The 12 Archetypes of the Hero's Journey: Embracing Your Inner Council of Elders by SpiritCrone

This workshop is based on a 6 session series I facilitated for professional coaches in the DC area this fall/winter, based on Carol Pearson's work in Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World, for which she studied world literature and American mythologist Joseph Campbell's work. I will start with a very brief telling of the phases of the Hero's Journey, and how the archetypes often appear in order throughout human development, and then do a guided visualization to get participants centered. I'll then have them assemble in their imaginations their 'Council of Elders' and taking each archetype one at a time, invite participants to move in the stance and energy and bearing of the Innocent, then the Orphan, the Warrior, the Caregiver, the Seeker, the Lover, the Destroyer, the Creator, the Ruler, the Magician, the Sage, and the Jester, which I imagine would take an hour. Once this improv/dance is complete, I'd suggest people get into groups of 4 to debrief with a couple of discussion questions. Ideally I would bring a CD with 12 select pieces of music, each 5 minutes long, and I would have a mike to provide quiet guidance for the first minute of each segment, explaining how each archetype tends to sound, act, its hopes and its developmental task.