Announcement
Our dear friend, Jim, left the earth late this morning April 22nd 2021
He leaves behind many family members and countless friends who loved and treasured his wit and wisdom. He also leaves a legacy of love and generosity, healing and hope, clarity and surrender—all the markers of a mature spiritual traveler. Jim was Sage, Teacher, Scholar, Warrior, Guide, Trickster, Storyteller, Shapeshifter, Magical Child.
He broke new ground at Caroline Myss’s CMED classes by offering his rich perspectives and experiences from working with archetypes with actors like John Travolta, Willem Defoe, John Malkovich and Geena Davis. (In those days he explained them as “essences”, the fundamental uniqueness or charisma that each actor brought to each role.)
Evenings at CMED were Movie Night where Jim schooled us in what he might have called the spiritually subversive role of films in our lives. He gave us the chance to see movies as deep—often holy—stories filled with lessons and universal wisdom about our own spiritual challenges. He had a gift for seeing the mystical subtext in films, and a feel for the pulse of the changes thundering through our culture and film gave him the roadmap for understanding it himself and being able to explain it to others. A man of deep faith and devotion to God, he spread his gift of joyful perspective far and wide. If you knew him, your life was richer for it.
Farewell for now, dear friend, and many thanks for the richness your lifetime left behind for us.
His friends Ellen and Julienne
Spiritual Direction
Spiritual direction is a relationship in which the director assists you in the discovery of who you are called to become in fidelity to the inmost desires of your heart. It is a tool for cultivating your ability to recognize the voice of spirit and develop the faith and courage to follow it fully and freely.
If therapy addresses the question, “Who am I?” then spiritual direction addresses “Why am I here?”
Spiritual direction serves the person who is ready to step into the challenging exploration of “What does God/Spirit/the Universe expect from me? How may I best use my individual talents?”
“Joy is the spiritual practice of embracing life on life’s terms.
A healthy spirit takes play seriously and is playful in the presence of the serious.”
–Jim Curtan
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Archetypal Consulting
“Your archetypes are the guides on this path of realization—-twelve lifelong companions that show you the pitfalls and the greatness along the road to deep inner joy. In understanding them, you gain a perspective that stokes your creative fire, enlivens your relationships, increases your vitality, and deepens your spirituality.”
— Caroline Myss
An archetypal consultant is a companion and guide who assists the clients in defining and interpreting the archetypal patterns that influence our daily lives.
Archetypes are universal energy patterns which ‘play out’ in our lives. These patterns repeat themselves whether we are conscious of them or not. Identifying our dominant archetypal patterns along with their light and shadow aspects provides profound insight into both our own lives and our personal and professional relationships.
Each of us is ‘living a story.’ Sometimes it’s a story we have created for ourselves; frequently it is a story that has been told to us by others which we’ve incorporated as our own and accepted as true without every really examining it.
All too often, the biases of our culture encourage the voice of the Victim or Wounded Child to become the default narrator and our stories are reduced to histories of our wounds and limitations. Such distorted perspectives keep us from embracing the transforming possibilities that exist only in the present.
The 12-archetype template introduced in Caroline Myss’s seminal work, “Sacred Contracts” is a liberating tool that allows us to examine our history from twelve different points of view. Weaving these twelve perspectives together, frees us to see our lives symbolically and cultivate a fresh, inspiring spiritual narrative with which to meet life’s choices and challenges.
Jim Curtan 