Soul Weaving

It is only in the final sounding of our years that we might see what the overall pattern – the soul weaving of our lives – has become. At any point along the way we can stop, retreat, observe, reflect on, and contemplate the pattern up to that point. We can decide to continue the design of our life’s tapestry or bring in new elements. Design in nature, design in human life, and design in art are all expressions of the same magnificent forces that work from beyond the physical world, transforming earthly substance and human experience into something majestic.

A companion book to Tapestries, Weaving Life’s Journey (second edition published in 2011), Soul Weaving helps us to understand aspects of ourselves. This book lays out the delightfully varied elements of temperament, soul type, and archetype. You may tend to be an Active Talker, whereas your friend may be a Reflective Preserver. You may be predominantly a Warrior and a caregiver, while your spouse may usually be both Innocent and Sage. We can learn to modify, appreciate, and cultivate all the elements. Exploring these perspectives gives us deeper insights into our life’s choices, challenges, and goals. Considering the possibilities helps us to find balance and integrate inner conflicts.

Since the publication of the first edition of Soul Weaving in 1999, I have continued to explore this world in workshops and classes. Participants have expressed their enthusiasm to work with temperaments, soul qualities, and archetypes as part of self-discovery. Out of their recommendations, I have expanded parts of the chapters by giving more examples. Usually adults are aware of temperaments related to children, but the adults I have worked with specially value the descriptions of the way adults can transform their own temperaments, as well as the recognition that they may have one temperament in their thinking, another in their feeling, and another in their will. Usually when I have described this aspect, I am greeted with, “Oh, that makes so much sense. I can work with that.” II also have included more detail in the chapters on the soul qualities so they can be better understood. I have continued to work with the archetypes in classes and in writing, and most recently I incorporated them in my book Adolescence, The Sacred Passage.