Big Thinkers and Brave Dreamers Welcome

The Playful Visionary can be your Sandbox, Think Tank, Dream Lab and Critic-Free Zone for launching. A virtual palace where Wishes, Dreams and Vision come to life. We make art that serves as a blueprint to bring desires into reality. Vision Boards. Treasure Maps. Seed Cards. Wishing Shrines. Divination tools. Your 3D Glasses to see the future.

Preview of the Fun to Come (this Sunday Jan 20th)

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Hmmm, chocolate. And raspberries. This treat awaited last year's February Visionaries during the closing ceremonies, each artisanal truffle, handmade by French Broad Chocolate Lounge, was a favorite individually requested by participants.

"Every time I took your vision board playshop, everything on my board came true!" - Jennifer MacDonald

We had a ball in January and February 2012, with the theme of the second Chocolate Passion-Powered playshop firing everyone up to complete their boards in time for a deliciously delightful intention ceremony involving the aforementioned chocolate. That's all I'll say, because the rest is a secret.

"These playshops are so much fun. I highly recommend them to my Asheville friends." – Melissa Baker, Two-Time Visionary Participant

We held two Vision Board Playshops in January and February in a beautiful room, surrounded by giant windows with a view of the Swannanoa River only a few steps away at Common Light Meetinghouse in Black Mountain. Since then, they've added a garden area leading down to the water and invited us back to enjoy it for this coming Sunday afternoon's playshop on January 20th.


Lots of miracles jumped off of last year's vision boards into reality. One Visionary announced her intention to have a baby – and she's coming back to this year's playshop pregnant. Another participant, on a whim, posted some exotic animal photos. She didn't know why at the time, but she ended up going on a safari last spring, a vacation that was totally undreamed of before she dreamed up her vision board.


"I thought the playshop was a huge success, and I'm so excited about my new board and it's awesome power!" – Carolyn Cramer




"I had so much fun...Thank you again for the experience. I love my board and will continue to create them! You are awesome!!" - Sarah Hope Bender

This year's theme is Luck, and there will be surprises in store for the participants to ignite a year of good fortune, synchronicity and serendipity. And, yes, there will be yummy snacks. After all, who can create on an empty stomach?



Fun with Archetypes: or Un(b)lock Your Destiny

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Prostitute
I've been intrigued by archetypes since joining a Jungian dream group in 2007. Jung identified archetypes as individual forces in our personalities and souls that help shape our personal destiny. (I'm simplifying here for the sake of brevity.)

Then a little over a decade ago, famous medical intuitive and author, Caroline Myss created her own program to help individuals identify their archetypes and gain more clarity and insight into their 'divine potential'. She distilled this into the book, Sacred Contracts, which sat on my shelf collecting dust until about a month ago, when I was suddenly drawn to it during my yearly review and preparation for New Year's visioning:

Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential

Turns out Ms. Myss has archived a giant library online of all her archetypal research and you can go to town sussing out what primary archetypes are elbowing each other for room in your soul.

The Sacred Contracts Library

She believes that "each of us is guided by a Sacred Contract that our soul made before we were born." The Contract holds other agreements regarding what lessons we're supposed to learn in life, who from, when and where.

Crazy stuff, huh? There are literally hundreds of these archetypes, which fall into categories like Artist, Leader, Mystic, Caretaker, etc. (Trade secrets: we use these in advertising and screenwriting to define brand personality or make characters distinct from other characters.) If you're a Downton Abbey fan, you might get a kick out of this breakdown of a few of the characters into archetypes:
Downton Abbey Archetypes

Recently, Caroline Myss got hip to the contemporary evolution of archetypes and wrote a new book bringing the whole thing into this millenium, Archetypes: who are you?

This one looks like a whole lot more fun. I mean wouldn't you rather be a "Fashionista" than a "Prostitute"? And while researching archetypes, I stumbled on a new beta social media site which turns out to be driven by this new work: ArchetypeMe.com
Their tagline: Discover the real you.

I gotta tell you, this baby will suck you in, first with the quiz that helps you figure out your primary archetypes (mine were Creative (32%), Spiritual (26%) and Visionary (22%); pretty right on). And then second, you can create your own archetypal dream board of current examples of music, fashion, pop culture, political, architectural, design and other elements that you can pull images from and 'type'. Not that you have that much time to spare, but you can at least take the quiz which is quite enlightening.

What's the point? To be on purpose and on course, of course. Figure out your destiny – and your allies and your enemies on the way to getting there. After all, you wouldn't want to miss your boat or any lessons you're meant to learn – or you might have to come back for a do-over.