Release Your Inner Child
1 CORINTHIANS 13 tells us that "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." This Biblical observation has long since passed into common usage and is often used as a form of reproachment for immaturity, but I would contend that it is foolish to seek to drive out every last vestige of juvenility.
Take childish fascination, for example, which harbours the kind of innocence from which it is possible to learn some of the most basic lessons in life. Nietzsche, portraying Zarathustra as the godlike embodiment of an unattainable ideal, describes his lofty mountain abode thus:
"Here, no one will slip in and follow you. Your steps have of themselves blotted out the path behind you, and above your path is inscribed - Impossible!"
Whilst it is inferred that no man is physically capable of emulating Zarathustra on his lonely trek above the clouds, a child might have a different opinion. Many children, after being warned not to do something, will go ahead and do it anyway. I know I did. This is what I mean by the instinctual fascination that enables us to develop and grow as human beings. An adult may well be deterred by the hypothetical sign outside Zarathustra's mysterious residence, particularly if he or she has lost the basic zeal for existence and self-development, but a child - regardless of the consequences - would nonetheless be intrigued by this challenge and certainly willing to overcome it by any means necessary. We grown-ups still carry this youthful belief within our hearts, but unless we have faith in ourselves then we are likely to stray from the path again and again. In the words of the old adage: where there's a will there's a way.
Brilliant! I've been thinking much on this archetype of the "Inner Child" within the last several months especially. Foremost how much has been lost by the disenchantment of the world, the sense of innocence and curiosity lost so that under the projection of a false maturity has only proliferated the most pathological immaturity. Of course we know why the State (and Big Shrinkery) would promote this for the same reason as a dumbed down, doped up populace.
My research lately has brought me to how the stages of the "emergent self" roughly relate to lunar cycles (18.6 years for the entire cycle), which we can also relate to Rahu and Ketu in Vedic astrology, i.e. who we are and where we are going. The self develops through this cycle. Knowing these cycles distinguish the character from personality - as the two develop in different stages - and the brain and mind - the child remembers more (the transcendent Mind) than the processes of the brain (which only fully mature at 25).
This is a life-long process much as we see with the Tarot. The Fool can easily be seen as this "Inner Child", embracing the world with a sense of adventure and openness. We can further relate that to the Hero's Journey which is likewise cyclical - the Inner Child still comes up at every stage, where the inevitable end will start the entire cycle again. So much of Shadow Work involves bringing into the light of consciousness the unconscious Inner Child towards individuation.
To use the archetypal healing terms of Beth Martens, the Rebel archetype is necessary to come out of the denial of the Child archetype, but must also rely on that innocence so as to not be only subsumed by anger. This Child archetype is essential since its about "risking the loss of innocence to find primal power, courage, and intimate connection with the forces of God and Nature." So many problems in society arise from this loss of innocence, with the fear of abandonment, people-pleasing, virtue signaling, and all the various social ways this conditioning of an unhealed Inner Child takes.
An awakened Inner Child takes that innate connection into a higher, active synchronising with the seasons, cycles, and natural order where we aren't solely conditioned by society but truly co-creating our own reality. Integrating one's own Inner Child, embracing this awe and wonder of the world, seeing things in terms of being enchanted and mythical, can help us with the sacred task of always "unlearning" the conditionings (and releasing those programmes in the process).
That Zarathustra quote and your interpretation adds another dimension for me to consider about this "Inner Child" archetype, so thank you! Aside from that, it synchronises with my own studies of the Nag Hammadi texts - I of course hold to the view that Gnosis is the esoteric elite (Tradition, if you will) of the Pagan Mysteries and not a Christian "heresy"; its inseparable from Sophia-Gaia-Mother Earth. Those texts speak about "perpetual youthfulness", meaning that one can constantly renew oneself through control our innate intelligence before any conditioning.
"A great power was endowed in you by the eternal before you came to this world in order that you might distinguish those things difficult to distinguish and unknown to the multitude. And that you might be freed to the one who is yours in you, the first to save and who does not need to be saved." (Nag Hammadi Codices, XI, 3). ... Such an awareness is a natural barrier to the evil of salvationism which defines all efforts to control and manipulate others. Its the way to cultivating our own innate powers as Beings, whose worth is our own Being and not the life-long conditioning.