Archetypal Character Arcs Guided Meditations Bundle
Buy the full set of six and get one free!
Ready to brainstorm powerful archetypal stories?
Use these guided meditations to dive deep into your subconscious creativity and your own instinctive understanding of archetypes.
K.M. Weiland’s book Writing Archetypal Character Arcs taught writers how to identify and structure the six most important initiatory journeys of the human experience. These “life arcs” include the youthful Hero’s Journey as one of six, but go so much deeper to explore little-known feminine and elder arcs as well.
Now, using these guided meditations, you can explore these archetypal journeys on an even more profound level by accessing the potent tool of “dreamzoning.” Just sit back and let your imagination take over as these audio adventures guide you through every important beat in the archetypal arcs.
The symbolism available in each of these arcs will prompt you to open your imagination to your own innate archetypal wisdom. This structured approach gives you the opportunity to explore every important beat while offering all the space you need to find your unique story.
What to Expect:
- 6 audio downloads of between 45-61 minutes in length, allowing you enough time to fully sink into the experience.
- Each download offers one version with gentle background music to help you concentrate.
- And another version without music, so you can listen without distraction or choose your own thematically appropriate playlist for inspiration.
- A transcript of the audio recording, so you can reference the text and/or use its questions as a workbook for further brainstorming.
- Links to free resources for further study on appropriate archetypes.
- A 25% off coupon for the e-book Writing Archetypal Character Arcs (note: it is not necessary to read the book in order to use the meditations).
Archetypes can help you write stories that tap the depths of the human experience. More than that, any encounter with an archetype has the true potential to catalyze change and growth in your life. Whether you’re listening for your characters or yourself, this potent combination of archetypal wisdom and subconscious imagination can take everything you understand about stories (and life) to the next level.
What You Will Receive
Click the down arrows to expand the sections.
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1Introduction
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2The Maiden Arc
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3The Hero Arc
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4The Queen Arc
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5The King Arc
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6The Crone Arc
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7The Mage Arc
The Maiden: Coming of Age
As the first archetypal journey in the cycle of life arcs, the Maiden represents one of the most crucial initiatory experiences a person will encounter. This coming-of-age arc will take you and your characters on a journey through all the challenges of growing up, individuating from authority figures, and finding an identity and role in a wider world that often seems overwhelming and even dangerous.
This 45-minute experience will gently guide you in visualizing and imagining important characters and settings. It will show you how the Maiden archetype may interact with corresponding archetypal antagonists (Authority and Predator) and how the character must grapple with a thematic Lie and Truth (Submission vs. Sovereignty) in order to evolve from Innocent to Individual.
Note: Although a feminine arc, this journey may be taken by any character of any gender. Gender-neutral terms are used throughout the meditation to help you apply its imagery to the specifics of your own story.
The Hero: Slaying the Dragon
As the second archetypal journey in the cycle of life arcs, the famous Hero Arc is a quest not just to obtain power but to wield it for a greater good. This powerful arc is a journey into the unknown wilds of the world and one’s self. You and your characters will experience the inner transformation of rising into power and courage, avoiding the pitfalls of hubris, and exploring the potent lessons of sacrifice, service, and commitment.
This 49-minute experience will gently guide you in visualizing and imagining important characters and settings. It will show you how the Hero archetype may interact with corresponding archetypal antagonists (Dragon and Sick King) and how the character must grapple with a thematic Lie and Truth (Complacency vs. Courage) in order to evolve from Individual to Protector.
Note: Although a masculine arc, this journey may be taken by any character of any gender. Gender-neutral terms are used throughout the meditation to help you apply its imagery to the specifics of your own story.
The Queen: Defending the Kingdom
As the third archetypal journey in the cycle of life arcs, the Queen Arc represents the first “mature” initiation—the challenge to rise into an even more consequential responsibility and leadership. This pivotal arc is a reckoning of the true weight and power of mature authority. You and your characters will experience the call to protect those who cannot protect themselves, the challenge to fill the vacancy of necessary leadership, and the difficult truth that greater power demands more than just the foundation of love but also the hard path of justice.
This 49-minute experience will gently guide you in visualizing and imagining important characters and settings. It will show you how the Queen archetype may interact with corresponding archetypal antagonists (Invader and Empty Throne) and how the character must grapple with a thematic Lie and Truth (Control vs. Leadership) in order to evolve from Protector to Leader.
Note: Although a feminine arc, this journey may be taken by any character of any gender. Gender-neutral terms are used throughout the meditation to help you apply its imagery to the specifics of your own story.
The King: Becoming the Sacrifice
As the fourth archetypal journey in the cycle of life arcs, the King Arc represents the crucial transition between the power of adulthood and the surrender of elderhood. This profound arc signals the transition from a focus on temporal power to a focus on spiritual power. You and your characters will experience the call to protect the rewards of a lifetime in the face of overwhelming odds—and the challenge to accept that the most powerful action that can be taken may, in fact, be a surrender deeper and more profound than can be imagined.
This 49-minute experience will gently guide you in visualizing and imagining important characters and settings. It will show you how the King archetype may interact with corresponding archetypal antagonists (Cataclysm and Rebel) and how the character must grapple with a thematic Lie and Truth (Strength vs. Surrender) in order to evolve from Leader to Elder.
Note: Although a masculine arc, this journey may be taken by any character of any gender. Gender-neutral terms are used throughout the meditation to help you apply its imagery to the specifics of your own story.
The Crone: Facing Down Death
As the fifth archetypal journey in the cycle of life arcs, the Crone Arc offers a powerful initiation into the mysteries of elderhood. This intense journey is an invitation to face down death, come to peace with mortality, and discover the profound gifts available in the final years of the life cycle. You and your characters will experience this difficult journey into the underworld and face the challenge of coming to terms with the complex truths of living a life that must end in death.
This 61-minute experience will gently guide you in visualizing and imagining important characters and settings. It will show you how the Crone archetype may interact with corresponding archetypal antagonists (Death Blight and Tempter) and how the character must grapple with a thematic Lie and Truth (Death vs. Life) in order to evolve from Elder to Sage.
Note: Although a feminine arc, this journey may be taken by any character of any gender. Gender-neutral terms are used throughout the meditation to help you apply its imagery to the specifics of your own story.
The Mage: Joining God
As the sixth archetypal journey in the cycle of life arcs, the Mage Arc discovers the profundities of the final archetypal initiation. This beautiful journey explores the gifts available to this advanced archetype and the demands of using those gifts to foster the free will of all others—even when they choose wrong. You and your characters will experience the final challenges of wielding great power well in service to the life cycle itself.
This 59-minute experience will gently guide you in visualizing and imagining important characters and settings. It will show you how the Mage archetype may interact with corresponding archetypal antagonists (Evil and the Weakness of Humankind) and how the character must grapple with a thematic Lie and Truth (Attachment vs. Transcendence) in order to evolve from Sage to Saint.
Note: Although a masculine arc, this journey may be taken by any character of any gender. Gender-neutral terms are used throughout the meditation to help you apply its imagery to the specifics of your own story.
Please Note
Archetypal journeys offer the potential for healing and growth, but by that very token they can bring up deep emotions, memories, and in some instances triggers. (For example, the Crone Arc offers an exploration of death and coming to terms with mortality.)
As such, please use these meditations with wisdom and care, prioritizing your own mental and emotional health. If you’re uncertain what you will encounter in any given meditation, check out the corresponding post (or chapter in the book Writing Archetypal Character Arcs) to find an outline of each archetypal journey. Although simply reading about an archetype can trigger profound growth as well, the experience is not as intense as when you are playing with it in a meditative state.
FAQs
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Meditation is the practice of clearing your mind and focusing your attention. Some types of meditation focus on visualization with the intention of allowing ideas and images to arise from deep in one's own mind. A guided meditation is one in which the process is directed by another party. Guided meditations often use a script, in which the narrator encourages the listener to visualize specific images. In this case, the goal is to help the listener (you!) visualize new story ideas within the framework of specific archetypal journeys.
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Archetypes are symbols representing specific experiences that are recognized as culturally or even universally potent. Archetypal character arcs explore transformational periods within the human life. Specifically, I teach a cycle of six important archetypal character arcs, alternating between feminine and masculine and chronologically advancing through the human life. These archetypes are Maiden and Hero (the archetypal journeys of youth, concerned with individuation and independence), Queen and King (the archetypal journeys of maturity, concerned with power and responsibility), and Crone and Mage (the archetypal journeys of elderhood, concerned with the mysteries of life and death). Each archetypal journey represents a crucial initiation within the human experience.
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Everyone's mileage will vary, of course. But according to one user who prefers the discovery approach to writing:
"I'm naturally a pantser or discovery writer. The guided meditations you're offering are perfect for my writing approach. They have just the right amount of prompting, without demanding precision and nailing things down. I don't know if you set out to make the perfect brainstorming aid for pantsers and discovery writers, but that is what you've accomplished."--Ed Conway
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If you're a regular around here, you know I'm a heavy-duty outliner myself, and I love using this meditative approach (obviously!). My process is to dive into the dreamzone for fresh right-brain ideas, then take them with me into the more left-brain space of plotting and piecing them all together into a cohesive whole. For me, a meditative exercise like this helps ensure my planning is never stale or overly mechanical. Ultimately, I want any story I write to be a partnership between my subconscious creativity and my conscious knowledge and logic. The Guided Meditations are designed specifically to help you accomplish this.
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The meditations do focus on invitations to visualize your characters and story world. However, they also offer many questions that can be used as prompts without any need for visualization. One of my beta testers was a non-visual thinker who reported the experience was successful in advancing his story.
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Absolutely! Although I've designed the meditations specifically to help writers envision their characters, they can also be used for personal growth work. Just in taking an archetypal journey on behalf of your characters, you are necessarily taking it for yourself at some level too. But you can certainly use the meditation specifically to access your own personal relationship to any of the archetypes. After experiencing the meditation, Marya Miller wrote:
"I liked the way you invited people to use the archetype meditation for themselves as well as their writing/story. One has to be diligent in improving oneself to do one's characters justice! Meditation can provide epiphanies and insights that take that quest one step further. I can see it helping book and reader grow together."
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Yes! If you decide the Archetypal Character Guided Meditations are not a good fit for you, I offer a 7-day refund window after date of purchase.
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