Masculine & Feminine

ArchetypesArchetypes

Warrior

King/Queen

Lover

Magician/Sorceress

What is an Archetype anyway

Let’s start with a dictionary definition

• An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype: “‘Frankenstein’ . . . ‘Dracula’ . . . ‘Dr. Jekyll and “‘Frankenstein’ . . . ‘Dracula’ . . . ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ . . . the archetypes that have influenced all subsequent horror stories” (New York Times).

• An ideal example of a type; quintessence: an archetype of the successful entrepreneur.

Jungian Archetypes

The concept of psychological archetypes was advanced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, c. 1919.

In Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience (“the collective unconscious”) and present in the individual unconscious

Jung outlined four main

archetypes:

• The Self, the regulating center of the psyche and

facilitator of individuation

• The Shadow, the opposite of the ego image,

often containing qualities that the ego does not often containing qualities that the ego does not

identify with but possesses nonetheless

• The Anima, the feminine image in a man's

psyche

• The Animus, the masculine image in a woman's

psyche

Other Archetypes

• Although the number of archetypes is limitless, there are a particularly notable, recurring archetypal images:

• The Hero

• The Great Mother• The Great Mother

• The Wise old man

• The Trickster

• The Puer Aeternus (Latin for "eternal boy")

• The Mentor

• The mad scientist

The Warrior

– Associations: Air, Swords, Thinking. East

– The Warrior archetype represents physical strength and the ability to protect, defend and fight for one’s rights. The Warrior is linked to invincibility, loyalty, stoicism and discipline.

– The Warrior sets boundaries that cannot be violated and display toughness of will and spirit as well as physical strength. He is self-sacrificing (to death if need be) and a conqueror of his own ego and physical desires.

– The classical warrior does not win by brute strength. Instead he plans, schemes and uses his wisdom and insight to defeat the foe (“know your enemy”).

– At his best, he is a devoted and loyal servant for the King and fights for the just and honourable cause.

Woman Warrior

• The Warrior archetype is just as connected to

the female psyche as to the male/ Women have

long been defenders of their families.

• Amazon women are legendary for their ability to

engage in fierce battle, Chinese martial arts

movies feature women as well as men.

• In today’s society Warrior woman has emerged

again to champion those needing representation

and a voice.

The King

• Associations: Earth, Pentacles, Sensation, South

• The King represents power and authority in all men when they have gained sovereignty over their own affairs. Symbolically his court can be everything from a country, corporation or his home.country, corporation or his home.

• He is sometimes pictured as a wicked or weak king as the fable of Emperor’s New Clothes but is more fairly shown as benevolent and protective of his country and subjects such as the persona of Solomon or the Pharaohs.

• There is a strong association to material abundanceand the joy of the senses and possessions such as food, clothing and the home. This is like the Celtic belief that the state of the country is in harmony with the state of the ruler.

The Queen

• The Queen represents power and authority in all women when they have gained sovereignty over their own affairs. Symbolically her court can be everything from a country, corporation or her home.

• She is sometimes pictured as a wicked queen as in Snow White (“who’s the fairest of them all”) but is more Snow White (“who’s the fairest of them all”) but is more fairly shown as benevolent and protective of her country and subjects such as the persona of Queen Elizabeth I (the virgin queen).

• There is a strong association to material abundance and the joy of the senses and possessions such as food, clothing and the home.

The Lover

• Associations:– Water, Cups, Feeling, West

• The Lover Archetype is obviously joined with those who are romantically inclined, but also in anyone who exhibits great passion and devotion. One can be who exhibits great passion and devotion. One can be a Lover of art, music, fishing, fine machinery, nature or things nautical. The key is in the having of unbridled and exaggerated affection and appreciation for someone or something that influences the organisation of your life.

• It is strongly linked to your self-esteem especially regarding your physical attractiveness

The Magician/Sorceress

• Associations: Fire, Wands, Intuition, North

• The Magician is concerned with using, intuitive, (seemingly) supernatural, psychic or occult/secret powers to convert matter, events or time into his own use for an altered expression of himself.

• The Magician produces results outside of the ordinary • The Magician produces results outside of the ordinary rules of life, whether changing the weather to stormy or calm or causing objects (or obstacles) to disappear.

• The Magician will have extraordinary powers that might be just natural to them (“born different”) but they will also study and devote a great part of their life to the use and increase of these powers.

Archetype MapNorth – Fire

Magician

East - Air

Warrior

West – Water

Lover

South – Earth

King/Queen

The Ultimate quest?

• To know yourself

• to will - to change that/ accept that/ work

with that

• to dare - to put the real/ new improved/ • to dare - to put the real/ new improved/

accepted you into action

• to keep silent - to be able to live with

yourself in silence (loving yourself)

The Magician, Warrior, Lover, King fulfilled

Part 2 Shadow

Me and my Shadow

(strolling down the avenue)

What is Shadow?

Often thought to be all that is dark within us that is suppressed or pushed down into our unconscious by the ego.unconscious by the ego.

“The things a person has no wish to be.”

It appears in dreams and fantasies

More than that

• Besides what we don’t like in

ourselves we can hide what our

parents and others tell us to hide

• “Always be nice” “Sit still” “Stop

daydreaming”

• Spontaneity, intuition, exuberance,

creativity can get put into shadow

The four archetypes and the

active/passive shadow

• Each archetype can have a shadow in the active

or passive pole

• For example the king’s active shadow is the

tyrant while the passive shadow is the weaklingtyrant while the passive shadow is the weakling

• Or the lover’s active shadow is the addicted

lover while the passive shadow is the impotent

lover

• Or the warrior’s active shadow is the sadist while

the passive shadow is the masochist

The long bag we drag

behind us

Robert Bly’s masterful A little book on the

human shadow says we d-r-a-g a long bag

behind usbehind us

Qualities, “defects”, facets of ourselves are

stuffed into the shadowy bag

Men put their feminine side in there and

women their masculine side

It works on a big scale

too

• Nations put qualities into the bag and ascribe

them to other races – Jews are money-hungry,

Reagan said Russians are “the evil empire”

• Cultures, groups & religions do it too

• Christians tend to put sex in the bag, pagans

may put Christians in the bag

• Socialists put greed, right-wingers and

capitalism in their bag, capitalists put socialists

and “bleeding hearts” in their bag

5 Stages starting with

ProjectionBly describes 5 stages of exiling, hunting

& retrieving the Shadow

We project our shadow onto someone else

for relieffor relief

A man projects his witch onto his mother

and then his wife

A woman projects her tyrant onto her father

and then her husband

We hear a rattle

• The projection has a flicker or

loss of video

• The “tyrant” husband is kind• The “tyrant” husband is kind

• The “witch” wife is loving

• We meet a compassionate

educated Moslem

Refit time

• We make a desperate attempt to refit the

mask

• Subconsciously we can try to make the

projection trueprojection true

• The wife dents the car so the husband will

be a tyrant

• The husband comes home late so the wife

will be a witch

“Moral Intelligence”

• Supposed “moral intelligence” can be used

to do this

For example the guru’s sexual

predatorship is OK because he’s a predatorship is OK because he’s a

“special” person or using “non-Western”

methods

It’s OK to look down on Asians because

we are noble and they aren’t

Diminishment

• We feel the diminishment of ourselves

caused by our projection

• We’ve been giving a part of ourselves

away

• In fact it’s a lot of parts we’ve been giving

away – maybe there’s not much left

Reclaiming

• It’s time “to eat” our shadow

• We can “ask” for it back from our

projection target

• We can use art, music, imagination and • We can use art, music, imagination and

creativity to claim our shadow back

• The object is not to destroy your shadow

but to embrace it

All stations to Reclamation

• It’s not quite so simple

• We are in all five stages at once!

• This is a process over time that never

endsends

• But it’s empowering work!

Carl Jung on the

Shadow• The task of midlife is not to look into the

light, but to bring light into the

darkness. The latter procedure, however,

is disagreeable and therefore not popular.is disagreeable and therefore not popular.

• In each of us there is another whom we do

not know.

• Everything that irritates us about others

can lead us to an understanding of

ourselves.

Dr Jekyll &

Mr Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story was based on a

dream he had and told his wife. She said write the story.

The oh-so-good doctor Jekyll and the diabolical murderer The oh-so-good doctor Jekyll and the diabolical murderer

Hyde (“hide in shadow!)

This is what can happen if we don’t acknowledge and eat

our show

The nightly news shows what happens when the shadow is

unacknowledged. It is then acted out in powerful ways in

Mr Hyde fashion

The House of GatheringIf you imagine someone who is brave enough to

withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual

who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man

has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He

has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now

unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong,

and they must be fought against. He lives in the "House

of the Gathering.“

Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is

in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own

shadow he has done something real for the world. He

has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal

part of the gigantic

Carl Jung