The antidote to suffering is to embrace living wild and free. That’s how it works. This is the way of the alchemist.
If you’re feeling down, one of the best things to do is to embrace your wildness and freedom. I am not talking about putting yourself in physical danger, but rather doing the creative act of loving and putting yourself out there.
There are excellent therapies for depression and anxiety and one of the best ones I’ve found is to play a game with yourself. Start to think of life as a big play, or a roleplay, a game to be won. Play it to win.
The game is simply a game of love, who loves the most, wins.
For example you can create an alter ego which is one of my favorite things to do. Become a completely new person who is confident and maybe a comedian. This is just one example. The way of nature is change, nature is always changing, and we humans must embrace that.
Be A Playwright
One thing I love to do in my journal is to come up with these characters that are like my alter ego. So you can play that character in your life and become this mystical, Buddha like character.
For example we might use the wisdom and psychology of archetypes to achieve this – there’s so many to choose from.
I will just list a few;
The Rogue
The Scallywag
The Pirate
The Mystic
The Poet
The Warrior
The Sorcerer
The Hero
The Actor
The Mystery Shopper
The Wanderer
The Monk
The Trader
The Trickster
The Yogi
The Artist
The Scribe
The Buddha
The Ecstatic
The Shaman
The Alchemist
So I hope you’re getting the gist of what I am trying to explain. The game is to embody the traits of that archetype and start completing quests that you set for yourself.
If you need more archetypes to choose from, here’s a great blog post with a list of them.
Here, Scott has listed so many to choose from and mentions the Zodiac, too.
I believe that these archetypes are a source of power. For example you can choose an archetype from the Zodiac or Tarot and become a new self.
One cool thing to do is to dress as that archetype and start behaving exactly like them. Only the imagination is the limit, and I believe that this game can go infinitely deep.
You can look into other places for archetypes, for example there are deities in Tantra and Hinduism that you can also pick.
For example you can become like Ganesha and manifest success in that way.
My Personal Favorites
I once applied for summer jobs and I didn’t get any, then I just somewhere heard that Mystery Shoppers get paid well, so I became a mystery shopper. I went to a shop and acted like I was stealing something, just to see how the clerks and guards would react. Needless to say, I got kicked out and the guard shouted at me, and I decided to never do it again.
Qualities of Archetypes
So it might be cool to create art about these archetypes too, or just become like one of them. I know I’m like The Scribe right now as I am writing this down.
The Wanderer is one of my favorites too because I like to take long walks and contemplate about things. The Wanderer has incredible stories to share about his or her travels and can speak in foreign tongues.
The Trickster has a deck of cards and can impress children everywhere with his or her magic.
The Sorcerer knows the secrets of the universe and is a teacher in secret. For example, the Sorcerer might understand divine teachings and has studied secret traditions and understand spirituality deeply.
The Mystic is a knower of love and poetry, and can inspire others.
The Yogi is a meditator ascetic that lives in accordance with nature.
Deity Yoga
There’s even this thing called Deity Yoga, in which you choose a deity to live as, perhaps.
So you might choose Ganesha and I really enjoy to for example build an altar for the deity that I am in service of. Ganesha brings love to the world through success, probably lives in a house and has a nice garden, etc.
You can even combine two archetypes and be for example the Rogue Poet. Just pick your favorite ones. Or the Scribe Sorcerer.
You can even use ChatGPT or Google to help you out. This game is rewarding if you put in the effort, it really gives as much as is put into it. If you do it seriously, you can see that it can magically transform the way we think about problems in our life, and that there’s different ways to approach problems.
You might want to think of other people in terms of these archetypes, just to gain awareness about them. For example, think of someone who is like The Wanderer and contemplate the qualities of that person and what their life is like.
Which Archetype Is The Master of Hexagrams?
The above one is from I Ching / Gene Keys and it represents Beauty.
So it makes me wonder through the lens of this archetypal knowledge – what archetype is a master of using these kinds of symbols to represent truths about the universe? Etc.