All this summer, I have been working hard on a secret project that combines two of my favorite things: archetypes and guided meditation. Today, I’m thrilled to announce I am releasing six Archetypal Character Guided Meditations!
Based on the six transformational character arcs that I shared in my book Writing Archetypal Character Arcs, these meditations are designed to help you access the deep symbolism of your own imaginations. While it’s true that reading about archetypes in a book or learning the structural beats of their arcs can be transformative, the true magic of archetypes is not found in reading someone else’s definitions, but in tapping the symbolism in your own mind.
These guided meditations will help you:
- “Dreamstorm” new ideas for your stories.
- Evoke the universal symbolism of archetypes.
- Access your own unique relationship to all the archetypal arcs.
- Journey through the structural beats of each archetypal journey.
- Understand your characters at a deeper emotional level.
- Intuitively create intertwined plots, characters, and themes.
In creating these meditations, I wanted to share with all of you what has been one of the most fantastic imaginative tools I’ve ever used. I call it the “dreamzone,” but basically it’s just doing what writers do best: zoning out and daydreaming about our stories. The difference is that we’re doing it consciously, and with the help of these Guided Meditations, you can access all the most important parts of each archetype from deep within your own imagination.
What to Expect in the Archetypal Character Meditations
- 6 audio downloads of between 45–61 minutes in length, allowing you enough time to fully sink into the experience.
- Each download offers one version with gentle background music to help you concentrate.
- And another version without music, so you can listen without distraction or choose your own thematically appropriate playlist for inspiration.
- A transcript of the audio recording, so you can reference the text and/or use its questions as a workbook for further brainstorming.
- Links to free resources for further study on appropriate archetypes.
- A 25% off coupon for the e-book Writing Archetypal Character Arcs (note: it is not necessary to read the book in order to use the meditations).
Each of the six meditations is sold separately, so you can choose which ones are most appropriate for your story. I’m also offering all six in a discounted bundle that gives you one free!
- The Maiden Archetypal Meditation
- The Hero Archetypal Meditation
- The Queen Archetypal Meditation
- The King Archetypal Meditation
- The Crone Archetypal Meditation
- The Mage Archetypal Meditation
- Bundle of 6 – Get 1 Free!
FAQs
What are guided meditations?
Meditation is the practice of clearing your mind and focusing your attention. Some types of meditation focus on visualization with the intention of allowing ideas and images to arise from deep in one’s own mind. A guided meditation is one in which the process is directed by another party. Guided meditations often use a script, in which the narrator encourages the listener to visualize specific images. In this case, the goal is to help the listener (you!) visualize new story ideas within the framework of specific archetypal journeys.
What are archetypal character arcs?
Archetypes are symbols representing specific experiences that are recognized as culturally or even universally potent. Archetypal character arcs explore transformational periods within the human life. Specifically, I teach a cycle of six important archetypal character arcs, alternating between feminine and masculine and chronologically advancing through the human life. These archetypes are Maiden and Hero (the archetypal journeys of youth, concerned with individuation and independence), Queen and King (the archetypal journeys of maturity, concerned with power and responsibility), and Crone and Mage (the archetypal journeys of elderhood, concerned with the mysteries of life and death). Each archetypal journey represents a crucial initiation within the human experience.
Will these meditations be helpful if I’m a discovery writer (aka, pantser)?
Everyone’s mileage will vary, of course. But one of my beta testers, Ed Conway, preferred the discovery approach to writing. He said:
“I’m naturally a pantser or discovery writer. The guided meditations you’re offering are perfect for my writing approach. They have just the right amount of prompting, without demanding precision and nailing things down. I don’t know if you set out to make the perfect brainstorming aid for pantsers and discovery writers, but that is what you’ve accomplished.”
Will these meditations be helpful if I’m an outliner?
If you’re a regular around here, you know I’m a heavy-duty outliner myself, and I love using this meditative approach (obviously!). My process is to dive into the dreamzone for fresh right-brain ideas, then take them with me into the more left-brain space of plotting and piecing them all together into a cohesive whole. For me, a meditative exercise like this helps ensure my planning is never stale or overly mechanical. Ultimately, I want any story I write to be a partnership between my subconscious creativity and my conscious knowledge and logic. The Guided Meditations are designed specifically to help you accomplish this.
What if I’m not a visual thinker?
The meditations do focus on invitations to visualize your characters and story world. However, they also offer many questions that can be used as prompts without any need for visualization. Another of my beta testers was a non-visual thinker who found the experience successful in advancing his story.
Can I take the meditation for myself as well as my characters?
Absolutely! Although I’ve designed the meditations specifically to help writers envision their characters, they can also be used for personal growth work. Just in taking an archetypal journey on behalf of your characters, you are necessarily taking it for yourself at some level too. But you can certainly use the meditation specifically to access your own personal relationship to any of the archetypes. Marya Miller, another of my beta testers, told me:
“I liked the way you invited people to use the archetype meditation for themselves as well as their writing/story. One has to be diligent in improving oneself to do one’s characters justice! Meditation can provide epiphanies and insights that take that quest one step further. I can see it helping book and reader grow together.”
Start Your Archetypal Journey!
Archetypes can help you write stories that tap the depths of the human experience. More than that, any encounter with an archetype has the true potential to catalyze change and growth in your life. Whether you’re listening for your characters or yourself, this potent combination of archetypal wisdom and subconscious imagination can take everything you understand about stories (and life) to the next level.
Ready to start dancing with some archetypes? (Yaassss!) Learn more about each archetype (and the bundle of 6) right here.
Win a reMarkable 2 Tablet!
Of course, what would be a launch without a prize giveaway? Today, I am giving away a reMarkable 2 tablet* (value $279). According to their site:
Replace your notebooks and printouts with the only tablet that feels like paper. All your handwritten notes, to-dos, PDFs, and ebooks, perfectly organized and in one place.
I love this as a giveaway for this launch, since journaling all your brand-new ideas is the perfect next step after listening to the Archetypal Character Guided Meditations!
*The refurbished model, in support of circular economies.
To Enter
Winners will be announced Monday, October 2nd. Enter below! (Note: no purchase is necessary to enter.)
Finally, I must send out a huge thank you to my beta testers: Joseph Nastanski; Ed Hrafnskald Conway; Marya Miller; Cain Gonzales; Usvaldo de Leon, Jr.; Beverly Goldfarb; and Kirstin Proffitt Olson. You were all invaluable in helping me prepare to share these meditations! Thank you for your keen eyes (and ears)!
Good luck to everyone in the drawing, have fun, and thank you for helping me celebrate the launch of the Archetypal Character Guided Meditations! Happy dreaming, happy writing!
“There and Back Again”: The Lord of the Rings and the Power of Despair in Fiction
Write Better Action Scenes: Make It About the Characters
Figure Out Your Story’s Magic System Using Story Structure
How to Use Archetypes in a Series
About K.M. Weiland | @KMWeiland
I have definitely not thought about archetypes enough. Looking forward to learning even more about them.
They’re so juicy! I hope you find them as transformative and exciting as I have!
Replying here cause there’s nowhere to make a comment of my own? Lol but thanks for always posting and sharing such great info! My editor recommended me to you and I am grateful for your resources!
What an interesting topic and no I haven’t thought enough about Archetypal Character Guided Meditations and I definitely will from now on!
Thanks for doing this. can’t wait to try the Queen meditation book.
Yay! I hope you enjoy it. However, just to be clear, these Guided Meditations are audio downloads, not books. I do have a book, Writing Archetypal Character Arcs, which covers all of the archetypes in the life cycle.
I’ve enjoyed all your books, and followed the archetype series on your blog (husband bought me the book after I bought my own copy).
So glad you’ve enjoyed them!
Looking forward to digging into these!
It’s a deep rabbit hole. 😉
I’m enjoying the archetypal meditations already.
Thanks, Mark! That’s wonderful to hear. 😀
I have only dabbled in this a little but this makes me want to explore more deeply. This could be really beneficial and I’m about to get into the planning aspects for my novel. This is perfect timing.
I truly believe the best way to learn about archetypes is to dance with them yourself. I’m excited for you! 😀
I’ve been contemplating dream zoning to deal with a blockage, except I haven’t been able to get in the right frame of mind. I’m hesitant about how the meditation will work, though. In my religious studies class in college, we did a session on meditating, but Step 1 was always ” clear your mind,” which is precisely how I go to sleep 🙂
The fact that you’re going to give instructions and visualizations is a workaround I never considered before. This may be a good way to learn *effective* meditations.
Honestly, if you want to fall asleep when you meditate, it’s usually a sign that what your body wants is sleep, not meditation. And I always prioritize that! 😉 However, this is one reason I recommend doing the meditations with your eyes open, perhaps focusing on a candle or a nature video.
Ohhh. That was an early morning class, too. And lately I haven’t had enough sleep (though I’m working on my sleep hygiene). Thanks, I can go into this experience with less trepidation.
I loved all of the blog posts and podcast episodes about the archetypes, and I’m looking forward to reading the book as well. I’ve got the paperback sitting on my shelf! These meditations look like a perfect companion piece.
Yay! I hope you enjoy the book and maybe the meditations too. 🙂
I started following your podcast in 2015, and I remember the first time I heard you talk about dreamzoning and how it piqued my curiosity. Now, I can actually get into it with your guidance. This is great because I haven’t consciously worked with archetypal character arcs, and I can’t wait to see what I can get out of the meditations, which I purchased the bundle last week. Yay!
Dreamzoning is the best. Hands down my favorite writing practice ever.
I’ve read a number of your posts on archetypal character arcs, and am thinking of various ways to lay them over my own stories
That’s great! There is so much richness and depth available in applying archetypes to our stories.
I’m excited to learn more about this, thank you!
Thanks, Michele!
What a brilliant idea! l’ve been following you since your inception and am thrilled to jump right in to the Queen archetype. I’m writing a short story titled ‘Queen Carla takes a Cruise’ and I know that this purchase will suit me well. I believe that dreams and guided medication are valuable aids in helping writers to showcase their imaginations. You are a genius and a queen! Thank you so much!!
I’m on my Queen Arc as we speak. 😉
I’m working on my first novel, so not yet, but I purchased your book when it first came out so I’m hoping to put the concepts to use in this novel. Excited for the meditations! Thanks for the giveaway!
All the best with your book, Michelle!
Thank you!
I’m excited about these meditations–it’s been a while and I need to get back into both writing and meditating. This is the perfect jump-start for both!
Writing and meditation really do share a lot of the same brain space.
This sounds fantastic, Katie! I’m just getting back into writing after some years off due to personal issues. What a fun and cool thing to create—thanks for sharing with us!
Welcome back, Natalie!
I’ve never consciously used archetypes before, but they’ve certainly been in my atmosphere since I got into world mythology as a kid. I just love the idea of the guided meditations as an excuse to space out and daydream about my characters as part of the writing process!
Hey, any excuse to daydream about our stories!
Congrats, Katie! 🙂
Thank you, Molly! 🙂
Congrats, Katie! I wish you well with this project an all your others.
Thanks. I appreciate it! 🙂
no, haven’t
Then I welcome you to the magic that is archetypes. 😉
I love meditation and I love your craft work, so I’m very interested in checking these out.
I’m usually leery of relying on archetypal arcs because I’ve seen people rely too heavily on them (and the male vs female versions can be quite sexist). That being said, the summaries you have on the 3 pairs would work well for a series I’m planning where my MCs do move from seeking independence in the first book, to a set on power and responsibility, and then later a few characters who progress to seeking out the mysteries of life, the universe and everything. So could be useful as scaffolding rather than a roadmap or blueprint.
I’m very intrigued!
I hope you find them useful!
Which countries are eligible for your giveaway? The terms of the giveaway have blanks in the places where that information should be.
International readers are welcome to enter!
I love meditation and needed an excuse to do it more often. Thank you.
Love excuses to do things that are good for us! 😉
I’m really intrigued by this concept. I haven’t done any true dives into archetypes, and I think that ought to change.
Dive in, the water’s great! 😀
I’ve never used anything like this before, despite often incorporating meditation or tarot prior to writing to open my creativity. This sounds so exciting!
I hope it proves useful for you!
Super neat idea, I can’t wait to learn about it!
Thanks! I hope you enjoy them!
I’ve been a long-time fan and subscriber of your work since I first discovered the world of writing blog as a teenager. You’ve always been such and encouragement because it felt like you thought along the same paths I did. I’ve missed out on a lot of your posts because life got in the way, but I wanted to say thanks for still doing what you’re doing 🙂 The character meditations sound like such a good resource and I’m looking forward to buying them and reinvigorating my writing! (also, I don’t know if you’ve read the book, but would it seem to you that Sophie Hatter in Howl’s Moving Castle goes through both a maiden and a crone arc simultaneously?)
Aww, bless. Thanks very much for the kind words. 🙂 And welcome back! I adore Howl’s Moving Castle, especially the movie. If memory serves, the book version might have been slightly different, but in the movie Sophie is definitely taking a Maiden-Arc-within-a-Crone-Arc. So deep and moving.
I already own print copies of K.M. Weiland’s books, Writing Archetypal Character Arcs and Creating Character Arcs, but I did not hesitate to purchase all six meditations. I had the privilege of beta-testing the Queen Arc, and found it excitingly useful for getting more depth out of a secondary character I had not given intense thought to, which provided added richness to the resolution of my novel.
I love meditation as a tool and augmentation for my own life, and to apply it to writing is–I’ll use the word again–exciting to me, as well as deeply satisfying. I highly recommend any and all of K.M.’s character arc meditations and books.
I’m off to immerse myself in the Crone arc now and I’m looking forward to more hierarchical character arc meditational epiphanies. Brilliant idea, K.M.!
You’re so kind, Marya! Thank you so much for your help in testing the meditations. You were awesome! I’m so happy to hear they were helpful to you. 🙂
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to learn more!
Good luck in the drawing!
I really love that these meditations are ilke a guided form of ‘Dreamstorming’ – I tracked down Robert Olen Butler’s book about the process after reading about it in one of your posts, and it changed how I approach writing. As a discovery writer, I can already imagine how helpful these could be in dreamstorming character personalities, lives and motivations. Looking forward to trying them out 🙂
Yes, it was a formative book for me many, many years ago! Glad you found it inspiring as well.
Great followup. I did the maiden so far…
I’ve read so much, but this has really helped me go deep and actually see my story.
Thank you.
Oh, yay! That totally makes my day. Thanks for sharing your experience, Michael. 🙂
I’ve been following your stuff for ages now, but just on your website. Now I have signed up to follow you on all the socials which I wish I had done before this. But here I am now. And I am definitely give your meditations a go, especially as I have never really worked with archetypes before but do think they could crack my imagination open and reveal all those things I know are there but seem to be just out of reach! Many thanks, Jen
Cracking the imagination open–that’s what it’s all about! 😀
I love Archetypes but bizarrely or maybe obtusely 😉, never thought to use them in stories until you published your Archetypes guide (which I bought immediately!) – I’d only ever applied them to personal psychology and astrology. Anyway, I’m looking forward to doing my first guided meditation with the Maiden tonight… Thank you Katie!! This is an awesome branch of creativity ❤️
Funny how our brains compartmentalize things like that, isn’t it? I hope you find the meditations useful in your further study.
Huh. I’d honestly never thought about using meditations like this. I use them to fall asleep, so it’ll be a change to use them while awake! 😉
Hah, you might try these sitting up, just so your brain doesn’t think it’s sleepy time!
I feel like this has already been a long journey into archetype, and it’s nowhere near complete. I appreciate your work on this. It has been really helpful.
Hear, hear! The journey is certainly ongoing. I have some more resources I’m planning to share on archetypes next year!
Thank you for all your fantastic content!
I have always used archetypes to get the juices flowing for character creation and I’m thinking these guided meditations will be a huge help for Nanowrimo this year.
I have not tried the archetypal character arc yet. I enjoy your writing tips
Your approach to archetypes looks very interesting!
I haven’t worked on my writing lately but hopefully someday soon I can get back to it. Archetypes would be helpful as we gear up for the next D&D campaign.
Congratulations on the new book!
I have not considered archetypes much; however, I’m currently seeking ways to get to know my characters even better. This might just do the trick!
I haven’t used this method, but I’m willing to give it a try!
First, I love the Remarkable!! Second, what a great collection of material and resources for building a character. Thx!!
I have your “Outlining your novel” book and it’s really helpful. I need to work more with archetypes as i think it would be helpful
I’ve never used archetypes. Looking forward to learning more!
I love the meditation, so thankful for this original idea! I’ve already benefited so much from using the Maiden meditation; I did it twice this week and had different ideas and visions for my story both times.
This is super interesting! Can’t wait!
I’ve never really taken the time to learn more about archetypes, and I love this new take on how to dive deeper into them. Looking forward to trying something new!
I am already obsessed with the idea of this.
You always have such original takes on familiar subjects. Can’t wait to check it out.
I recently discovered your books and then, of course, your blog. I’d never considered exploring characters and archetypes in this way. So unbelievably creative! Can’t wait to jump in!
I’ve been following your blog posts and books for a while now and I’ve learned so much about writing. Thanks for all you do!
I haven’t thought about character archetypes that much, so I’m looking forward to digging into them more!
I’ve not tried archetypal character arcs yet in my writing, but I look forward to doing so!
Facebook app said it wouldn’t work. And every time I click “Log in” nothing happens. Rats.
Looks interesting. Never thought of doing that before.
I have never looked at archetypes at all until this past month, to be honest. In my master’s program (creative writing for therapeutic purposes) this was just touched on in our readings and I’m really enjoying exploring this. And then I saw your email about archetypes! Synchronous!!!! I’m excited to learn more about your meditations, it sounds amazing!
Love all the information you provide for beginners such as myself. Yo have really inspiried me to do what I have been wanting to do for years!
Interested in checking these out. Such an interesting idea!
This is so interesting, and I’m always excited for what you share. I can’t wait to dive into all of these!
Love your work! And hoping to win the giveaway 🙂 I’l I’ve always wanted to try a tablet like that.
I’ve clearly overlooked archetypes in the past. I’m still digging in, but this information is remarkable. Thank you for always reinventing my thought process in writing.
I have been salivating over a Remarkable tablet but haven’t pulled the trigger to purchase one yet. Winning one would be ever so sweet 🙂
As always, you are so incredibly inspirational and motivating. Can’t wait to check out these meditations!
The archetypes are so useful for helping determine character motivations! Thanks for these posts! I recommend them often to other writers as well.
I love these types of meditations. They are great for writing, relaxing, and planning.
K.M., I’m so excited to hear about your archetype mediations. That’s such a clever way to think through a story. I’m really interested in the Crone Arc right now. Thank you for putting in the effort to make these.
I’ve never used archetypes in my writing, so I’m interested in learning more! Your website is super helpful for me as a young writer, so thank Ms. Weiland!
I’m enjoying your book on Archetypes. Just starting to really use them in my writing. The meditations look interesting.
This website always has something useful for it’s subscribers!
Ooh, these look so good – I love using audio to learn and absorb things, and I am going to give these a listen.
It’s more instinctive. I’ve never “assigned” a type to a character.
I’m still a beginner writing stories (comics, manga and screenplays), but I think it’s a good time to use structure more strictly after seeing how crucial it is.
I need to learn more about using archetype characters in my novels.
I have had archetypes in mind, but not directly worked with them for characters throughout.
Nope. Not yet. This is something new and still learning about Archetypal Character Arcs
Such a creative and gorgeous way to think about characters! Congrats on your launch!
Would you consider a short sample of these meditations for people who want to see what they are like before purchasing?
Congratulations!
I haven’t done archetypes but I have done astrology for characters, lol. NOT equivalent, I know. But amusing. Some of the astrology books – Linda Goodman’s Love Signs – have in depth chapters on how two people with certain personalities would get along when being romantic, and it can spark story ideas. I write romance so that works.
This is a great idea. I am definitely going to use this to see if I can get into my my imagination more to improve my characters.
I can’t wait. The story I am pre-writing centers a woman protagonist who is on a journey to heal herself of generational trauma and to reclaim her feminine power within. I appreciate your work so much.
It hasn’t been long since I discovered you, but I’m already very excited, I’m learning a lot from you, thank you!
I’d love this! Looks exciting.
No, I haven’t worked with archetypal character arcs for my stories.
Thanks for running this promo 🙂 Your archetype meditations also sound very interesting.
I’ve used the ennegram for my characters.
I have used Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s archetypal characters to populate my stories before. She doesn’t have a specific arc for each character type (just masculine and feminine journey) but she does lend a lot of detail to what kind of strengths and weakness each of the types has in her book on the subject. IIRC it’s 40 Master Characters or something like that (I’m not in my library to check at the moment).
I haven’t worked a lot with archetypes. I tend to figure that out after I’ve written the book.
I’ve never really given much thought about archtypes in relation to my own writing. But I’m a big fan of guided meditation and a big fan of K.M. Weiland so when I figure out which archtype goes to my protagonist I’m going to give this a whirl.
Just purchased and started to read the book recently. I think it’s very interesting and probably I will use parts of it in my book I am writing (I think I already planned archetype character arcs unconsciously)
I used archetypes as the basis for several of the secondary characters in the two novels I’ve been working on and I really like the concept.
This sounds like an interesting approach to thinking more deeply about our characters!
Definitely helpful in getting me immediately in the headspace of writing more complex characters and stories.
I have never heard of meditating on characters… Will definitely have to check it out!
Amazing to learn about these new mediums through which we can develop our characters, great idea!
I always enjoy your blog posts, and here’s one with a highly fun contest giveaway! Such a generous prize, I can’t resist entering. And what a great idea for a meditation. I’ve done guided meditation before, but never in relation to writing. You’ve piqued my curiosity!
Excited for this! I love both books that I have outlining and structure!!
I love all your stuff and I’m very intrigued
Love it! I appreciate all of your wisdom!
Such an original and thought provoking idea! Definitely will be trying out.
This is such a wonderful idea! Thank you for doing this!
Cool. Are the meditations religious?
No, they’re just guided visualizations of the archetypal journeys.
I haven’t approached character work this way; interesting.
Not quite sure about whether I have, but I guess that is what this is about finding out!
I love character archetypes, for both writing and life. As an INTJ myself, I also find archetypes, enneagram, writing theory/story structure and Myers-Briggs absolutely delightful. Despite reading extensively (thank you so much for writing the Writing Archetypal Character Arcs, it’s my favourite archetype writing resource at the moment), I still struggle to implement the structural/archetypal journeys in both my stories and in my life. I am looking forward to the meditations, I hope they’ll help me tap into the energies and maybe something will shift. Thank you for creating such wonderful resources for us. I can feel your passion and fascination each time I interact with them 🙂
Congrats on the release!! 🥳
Thank you so much for all you do. I am super intrigued about a guided meditation for writing. I often end up listening to some deep music while driving to get my brain going.
Meditation, “Daystorms”, and character work? Yes, please!
This is cool. I think I’ll see how it can intertwine with the Enneagram and Caroline Myss’s Sacred Contracts.
This may be a repeat comment–my other post doesn’t appear.
Just saying I like the guided meditation idea. I have some books on them but guides for various character arcs is a great idea.
It’s an interesting idea to think of character archetypes as a guided meditation. I’ve never thought of it in that way before.
I have the bundle and I’m excited to use them to tap into my creative brain.
I use guided meditations for a lot of my work.
Sounds Amazing!
Big fan of your archetype book, I’m using a lot of it in my WIP.
Even though I write mostly for children, I still glean helpful tips from you. Thanks!
Sounds great