This month, I’ll be exploring the archetype of The Force (The Strength), or as she’s known in the Tarot de Marseille, La Force.

Represented through the number #11, she is the gateway into the unconscious realm. We might view cards #1-10 as reflecting traditional modes of moving through the world, whereas cards #11-20 require a recognition of what lies beneath.

La Force is the embodiment of the wild woman. Her gift is the synthesis of raw passion and refined wisdom that represents creativity in motion. Because her sole receptivity is toward the instinctual life that is available in this moment, she is fully tethered to what is happening now.

Her understanding is rooted in the response to the present, clarifying that this moment is the only thing that she can, in fact, respond to. The wisdom encountered through this archetype is about the profound intelligence of feeling her way into an experience and expressing the primal nature of what she discovers. She journeys into the unconscious and carries this knowledge into her movement in the material world.

No imitation can be found in the authentic integration of La Force since it is her relationship to her own psyche that determines what she feels called to do next.

One of the things that strikes me about this archetypal pattern is its proximity to fire. The fire that signals an intimacy with violence. Her relationship to her unconscious life mediates her relationship to pain, and because of this, she is able to be in close proximity to the suffering of others. She does not hide from pain, and thus, knows wisdom. La Force teaches us that when we are unwilling to meet our own discomfort with a collaborative mind, we are unavailable to the suffering of others.

Ironically, she doesn’t try to be ‘wise’ – there is nothing about this archetype that is preoccupied with how the world conceptualizes her movement or whether it aligns with the moral code assigned to her. She is vulnerable to the full dimension of her humanity and the direct experience of her unconscious propels her into action, for better or worse. La Force, in her most balanced expression, moves in accordance to the sublime power of her animal nature, harmonized by the perfected vision of her mind.

Her essence is the personification of erotic initiation. To greet the unconscious, we must know La Force. We cannot gain access to the archetypes that follow without first integrating her gift. Her presence is the continual reminder that as long as we are not awake, we are asleep.

I’ve come back to La Force a lot these past couple of years, especially as of late when so many in the wellness space turn their gaze from the suffering of others and distance from the helplessness of the collective in pursuit of protecting their own mental well-being. It is shocking really to see these actions mirror the assumption that somehow avoiding pain seems to be the way out of pain.

The root may not be ignorance, but rather a negotiation between self-preservation and hesitation. We are all at the mercy of prior causes and experiences that have influenced where our mind habitually goes. Mindfulness is a relational practice that invites us to restore insight into these processes so we can assess if it actually nurtures the reality we wish to co-create. I have found it necessary to remind myself of that especially now.

I wish this was not the case, but it is increasingly evident that the wellness space is nurtured through white supremacist values of order and logic at the cost of humanity. It is a type of order that requires disassociation from the heart. From this lens, to be well is to be calm, orderly, and good — to follow a standard of health determined by the dominant culture’s worldview.

So, in a space where being “bad” is so threatening, we are left with very little room to be human. That includes the sacred and responsible acknowledgment of our own painful and complex histories, and the acknowledgment of the histories and interiority of those around us.

It is no surprise that people feel perhaps incapable or unwilling to meet the moment we are in now. Naming something as simple and shocking as the ongoing genocide in Palestine at the hands of the US-backed Israeli government would require us all to recognize our role in the infrastructure of reality.

It takes a tremendous amount of psychic containment to be able to withstand harsh truths and commit to staying in relationship to the unfolding of that truth. Yet, it requires even more psychological capacity to numb, dissociate, and avoid the lived experience of the moment. It works well in the short-term, and is often essential in helping us survive and cross painful thresholds, but the long-term effect is crippling.

La Force has taught me about the intricate ways life can be void of vitality because of protective patterns that ensure our daily participation in life. However, I have learned that in order to move toward wholeness, I have to be honest about what is actually happening, and that requires the willingness to be inconvenienced.

I am not sure where I read this years ago, but I carry it with me everyday: waking up is not the same thing as feeling good. To genuinely experience pathways of liberation we must be willing to purify colonial notions of living through the mind and recognize that we need help in re-inhabiting the life of the body.

Healing often requires the gentle and gradual naming of these truths that have been too painful to identify in our conscious awareness. Through containers of support and care, we can do this deep work of coming face to face with the life that we wish to avoid. While the instinct to avoid is rooted in survival, the root of all contemplative practice teaches us that the healing is always in the return.

La Force reflects that embedded within wisdom traditions is the ability to confront despair. These teachings are intended for moments like this — when we are not sure what to do or say. These teachings invite us to sit, feel, and listen to the ache and vibration of being here now. That is where the insight lies. That is where we are greeted by the overwhelming grace of presence.

From here, we can see more clearly.

One of the gifts these moments offer is that of creative communication. The gift of articulating realities previously unknown to the mind yet generated through complete self-possession.

Through the touch of this insight, here are some of the questions I have been sitting with:

What needs to happen in order for me to give myself permission to be human?

What conditions would prompt the safe and skillful expression of rage?

How might my willingness to be inconvenienced allow for new ways of knowing and participating in reality?

What structures of selfhood would need to be dismantled in order for me to awaken to the interdependence of sentient experience?

What would be revealed if I created space to move through my own pain?

I hope these can be helpful for you too.