Reclaiming the Inner Child

A child is a being who has not yet learned to judge. He or she will naturally prefer certain experiences to others, of course, but this is a matter of feeling rather than intellectualizing. A child's longing for love is simple and pure. The mind of an adult, filled with conceptions and beliefs based on past experiences, places expectations and conditions on love in ways that the mind of a child never would. The process of inner work, such as one finds in the framework of Archetypal dream analysis, works to undo these limiting beliefs and return a person to the state of a child's basic, instinctual trust. In this way, the spiritual path echoes the words of Christ: "To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, ye must become as little children".

Archetypes appear in a multitude of forms within dreams. The Animus, who appears as a man or sometimes an animal, is the initiator and the enemy of one's false self. The Anima, in feminine form, carries love and acceptance and offers moral support for the difficult journey of self-realization. A dreamer establishes some kind of relationship with the Animus and Anima, but the Child actually embodies the dreamer's soul self. To progress deeper with this kind of spiritual work, one does not endeavor to come into relationship with the Child but rather to literally become the child.

For most of us, this involves experiencing long buried pain. We have to travel back to the place where we fist lost touch with our child selves. That event will almost certainly be bound up with suffering and disillusionment. Childhood ends when certain cruel realities of the world intrude upon a child's sense of perfect trust in his or her Creator. But by feeling the child's pain, and owning it, we can recover that lost part of ourselves.

Becoming the Child is so crucial to inner work because, in the immortal words of Yoda, we must unlearn what we have learned. In Archetypal psychology, the process is concerned with connecting a dreamer with the Divine. But the personalities we have developed throughout the course of our lives - our false selves - are built upon a sense of separation from the Divine. When we lost the Child, we lost our own connection to God. Regaining the Child's openness and trust returns us to a place, emotionally and spiritually, where we can receive Divine Love.

This obliges us to live with heightened vulnerability, to be humble rather than filled with pride. How can we receive if we are not open? How can we be taught if we presume to know the answers already? Inner child work is essential for spiritual growth because it brings us to the place where our core wounds - and their solution - resides.