My ancestors are a huge part of my spiritual journey, those I knew in this life and those I never got to meet. Relatives from the United States, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Prussia and elsewhere have all played a huge role in my spiritual journey. There’s a specific archetype I want to talk about that I accredited to silent mediums, which was true, but they held something much more demanding as well: The Shepard’s Staff.
One day I was thinking about if the hat man was such a widespread phenomenon, often seen in people in distress, why I had never seen him when I got an image of a figure in a fedora style hat as a clairvoyant overlay, standing in the hallway of my childhood home.
This image was not frightening, as the traditional sense of the hatman, but a warm familiarity to it. This was an ancestor who had shown up previously who I had never met as they passed before I was born. My paternal great grandfather, Charles Schaflein. I confirmed with my father that Charles did wear a fedora style hat on occasion. The Schaflein name, German for “little sheep” was married out of the family by Charles only daughter, my dad’s mother, who married into the Templin last name. I also never got to meet Grandma Templin, as she also passed before I was born, but I believe her and her husband carried a healed line template, having four sons, including my father as the third.
The question about the hatman stirred from a half joke about why if I grew up in the home I did, I didn’t end up with an avoidant attachment style. I stated maybe there was a spirit that made sure I stayed safe, ancestral or otherwise. I’ve since learned Hermes, Apollo and others have been with me since I was a child, but this was the first clear clairvoyant flash I got of Charles.
Even more telling, Charles isn’t the only hat wearing man in the ancestral line. As I stated I didn’t know Charles in life, only in spirit, so a clairvoyant memory flash of a familiar yet unfamiliar person had me taken aback a bit.
My maternal grandfather, Richard, wore a fedora, always. A silent medium passing his gifts to my mother, who has the gift of sight and dreamwalking. Before passing Grandpa Richard told Mom to remember that he would always be around, as we are all energy and energy returns. Grandpa Richard was the first spirit I saw full apparitions of after he passed. I had seen others when younger, but trauma began shutting gifts off in a manner to protect.
Grandpa Richard’s apparition, still included the fedora, often appearing near cars before something went wrong with them, but more recently appearing in new manners as he’s the one who really pulled hard for me to awaken, leading mom to more fully embrace her gifts as well.
Most recently however, I realized there was a final family member always wearing a hat. Had I realized this too early, my path would not have evolved to where it is today. The third person in the family who always wears a hat, not a fedora, a baseball cap, my father. My father, losing both his parents relatively early in life, shut his gifts off, whether intentionally or unintentionally through his crown. My parents fought a lot when I was growing up, through it all they stayed together, not for the kids in the traditional sense, but in the fact that dad knew what it was like to lose a parent, and he wouldn’t put his kids through that. My parents are still married, and now happy with each other. I don’t think they were ever unhappy, truly, but there were a lot of unhealed wounds and mental health conditions that caused tension.
Dad also holds another incredibly important role: a time keeper. One of the first things I did during my awakening was set every clock in my home to a different time. A Shepard here’s the flock, a timekeeper knows no two people run on the same clock. Dad’s wrist watch, also set to the incorrect time.
One of the days me and mom were doing a practice session, dad, who’s never been a highly metaphysical person, but is very respectful to others as a Lutheran, was curious and asked if he had any gifts. A pendulum confirmed yes, and he shared a dream he had had about a major event prior to it happening. The spirit of his dog also came through, along with both of his parents. His clock opened for him to connect back with his gifts. The preliminary dreams, also passed down to me, different from the dreamwalking passed from mom.
These gifts from both sides in addition to others have been passed down to me on my own path. I hold the Shepard archetype, wearing a more subtle version of a hat myself. The timekeeper role allows souls that know when it’s time to awaken to find me. With this, it seems the major arcana archetype would be the hermit, and while that’s true to those whose gifts were silenced through wounds or safety. The open major arcana archetype of these roles is death, which was the archetype given to me by my guides months before this realization. For me specifically with the Timekeeper and Shepard roles, I sit as Death between the fear and illusion of the moon and the blinding truth of the sun.
My path could’ve embodied any major arcana, but death is the only one that can walk between illusion and sunlight, holding the lantern for others. Death is patient, it knocks gently, and waits until you’re ready to shed the fear of illusion to truth. I wear a pocket watch on a chain around my neck, over a wrist watch, that clock is untraditional, starting at 12 and counting to 24, not starting at 1 and counting to 12. That clock opens top down verses side to side as traditional watches, and carries dragons, guardians of spiritual treasure, guardians of spiritual transformation. Also set to the wrong time. It was the only watch ticking when I bought it, a quiet reminder that time always moves even if we don’t, especially if we don’t.
Dragons are also masculine energy embodied Though I present as a feminine person and prefer non-binary as a gender label, I encompass the blueprint of a divine masculine, having to heal from a shame wound from the maternal line.
My minor arcana archetype is most often the King of Swords. Words are treasures, choose them wisely, what you say has more effect on people than you’ll ever know. Operating out of a quiet mind to make strategic choices in all manners. The sword of discernment is a tool chosen but those who know spirituality and science sit as a duality, logic calms the heart, the heart calms the mind.
People are quick to jump to titles like oracle and high priestess or healer because they’re common titles. Look into your family line, what features do you see repeating, that will give you insight into your true path.
Also remember, encompassing one as a true archetype does not mean you do not hold others, as we all contain multitudes. No one role holds authority over others, keep yourself humble, no matter what role you fall into because every single one has its place and need.
As always, blessed be on your journey.
With shadow, light and integration,
-Allie💛
Aligning to Allie 
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