Archetypes

 

 

Jung saw them as reflections of the individual self that assume identifiable characters in order to act out significant dramas in our lives.  Plato saw them as pre-existing templates that he called ‘Forms’.  As story telling and dreams run over the same universal questions, the models of the collective unconscious can uncover our own unconscious thought patterns.  In this respect, even jokes, comments and the habits we adopt are no less related to the ideas we will create about ourselves and the subsequent actions we will choose to make. 

 

I have focussed this website on the Hero but we have many role models that enter our actions when our thoughts relate to them.  Another term we might use is ‘a change of mood’ but if our actual behavioural response is more closely examined it is probably comparable with a familiar characteristic – hence if you are ruining your chances of promotion you may be playing out the role of the Saboteur.  And if you feel this is so, you may identify a repeated pattern of this role player in your life appearing when you have cause to fear failure. Sometimes we actually ruin our own chances of success because of an underlining fear that life might become too hard to live with if we change it. 

 

Most of us, at some time, feel unsuccessful in how we are proceeding through life and at such times we might identify with roles that have a mythological model - that which question in us what life is about and how we might best live it.  Whilst there are hundreds of these roles and in their negative and positive states ultimately thousands, we actually frame our lives around only a handful of archetypes to negotiate our pathways through life.  And whilst this might imply our survival is dependent on the success of our role playing performance, there is a truth that when we have felt a sense of failure in our performances, we also know our inabilities can be changed in the learning of how to become more able.

 

As our abilities measure our performances we can make ourselves more able by using our psychological aids as well as our general skills. The archetypes that effectively work with us through our chosen activities can be called on especially to work with when we feel most disabled. In this respect, if we need to teach our children to read we can draw on the Teacher archetype, if we need to control a difficult situation we can be a King or a Queen – if we are feeling defenceless and isolated we can draw on the Hero.  The Hero makes decisions based on a simple code of honour that if daily observed by anyone, can help them find their own strengths and develop their awareness.