Episode 175: Indigenous Wisdom Archetypes: The Sensitives

What does it mean to feel everything?

In this month's archetype episode, Julia Carmen sits with the Sensitives — the ones with the big human hearts, who feel from the earth all the way to the universal source of the all.

She opens by drawing a line many of us blur: a Sensitive is not the same as an empath. Empathy is a human condition, tied to this planet, to Mother Earth. The Sensitive reaches further — earth to universe. Julia shares a story from her own students and retreat guests: someone insists they're "totally a sensitive" because they're empathic, and then their lead archetype turns out to be something else entirely, like the Queen. Empathy and the Sensitive archetype aren't the same frequency.

The teaching turns on stardust. We're all made of it, surrounded by it — and a Sensitive picks up more of other people's stardust than they need to. That's not a flaw, Julia says, just something to be aware of. Three things every Sensitive must establish: boundaries, center, and balance — and all three are deeply personal. Julia opens up her own toolkit for it: a warm shower to release what isn't hers, burning sage in the home, calling the wind for what she calls a "swipe," a hot bath or a foot bath, a good nap, a delicious meal eaten slowly through all five senses, dancing to music, bouncing on a mini trampoline to shake loose what she's picked up that isn't hers to carry.

The companion for this episode is the Crying dragonfly, and her message flips crying on its head: the falling stars are not crying. Make your presence known. Stay in the awareness of you. Cry for joy. For a being who feels everything, Julia says, the feeling itself is never the problem.

She closes with the invitation: establish your boundaries, your center, your balance — then you can feel the universe and still stand in you.

*"For a being who feels everything, the feeling is not the problem."*

• Nat King Cole — "Stardust"
• Hokule'a Star of Gladness
• Crying Dragonfly
• The Magical Papers workshop (discover your own archetypes, on demand)