EPISODE · Aug 17, 2025 · 1H 25M
The Mermaid
from Human Equals Paradox
The archetype of the Mermaid is, in my experience, the single hardest one to live well with. Talking about it, teaching about it, and helping people to understand and integrate it has been some of the most profound work of my career. This episode is longer than usual because this archetype has some special dimensions to it that need more space to dig into!The Mermaid is the part of human nature that wants to dissolve, to merge into something/someone/somewhere that can hold us so we can just let go.It's the part of us seeking that state that feels like magic, which I call "the shimmer" - where nothing hurts, everything is flowing and exquisite, and you can just stop having to be a separate struggling human being and just float. We can have that experience while we're alive in bodies, but we can't hold on to it for very long, and often the ways we achieve that state are extremely destructive, unfortunately. That doesn't mean the Mermaid is inherently bad or dangerous - just that it's difficult to live with this profound yearning for that "other place" and still manage to live a healthy life here in this place.I'm here to say that it can be done, though, and the way toward that is to accept and understand the Mermaid yearning for what it is rather than trying to judge it and get rid of it. I've never seen that work, despite a LOT of effort, and it usually makes things worse. Accepting the Mermaid and learning to work with it, while also not letting it swamp and drown you, seems to be the most effective approach.I hope this episode reaches a lot of you Mermaid-carrying humans out there, and that it helps you in as many ways as possible to live more skillfully with this beautiful and tricky part of human nature.I'll be releasing archetypal episodes about every-other-episode until all 13 are out - enjoy the second of the series! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What this episode covers
The archetype of the Mermaid is, in my experience, the single hardest one to live well with. Talking about it, teaching about it, and helping people to understand and integrate it has been some of the most profound work of my career. This episode is longer than usual because this archetype has some special dimensions to it that need more space to dig into!The Mermaid is the part of human nature that wants to dissolve, to merge into something/someone/somewhere that can hold us so we can just let go.It's the part of us seeking that state that feels like magic, which I call "the shimmer" - where nothing hurts, everything is flowing and exquisite, and you can just stop having to be a separate struggling human being and just float. We can have that experience while we're alive in bodies, but we can't hold on to it for very long, and often the ways we achieve that state are extremely destructive, unfortunately. That doesn't mean the Mermaid is inherently bad or dangerous - just that it's difficult to live with this profound yearning for that "other place" and still manage to live a healthy life here in this place.I'm here to say that it can be done, though, and the way toward that is to accept and understand the Mermaid yearning for what it is rather than trying to judge it and get rid of it. I've never seen that work, despite a LOT of effort, and it usually makes things worse. Accepting the Mermaid and learning to work with it, while also not letting it swamp and drown you, seems to be the most effective approach.I hope this episode reaches a lot of you Mermaid-carrying humans out there, and that it helps you in as many ways as possible to live more skillfully with this beautiful and tricky part of human nature.I'll be releasing archetypal episodes about every-other-episode until all 13 are out - enjoy the second of the series! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Mermaid
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