16 Mar ‘How Much Work Are We Prepared To Do To Get To The Bottom Of Our Identity?’

As we continue to explore the question of ‘Who am I?’ The question I must ask is; ‘how much work are we prepared to do to get to the bottom of our identity?’

I remember reading in Robert Bly’s book Iron John which is a breakdown of a Grim brothers tale which involves the protagonist having to steal the keys to Iron John’s cage from under his mothers pillow in order to release the wild man. You’ll have to read the book to get the full understanding. But essentially it is a metaphorical analogy of our need to be willing to steal the keys from under our mothers pillow to step out into our destiny.

How this worked out for me is; I remember asking my mother for information about my family line and heritage. Her reluctance frustrated me, but I realised I had to go beyond her. So I contacted her sister, my aunt. No luck there either, they appeared to be in cahoots.

However, they have a cousin, who I was not so close to. I managed to get her contact information from my mother’s sister, despite her protestation, there would have been no way I would have got it from my mother. However, once I had contacted this auntie, they sent me their writings on my family history, they sent me pictures and got me in touch with an uncle who had put together a family tree.

This information alone enabled me to get a picture of myself which I had never had before, but I needed to show initiative to uncover. 

In my pursuit of self-knowledge, I have taken personality tests, read books, pieced together family history and gone on my own shadow work journey to understand the internal archetypal moving parts within my psychology to gain a deeper understanding of Who ‘I AM’.

I encourage you, don’t set limitations on what you are prepared to do to expand your understanding of who you are. Go on the journey and most of all, listen to voices of your highest self. All learning is remembering. Therefore, the truth is you actually know who you are, these modalities simply assist in jogging your memory to enable you to remember the You you forgot.