“For the simplicity that lies this side of complexity, I would not give a fig, but for the simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity, I would give my life.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
(an excerpt from Activating Your Loveseed: Revealing The Blueprint For A Better World)
The Innocent as an archetype is known by many names: Child, Utopian, Mystic—and it embodies all that we long to return to in old age, a soul untarnished by the harshness of this world. The Innocent traditionally longs for paradise not just for itself, but even for its enemies. The ideal is born of innocence, from the Zero Point Field, carrying the creative spark that brings innovation. The motivation is pure, and the Innocent knows only truth. Children dwell in the cave of the heart.
In her book Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential, Caroline Myss says that we are each guided by a sacred contractthat our soul made before we were born. There are many archetypes that get activated for us to come to know and fulfill our sacred contract, and there are four that are universally involved in the most pressing challenges related to survival: the Child, the Victim, the Prostitute, and the Saboteur Each one of these carries different fears and vulnerabilities that we need to confront and overcome in order to step fully into our dharma, which is the fulfillment of our sacred contract.
Here we will look at various aspects of the Child archetype.The Magical Child is connected to the Innocent and embodies the qualities of wisdom and courage in the face of difficulty. This is a very essential aspect to grow if you are to embark on a Hero’s Journey. The opposite of innocence isn’t maturity, but bitterness—no longer seeing with fresh eyes, but through the lens of disappointment. 
We can be mature and innocent, an unstoppable manifestation of the Sovereign (King, Queen) energy of focus and direction, with the love fuel of the Magical Child. For our own liberation, we must remove that lens, and see more clearly, that whatever has presented itself to us is a gift, even if it’s a DUI or a divorce. When challenges arise, the sooner we get to the quiet place inside where we relinquish all attempts to change or explain the moment, we are free.
Seeing in the moment with fresh eyes is the expression of a Master. Children up to the age of six are naturally magical in their thinking and if they are not shown otherwise, they carry the amazing belief that they can make life be anything they want it to be.
The shadow energy of the Magical Child shows up in pessimism and the refusal to believe in miracles, which requires the flexibility to shift one’s perception. Depression can easily set in alongside a kind of hopelessness, and often this shadow manifests as a retreat into magical thinking and fantasy, where the person fails to take the action necessary to harness the power of intention. Hallmarks are denial, repression, childish behavior, blaming, conformity, irrational optimism, risk‑taking, and addiction to consuming substances and habits of every sort.
Closely related to the Innocent and Magical Child, the Divine Child is associated with purity and redemption. This divinity is a reference point that you can return to over and over as you must make the choice for love or fear. Indeed, there is even a shadow to this divine energy, in the inability to defend against negative energies. These are people who are unable to access healthy anger that can be expressed as divine strength when confronting injustice and other manifestations of evil.
Trauma cuts us off from these innocent aspects of our being, which leaves us with the challenge to face, embrace, and integrate our Wounded Child. Trauma has the effect of keeping us locked in shame, which short-circuits our ability to learn and transform. It is essential that we do not become identified with the Wounded Child, which is an aspect of the Victim archetype. Rather, we must penetrate more deeply beyond the trauma to the love at the center, to the loveseed. The journey looks different for all of us. To not take it is to close the door to joy.
In a very real way, our innocence protects us from evil, not because we are not affected by it—we all are. It is because our innocence does not judge it and cause us to resist it. Some so-called spiritual people would like to believe that we don’t need to deal with the darkness any longer, and that we can go straight for the light. Beware. There is still much dense energy to release from our energy fields, and knowing with the mind is not enough. You must feel your way to true liberation.
It means letting go of bitterness over and over so that you can drink of the sweet nectar of your life. It may be that in the future, so many of us have ascended into the higher dimensions that we can live in a true abode of love, free of the suffering that arises from the eons of fear that have formed Earth’s history until this pivotal time. For now, I suggest that we look the darkness right in the face, while holding the vision of paradise.
When we face our deepest fears, and embrace our darkness, we integrate that shadow and can claim a new innocence. Our innocence carries the knowing of heaven for all eternity, as a knowing, not just a memory—the “gnosis of the Divine” that Carl Jung spoke about. Let us remember all of who we are, which includes our fear. To do this is an intentional and conscious act of transformation. The intention is not to face our fears or embrace our darkness. That is what we must do along the way. The intention is to claim a new innocence. The old one is gone, but we must reach for something new. We must begin to welcome its feeling as soon as possible.
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said, “For the simplicity that lies this side of complexity, I would not give a fig, but for the simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity, I would give my life.” It is the same with innocence. Returning to the way it was before is no longer an option, and those who would cling to the past in some attempt to feel secure are out of synch with the heartbeat of the universe. We want to go for the innocence and simplicity that is on the other side of the trauma and all the confusion and disorientation that goes with it. We want to be constantly reminded by the things in life that simply are, with no hidden meaning and no ulterior motive.
Who reminds us? The poets, the artists, the children, the lovers. The trees, the animals, the earth. It is all there for us.
