Rise to Reign continues to help you learn and improve our relationship with others and with God. In this episode, join our host Amy Killingsworth as she explores the question of identity: Are you a queen or a slave? Amy identifies the four identity archetypes that people fall under and discusses their traits. Amy talks about how these archetypes behave and relate to others. An episode you must catch if you want to learn more about yourself and how you can improve yourself.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

Know Thyself: Four Identity Archetypes And Your Place in the Kingdom

In this episode, we are talking about pillar number one, identity. Are you a prisoner, slave, prince or princess, king or queen? Let’s dive in and find out.

—

Welcome to this episode where we believe that God wants you healed so you can wholeheartedly live your purpose and love your life. In this episode, we are talking about the Rise to Reign Principle number one, which is the underlying principle, which is the underpinning to the entire Rise to Reign system. Rise to Reign is a system for growth to help you let go of what is holding you back so you can rise and reign in life. There are seven principles or pillars and they are applied to seven categories. I explained in the last episode that I’m going to take those one by one, do a deep dive and go in order. If you’re coming into the blog at a different point, I’m going to refer you back to the very beginning of season two because they’re precept upon precept, line upon line and they build on each other.

Unpacking Identity

It’s important that you get them in order because what we’re going to talk about is identity. We apply identity to each of the seven categories. Remember the categories are body, mind, will and emotions, which is your soul then your spirit and then your relationships, finances, character and calling. Those are the seven categories. We’re going to go through the pillars and talk about how they apply it to each of those different categories. That is how you rise to reign and reign in life.

Before I do get into identity, I want to tell a little story. I love to tell this story to illustrate how we see ourselves versus how others might see us or how it might be true about us. When my third child was born, he was born by C-section and they wheeled me into the recovery room. I was out of it because I had major surgery and lots of painkillers. The monitors that they had on me kept ringing and going off. The nurses would come in and they were a little bit concerned, a little bit befuddled because my heart rate continued to drop below 35. It would go so low that it would cause the monitors in the recovery room that were attached all over to go off. They would come in and look confused then they would shut the monitor off and walk out of the room.

Are you a prisoner, slave, prince or princess, king or queen? Click To Tweet

Finally, I asked one of them, “What is that? What’s going on?” She said, “Your heart rate is abnormally low. Can you think of any reason why that would be?” In my drug-induced state, I thought about it. I was like, “Why can’t my heart rate be low?” Then I got an idea. I was like, “Maybe it’s because I ran a half marathon right before I got pregnant. It wasn’t even my first half marathon. It was my second.” She goes, “You’re an athlete.” I was like, “Yes. I’m an athlete.” She’s like, “That explains the low heart rate.” Bear in mind, I had been pregnant for nine months and I was lying in a hospital bed, probably 20 or 30 pounds overweight and had my stomach cut open. I liked the idea of myself being an athlete a lot more than what was my present reality.

This caught fire. The charge nurse told the next nurse that came in on shift not to worry about my heart rate being so low because I was an athlete. They wheeled me into my room where I would spend the night and the rest of the time recovering in the hospital before I could go home. This kept happening all night long, every night, all day long these alarm bells would be going off. The nurses would sometimes come in a little flustered. I would reassure, calm them down and say, “Don’t worry about it. I’m an athlete.” They would be like, “Okay.” That’s like Lance Armstrong’s heart rate and he was blood doping. It’s certainly not ever my heart rate before that time or since. I was never on that level of an athlete even though I had maybe completed a few athletic-type endeavors. It’s comical to look back on now with clear eyes and knowing what was going on but it turns out they released me from the hospital. I went home with my days-old infant. I woke up in the middle of the night, completely choking and struggling for breath.

I was rushed back to the hospital and it turns out that I was in congestive heart failure. I had been afflicted by a very unusual affliction called peripartum cardiomyopathy. My heart was enlarged and I was dying. I was at great physical risk. That’s why those alarm bells kept going off was because there was something alarming going on in my body. I explained it away because I liked the idea of me being an athlete more than me being a very sick and incapacitated woman. You can argue in all things that maybe the medical professionals should have done a little bit more investigation and maybe they should have but I was a willing participant because of how I wanted to see myself versus how I was. What we’re doing here in the identity section, in the identity pillar is taking a good, hard look at what’s true and what’s real because you cannot change what you don’t acknowledge.

The problem with that though is, it’s hard to look at ourselves objectively. We want to be an ideal self. We all want to be a certain way and we can be our highest and best self. That’s what this show is all about, is expressing your true nature, how you were created before life gave you all of these messages and got in the way and twisted you by trauma into something or a way that you were never meant to be. The process of getting back to the original design is the process of peeling away those layers, healing that trauma and rewiring your brain. To assist you in doing that, I have developed some archetypes. I’m going to go through those in a little bit.

 

Healing And Identity

When we talk about healing, we say that this show is about you healing so that you can wholeheartedly live your purpose and live your life and be restored back to the original design. When we talk about healing, what is that? What do we mean by healing? At its essence, healing is bringing back to homeless, bringing back to the original design before the damage, illness or something negative occurred. For our purposes where emotions, perspective and identity are concerned, healing is a correction in your perception about God, yourself and others. When we can see those three things clearly, we are healed. Healing is a lifelong process and journey. When you get one aspect healed, you find out that there’s more to do. I don’t want to imagine that there’s a destination. We are to be moving from glory to glory, it says in scripture. We are to be getting better and better, rising and reining, a new level until we either die or it comes to that day when all things are made new.

Let’s talk about identity. To do that, I’m going to define it. Identity is the condition of being a certain person. I have a driver’s license. That’s my identification. It has my name, address and weight, which is a great example about how we see ourselves versus how we are like, what’s your weight on your driver’s license versus when you step on the scale this morning in the bathroom? That’s a great example of what’s true and what we wish was true. In my case, it’s not too far off but the weight, my height and eye color on my driver’s license are identifying characteristics. Your identity is who you are. It’s the state or the condition of being a certain person. It’s also a set of characteristics by which a person is known. My name is Amy Killingsworth. I’m a podcast host, a writer, a mother, a Christian, a follower of Christ, an athlete. I do CrossFit and I’m maybe not a great competitive athlete but I do participate in athletics pursuits so I feel comfortable calling myself an actual athlete. I had built up some stamina, endurance and strength since those days years ago.

Naming Your Identity

The set of characteristics that you’re known by is also part of your identity. It’s how people recognize you by what you do or what you’re involved in. It could be physical characteristics that could be part of your identity as well like the weight and height on the driver’s license. Your identity is also a combination of how you see yourself, how others see you and how you are. For our purposes, we want to talk about who you are versus how you may show up sometimes. How many of you know what I’m talking about when I say that? Have you ever walked away from a situation or an interaction maybe and been like, “Who was that?” Maybe you had too much to drink. You woke up the next morning and you were like, “Oh my gosh.” You had acted in a way that doesn’t line up with who you are and who you want to be.

For that purpose, we’re going to give some names, clarity and archetypes around that so you can recognize these negative archetypes when they show up and choose to be your original design, your true self and to have tools to pull yourself out of a pattern, trigger or an emotional well-worn addiction and into what you want to be, the healed version of you. The identity archetypes, there are 3 lower ones and 1 higher one. The lower ones are the prisoner, slave, orphan princess or prince and then the queen or king. When we rise to reign, the monarch is the one that reigns. The king or the queen are the ones reigning. Legitimately reigning. Not controlling, not manipulating, which are characteristics of the lower nature but reigning in life. The prisoner, slave, orphan princess and prince then the king and queen.

It’s hard to look at ourselves objectively. We want to be an ideal self. We all want to be a certain way and we can be our best self. Click To Tweet

The Prisoner

We’ll take them one by one. The prisoner archetype is the true and honest victim. This archetype is just steeped and mired in a victim mentality and consciousness consumed and paralyzed by fear. What are some of the outworkings of fear? Manipulation, control, lying, these things that are rooted and grounded that show up as behavior of somebody who is paralyzed, consumed and controlled by fear. The prisoner is very so focused on self but it’s more of a, “What’s wrong with me?” focus. All three of the lower natures are focused on self but it shows up a little bit different. The prisoner’s focus on self is, “What’s wrong with me?” The prisoner is also always convinced that everybody is judging them, looking at them, thinking they’re ugly, horrible and awful. I have a teenager, so I’m around teenagers a lot. It boggles my mind how teenagers automatically assume that everybody’s looking at them. I remember I felt like that too but with the benefit of being a lot older and more mature, hopefully, you realize people are thinking about themselves and not you.

This prisoner archetype is convinced that all eyes are on them and not in a good way. “What’s wrong with me?” is the constant question playing in the prisoner’s mind. The prisoners also see no way out. They’re not resourceful at all. They are the actual opposite of resourceful. They see no way out of their current circumstances. They feel like it’s awful, always been awful, always going to be awful and, “Everybody is out to get me. The world is bad and getting worse.” Sees no way out. They’re looking for a savior outside of themselves. The prisoner very often gives his or her power away to institutions, to a partner, to teachings. A prisoner would be somebody who would be very susceptible to getting involved in a cult.

The Slave

They are lack of resources and are very dependent on resourcefulness. Maybe on the government, on their job on their family. They don’t have the agency or they don’t exercise their agency. There’s a lot of dependents there. The second archetype is the slave. The slave is the martyr also controlled by fear. All three of the lower natures are controlled by fear. They’re also a manifestation of the ego or what scripture calls the flesh, which is our base nature, our lower nature, what Freud would call in a psychological sense, the ego, which is that part of us that is negative. That is not our true identity but it’s a personality that’s shaped by our experience of life. It’s not who we truly are. It’s the way that we show up or our representative that we send into the world that is guarded and manufactured to deal with the hurts and the problems of pain, of life that isn’t true but it’s a coping mechanism. That’s what the ego is.

The slave is also focused on self but this is masked by being a martyr. The slave is very essence. They’re codependent. They’re going to work on your problem harder than you’re going to work on your problem. They’re going to make sure that you’re okay so that they can be okay but they’re going to call it empathy and service but it isn’t really because it’s still about making them feel okay. They’re focused on themselves but at first blush, you might think, “That person is so giving.” This is the classic like a mother who’s like, “I carried you for nine months, then I was in labor for so many hours and you almost killed me then I raised you and you’re going to not come home for Christmas?”

 

That’s the classic martyr. They exist in all walks of life, all genders and all stations. I don’t mean to pick on moms. That’s the classic slave, the classic martyr. It seems like they’re focused on their kid but they’re getting their identity from their kid and cannibalizing their child to be able to have some significance. The slave also lacks boundaries. They live in response to other people. Also, a very blaming energy around this slave. They can’t be happy because you’re doing this, that and the other thing. They’re angry, resentful and bitter, accepts and expect abuse. You find this slave in an abusive relationship.

Think about a slave, getting hit over the back, getting controlled and living legitimately in response to other people. Because of their fear, they’re very manipulative and controlling. All three of the lower natures, you’re going to see manipulation and control but with the slave, it’s a defining characteristic. We’re going to take these archetypes and apply them to real-life situations. I want to build the foundation for you so that you know what we’re dealing with, so it makes sense when I’m talking about it later.

The Orphan Princess

Now we have the orphan princess or prince. A true princess or prince is a young king or queen. That’s why I call it the orphan prince or princess because this has a very toxically self-sufficient characteristic to it. The orphan prince or princess is the brat. This is the girl boss or the ambitious guy that’s going to make it happen and put himself all over social media. This is where narcissism, which is a buzzword that in our society would fall. This is where, maybe somebody who has spent a lot of time as a prisoner or a slave and they’re like, “I’m not going to take it anymore. I’m going to rise up.” This is a false ascension, whereas true rising up and true awakening results in a king or a queen. This is a false awakening or a false arising. It’s very seductive because it feels powerful but it isn’t true power. What I want you to take away from the orphan prince and princess is that it is a seemingly more empowered version of a very fearful person.

The orphan princess and prince have certainty insignificance as his or her highest need. When I say significance, I don’t mean that they want to make a significant impact on the world and that they arrange their life around that. What I mean is that they want to be seen and acknowledged. This is a driving force. Human beings want that and need that but it becomes a problem when it becomes your priority. When you do good work, serve others, provide lots of value to the world, significance is a by-product of that. In that order, it’s healthy and it’s good to get your needs met for being significant. When significance is the goal, all of your actions and efforts serve the purpose of you being seen and heard that is an orphan prince or princess. It’s not fulfilling, never enough and very harmful to the person and very toxic to the people involved.

Are you going to show up powerful, as a victim, as a slave, or as the queen? Click To Tweet

Certainty is risk-averse like, “I must have money.” Their dependence is on themselves. It’s toxic self-reliance, not in God and not in the perfect provision of a good father. The certainty here is we all want to feel safe, secure and certain. That’s good but our certainty in our source should be in God. The hallmark of the orphan prince and princess is that they’re relying and dependent on themselves, self-sufficient toxically. He or she demands to know the whole plan before taking a single step because they’re very risk-averse. They’re like, “If I can’t win, I’m not going to play. If I don’t know that I’m going to be successful, I’m not going to do it.” They miss a lot of opportunities and the whole purpose and thrust of life, which is to serve God and serve others.

There’s also hustling, pushing forward, very demanded and very exhausted. This person is chronically exhausted but they’re still hustling for worth. Toxic self-sufficiency that can be said many times because that’s the linchpin and lacks any real connection with other people because they’re disconnected from their source, from God and themselves. It’s hard for them to connect with other people because they’re so focused on themselves and their own significance.

The orphan prince and princess, I want you to get this picture, is what the flesh or the ego will do to empower the slave or the prisoner. It’s no better. It might be even more painful. It might also be a necessary step. These things could be a progression. A lot of times, we start at the prisoner, develop into a slave, develop into orphan prince and princess and then we develop into the king and queen. It can be a progression as long as you keep progressing but a lot of people get stuck right here and they’re like, “This is it. I’m going to make it. If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” This is the make-it-happen energy that’s not dependent on God. The motivation that’s not dependent and surrendered to God and his purposes.

The King And Queen

Let’s talk about the queen and king. This is our higher self. This is who you truly are. You are wholly loved, wholly lovable, created as divine perfection for a purpose and on purpose. This is who you are. This is your true essence. Every single human is a child of God. Even though we may have done things that have separated us, what we have in Christ is a complete and total fresh start, a reset back to the original design. This is how we are created, how we can get way far away from this and we all do but we can come back to it. That’s what healing is coming back to your true essence.

 

The king and the queen are the sovereigns. Next episode, I’m going to talk about what sovereignty is. It’s pillar number two of the Rise to Reign system. The king or queen is sovereign. I’ve been watching The Queen on Netflix. She refers to herself constantly as the sovereign. I want you to keep that in mind because when we talk next episode about sovereignty, it’s a major characteristic of the king and queen. It is your true identity. It’s your authentic self. The king and queen, instead of being ruled by fear is now ruled by love, their motivation. The definition of love is not a warm, squishy feeling. Our definition for love is unselfishly seeking the best for other people. It’s an action and a choice. They’re ruled by that value, by that expression of love. They know they will fail and be judged. The prince and princess are enslaved by other people’s opinions. That’s a real characteristic of the orphan prince and princess is that they’re enslaved by other people’s opinions of them.

The king and queen are not. They know they’ll fail and they’ll be judged. It’s not that they don’t necessarily care what other people think of them. It’s just that they act in spite of it. They don’t take people’s opinions personally. They are makers and not takers, provide and not consume, put out solutions and not create eight problems. This major characteristic. They’re more concerned with affecting the change in the world than protecting themselves from failure, rejection, disappointment or promoting them themselves. A king is more interested in being on a mission than in being seen and promoting themselves. It’s important. They don’t take people’s opinions personally because they know that who they are.

It’s the essence of your true self apart from your personality or drama. A lot of the prisoner, slave, prince and princess is a personality which an unhealthy style of relating that you’ve developed over time to deal with the hurts and agreements that you’re made. We’re going to dig into all of this and deconstruct it bit by bit but I want to give you this overview so we can know the language we’re talking about. The king and queen take excellent care of self but it’s for the purpose of serving others. They don’t make self-love, self-care and idol. That’s a show all in itself. They share self and accomplishments in service of others. They’re very accomplished, visible and significant but it’s all in service of a mission and others. The king and queen are wise, loving, patient, kind, powerful, compassionate and they live in flow and ease. The king and queen are at home in righteousness, peace and joy. That is the kingdom or queendom. We’re going to talk about what that is in a moment.

Analyzing The Archetypes

I have an identity index for you. I’m going to have to post this on the blog because I can’t show you. I’m going to try to explain it to you then I’ll post the actual graphic with the show notes. The queen, her motivation is internal and she is proactive. The princess or the prince, motivation is external and also proactive. It’s the outside acting on her and the way she shows up is control. The prisoner is reactive and motivation or point of view is also internal. There’s lots of introspection going on there but it’s fearful and, “I’m bad.” That’s the message. The slave girl is your bad. Also, external focus, reactive in nature but the message then is you are bad. They’re projecting and saying, “You’re bad. I’m powerless.” There is a lot of blame in the slave girl’s world in reality.

The prisoner fears woman or man. The slave is her man’s woman or woman’s man. The prince or princess is her own woman or his own man. The queen or king is God’s woman or man. You can take your gender and apply it to it. These are characteristics that you can use to find out, “Who’s showing up right now? How am I showing up right now versus who I want to show up as?” Let’s talk about the throne. The throne is just who’s in charge. Who’s ruling, who’s reigning. It’s a battle for control and it exists primarily in your thoughts and in the resulting emotions. These archetypes are constantly battling for control. Are you going to show up powerful, as a victim, as a slave or as the queen? They must be dethroned, the lower natures when you recognize their effects. We’re going to talk about this and apply them to the different categories.

You do that by taking every thought captive. Thinking about what you’re thinking about, observing your emotions and pulling yourself back to where you want to be. How do you know? The way that who is on the throne is by taking internal inventory. If you’re in the queendom or kingdom, if the queen or king is on the throne, you have righteousness, peace and joy. What are these things? Righteousness is the state of being and feeling right. It’s alignment and right relationship with God, self and others. That’s what righteousness is. Peace is not just the absence of anxiety but it’s a knowing that all is well and all will be well.

Finding Inner Calm

There’s an inner calm regardless of external circumstances. The Hebrew idea of Shalom, which is human flourishing. It encompasses so much more than just feeling peaceful or calm. Another way to explain Shalom or the peace of God is nothing missing, nothing broken. When you have those feelings and that’s your reality, righteousness, peace and joy. Joy is a calm delight. That’s how you know the queen is on the throne. I have a chart of identity indicators. I’ll go from the bottom. The prisoner, as far as feelings go, is depressed, the slave girl is angry, the princess is overwhelmed and exhausted, and the queen is peaceful. As far as doing, the prisoner is doubting, the slave girl is blaming, the princess is chasing and the queen is being.

I don’t believe that yourself should be on the throne of your heart. I believe that belongs to God but when we’re looking at the flesh versus the spirit-controlled nature that Paul outlines in the New Testament, we’re talking about the human will controlled by the spirit or by the flesh, whether you’re walking in the light or in darkness. Those concepts can be obtuse or hard to understand. This whole archetype system is to help you diagnose and choose consciously rather than being in that fog of feeling the opposite of righteousness, peace, joy and not knowing how to get out of it. The Rise to Reign system is about healing your emotions and your thought life. That heals your life, relationships and it changes what you’re experiencing in life. I hope you found that helpful. In the next episode, we are going to talk about sovereignty. I’m super excited about that. I hope you found this useful, start putting it into practice, activating it and start paying attention to who is showing up and choosing consciously to show up as that queen. Thank you so much for reading.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

Join the Rise to Reign community today:

• amykillingsworthpodcast.com
• Amy Killingsworth Facebook
• Amy Killingsworth LinkedIn
• Amy Killingsworth Instagram
• Amy Killingsworth YouTube
• Amy Killingsworth Twitter