Joseph Gergen Works

“Who is Sprout?”  “What is Sprout?” “Is she an imaginary friend?” “Is she a delusion? A split personality?” I get questions like this form people who have read “Theo and Sprout.”

My response is usually “That’s a good question,” not to be glib but because it is a good question.

Obviously she’s a metaphor. But for what? I often say she is a metaphor for Theo’s Anima, Carl Jung’s archetype of the feminine side of man (Animus being the masculine side of woman).

But today I’ve decided to describe her as the Divine Feminine because maybe that is a little more familiar to people. The basic idea is that we all have a Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine inside of us, and that they should be n balance. (I believe the Divine Feminine and the Anima come from similar places but I’m not an expert on these things).

Sprout became a metaphor and champion for the Divine Feminine because when I was younger my Divine Feminine was a strong part of me even though at the time I didn’t understand what that meant. I knew only that in a world that valued the masculine so much more than the feminine I was at odds with it.

Sprout is the spirit guide I needed then and still need now. So Sprout’s role was to help Theo be comfortable with the Divine Feminine traits he already had some inkling of and also to expose him to traits he didn’t know were there. Traits like intuition, compassion, creativity, forgiveness, gentleness, sensuality and others. But she also had to teach him that while embracing those in a hostile world would be hard at times the effort to do so was worth it.  

So many of the adventures that Theo and Sprout go through are lessons to help Theo grow around those feminine traits. While the outward lesson might to be proud of your Divine Feminine, the core lesson is to be able to take joy and fulfillment from exercising those traits. To strengthen those traits so they glow within you and shine a lightness on those around you.

So that’s who Sprout is.