On our journeys of awakening, it is crucial to find where we’re situated on the path so that we know how to navigate the road ahead.
Traveling without knowing how to orient ourselves is kind of like craving to go to your favorite cookie store, but having no map, no direction, and no car. Pretty damn frustrating, am I right?!
If you’ve ever felt lost, stuck, confused, disoriented, and alone on your journey, you’ll know that this frustration is not only common but also profoundly demoralizing.
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Most of us know that we’ve got to practice self-love and do shadow work, and perhaps we do as much inner work as we can … but, um, what next?
Other than this sense of lostness and rootlessness on our paths, we also often tend to come across the same old inner blockages and barriers over and over again, without having a clue why.
One of the core elements I love the most about our work here on lonerwolf is that we focus on the spiritual wanderer’s journey as symbolized by the lone wolf– something that we’ve crystallized and clarified across the 10+ years that we’ve been devoted to this work.
What Mateo and I have found through our own journeys as wanderers and guides is that there are five main archetypes of awakening – and all of them are parts contained within the spiritual wanderer, aka., you, the protagonist on this path.
These five main archetypes of awakening are:
- The Seeker (also known as The Hermit)
- The Apprentice (also known as The Witch or Warlock)
- The Shaman
- The Mystic
- The Sage
We’ve written about the empath (or deep feeler), the old soul, the spiritual warrior, and the deep thinker in the past – and all of these traits are aspects of the five archetypes of awakening contained within the spiritual wanderer.
Why Finding Where You’re Situated On the Path (& What Archetype You Embody) is So Valuable
As the saying goes, ‘The map isn’t the territory.’ However, having some kind of map is also a vital and necessary tool to help you gain some kind of perspective on your path.
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We’ve clarified the map of the spiritual wanderer’s journey and its stages here, but right now I want to discuss why finding what archetype you embody on this journey is essential.
Archetypes are universal patterns of energy or as psychoanalyst and originator of this idea, Carl Jung writes,
Archetypes are images in the soul that represent the course of one’s life.
Finding which of the five archetypes of awakening you’re currently embodying on your path provides a doorway into discovering your deeper needs and Soul’s wisdom.
It also helps you orient yourself and find where on earth you’re currently at in your journey (because this is where we’re often most confused and lost).
Furthermore, by learning how to understand, embody, and integrate each aspect of the journey ruled by the Seeker, Apprentice, Shaman, Mystic, and Sage, you can find more inner freedom, expansion, and spiritual Illumination.
You can find your path, place, and purpose.
The Seeker, Apprentice, Shaman, Mystic, and Sage – A Summary
Here’s a little breakdown of each archetype of awakening, which we’ll be going into more in-depth in our Spiritual Wanderer Course released next week (so excited and proud to be finally offering this after a decade of synthesis!):
The Seeker (Hermit)
The Seeker or Hermit archetype occupies levels one and two of the spiritual wanderer’s journey of awakening.
This is the part within us that yearns for a new path and a new way of being, yet may feel stuck and resistant to change, not knowing how to move forward.
Yearning for silence, stillness, and solitude, and well as seeking answers and being drawn irresistibly into the ‘dark forest’ of the unknown are typical features of this archetype within us.
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The main demon that The Seeker/Hermit faces is self-gaslighting, and the elixir to overcoming that inner darkness is cultivating self-trust.
The Apprentice (Witch/Warlock)
The Apprentice, also defined as the Witch or Warlock archetype, comes afterward and occupies levels three and four of the awakening journey.
This is the part within us that has accepted what mythologist Joseph Campbell refers to as “the call to adventure” by metaphorically journeying into that dark, unknown forest to see what they can find.
Learning, growing in knowledge and self-understanding, as well as dabbling in many different spiritual modalities are all features of The Apprentice archetype.
Discovering how to access our inner power and ‘magic’ (which is why this stage is also known as the Witch or Warlock phase), is also a defining feature.
The main demon that The Apprentice/Witch/Warlock faces is self-disempowerment, and the elixir to overcoming that inner shadow is cultivating self-sovereignty.
The Shaman
The Shaman occupies levels five and six of the awakening journey, and it’s the part within us that feels called to dive into the unconscious on our awakening paths.
In the previous archetype of the Apprentice, we were focusing on reclaiming a sense of self-knowledge and empowerment. But the Shaman archetype takes this desire deeper into wanting to heal deep and old wounds.
Shadow work, trauma healing, and working to shine a light in the darkness of our innermost selves are all motivations of the Shaman archetype, who is a spiritual warrior at heart.
The main demon that the Shaman faces is self-victimization, and the elixir to overcoming that inner shadow is cultivating self-compassion.
The Mystic
After facing our inner darkness, whether through confronting our unconscious shadows or entering a dark night of the soul of some kind (or both), we eventually find the light. That is what the Mystic is all about.
The Mystic occupies levels seven and eight of the awakening journey, and it’s the part of us that may have experiences of Divine Love, profound spiritual revelations, and enlightened awareness.
But the Mystic isn’t without its shadows and within this archetype we often face traps and pitfalls such as spiritual bypassing and dissociation, causing us to favor higher consciousness and lose touch with our grounded humanity.
The main demon that the Mystic faces is self-delusion, and the elixir to overcoming that inner shadow is cultivating self-inquiry.
The Sage
Finally, we come to the Sage archetype, which occupies the final two phases of our cyclical journey, stages nine and ten.
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Unlike the Mystic archetype that tends to experience temporary but dazzling shifts in awareness, the Sage, through their commitment to the awakening path, undergoes more permanent and deep ‘uplevelings’ in awareness.
In this phase of the journey, the Sage feels motivated to purge the old, make way for new aligned ways of being, and integrate their hard-earned wisdom into their everyday lives.
The Sage feels called to give back to others, to be a mentor and guide. However, the biggest obstacle they often face is letting go of old ingrained patterns of self-involvement that may keep them attached to focusing only on themselves and their paths.
As such, the main demon that the Sage faces is self-involvement, and the elixir to overcoming that inner shadow is developing self-transcendence.
How to Test Yourself to Figure Out Which Archetype You’re Embodying
You can find out which archetype of awakening you’re embodying right now in our free What Type of Spiritual Wanderer Are You? test.
You can also figure out which archetype you may be occupying right now simply by noticing which of the above stages resonates with you the most on an intuitive level.
Keep in mind that these five archetypes within the spiritual wanderer’s journey are all aspects within us.
We’ll occupy them all at different stages of our life’s path because the journey of awakening isn’t linear, but is instead cyclical.
Let me know in the comments which of the five archetypes of awakening you think you may be embodying right now. What are the biggest challenges you’re facing?
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2. Shadow & Light Membership: Do you crave consistent support on your spiritual quest? Receive weekly intuitive guidance and learn to embrace your whole self, including your shadow side. Cultivate deeper self-love with our affordable, personalized support.
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What a nice listing.
By the time I have found you, I have probably been at stage 1 and 2. Looking back, that has been eight or nine years ago. You have been one of my first sources of spiritual knowledge back then, when I started to open up towards Spirituality, after initial Soul connections that awakened me. Long time it has been. Though knowing approximately at which stage I am by now, I am nonetheless lokking forward to your next article.
Be blessed, you two.
I find myself somewhere between the Mystic and the Sage. Have gotten a taste of Divine love and it brought me to tears. I look fwd to taking your test.
Good luck with the release of the new course and I hope you guys are all doing well 🙂.
As for my Archetype who knows probably the Fool 😉
Love and Light
Nick
I am looking forward to the little test to see and of course the course the up coming course. I’m very excited!!
Love this read! I feel most drawn to the hermit and Sharman, so I’m excited about your free test next week to figure out which one I am. Thank you so much for everything you provide here, I love this resource.
I am Michael J Kelly the third.
Grandma said so
I feel a relationship to each type of experience…I am intimate with each, but feel I am stepping into Sage in this moment. I am practicing being present each moment and becoming aware of my emotions and reactions as they occur. I am wanting to have a better idea of how to live in a way I can serve others by sharing my experiences. I allow much of life of happen as it naturally does, but would like to learn more about penetrating the moment in a healthy way. Making changes that will serve everyone including me.
i am looking forward to the next newsletter!
Thank you. This is very helpful stuff. And your content has resonated with me for a long time. At this point in my journey I feel all five jostling for position and it’s very confusing. I think Shaman is where I gravitate to the most. I’m at a position in life where I can devote most attention to this journey, but the staying in reality is the hard part.
Hi, love your work! I find I am resonating towards The Mystic archetype. I had a profound experience, I committed throughout two weeks to always ask myself, ‘am I aware?’ ‘Is this thought/feeling/emotion me or am I the one aware of it?’ By practising this throughout the two weeks and by going into nature, I found myself sitting in a hammock, by a river, in the woods with no thoughts. None whatsoever. It was blissful at first, and very profound. I couldn’t congure up a though if i really tried. I had finally silenced my inner critic. But I found that I had removed myself from society in the process and removed myself from my family, friends etc. I felt like having a thought was bad and that silence was golden. The deafening silence that I found in those moments was incredible and profound, but, I found that I couldnt function in everyday life as the ‘noise’ around me was incredibly distracting and unless I committed myself to a life of solitary and silence, I felt I would never find peace. At one point when I was meditating on this, I wondered if this is it. Is this all I… Read more »
Congratulations on your upcoming course! I don’t fit archetypes very well myself but reading about them is really interesting. I’d likely have most in common with the hermit, I believe.