The Process is to analyze life from multiple perspectives and adopt a chivalric attitude.

The goal is to emulate all that was and is good and true in the age of chivalry in ways completely personal to the questor. The journey and how you approach it is completely your own. Indeed, it can only be thus. The first part of the process is the definition of the Human Essence of Being. After we discuss some initial definitions (as they are subject to change as our understanding deepens), we will look at the interaction of these qualities from the perspective of the self. Then, we will define the archetypes. And, in a similar way as described above, we will apply the perspectives of the archetypes to the spheres of being. Once this is accomplished we begin the melding process of taming the self to consider the alternate perspectives of the archetypes in our daily interactions with the spheres of being.

The Human Essence of Being is the division of incarnate existence in relation to the physical world.

The seven elements of the essence of being.

Initial Definitions: Spiritual - interactions with divinity Mental - interactions with your self Health - interactions with your body Financial - interactions involving money Vocational - interactions involving work Personality - interactions with the world Domestic - interactions with your family

There are, of course, many paths to becoming a well rounded master of chivalry. The seven elements of the essence of being presented here are intended as a framework that we are using to categorize the self. There are many philosophies with as many ways to describe the concept of a total essence of being.  Feel free to use the framework that works best for you. As you review the aspects it should become clear that no interaction between your self and that which exists outside your self draws the entirety of its energy from a single aspect. Indeed, it is almost impossible to imagine and interaction that draws exclusively from a single aspect.

The Archetypes (initially) are Saint Joan d'Arc and the four musketeers: Athos, Porthos, Arimis, and D'Artagnan

All five archetypes share the same goal of defending the King of France, just as we share the same goal of defending the Holy Trinity. Each represent a different social perspective, yet share characteristics with their fellow archetypes.  These legendary characters are well known to modern day seekers of chivalry and will serve well as archetypes for our quest.   Arimis is the thinker and priest. D'Artagnan is both an aspirant and a master of art. Porthos is the fierce fighter and lover of the finer things in the world. Athos is the mysterious disguised noble. Saint Joan d'Arc is the martyr who is true to her cause until death.   While it may be possible to take historic members of the original Knights Templar and use them as archetypes, such as Jacques de Molay in lieu of Saint Joan d'Arc, we have purposefully refrained from doing so here.  First, we are not necessarily constrained to working under the Rule in our quest. Therefore, a female martyr introduces a feminine aspect of knighthood that is appropriate for the world of today. Second, while we may find representatives for the other archetypes among the history of the Knights Templar, it is unlikely that the general seeker of a more chivalric lifestyle will have developed an understanding of their perspectives on life. Whereas the chosen archetypes are well known to our society. And, third, this entire project is experimental and subject to revision. We had to start somewhere and our intuition pointed to these archetypes. In such matters we tend to side with intuition. Please note, that any definitions or concepts presented here on nnDnn are merely suggestions. There is a process presented here and the aspirant is free to modify the process to suit their own development. We are not writing Gospel here and we are not pointing the way to your salvation. But if you are on the road to the new Jerusalem we hope you travel it with a chivalric attitude!

The Melding of the essence of being with the archetypes gives us perspective.

Each of the seven essences of being are considered from the viewpoint of the five archetypes. This melding process allows us to adopt perspectives and apply them to our character to promote a more chivalric form. Although relatively simple to imagine, the practice is much more difficult. We must learn the art of hesitation and force the self to reevaluate the stimuli from the perspectives of the archetypes. After we have evaluated the situation we can choose the appropriate chivalric response. We can  apply this hesitate-analyze-act technique to both internal (self initiated) and external (outside initiated) actions or reactions. WARNING: It is important to note at this point that although we may maintain a strong predisposition for attitudes held by one or two of the archetypes, we must not fall into the trap of continually adopting a single archetypical behavior. In other words, the idea is not to become the archetype. We can see this trap, and those it ensnares, by observing the Captain Jack pirate phenomenon among people incorporating pirate attitudes into their lifestyles. Thousands of people were so enamored by the character Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean move series that they started to mimic his every behavior. While illustrative of the process and the potential for success in its implementation, the desired result is corrupted. The idea is not to become someone else! The idea is to understand other perspectives and evaluate our behavior in terms of the best way to implement a chivalric lifestyle. In the next section, "The Tools," we will consider ways to obtain and apply perspective as well as links to various institutions who's activities are chivalric in nature.

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