After reading more into the Innocent, I could see that some of my initial expectations of the archetype were spot on, namely the child-like trust. However there were facets of the Innocent that I did not expect at first. The denial of reality and problems and being happy and up-beat when you really shouldn’t be are also characteristics of the Innocent. These characteristics come from a darker side of the Innocent, called the Shadow Innocent, and also include manipulation and childish anger.
When I first read about the Innocent, I had thoughts that I may be possessed by this archetype or the Shadow version of the archetype. There were often times in my life where I had un-reasoned trust in people, or where I was happy when I should probably not have been. I’ve been told that I’m very calm and well-mannered, I’ve kept my cool even when confronted with issues people would have gotten upset over, and people have told me that they like for that. I started to think that maybe it was my Shadow Innocent possessing me to manipulate people into giving me what I want. I could even remember recent times of spurts of childish anger. The more I looked into my life, the more it looked like I was possessed by my Shadow Innocent.
Then I looked at it from another perspective.
I like it when I’m liked, however I don’t do it for the attention. I try to keep calm in the face of adversary because getting angry is often pointless and regressive, it doesn’t help or get things done. I’m well-mannered and calm, as people would say, because that’s my personality. I do get angry, frustrated, and flustered. I’m human, I mess up and things happen. But if I take a deep breath and a step back, I believe I can handle what’s being thrown at me.
mkraynik 