Caroline Myss has creatively drawn together many ancient and modern sources of wisdom and devised a ?new? system which might help some people on their road to enlightenment but it isn?t a book that I could in all honesty recommend.
The introduction to Sacred contracts says that it is ?an interactive book? it is intended to be a workbook and you need a journal or notebook as you read.(27). However, It isn?t quite so interactive as it may suggest. I found a very slow and rather tedious start illustrated by ?happy ever after stories? and personal anecdotes about dreams and intuitions. The over long introductory chapter seems to say nothing more than why you should carry on reading. The very first interactive instruction actually occurs on page 108 and finally at page 184 it gets down to some real interactive business, but it soon reverts to further anecdotal examples.
Your Sacred Contract
Sacred contracts is based on the premise that each individual has a sacred contract arranged prior to birth/incarnation that identifies the path through and lessons to be learnt in this life. Myss has developed this idea on the basis of ideas contained in a few ancient sources including the biblical covenants with Noah and Abraham, Vedic Mithra, ?the Lord of the covenant, Norse mythology but above all in Plato in book 10 of the Republic. Myss has found a common thread in a few ancient sources and applied it universally.
Identify the Five stages
Taking her cue from a classic study of mysticism by Evelyn Underhill, Myss suggests that there are five stages to a sacred contract: contact, heeding the call, renaming, assignments and surrender. These stages are illustrated by recounting the lives of Abraham, Jesus, Muhammad and the Buddha and the reader is supposed to identify the ways the stages as they appear in their own lives. (108)
This she calls a road map for charting the stages of spiritual transformation and together with the chakra map and the wheel of archetypes this will enable the reader to interpret the meaning of their own contract.
The biggest problem I see here is that it is too ambitious in a spiritual sense. The majority of people are not nor never will be mystics even if they truly desire to be nor great religious leaders and therefore it will be difficult or impossible for them to find the stages. But perhaps I am underestimating the power of suggestion ? if you seek hard enough you will probably find. Myss here is playing upon peoples desires and even mentions later that most people attending her workshops would choose ?mystic? as one of their archetypes.(478)
Select your personal archetypes
The main interactive work you have to do is to choose your personal archetypes. This is the heart of the system. But the list of archetypes are relegated to the back of the book and only 5 pages out of 500 are given to explaining ?how? to select eight archetypes from hundreds. Myss includes summaries of about 70 at the back of the book but you are not limited to these, you can identify others if they are more suitable.
There are four compulsory archetypes of survival: child, victim, prostitute, and saboteur. These apparently symbolize our major life challenges. Why does everyone have to share these four archetypes? Is it perhaps because most of the readers are seeking an answer to one of these challenges? People in general don?t go round buying self help books unless they need ?help?.
There is rather limited information on the archetypes and it tends to rely heavily on the reader having seen films, read books, understand or have knowledge of myths and religions. For the archetype of ?student? for example is listed, Films: Julie Walters in Educating Rita, Drama: Pygmalion, Fiction: Tom Brown?s School Days, Religion/Myth: Dervish; Hunsi, Telemachus; Medea, Ananda, Peter, Abu Bakr.
The whole system is based on a development of Jung?s archetypes. Jung only identified a very limited number including shadow, wise old man, child, mother, animus, anima but Myss following Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Robert Bly and many others, has identified hundreds of archetypal patterns.
The main problem that I see with this is that it is too complicated and I wonder also whether it confuses archetype with stereotype. The ancient systems kept things simple the planets/gods of astrology, the sephiroth of the kabbalah and chakras, are all based on a relatively few and ?sacred? numbers it is the interactions of the few that provide diversity within the systems. There was probably a good reason for this.
Personally I would have preferred to see far more ?help? in identifying the archetypes and less anecdotal stories and I suspect many other people feel the same. In fact Myss has established a course because of this ?problem.? On her web site she says ?Since the publication of Sacred Contracts, I have received inquires from many readers asking for my personal guidance with the selection of their 12 archetypes.? If she had explained it properly in the first place they wouldn?t have needed to ask. But this is a type of criticism that has been directed at Myss elsewhere. Almost every review of the audio version of Sacred Contracts complained that they are told to ?buy the book? to find details of the archetypes. The book doesn?t give adequate instructions so Myss establishes a course and so it goes on.
However, if you do manage to select some archetypes finding your ?Sacred Contract? is easy.
Understand the chakras
But first you have to understand the chakras and most importantly, the eighth chakra , which Myss has found situated at arm?s length above the head. This is a transpersonal chakra in which the archetypes can be found. So a meditation involves calling them down through the other more commonly known chakras. (ch.6)
Casting the wheel
The archetype wheel is the basic chart of life and is meant to be cast only once. It is akin to the natal chart. (292) Myss explains:
?Your archetypes will be guided into their appropriate houses by the energy of simultaneity, coincidence, spiritual order, divine paradox, and destiny?
(293) Why did this remind me of the Celestine Prophecy? (which sticks in my memory as probably the worst book of this type I have ever read and reviewed)
Actually you are instructed to write numbers one to twelve on pieces of paper, your twelve archetypes on another 12 pieces of paper. Shuffle each set of twelve while meditating on your chakras and then select a number and an archetype card.
In other words it is a form of divination.
Given that one draws one?s life chart using divination I can?t see why your archetypes couldn?t be selected in a similar way ? much easier.
A natal horoscope is cast by taking the precise moment and place of birth and charts the position of the constellations and planets over that place at that time. It is not arbitrary and random. This is why you can only have one natal chart. Quite honestly I would suggest that a natal chart can tell as much if not more and with more accuracy than Myss?s complex and somewhat arbitrary system.
Myss takes the absolute basics of the (western) astrological house system, and you have to choose 8 archetypes from possibly hundreds plus the eight compulsory archetypes and place them on the chart. Then you have to interpret the chart in much the same way as an astrological chart is interpreted.
Other charts
Other charts ? You can cast ?working charts? whenever you have a concern or need guidance, this is done in exactly the same way as casting the wheel but you start by asking a question that you require an answer to. This is similar to horary astrology but without the ?strictures against judgement?.
Healing charts ? I had no idea how the astrological houses had been related to the energy vulnerability and potential illnesses listed but Myss briefly explains how to do healing charts too.
Conclusion
Given a successful charismatic teacher, which I have no doubt that Caroline Myss is, I am sure that many people would gain at least some benefit from attending one of her workshops. But I doubt whether this book can fulfil the same objective,
To conclude on a more positive note, Myss is a good writer and it is obvious she does her research well, unlike many other ?new age? writers, she includes accurate and sympathetic accounts of religious stories and other sources.
She is creative in her ideas and, drawing together many sources of ?ancient wisdom?, has invented a new system which might just enlighten some people. I say this from the perspective that ?anything? can be used for divination and while some people prefer one system to another any system can be shown to ?work? as well as any other. If you enjoy reading about transformational success stories in, personal anecdotes of the teacher and are interested in discovering as may different paths as you can collect then you will probably enjoy this book.
A note on Caroline Myss?s qualifications
I was intrigued by the author?s PhD in ?energy medicine? so I checked it out,
Caroline Myss has a PhD in energy medicine from Greenwich University, Hawaii. Greenwich University is a nonaccredited distance learning institution which although not exactly a ?
degree mill? would probably not be recognised by regular academic establishments.
Since writing Sacred contracts she has established the CMED Institute (Caroline Myss Education Institute). Those who complete the course can get credits toward a doctoral degree at Holos University, which is another nonaccredited institution related in some way to Greenwich. Both claim accreditation from Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia, but apparently Australia isn?t too happy about this.
I still don?t know what ?energy medicine is though!
Jack of all Trades, Mysster of none. 
