The Innocent Archetype

We all start out our journey as innocents, with trust, faith and optimism. We believe our needs will be taken care of, that people are basically good, and the future is bright. It is wonderful for children to feel this way, and as children, hopefully you did have the experience of feeling safe and secure.

We are trusting of everyone and everything, and not using our faculties of discernment (more on this later). In fairy tales, the main character lives in a utopia with all needs met and life is good, for example the child who is loved and adored until the "step mother" comes into the picture. But the character never stays in the perfect world, and there is always a "let down". The world is no longer perfect(we become the Orphan).

Being innocent gives us incredible energy and optimism. But when we start out the journey we do not see people or situations with clear eyes. We see them how we want to see them, and we circle through this over and over with many different people and situations. An example from my own life is whenever I start with a new mentor, I always trust them completely, think they are so smart and seek their advise often. But then, they show their "humanness" and I feel let down. They get angry, give wrong advise, have big egos, etc. And then I no longer look up to them the same way. Or in the beginning of a relationship, we trust our partner and believe they will never let us down, until they do!

But this is the natural order of things- it's when we use our discernment to decide who/what we trust, what we should be cautious with, and start to fine tune this skill. But this ability does not come without getting wounded first.

Think about when you have been a young innocent and maybe you trusted when your gut told you not to (me in very early relationships!). And also think about a time when you have been a wise innocent (healthy skepticism), and you could trust those whose intentions were pure, or didn't buy into whatever you were being sold, but used your powers of discernment to know who to trust and who not to trust.

The innocent is a very powerful and needed archetype- we wouldn't start new relationships, jobs or ventures without the looking at it from the innocent viewpoint!

Optimism is good, and the innocent knows this.