A Tale of Transformation

If you are like me, if you are fascinated by tales of transformation, you enjoy hearing the stories of people who turned their lives around with the help of a few powerful ideas. In the communities of people who explore and discuss the work of Jordan Peterson, there’s a story around every corner. Who do we find in the butterfly net, today?

But, first, there is a back story: in a puzzling verse in Genesis, the Creator declares “Let us make man!” But . . . who is “us”? Commentators explain: every element, every animal and every aspect of creation participates in the making of man, even man, himself. If we are to properly participate in our own self-authoring process, then we have to locate all the animals and elements within and animate them, sometimes taming them, too. We have to bring chaos, the multiples selves we find within, into a semblance of order.

What animals and elements do you find within? Peterson has helped many bring forth a range of archetypes; one is the butterfly bringing with our inborn capacity to metamorphosize. We graduate out of caterpillar (endless eating) becoming airborne, aided by his insights. Let’s meet Jackie, through the lens of the butterfly she was channeling, first, badly; now, with elegance!

Butterflies have four stages in their developmental cycle. The first is the egg, which could represent everything embryonic in one’s past. For Jackie, a lineage scarred by addiction, suicide and mental health challenges was an unspoken influence that shaped her early world. By the time she emerged as caterpillar — eating and eating — Jackie was a champ! Friends called her a fluttering butterfly. She avoided darkness by flitting from one shiny bauble to the next. She partied, she dated hot guys, she drank, she lived for the moment.

When she was 18, her father announced his intent to divorce her mom and invited Jackie to launch: “Now!”

“Go to school or join the military.”

She joined the Air Force, but did not become airborne. She tells us,

“I flew the coop with severely undeveloped wings. I lived only for myself and for immediate dopamine hits. I did whatever felt good at the time, which led to a marriage to a guy I couldn’t have cared less about, and a subsequent divorce because I found someone else that seemed more fun. At the time, that choice was merely a shrug to me, a blip on my almost dead emotional radar. I literally left devastation in my wake everywhere I went.”

Little did she know, the pupa stage was about to begin. The trigger: an unwanted pregnancy, which she efficiently managed, not expecting that an abortion would traumatize her. It did. That procedure tipped her into depression though she used her addictive vices to distract. They were not doing the job very well, though.

Now she’s in Hawaii.

“I was stationed there, young and free- with a few bills in my pocket. After separating from active duty, I signed up for college classes and started dating a big, handsome Marine, and we didn’t do much except for drink, skip classes and smoke.”

The problem: partying and pleasure seeking wasn’t working. “There was a blackness building in my spirit.” Her road map wasn’t working. “I jumbled and fumbled up my life a little more, because I didn’t do it good enough the first time and eventually came to the end of myself.”

She tells us,

“This is when I came crashing down onto my knees at the feet of JESUS, saved by grace! I stopped seeking dopamine hits from men, and found peace in the intellectual dark web. I always had an interest in politics and in psychology, so when those two worlds collided and created the man we all know and love, safe to say- I was a fan. He spoke truths I had always knew deep in my heart, but [they] just couldn’t make [their way] into my little brain.”

One by one, Jackie made changes.

“I stopped lying.” She had a history of cheating on boys, covering things up and making it look like she had it all together. She started putting her wallet in the same place so she could find it. She started showing up early to appointments, deciding to be a reliable person.

Capping off a long history of mental health struggles, her mother descended into dementia and Jackie, the emerging butterfly, earned her wings! She showed up! She embraced her mother’s condition . . . and care.

At that moment, the metamorphosis was obvious, especially to Jackie, herself: “The dichotomy between the old me and this me was dramatic.” Before she was a slob, now: everything has a place. Before she was always late, losing things, swearing on the way to work.

She recalls, “A girl I worked with was so peaceful and content… She was a Christian, refused to curse, decent… Oh, how I loathed her presence.” Now, the two are friends.

She had the good fortune to make a friend, a man who, himself, was exploring Christianity. Both became interested in the work of Jordan Peterson. Both were dabbling with life changes. This man is now her husband.

Relative to their former disinterest in having children: they have a three-year-old and a six-month-old. After all, the task of the butterfly is to pollinate and breed!

She tells us:

“Our second son is named after the river Jesus was baptized in, and the good doctor himself- Jordan James. I wish I could shake Dr. Peterson’s hand, and tearfully tell him how thankful I am. And I know that he would genuinely be proud of me.”

Jackie resolves she will homeschool her kids. She continues listening to Jordan Peterson. She brings her kids to church every week. She insists that she will show them who they are; the family will live in step with their beliefs.

As the biblical commentators would agree, the task is not merely to animate one archetype. After all, Jackie started out as a social butterfly, par excellence. As I discovered in the process of researching my Jungian coloring book Inner Nature: A Carl Jung Coloring Book for Self-Exploration, we have to animate all the archetypes. Each animal, each element rightly adds something to our identities, bringing needed skills and attributes.

Now, Jackie saves for the future (squirrel), parents attentively (mother bear), exemplifies humility (fish) and channels the range of archetypes, stewarding intra-psychic diversity in a way that would have disoriented her younger self.

And it was Jordan Peterson and his rules (podcasts, books, ethics and insights) that opened the gate to this inner menagerie. She is grateful.

So are we. In a world of chaos, we need Jackie with her wits about her, properly oriented, parenting wisely. We need her and others like her if we hope that civilization will self-correct.

Jackie is airborne. She has earned her wings. Jordan Peterson helped her. Now she can fly!

Got an amazing story to share about how Jordan Peterson’s work changed your life? Let’s tell it together. These stories are appearing in a collection entitled: Lobster Tales: Stories of Lives Transformed by the Work of Jordan Peterson.