Practice with archetypes in mediumship.

Bernard Fox as Dr. Bombay [Photofest]

Mediums often receive shortcuts that give information about relationships, names, and personality types. You may be aware of images which are archetypes, or standard bearers, for a particular kind of person.

These images may come from our popular culture, such as TV shows and books (the All-American boy may pop up as Tom Sawyer or Opie Taylor), characters from movies or cartoons (think Snow White as the innocent or the Black Panther as the hero), mythology or classic tragedies (the star-crossed lovers of Romeo and Juliet or Zeus and--well, anybody!).

Knowing how to talk about these archetypes ahead of time will greatly aid your mediumship in the moment. Recently, a medium in a circle I was coaching expressed concern about bringing up that a communicator was homosexual. Her archetype was the flamboyant Dr. Bombay from “Bewitched.”

It’s great to get a shortcut as it makes your job a bit easier, as long as you know how to talk about it. You get a shortcut for a reason, so resist the urge to begin by saying, “I don’t know why I’m getting Dr. Bombay with your uncle Otto, but…”

A valid concern would be that a reference may not be understood by the audience, so it’s natural to take the next step and tell Spirit, “Okay, Dr. Bombay. Got it,” then feel into the communicator, and describe them in terms of her or his emotions and personality type, not necessarily in terms of sexual preferences.  

For a communicator like Dr. Bombay, we might begin by saying: He was witty, charming, catty, spontaneous, bold. Of course, the recipient’s uncle Otto may have looked like Dr. Bombay as well. That’s when you’d pick out the most striking physical characteristic and give that information.

What about other archetypal characters? When you come across photos of them in your day-to-day life, give yourself a moment to describe them in five words or less. For Mother Teresa: Peaceful, compassionate, idealistic, a nurturer. For Dr. Ruth: Problem solver, spunky, energetic, inventive. For Mr. Spock: Perfectionist, practical, sensible, logical, concrete.

See what I mean? Increase your image vocabulary to include archetypes of all types and you’ll be able to articulate them quicker than Samantha could wiggle her nose.