Yes, this is a good question.

Being in the depth psychology tradition – which is essentially a path of “magic” – we are indebted to people who have been traveling in similar realms before us. People like CG Jung, Robert Moore, Joseph Campbell, Marie-Louise von Franz, Jordan Peterson etc.

The wounded healer concept is attributed to Jung himself and suggests that a therapist/shaman/alchemist is only truly effective if they themselves have been effected by the malady.

This perspective suggests that purpose is innate and relates to our personal path of wounding. But we also recognize that this kind of purpose is a feature of the archetypal Magician.

If your role in the tribe is that of a Warrior, you will likely find your purpose through observing something you care about being threatened. In other words, your purpose will then be created as you engage with life and discover what your heart wants to protect.

If your purpose lives mainly inside the archetypal Lover, you will likely find it through your pursuit of joy, passion and pleasure, creating it as you go by following your sense of aliveness.

If you naturally gravitate towards positions of leadership and the archetypal Sovereign in group situations, you’d be well served to integrate all of these qualities inside of your being (as would we all).

In other words, depending on the particular archetypal configuration of your purpose work, your path can be a mixture of created and innate meaning.

These are all just words and concepts anyway – just approximations of things we can never hope to describe through language. (that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, however)