self-loathing . . .. To the magical child, these are foreign concepts.

When referring to the magical child, I am speaking to the most essential aspect of the archetype. Suffering has not degraded its innocent connection to unseen fields of energy. It is pure joy, wholly intact. The wounded inner child, however, has internalized lower vibrational energies. It is in pain, still, somehow, and it longs to come home, to you.

If we think of the archetype as a sphere, the magical child is the form, while the wounded inner child is the shadow - the recoiling, wounded emotional body.

Remember: You always have access to that perfect state.

Art, imagination, ritual and song can guide you through the limitations of ego and the Shadow, back to that state of wonder and delight.

How? First, by returning to the activities we loved as a children. I used to climb across downed trees to read poetry to the river. Reading to trees, therefore, became part of my inner child healing, my awakening of the magical child within.

In so doing, I reawakened my connection to magic, the free flow of unbridled creativity from my unconscious. That wellspring fills the cup held most dear to the magical child:

Joy.

Stay tuned for my 10 week course, Awakening the Magical Child Within.

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