The Answers we Seek.

In my two previous posts, I highlighted that the original tribe – our maternal energy, paternal energy and energy of youth – is the constant that all people seek in their lives and interactions with others. 

Additionally, the inner child asks three questions of the tribe: ‘Am I seen and known?’ to the Maternal, ‘Am I safe?’ to the Paternal, ‘Am I enough?’ to the youth.

The wounds formed when these questions are unanswered or answered in the negative – are Existential Shame, Fear and Lack, respectively.

The question is,

how does the inner child discover these answers and how are they translated by the tribe? 

The inner child’s answers come through how they are received by their tribe and whether they receive from their tribe. 

The child is not always explicitly asking these questions so receives these answers indirectly. They learn the answers through uncovering the knowledge of self and life gained by their ‘original tribe’ – parental figures. 

They receive their answer to the maternal question: Am I seen and known? - through their mother archetype’s sensory knowledge i.e. knowledge gained through seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, and interacting more broadly with self and life. This is gained through the mother’s interactions with and feelings of self and specifically, how the maternal discovers the mother’s ‘sense of worth’ and ‘sense of power’. It is in the maternal expressions of these concepts that the child learns its definition of unconditional love – how it feels loved and loves others.

The child receives the answer to the paternal question: Am I safe? - through the father archetype’s acquired knowledge i.e. the knowledge gained through the passage of time and information gained from others. This knowledge is manifested as the father’s beliefs. The child learns its peace and definition of peace through the father’s beliefs and acquired knowledge – specifically the father’s beliefs about their own inherent safety for others and of self. The father’s relationship with safety is communicated through their beliefs in faith and freedom.  

The child receives the answer to their question of self: Am I enough? - through their own experimental and experiential knowledge, i.e. the knowledge gained through witnessing their full selves in various contexts. This knowledge is gained from being present with self. They discover their joy and definition of joy through their own presence with themselves. When they are received by themselves they learn of their own abundance and the abundance of life. When they receive from themselves, they are present with their authentic wonder for self and life. 

These answers are formative or generative. They are the forces which form love, peace and joy and the forces which are generated by love, peace and joy. 

The formative factors ‘worth’, ‘faith’, ‘abundance’ are the foundations of love, peace and joy respectively. They are gained when the inner child gives to and is received by its maternal, paternal and youthful energies.

When the child is unable to give itself and by received by its maternal, paternal and its own youthful energies its relationship with ‘worth’, ‘faith’ and ‘abundance’ become conditional and therefore its relationship with love, peace and joy is conditional, underdeveloped and ‘pre-mature’. The individual’s emotional and psychological relationships with these concepts are either non-existent or wholly externalised. The inner child struggles to form a concept of unconditionality.

The generative factors, ‘power’, ‘freedom’, and ‘wonder’ are produced by unconditional love, peace and joy, respectively. The generative factors are gained when the inner child is given to and receives from its maternal, paternal and youthful energies, respectively.

When the child is unable to receive from or be given to by its maternal, paternal and its own youthful energies its relationship with ‘power’, ‘freedom’ and ‘wonder’ becomes conditional. The individual’s emotional and psychological relationships with ‘power’, ‘freedom’ and ‘wonder’ are either non-existent or wholly externalised. Their relationship with Love, Peace and Joy becomes conditional, underdeveloped and ‘pre-mature’. The inner child does not learn how to receive the impact of unconditionality in their lives.

Unconditional Love: Sense of Worth (when we are received) + Sense of Power (when we are receiving)

Unconditional Peace: Belief in Faith (when we are received) + Belief in Freedom (when we are receiving)

Unconditional Joy: Authentic Abundance (when we are received) + Authentic Wonder (when we are receiving)

It is through investigating our individual inner child relationships with being received by and receiving from our Maternal, Paternal and Youthful energies - that we begin to understand the structure of our decisions. We can uncover which aspects of our conceptual relationships with Love, Peace and Joy are most underdeveloped and in need of repair. We begin to develop a personal practice for healing the specific wounds.