The Maiden Arc: Coming of Age

Summary

Archetypes can help you write stories that tap the depths of the human experience. This 45-minute guided meditation will help you dive deep into your subconscious creativity and write a resonant Maiden Arc story. 

As the first archetypal journey in the cycle of life arcs, the Maiden represents a crucial initiatory experience. This coming-of-age arc will take you and your characters on a journey through all the challenges of growing up, individuating from authority figures, and finding an identity and role in a wider world that often seems overwhelming and even dangerous. 

This meditation will help you visualize and imagine important characters and settings. It gives you the opportunity to explore every vital beat while offering all the space you need to find your own unique story. It will show you how your character may interact with corresponding archetypal antagonists (Authority and Predator) and grapple with a thematic Lie and Truth (Submission vs. Sovereignty) in order to evolve from Innocent to Individual.  

(Note: Although a feminine arc, this journey may be taken by any character of any gender. Gender-neutral terms are used throughout the meditation to help you apply its imagery to the specifics of your own story.)

K.M. Weiland’s book Writing Archetypal Character Arcs taught writers how to identify and structure the six most important initiatory journeys of the human experience (Maiden, Hero, Queen, King, Crone, and Mage). These “life arcs” include the youthful Hero’s Journey as one of six, but go so much deeper to explore little-known feminine and elder arcs as well.

Now you can explore these archetypal journeys yourself by accessing the potent tool of “dreamzoning.” Just sit back and let your imagination take over as these audio adventures guide you through every important beat in the archetypal arcs.