Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (Paperback)

~ Caroline M. Myss (Author)
Key Phrases: Chronos Wheel, Chart of Origin, Cosmic Wheel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

We all come into this world with "Sacred Contracts," according to bestselling author Caroline Myss. Some know it as a calling. Some see it as a life mission. "In short, a Sacred Contract is an agreement your soul makes before you are born," Myss explains. "You promise to do certain things for yourself, for others, and for divine purposes. Part of the Contract requires that you discover what you are meant to do." Herein lies the rub. Decoding our Sacred Contract requires us to become fluent in the language of symbols and archetypes so that we can interpret dreams, understand the meaning behind "coincidences," and learn to follow our intuition. This is why Myss (The Anatomy of the Spirit) offers an extensive lesson on helping readers recognize their personal archetypes (we have about 12 of them), such as the Avenger (righteous activists), Networker (journalists, messengers), or Prostitute (someone who "sells out" easily). Myss then goes on to help readers create their own "Chart of Origin" (which profiles your "spiritual DNA"), using the teachings of the chakras and astrology. Part science, part ancient tradition, part magic, this book will gratify readers who are prepared to study the fine print of their Sacred Contracts. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

As incongruous as it may seem at first glance to her legions of fans, Myss, a popular intuitive healer and teacher, and the bestselling author of Anatomy of the Spirit, thinks it makes perfect sense to describe her approach to spirituality as that of an archetypal "Saboteur." After all, it takes a thief to catch a thief, she explains in her latest work. In her workshops and readings, she goes "on a search and destroy mission to find my students' spiritual panic.... Deep in the unconscious, our spiritual potential lies in wait for us to release it. Sometimes you will have to blow things out of your own way to get to it." Here, Myss offers her readers a new system for blowing away pedestrian notions of their purpose on the planet. She espouses the ancient notion that our souls enter into a kind of contract before birth that we agree to have various human experiences and even (in Myss's version) to encounter certain people in order to learn lessons. The author includes a technique for arriving at 12 archetypes that rule different areas of our life from career to sex to our highest aspirations. While each of us is controlled in different ways by four "survival" archetypes Child, Victim, Prostitute, Saboteur the other archetypes that flavor our relations to the world are up to us and as richly different as Vampire and Messiah. One value of Myss's ingenious system is that, like the I Ching, it teaches readers to use symbols not as one-dimensional descriptions but as a call to reflection and imagination and a means to see ourselves in a greater light. 18-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Books (August 5, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 055381494X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553814941
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,686,990 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

618 of 637 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Multiple Mirrors to See Your Soul and Its Commitments!, December 30, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (Audio Cassette)

Sacred Contracts engages you in an extensive, self-exploring expedition to unearth the core ingredients of your unique, spiritual identity. Because there are so many assignments to do in the book and it is so detailed, I suggest you get the hardcover version rather than one of the audio versions.

Of all the many books I have read about finding and following the dictates of your own true self, Sacred Contracts is by far the most unusual and detailed. The author calls upon major religious traditions, Eastern ideas about energy centers in the body, Jungian psychological archetypes, and astrology among other sources as context for seeing yourself as unique. Although few of these references are ones that I relate to very often, I was impressed by the way that they centered my focus by helping me see what life roles are not important in my life, as the contrast for seeing what is important. In my past experience with increasing self-understanding, the focus was on what was important. Cutting away the unimportant makes those important areas stand out much more clearly.

This is a book that can help you learn for the rest of your life. Unlike many books that are aimed at helping you find "the answer" and then getting you off working with "the answer," Sacred Contracts is designed to help with new challenges and issues in the future . . . as well as the ones you have today.

I found myself particularly enriched by reviewing the very long list of potential archetypes that are developed in the book. These are explained by stories of individuals, references to popular books and movies, and examples of how one archetype differs from other, similar ones. As a result, the archetypes and my own reactions to them came into much clearer focus in my mind. When I had read about these in Joseph Campbell's work, I often found them to be distant. Here, they are immediate.

Sacred Contracts focuses on "what is our mission in life?" This includes both "where am I going?" and "who will go with me?" The answer is unique for each person to each of these questions. A sacred contract is "your overall relationship to your personal . . . and spiritual power." The contract is "a plan to help you develop your divine potential." This is to fulfill "an agreement your soul makes before you are born." As I read these concepts, I found them to be most closely identified in my mind with the beliefs of Buddhism as they relate to the reincarnated soul. The author takes care to show that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also contain these points of view.

The book contains a lot of material to help you absorb the context of these perspectives. In that sense, I felt a little like I was reading a condensed version of The Golden Bough.

After you understand the archetypes and their manifestations, you are directed how to engage in an extensive mental dialogue with and write about the positive and negative forms of each important archetype for you. These will include the four universal ones (child, victim, compromised person, and saboteur) as well as your selection from dozens of others for the ones that seem most important to you (such as addict, angel, bully, gambler, Midas, poet, and thief). For example, you will ask, "Why did I choose this archetype?" "In what way do I feel the archetype serves my Contracts with other people?"

The focus of all this remains on keeping "your attention on reaching your highest potential." To do this, you must "surrender to self."

Most people will find the list of what to think about and the exercises to do to be a bit intimidating. I certainly did. The work is based on a successful seminar that the author has been developing over many years. So it is intended to take quite a bit of time to do and implement. I suggest that you find blocks of time of at least two hours in length to work on these assignments when you will not be disturbed. If you are single, you might go someplace where you can be alone but see the splendor of nature. If you live with your family, early morning or late at night would probably be the best time . . . while others are at rest. Naturally, if you like what you read here, you could also consider doing a seminar with the author. I'm assuming that that is much more expensive than working with this book on your own. Some people might find it helpful to find someone to do this with, so that you share your results with one another. This could help provide the discipline to keep working on discovering your sacred contracts.

May you fulfill your highest purpose in ways that bring great joy and benefit to you and all whom you meet! God bless you.

82 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immense achievement ... archetypes and divinity, January 7, 2002

By	Sylvia Hawley (Springfield, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (Hardcover)

Maybe it's just me, but I'm finding this book the most fun in the author's library of excellence. Sacred Contracts is an immense accomplishment, well written, with admirable scholarship and clarity. Myss addresses the roots of archetypal thinking, most especially in Plato and Carl Jung. She adds her own, unprecedented, contribution and details her history, as a medical intuitive and psychic, of working with the archetypes. She offers solid definitions, a fascinating list in the appendix, of archetypes, and provides workshop techniques for learning consciously with the guidance of archetypes.

I don't want to define archetype because she does it so well. Suffice me to say that these are, as in Jung's view, energy bundles of symbolic qualities that live in the collective unconscious and offer guidance to human beings through various life challenges. Jung defines archetypes such as the Shadow, Trickster, Child, and Mother. Myss adds a few hundred more and suggest that we all have four in common and eight electives, 12 archetypes for each lifetime, a zodiac of chosen lessons, challenges, and life adventures.

Myss suggests that these archetypes, universal and personal, can be discovered as a way to consciously work with the commitments we make (our sacred contracts) before entering each lifetime. That we've made promises to ourself and God, come to life, and then forget what we intended to do is not a new idea. It is well detailed in works of Sylvia Browne and in many ancient texts. Myss explains that when doing medical intuitive readings for people she began seeing the symbols for universal and personal archetypes in the energy field of people getting readings.

In this book, she shares this gift and tells us how to find out what our own Sacred Contracts are through discovering our archetypes, and, o yes, interviewing them ... by having a dialog with these energy bundles, we learn our divine intentions and can work with our challenges, setbacks, and opportunities to fulfil our divine purposes.

This book is good enough, rare enough, and a stunning achievement to own it in hardback. For those who cannot, and cannot wait, there is the library ...

I know this is a work of solemn importance but that doesn't keep it from being great fun ... getting acquainted with the archetypes is a little bit like a class reunion ... sounds impossible ... try it ! It's fun.

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So Now We Know About Those Mysterious Outer Wheels, April 18, 2004

By	Janet Boyer "JanetBoyer.com" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Contracts: The Journey - An Interactive Tool for Guidance (Game)

I'm a huge fan of archetypes and archetypal work, and this love affair began when I was introduced to the work of medical intuitive and teacher, Caroline Myss. After discussing archetypes on the Myss Discussion Boards for some time, I was really excited when her book Sacred Contracts finally came out in January 2002. I've read and highlighted that book many times! It was with equal excitement that I anticipated the release of her Archetype Cards deck in September 2003.

The brand-new release of Sacred Contracts: The Journey - An Interactive Experience for Guidance which expands the concept of sacred contracts and archetypes into three wheels was also met with high excitement. A huge dry-erase game board? Markers? A pad of Wheel templates? And, finally, some information on those 2 mysterious outer wheels?

I couldn't wait to open it.

Here's what you'll find when open your package:

*A huge box. The gameboard alone is 2 feet x 2 feet, and folds into quarters. It's very thick and sturdy. A magenta-colored circle in the center gives keywords for each of the 12 Houses of the Zodiac. For example, the 1st House is Ego/Personality, the 2nd House is Life Values, the 3rd House is Self-Expression, and so on. Outside of the inner circle containing House keywords lies the Chronos Wheel. "Chronos" is written within this circular area in very light lavender, with 12 blank 'pie' slices (just like an Astrological Natal Chart, but with Houses evenly spaced.) Outside the Chronos Wheel is a narrow, colorful band which has a unique tapestry for each of the Houses (for example, with Pisces, you see two fish), as well as the name of each Zodiac sign and it's traditional astrological symbol. Outside of that is yet another blank wheel divided into 12 for the Kairos Wheel. Again, "Kairos" is in light lavender. Finally, the outside of the Wheel has 12 blank areas for the Cosmic Wheel. Outside of the Triadic Wheel is the numbers 1-12, designating the Houses. The outer parts of the game board is much like the red and muted gold found on the box.

*A plastic package of 4 felt-tip, dry erase markers in red, blue, green and purple.

*A small, gray eraser (I assumed that's what it was...and I was right!)

*The entire 78-card Archetype Deck (including 6 blank cards). (Click here for my in-depth review of this deck.) I haven't done a card for card comparison, but I'm familiar enough with the deck to notice that The Clown has been replaced by The Fool--but interestingly, the card retains the description of The Clown. (In Sacred Contracts, these Archetypes were differentiated.)

*12 Cards numbered 1-12

*One die

*A pad of 50 blank 3-Wheel templates

*An 83 page booklet almost twice the size of the one in the original Archetype Deck. However, some descriptions of the Archetypes have been shortened compared to the smaller booklet that came with the original deck. Myss explains the Chart of Origin/Chronos, Kairos, and Cosmic Wheels. She uses a hypothetical example of an individual and his three Archetypes as seen through the lens of one, and how it this holographic model could be interpreted symbolically and practically.

Although the game board is sturdy, the packaging isn't. The golden matte cardboard holding the die and eraser practically folded in on itself when I tried to fish out the dice. The game cover isn't very sturdy for the size of the game, either.

Myss goes into describing the Chronos, Kairos, and Cosmic Wheel, which expands on her archetypal model of sacred contracts. The Chart of Origin/Chronos never changes, Kairos is present moment archetypes at play, and the Cosmic wheel is randomly picked by "heaven". (A toss of the die)

The Guidebook explains that it's not necessary to read Sacred Contracts to play this exploratory "game". I'd have to say that I'd be surprised if anyone could just pick up this game, pick their Chart of Origin, and then go on to the other 2 Wheels! There are some of us that have been working with the Myss model for years and still get confused just with the Chart of Origin, let alone throwing in Kairos and Cosmic! There's even an explanation of how 2-4 players can play this game for corporate guidance, although I'm pretty confused as to how that would work. The Guidebook explains that, after each person picks their 12 natal archetypes (that are the foundation of the rest of the other Wheels and supposedly never change), they can then contribute several of their cards each, put them on the gameboard, and then seek guidance by doing a 3 tiered corporate wheel.

Confused? So was I.

Myss goes on to explain yet another use for the board, called a Pleasure Quest. This is an explorative way to stir up the psychic and archetypal waters and just have some fun.

The good stuff

I think the huge game board can be very beneficial. You could use it as a template for Tarot readings, oracle readings, or with the Archetype cards, especially to see how archetypal energies play out in the Houses. You could use it for conscious archetypal work, as well as for divination purposes. The dry erase surface makes it easy to write in archetypes, and play around with the House system. If you find the game board too unwieldy, you can always use the paper templates. You could even use it for examining your astrological wheel, and writing in synastry chart information when examining relationships. And, you could also use it for the Pleasure Quests that Myss describes.

Those who are devoted to the Myss model or who love to examine archetypes will no doubt be intrigued and delighted with this interactive game. However, it must be said that it's possible you may end up more confused than enlightened after it's all said and done.