What Are Archetypes?
But where is the God after his creation and after his separation from me? If you build a house, you see it standing in the outer world. When you have created a God whom you cannot see with your own eyes, then he is in the spiritual world that is no less valuable than the outer physical world. He is there and does everything for you and others that you would expect from a God.
Thus your soul is your own self in the spiritual world. As the abode of the spirits, however, the spiritual world is also an outer world. Just as you are also not alone in the visible world, but are surrounded by objects that belong to you and obey only you, you also have thoughts that belong to you and obey only you. But just as you are surrounded in the visible world by things and beings that neither belong to you nor obey you, you are also surrounded in the spiritual world by thoughts and beings of thought that neither obey you nor belong to you.
Just as you engender or bear your physical children, and just as they grow up and separate themselves from you to live their own fate, you also produce or give birth to beings of thought which separate themselves from you and live their own lives. Just as we leave our children when we grow old and give our body back to the earth, I separate myself from my God, the sun, and sink into the emptiness of matter and obliterate the image of my child in me. This happens in that I accept the nature of matter and allow the force of my form to flow into emptiness. Just as I gave birth anew to the sick God through my engendering force, I henceforth animate the emptiness of matter from which the formation of evil grows.
Nature is playful and terrible. Some see the playful side and dally with it and let it sparkle. Others see the horror and cover their heads and are more dead than alive. The way does not lead between both, but embraces both. It is both cheerful play and cold horror. ~Carl Jung; Red Book; Page 288
Thus your soul is your own self in the spiritual world. As the abode of the spirits, however, the spiritual world is also an outer world. Just as you are also not alone in the visible world, but are surrounded by objects that belong to you and obey only you, you also have thoughts that belong to you and obey only you. But just as you are surrounded in the visible world by things and beings that neither belong to you nor obey you, you are also surrounded in the spiritual world by thoughts and beings of thought that neither obey you nor belong to you.
Just as you engender or bear your physical children, and just as they grow up and separate themselves from you to live their own fate, you also produce or give birth to beings of thought which separate themselves from you and live their own lives. Just as we leave our children when we grow old and give our body back to the earth, I separate myself from my God, the sun, and sink into the emptiness of matter and obliterate the image of my child in me. This happens in that I accept the nature of matter and allow the force of my form to flow into emptiness. Just as I gave birth anew to the sick God through my engendering force, I henceforth animate the emptiness of matter from which the formation of evil grows.
Nature is playful and terrible. Some see the playful side and dally with it and let it sparkle. Others see the horror and cover their heads and are more dead than alive. The way does not lead between both, but embraces both. It is both cheerful play and cold horror. ~Carl Jung; Red Book; Page 288
Mae-Wan Ho, biochemist and geneticist , writes: The knower participates in her knowledge. And to the extent that she participates with maximum sensitivity to all being, she participates in the cosmic being and purpose, which is life to the fullest extent and intensity, i.e., the sublime. When coherence is established between the knowing self and all that can be known, the self partakes of no-space-no-time and all-space-all-time. This sublime aesthetic experience is therefore also the highest form of knowledge.
Jung recognized a number of such hardwired tendencies in the human Collective Unconscious. However, certain of these archetypes took center stage in his model of the psyche.
These most fundamental archetypes include The Shadow, The Anima & Animus, and the Self.
- The Shadow - The Shadow is Carl Jung’s term for all of the aspects of ourselves that, due to inner conflicts resulting from our upbringing, socialization, traumas or from other origins, have been rendered unacceptable to us and that we therefore repress, suppress, deny or disavow through the use of our defense mechanisms. The Shadow can consist not only of parts of us that our culture at large would view as shameful or destructive, but may also include a “Golden Shadow” made up of otherwise constructive talents and strengths that, for one reason or another (ie: they posed a threat to an authority figure’s status), were not valued or were shamed by influential people in our lives. Elements cut off from consciousness within the Shadow may exert an enormous unseen influence in our lives and relationships. As long as we refuse to acknowledge their existence within ourselves, they threaten to project themselves onto others, with the potential for either exaggerated idealization, as may occur in hero worship or romantic attraction, or intense demonization and scapegoating. Indeed, the very occurrence of such experiences points to a likely unconscious origin within some aspects of our own Shadow.
- Anima/Animus - Jung theorized that each of us contains an archetype with which we associate those parts of ourselves typical of the opposite gender. The Anima was his name for the archetype around which a man organizes his unconscious feminine aspects. The Animus was his name for the corresponding archetype around which a woman organizes her unconscious masculine aspects. Jung recognized that, through their tremendous influence on our overall concepts of femininity and masculinity, the Anima and Animus may be projected onto romantic prospects, profoundly impacting our choice of mate for better or worse. This understanding presaged Harville Hendrix’s detailed account, in his Imago Relationship Therapy, of how we may be unconsciously attracted to a partner in part due to their reflection of traits we have repressed within our denied “contrasexual self.”
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A Mandala Self - The Self is the archetype that lies at the center of and represents the integrated conscious and unconscious whole of our psyche. Jung saw the Self, which he believed was symbolically represented by the Mandala, as the overriding force that propels our development through the stages of our lifespan. Because the Self drives us toward wholeness informed by its knowledge of our entire psyche, yet can only be considered through the lens of our limited conscious mind, the reasons behind its motives and directives may confuse us.
Steps in the Individuation Process
During Analytical Psychotherapy, the client is assisted in connecting with various complexes and aspects of the psyche. However, in particular, the process focuses on the further integration of two major complexes.
- Integrating the Shadow - Shadow Work, often the first phase of the Analytical Psychotherapy process, helps a client face the fear, shame, guilt, anxiety and anger that may arise as they begin to contact and reintegrate those repressed, suppressed and denied aspects of themselves associated with their Shadow. This may involve a consideration of those situations, qualities and other people that one loves, hates, fears or otherwise feels strongly about, since such experiences often point to the presence of projection of an unconscious Shadow element. As we own both our hidden “dark side” and our forgotten or stifled strengths and talents, we may withdraw these potentially harmful projections and unravel our destructive defense mechanisms with great benefit to ourselves and those around us.
- Integrating the Anima/Animus - In addition to integrating the Shadow, Analytical Psychotherapy seeks to foster integration of the Anima/Animus, as well. As a man integrates his Anima, he may open himself to greater emotion and sensitivity, while a woman, through integrating her Animus, may build her capacity for assertive action. Many Jungians believe that it is only after significantly integrating our Shadow that we can begin to work effectively with the Anima/Animus.
Analytical Psychotherapy may employ a wide range of techniques in order to bring to awareness and explore elements of the psyche. However, the most common methods include:
- Dream Analysis and Interpretation – Carl Jung strongly believed that the unconscious uses dreams to transmit important messages to the conscious mind in the language of symbolism. Analytical Psychotherapists and their clients may spend time interpreting this symbolic dream content in order to translate these communications and unwrap their meaning and implications for the person’s waking life and individuation process.
- Imagination and Fantasy Exploration – Similar to dream analysis, therapist and client may explore the content and meaning of fantasies, wishes, and daydreams.
- Artwork – Jung frequently gained tremendous insights into his unconscious through creative artistic endeavors. He discovered a profound representation of the nature of the Self while painting Mandalas and experienced an early indication of the existence of a Collective Unconscious when he recognized similarities between his childhood creation of and interaction with a tiny mannequin and the rituals of certain native peoples. Analytical Psychotherapy may employ the creation of art as a means to facilitate and investigate the expressions of the unconscious mind.
- Therapist-Client Relationship – As in many forms of psychotherapy, the interaction between the client and the analyst itself serves as a screen onto which, through the processes of transference (projection of unconscious material from the client onto the therapist) and counter-transference (projection of unconscious material from the therapist onto the client), a great deal of unconscious material may be surfaced, observed and analyzed. http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/individuationprocess.html
An archetype (pron.: /ˈɑrkɪtaɪp/) is a universally understood symbol, term,[1] statement, or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated. Archetypes are often used in myths and storytelling across different cultures.
In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior.
In philosophy, archetypes have, since Plato, referred to ideal forms of the perceived or sensible objects or types.
In the analysis of personality, the term archetype is often broadly used to refer to:
Archetypes are likewise supposed to have been present in folklore and literature for thousands of years, including prehistoric artwork. The use of archetypes to illuminate personality and literature was advanced by Carl Jung early in the 20th century, who suggested the existence of universal contentless forms that channel experiences and emotions, resulting in recognizable and typical patterns of behavior with certain probable outcomes. Archetypes are cited as important to both ancient mythology and modern narratives. More - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype
In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior.
In philosophy, archetypes have, since Plato, referred to ideal forms of the perceived or sensible objects or types.
In the analysis of personality, the term archetype is often broadly used to refer to:
- A stereotype— a personality type observed multiple times, especially an oversimplification of such a type.
- An epitome— a personality type exemplified, especially the "greatest" such example.
- A literary term to express details.
Archetypes are likewise supposed to have been present in folklore and literature for thousands of years, including prehistoric artwork. The use of archetypes to illuminate personality and literature was advanced by Carl Jung early in the 20th century, who suggested the existence of universal contentless forms that channel experiences and emotions, resulting in recognizable and typical patterns of behavior with certain probable outcomes. Archetypes are cited as important to both ancient mythology and modern narratives. More - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype
Actual-Entity-7 by Shelli Joye
From The Jung Lexicon - http://www.psychceu.com/jung/sharplexicon.html
Archetype. Primordial, structural elements of the human psyche. (See also archetypal image and instinct.) Archetypes are systems of readiness for action, and at the same time images and emotions. They are inherited with the brain structure-indeed they are its psychic aspect. They represent, on the one hand, a very strong instinctive conservatism, while on the other hand they are the most effective means conceivable of instinctive adaptation. They are thus, essentially, the chthonic portion of the psyche . . . that portion through which the psyche is attached to nature.["Mind and Earth," CW 10, par. 53.] It is not . . . a question of inherited ideas but of inherited possibilities of ideas. Nor are they individual acquisitions but, in the main, common to all, as can be seen from [their] universal occurrence.["Concerning the Archetypes and the Anima Concept," CW 9i, par. 136.]
Archetypes are irrepresentable in themselves but their effects are discernible in archetypal images and motifs. Archetypes . . . present themselves as ideas and images, like everything else that becomes a content of consciousness.[On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 435.] Archetypes are, by definition, factors and motifs that arrange the psychic elements into certain images, characterized as archetypal, but in such a way that they can be recognized only from the effects they produce.["A Psychological Approach to the Trinity," CW 11, par. 222, note 2.]
Jung also described archetypes as "instinctual images," the forms which the instincts assume. He illustrated this using the simile of the spectrum. The dynamism of instinct is lodged as it were in the infra-red part of the spectrum, whereas the instinctual image lies in the ultra-violet part. . . . The realization and assimilation of instinct never take place at the red end, i.e., by absorption into the instinctual sphere, but only through integration of the image which signifies and at the same time evokes the instinct, although in a form quite different from the one we meet on the biological level.["On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414.]
Psychologically . . . the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the fight with the dragon.[Ibid., par. 415.] Archetypes manifest both on a personal level, through complexes, and collectively, as characteristics of whole cultures. Jung believed it was the task of each age to understand anew their content and their effects. We can never legitimately cut loose from our archetypal foundations unless we are prepared to pay the price of a neurosis, any more than we can rid ourselves of our body and its organs without committing suicide. If we cannot deny the archetypes or otherwise neutralize them, we are confronted, at every new stage in the differentiation of consciousness to which civilization attains, with the task of finding a new interpretation appropriate to this stage, in order to connect the life of the past that still exists in us with the life of the present, which threatens to slip away from it.["The Psychology of the Child Archetype," CW 9i, par. 267.]
Archetypal image.
The form or representation of an archetype in consciousness. (See also collective unconscious.) [The archetype is] a dynamism which makes itself felt in the numinosity and fascinating power of the archetypal image.["On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414.]
Archetypal images, as universal patterns or motifs which come from the collective unconscious, are the basic content of religions, mythologies, legends and fairy tales. An archetypal content expresses itself, first and foremost, in metaphors. If such a content should speak of the sun and identify with it the lion, the king, the hoard of gold guarded by the dragon, or the power that makes for the life and health of man, it is neither the one thing nor the other, but the unknown third thing that finds more or less adequate expression in all these similes, yet-to the perpetual vexation of the intellect-remains unknown and not to be fitted into a formula.["The Psychology of the Child Archetype," CW 9i, par. 267]
On a personal level, archetypal motifs are patterns of thought or behavior that are common to humanity at all times and in all places. For years I have been observing and investigating the products of the unconscious in the widest sense of the word, namely dreams, fantasies, visions, and delusions of the insane. I have not been able to avoid recognizing certain regularities, that is, types. There are types of situations and types of figures that repeat themselves frequently and have a corresponding meaning. I therefore employ the term "motif" to designate these repetitions. Thus there are not only typical dreams but typical motifs in dreams. . . . [These] can be arranged under a series of archetypes, the chief of them being . . . the shadow, the wise old man, the child (including the child hero), the mother ("Primordial Mother" and "Earth Mother") as a supraordinate personality ("daemonic" because supraordinate), and her counterpart the maiden, and lastly the anima in man and the animus in woman.["The Psychological Aspects of the Kore," Jung, par. 309.]
Archetype. Primordial, structural elements of the human psyche. (See also archetypal image and instinct.) Archetypes are systems of readiness for action, and at the same time images and emotions. They are inherited with the brain structure-indeed they are its psychic aspect. They represent, on the one hand, a very strong instinctive conservatism, while on the other hand they are the most effective means conceivable of instinctive adaptation. They are thus, essentially, the chthonic portion of the psyche . . . that portion through which the psyche is attached to nature.["Mind and Earth," CW 10, par. 53.] It is not . . . a question of inherited ideas but of inherited possibilities of ideas. Nor are they individual acquisitions but, in the main, common to all, as can be seen from [their] universal occurrence.["Concerning the Archetypes and the Anima Concept," CW 9i, par. 136.]
Archetypes are irrepresentable in themselves but their effects are discernible in archetypal images and motifs. Archetypes . . . present themselves as ideas and images, like everything else that becomes a content of consciousness.[On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 435.] Archetypes are, by definition, factors and motifs that arrange the psychic elements into certain images, characterized as archetypal, but in such a way that they can be recognized only from the effects they produce.["A Psychological Approach to the Trinity," CW 11, par. 222, note 2.]
Jung also described archetypes as "instinctual images," the forms which the instincts assume. He illustrated this using the simile of the spectrum. The dynamism of instinct is lodged as it were in the infra-red part of the spectrum, whereas the instinctual image lies in the ultra-violet part. . . . The realization and assimilation of instinct never take place at the red end, i.e., by absorption into the instinctual sphere, but only through integration of the image which signifies and at the same time evokes the instinct, although in a form quite different from the one we meet on the biological level.["On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414.]
Psychologically . . . the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the fight with the dragon.[Ibid., par. 415.] Archetypes manifest both on a personal level, through complexes, and collectively, as characteristics of whole cultures. Jung believed it was the task of each age to understand anew their content and their effects. We can never legitimately cut loose from our archetypal foundations unless we are prepared to pay the price of a neurosis, any more than we can rid ourselves of our body and its organs without committing suicide. If we cannot deny the archetypes or otherwise neutralize them, we are confronted, at every new stage in the differentiation of consciousness to which civilization attains, with the task of finding a new interpretation appropriate to this stage, in order to connect the life of the past that still exists in us with the life of the present, which threatens to slip away from it.["The Psychology of the Child Archetype," CW 9i, par. 267.]
Archetypal image.
The form or representation of an archetype in consciousness. (See also collective unconscious.) [The archetype is] a dynamism which makes itself felt in the numinosity and fascinating power of the archetypal image.["On the Nature of the Psyche," CW 8, par. 414.]
Archetypal images, as universal patterns or motifs which come from the collective unconscious, are the basic content of religions, mythologies, legends and fairy tales. An archetypal content expresses itself, first and foremost, in metaphors. If such a content should speak of the sun and identify with it the lion, the king, the hoard of gold guarded by the dragon, or the power that makes for the life and health of man, it is neither the one thing nor the other, but the unknown third thing that finds more or less adequate expression in all these similes, yet-to the perpetual vexation of the intellect-remains unknown and not to be fitted into a formula.["The Psychology of the Child Archetype," CW 9i, par. 267]
On a personal level, archetypal motifs are patterns of thought or behavior that are common to humanity at all times and in all places. For years I have been observing and investigating the products of the unconscious in the widest sense of the word, namely dreams, fantasies, visions, and delusions of the insane. I have not been able to avoid recognizing certain regularities, that is, types. There are types of situations and types of figures that repeat themselves frequently and have a corresponding meaning. I therefore employ the term "motif" to designate these repetitions. Thus there are not only typical dreams but typical motifs in dreams. . . . [These] can be arranged under a series of archetypes, the chief of them being . . . the shadow, the wise old man, the child (including the child hero), the mother ("Primordial Mother" and "Earth Mother") as a supraordinate personality ("daemonic" because supraordinate), and her counterpart the maiden, and lastly the anima in man and the animus in woman.["The Psychological Aspects of the Kore," Jung, par. 309.]
ARCHETYPES: Fundamental Components of Daily Life
Archetypes are forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time as autochthonous (1) individual products of unconscious origin. Archetypes may be considered the fundamental elements of the unconscious mind. Hidden in the depths of the psyche they are systems of readiness for action and at the same time images and emotions. Indeed, they are its psychic aspect. --Carl Jung
Depth Psychology has provided a great deal of insight concerning human spiritual or mystical experience. It deals most fully with the individual who may be characterized as a seeker. Alchemy and magick were the psychological languages of the past. They were the means for realizing the quest, or journey into the depths of the subconscious. Today, archetypal psychology shows the efficiency of the old practices, and allows us to improve our own awareness by drawing from its resources.
Psychology provides a technical language which allows us to formulate contemporary definitions for the spiritual experiences which, in the past, were referred to as "the mysteries." The psychological language seems to de-glamorize the occult practices; however, it represents a growing conscious understanding of the dynamics involved. Jung developed a model of the psyche from empirical observations made during the course of his clinical research. Jung saw man, not as an isolated individual, but as having links with all mankind through a collective unconscious. This unconscious manifests in multiple forms.
Jung observed that archetypes should not be thought of as nouns, but rather as semantic metaphors. They represent an "as if" reality. They cannot be observed on the plane of their existence, directly and finally. However, their existence is inferred through their various forms of representation (imagery). Their areas of influence are fields of potential experience. Jung used a metaphorical model to describe archetypes. He likened them to dried up river beds, to which the water may return at any time. The waters of life flow in specific patterns which dig deep channels.
When the archetypes become activated in an individual psyche, these nourishing waters return, flowing through their predetermined courses. Archetypes embody paradox. There are certain characteristics of their double existence which we may observe. They may be viewed as uniting apparently irreconcilable opposites through an underlying continuum.
1. They are full of internal oppositions, positive and negative poles, (i.e. they appear as good and evil, sometimes simultaneously).
2. They are unknowable and known through images.
3. They are both instinct and spirit, united in a continuum.
4. They are congenital, yet not inherited.
5. They are purely formal structures and contents.
6. They are psychic and extrapsychic (psychoid, extending further than the limitations of the psyche; psychophysical). In the past, mankind referred to archetypes as gods and goddesses. It is "as if" archetypes compel our behavior until we develop a conscious relationship with them. In psychological work, their characteristic qualities and effects must be distinguished one-by-one, for instance, understanding the difference between Hera and Demeter, or Zeus, etc.
Relationships of archetypes with one another and to an individual ego are related in myth. When one of these godforms interferes in an individual daily life, the manifestation is known as a "complex." The intentional deepening of conscious relationship with various archetypes is known in Magick as the exercise of Rising on the Planes. Consciousness moves from perception of only the physical world as "real" to recognition and observation of the archetypes on the imaginal/emotional level (astral plane). Later, one learns to perceive their effects on ideas and styles of thinking (causal plane). Look for archetypes in your problems, moods, and ideas.
The final change of plane implies union with the archetype one its own plane of existence, beyond force and form (archetypal plane). Archetypes express themselves through their fundamental patterns of symbol formation. The collective inheritance is not one of inherited ideas, but of inherited pathways. Each archetype has characteristic correspondences. They provide an underlying unity for diverse forms of symbolism.
These can include god-forms of different cultures, colors, plants, animals, parts of the body, psychological states, etc. The symbolic content in fairy tales, religions, sagas, and myth are all similar. Importance is not found in the actual symbol, but in what it represents of deeper levels of the psyche. Be careful not to confuse archetypal representations like images, ideas, and gods (which are astral and causal plane perceptions) with the archetype as such, which "lives" on a higher plane of existence. Archetypes gain life and meaning when the motif is filled out through personal experience.
This experience may be apparently mundane. It may also be filled with a sense of the unknown, and a feeling of sacredness. There is a specific feeling-value attached to archetypal experience. The feeling of absolute correctness it brings is often the source of self-deception. Only total experience, not mere intellectual understanding, can convey the individual value such an encounter brings.
The archetype manifests not only as a static image, but also in dynamic processes. The differentiation of a function of consciousness is an example. Perhaps an individual is a "thinking" type, out of touch with his feelings. The Self might then initiate the process whereby he comes to wholeness through experiencing his emotional sensitivity. There is an archetype behind all processes. As we move toward consciousness of archetypes, our mode of apprehending them alters.
First and foremost, they are found in myth, dream and fantasy represented in the form of Gods (often in contemporary dress). They also influence us in less obvious ways;
1) they may be projected to someone in the environment (such as someone you despise carries your shadow qualities), or
2) we may become so fascinated by a powerful archetype that we ourselves become possessed, losing conscious control of our thoughts and behavior. (to return to the example above, possession by the shadow would mean acting out repressed qualities in antisocial or criminal behavior).
When the ego cannot differentiate itself from the archetypes of the unconscious, it identifies with the energy being released through the archetypal experience and becomes inflated. Consciousness regresses into a less conscious state, producing a mirage of superiority. This is commonly known as an ego-trip.
In time, the ego gains a less-biased view of itself and comes to a realistic evaluation of its relationship with totality or the Self. The ego learns to understand it does not possess Aphrodite's, or Zeus' powers, and voluntarily assumes a subordinate role in the psychic economy. When consciousness has developed to the heart level (Tiphareth), light is generated by insight and we see archetypal processes operating in dynamic flux. One sees through projection and possession from a level beyond the ego. One watches the gods as they motivate behavior and cause changes in attitudes, beliefs, and ideas. These are indispensable steps on the path to individuation or coming to wholeness. In this manner we may consciously adapt to our fate, transmuting it into inner experience.
Re-assimilating (or recognizing) projections allows the freed libido to activate a function bridging conscious and unconscious, increasing self-knowledge. This energy which formerly went into maintaining an extroverted illusion now is free to mediate a subtler perception. Gods or archetypes do not appear in isolation; they are always found in characteristic relationships with one another.
Once you perceive archetypal material manifesting in your life, and begin to distinguish one god from another, your mental imagery might be expected to come more sharply into focus. Archetypes on the inner planes produce a quasi- or partial conscious. They behave like independent personalities. The archetypal dominant in a given person's life determines the life-theme most frequently repeated (see Pantheon: Archetypal Encounters in Daily Living).
Archetypes produce behavior patterns. Conscious control of life by the ego is a mere fantasy. Archetypes are also revealed in art, dreams, mandalas, tarot cards, idiographs, and glyphs. In these cases, the presentational form is not necessarily personalized. One uses a standardized card, for instance, as a medium to communicate with one's self, and moves to the more basic level represented by the symbol content of that card.
All forms of art express the collective unconscious of a given culture through symbol. Symbols always stand for that which is not known. There is always an emotional tone attached to a symbol as well. There is a close correlation between symbol, feeling and color. These analogies go toward building up the representational form of the archetypes (thus, Artemis' color is blue, Aphrodite is associated with green, etc.). They may only be recognized through the effects that they produce upon the self. Archetypes act like instincts when they shape the conscious contents through motivation and modification.
Neumann states, "They are the main constituents of mythology, they stand in an organic relationship to one another and their stage of development succession determines the growth of consciousness."
In other words, within his "growth fantasy", Neumann postulates that if one can become adept at perception and cooperation with archetypes, it is "as if" one could consciously advance one's stage of development. One may cooperate with the unconscious, and work in harmony toward the as-yet-unknown psychic goal. Archetypes, then, can be seen as foci or lenses of the subconscious mind. Using the Tree of Life from QBL as a model of consciousness-development, certain archetypes may be seen as corresponding with different stages of development.
Beginning in Malkuth, the Shadow, representative of the personal unconscious contents, is the first figure to be met and reconciled. The anima and animus are contrasexual figures which often make their appearance projected onto our loved ones (Yesod). Beyond these lie the archetypal images of 'spirit' (Hod) and 'nature' (Netzach); then, the various representations of the Self (Tiphereth) such as the magical child, hero, wise old man or woman, etc. The images become more subtle as we penetrate the depths of the psyche.
Remember, in the developmental model, a firm foundation is built through dealing with the more easily-grasped images. When one image has been comprehended, its energy or libido flows into constellating the next archetype in sequence. This sequence is not fixed, but QBL is a useful tool for study, and orderly progression.
The Shadow, representing the "unlived" side of life, includes not only repressed or rejected qualities, but also the potential for creativity. One simply cannot become whole by rejecting a part of oneself. However, "coming into a relationship with one's shadow" can hardly be used to excuse irresponsible behavior.
People who "act-out" their shadow through various degrees of socially unacceptable behavior, without conscious control, may be termed "possessed." As contasexual images, the anima and animus are often projected to members of the opposite sex. The man's feminine side is represented by his anima. This personal form of anima is conditioned by the totality of his experience with women. A man's consciousness corresponds with the solar principle. His anima, as personification of his unconscious, is lunar.
When the anima is operating unconsciously, it can possess the man causing him to become moody, upset, or touchy: all of the negative aspects of the eternal woman. On the positive side, the anima teaches emotion and relatedness. She is associated with soul or psyche. Anima is the carrier of consciousness in its journey into psyche in both men and women. Identification of the ego with consciousness is the product of a mind under the influence of the hero archetype.
Projections of the transcendent anima appear as Magna Mater, Sophia, Isis, Shakti, Virgin Mary, High Priestess, prophetess. A woman experiences the male aspect of herself through the animus. Her consciousness is characterized as lunar-feminine. Her unconscious is symbolized, not by the sun of day, but by the 'Sol niger' (or dark sun), which is connected with the father-image. When possessed by the animus, a woman is bossy, inclined to make arbitrary statements, and is "always right."
The animus functions logically. Its activation helps the woman to organize her thinking. Animus us representative of the spirit, or logos principle. The animus is projected into the religious sphere as master of wisdom, magician, priest, protector, teacher, etc, or experienced internally as a personified link with the woman's unconscious. Emma Jung states, "what a woman has to overcome in respect to the animus is not pride, but inertia and lack of self-confidence."
When their contents are not projected (and their energetic charge lost), anima and animus form a bridge between consciousness and the unconscious (represented in QBL as the Middle Pillar). They function as filters of the contents of the collective unconscious to the conscious mind. They function very effectively as long as the tendencies of the conscious mind. They function very effectively as long as the tendencies of the conscious and unconscious do not diverge greatly.
Anima and animus should be born constantly in mind in evaluating one's interactions. Constant observation pays the unconscious a tribute that more or less guarantees greater harmony. The integration of the shadow, or the realization of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage of the "descent" into the depths of the psyche. Without it, a recognition of the anima or animus is impossible.
The anima or animus is developed through a relation to a partner of the opposite sex, generally. Only in such a relationship do the projections become activated and observable. There are three basic reasons why one should try to learn to use these projections as operatives: 1) to gain communion with one's contrasexual aspect, 2) to strengthen the link between consciousness and the unconscious, 3) to come into real relationships with others, rather than relating to one's illusory image of them. The multiplicity of archetypal forms is contained or coordinated in the archetype of the Self. It shows an underlying unity in multiplicity.
The archetype presides over the process of psychic transformation or the spiritual quest. Its common images are child, king, or sacrificed god. It has been personified in the Christ, Holy Guardian Angel, and the higher Self. Reality is contained in many symbols. One can relate them via a system of correspondences. Seeing the signs, hidden meanings, extracting the subjective value builds a structure. Then, we can read the message in the apparently formless flow of events.
Archetypes bring with them a sense of destiny, a certain fatedness. They activate synchronistic phenomena; they are an acausal connecting principle. Through the "vocabulary" of the correspondence system, one may assemble corroborating evidence that particular archetypal patterns are at work in one's life. For instance, falling in love may correspond with some transit of Venus in the birthchart.
The magical correspondence system allows us to consciously choose to produce a certain turn in our psychology. We use the correspondences to create the atmosphere of any given portion of the personality, and later of the individuality. The correspondences speak in a language the subconscious not only understands but also responds to, willingly. The imagination is very important in this archetypal structuring. According to Jung, magic is "the first achievement wrested by primitive man from instinctual energy, through analogy-building."
The imagination, in creating and using the correspondence system, is one of the great pointers for Reality. It is the creative path which enables man to survive, adapt, and progress. A magical ceremony creates working potential for relationship to the psyche. Because of its value it exerts a determining and stimulating effect on the imagination. By taking imagination seriously, tapping into the level beyond personal fantasy, we may view the images produced and correspond them to a major archetypal pattern (usually determined by their mythical counterpart).
This establishes a link of conscious and unconscious. Now, one may simply overlay a system or discipline which one wishes to use, to methodically assimilate some qualities of a given archetype and move beyond unconscious domination by it. The unconscious is too intimidating to encounter en masse. It is, however, possible to relate to a portion of it at a time.
Once a particular way of looking at reality is established, it automatically sets up limitations, or boundary conditions. However, there is great latitude if one has the ability to subjectively choose from many such realities, without falling prey to identification. The whole person participates in the choice, rather than being compelled by unconscious motivation.
This description of archetypes is conditioned by the assumption of a hierarchal/developmental fantasy, which itself is one literalization of the archetype of "The Way." We could have, on the other hand, examined archetypes from another perspective. When archetypes are seen as existing co-laterally with one another, or in constant, co-equal relationship, the stages-of-development fantasy fades into the background. It depends on one's conditioned point-of-view.
Both viewpoints together illustrate the psychic reality. The ability to embrace divergent points-of-view without conflict, leads to the ability to use them both as tools. This prevents a one-sided dogmatism. The developmental model is monotheistic; it emphasizes the One God seen through many forms. The polytheistic model recognizes the sovereignty of the various gods and goddesses. It is based on relatedness, not goal-oriented development. Remember, the world appears as you are conditioned to experience it. Different archetypes can cause you to alter viewpoints dramatically.
Gods affect our styles of consciousness, and change our point of view. In conclusion, here are some things archetypes are not:
1) defined or confined by phenomenological studies or lists of their qualities, characteristics, and correspondences;
2) they are not themselves portrayals of concepts which can be mapped out as things or places;
3) nor translatable into scientific terms from other disciplines including philosophy, as they aren't empirically derived;
4) archetypes are not restricted to principles or categories of therapy;
5) nor are they to be considered contents of the unconscious, something contained within something else.
The sacred archetype is not separated from the profane image. None of these methods of amplification define or exhaust the possibilities of archetypal forces. They are means in expanding cognitive and emotional experience of the archetypal region, but the archetypes are cosmic forces spanning a broader continuum of existence than human mind or intuition can comprehend.
ARCHETYPES
An attempt to break down the archetype's course of activity might reveal the following stages:
1. The archetype is quiescent, a structural factor in the psychoid realm of the collective unconscious, an invisible "nuclear element" and "potential carrier of meaning."
2. Through a suitable constellation--which may be conditioned by individual or collective factor---it receives additional energy; its charge is increased, and its dynamic operation begins. The individual constellation depends on the individual's state of consciousness, the collective constellation on the corresponding state of consciousness of human groups.
3. The charge of the archetype is manifested in a kind of magnetic pull on the conscious mind, which, however, is not at first recognized. It takes the form of vague emotional activity, which may swell into violent psychic agitation.
4. Attracted by the charge, the light of consciousness falls on the archetype; the archetype enters the actual psychic area, it is perceived.
5. When the archetype as such is "touched by consciousness,: it can manifest either on the "lower" biological plane and take form, for instance as an expression of instinct or as an instinctual dynamism, or on the "higher", spiritual plane as an image or idea.(3) In the later case the raw material of imagery and meaning are added to it, and the symbol is born. The symbolic guise in which it becomes visible varies and changes according to the outward and inward circumstances of the individual and the times. The encounter with the consciousness of a collectivity and its problems gives rise to collective symbols (e.g. mythologems); contact with an individual consciousness and its problems gives rise to individual symbols (as, for example, the image of a witch with the features of one's own mother).
6. The symbol acquires a certain degree of autonomy in its confrontation with the conscious mind.
7. The meaning with which the symbol is "pregnant" more or less compels the conscious mind to come to terms with it. This may occur in the most diverse ways--either spontaneously, through contemplation, representation, interpretation, etc. or in analysis. 8.
The symbol may
a) be brought closer to the conscious mind by understanding and be felt and recognized in some degree belonging to the ego, but without being wholly fathomed, so that it continues to be "alive" and effective;
b) be completely fathomed and explored. Then it seems wholly integrated with the ego and assimilated by the conscious mind, but it loses its "life" and efficacy, and becomes mere allegory, a "sigh" or a conceptually unambiguous content of consciousness;
c) not be understood at all; it may confront the ego consciousness as an expression of a complex hidden, so to speak, behind it, as a hostile foreign body, split off from it and causing a dissociation in the psyche. It then becomes an autonomous splinter psyche, which can make itself felt in the form of "spirits," hallucinations, etc., that is, in all kinds of neurotic symptoms.
Archetypes are forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time as autochthonous (1) individual products of unconscious origin. Archetypes may be considered the fundamental elements of the unconscious mind. Hidden in the depths of the psyche they are systems of readiness for action and at the same time images and emotions. Indeed, they are its psychic aspect. --Carl Jung
Depth Psychology has provided a great deal of insight concerning human spiritual or mystical experience. It deals most fully with the individual who may be characterized as a seeker. Alchemy and magick were the psychological languages of the past. They were the means for realizing the quest, or journey into the depths of the subconscious. Today, archetypal psychology shows the efficiency of the old practices, and allows us to improve our own awareness by drawing from its resources.
Psychology provides a technical language which allows us to formulate contemporary definitions for the spiritual experiences which, in the past, were referred to as "the mysteries." The psychological language seems to de-glamorize the occult practices; however, it represents a growing conscious understanding of the dynamics involved. Jung developed a model of the psyche from empirical observations made during the course of his clinical research. Jung saw man, not as an isolated individual, but as having links with all mankind through a collective unconscious. This unconscious manifests in multiple forms.
Jung observed that archetypes should not be thought of as nouns, but rather as semantic metaphors. They represent an "as if" reality. They cannot be observed on the plane of their existence, directly and finally. However, their existence is inferred through their various forms of representation (imagery). Their areas of influence are fields of potential experience. Jung used a metaphorical model to describe archetypes. He likened them to dried up river beds, to which the water may return at any time. The waters of life flow in specific patterns which dig deep channels.
When the archetypes become activated in an individual psyche, these nourishing waters return, flowing through their predetermined courses. Archetypes embody paradox. There are certain characteristics of their double existence which we may observe. They may be viewed as uniting apparently irreconcilable opposites through an underlying continuum.
1. They are full of internal oppositions, positive and negative poles, (i.e. they appear as good and evil, sometimes simultaneously).
2. They are unknowable and known through images.
3. They are both instinct and spirit, united in a continuum.
4. They are congenital, yet not inherited.
5. They are purely formal structures and contents.
6. They are psychic and extrapsychic (psychoid, extending further than the limitations of the psyche; psychophysical). In the past, mankind referred to archetypes as gods and goddesses. It is "as if" archetypes compel our behavior until we develop a conscious relationship with them. In psychological work, their characteristic qualities and effects must be distinguished one-by-one, for instance, understanding the difference between Hera and Demeter, or Zeus, etc.
Relationships of archetypes with one another and to an individual ego are related in myth. When one of these godforms interferes in an individual daily life, the manifestation is known as a "complex." The intentional deepening of conscious relationship with various archetypes is known in Magick as the exercise of Rising on the Planes. Consciousness moves from perception of only the physical world as "real" to recognition and observation of the archetypes on the imaginal/emotional level (astral plane). Later, one learns to perceive their effects on ideas and styles of thinking (causal plane). Look for archetypes in your problems, moods, and ideas.
The final change of plane implies union with the archetype one its own plane of existence, beyond force and form (archetypal plane). Archetypes express themselves through their fundamental patterns of symbol formation. The collective inheritance is not one of inherited ideas, but of inherited pathways. Each archetype has characteristic correspondences. They provide an underlying unity for diverse forms of symbolism.
These can include god-forms of different cultures, colors, plants, animals, parts of the body, psychological states, etc. The symbolic content in fairy tales, religions, sagas, and myth are all similar. Importance is not found in the actual symbol, but in what it represents of deeper levels of the psyche. Be careful not to confuse archetypal representations like images, ideas, and gods (which are astral and causal plane perceptions) with the archetype as such, which "lives" on a higher plane of existence. Archetypes gain life and meaning when the motif is filled out through personal experience.
This experience may be apparently mundane. It may also be filled with a sense of the unknown, and a feeling of sacredness. There is a specific feeling-value attached to archetypal experience. The feeling of absolute correctness it brings is often the source of self-deception. Only total experience, not mere intellectual understanding, can convey the individual value such an encounter brings.
The archetype manifests not only as a static image, but also in dynamic processes. The differentiation of a function of consciousness is an example. Perhaps an individual is a "thinking" type, out of touch with his feelings. The Self might then initiate the process whereby he comes to wholeness through experiencing his emotional sensitivity. There is an archetype behind all processes. As we move toward consciousness of archetypes, our mode of apprehending them alters.
First and foremost, they are found in myth, dream and fantasy represented in the form of Gods (often in contemporary dress). They also influence us in less obvious ways;
1) they may be projected to someone in the environment (such as someone you despise carries your shadow qualities), or
2) we may become so fascinated by a powerful archetype that we ourselves become possessed, losing conscious control of our thoughts and behavior. (to return to the example above, possession by the shadow would mean acting out repressed qualities in antisocial or criminal behavior).
When the ego cannot differentiate itself from the archetypes of the unconscious, it identifies with the energy being released through the archetypal experience and becomes inflated. Consciousness regresses into a less conscious state, producing a mirage of superiority. This is commonly known as an ego-trip.
In time, the ego gains a less-biased view of itself and comes to a realistic evaluation of its relationship with totality or the Self. The ego learns to understand it does not possess Aphrodite's, or Zeus' powers, and voluntarily assumes a subordinate role in the psychic economy. When consciousness has developed to the heart level (Tiphareth), light is generated by insight and we see archetypal processes operating in dynamic flux. One sees through projection and possession from a level beyond the ego. One watches the gods as they motivate behavior and cause changes in attitudes, beliefs, and ideas. These are indispensable steps on the path to individuation or coming to wholeness. In this manner we may consciously adapt to our fate, transmuting it into inner experience.
Re-assimilating (or recognizing) projections allows the freed libido to activate a function bridging conscious and unconscious, increasing self-knowledge. This energy which formerly went into maintaining an extroverted illusion now is free to mediate a subtler perception. Gods or archetypes do not appear in isolation; they are always found in characteristic relationships with one another.
Once you perceive archetypal material manifesting in your life, and begin to distinguish one god from another, your mental imagery might be expected to come more sharply into focus. Archetypes on the inner planes produce a quasi- or partial conscious. They behave like independent personalities. The archetypal dominant in a given person's life determines the life-theme most frequently repeated (see Pantheon: Archetypal Encounters in Daily Living).
Archetypes produce behavior patterns. Conscious control of life by the ego is a mere fantasy. Archetypes are also revealed in art, dreams, mandalas, tarot cards, idiographs, and glyphs. In these cases, the presentational form is not necessarily personalized. One uses a standardized card, for instance, as a medium to communicate with one's self, and moves to the more basic level represented by the symbol content of that card.
All forms of art express the collective unconscious of a given culture through symbol. Symbols always stand for that which is not known. There is always an emotional tone attached to a symbol as well. There is a close correlation between symbol, feeling and color. These analogies go toward building up the representational form of the archetypes (thus, Artemis' color is blue, Aphrodite is associated with green, etc.). They may only be recognized through the effects that they produce upon the self. Archetypes act like instincts when they shape the conscious contents through motivation and modification.
Neumann states, "They are the main constituents of mythology, they stand in an organic relationship to one another and their stage of development succession determines the growth of consciousness."
In other words, within his "growth fantasy", Neumann postulates that if one can become adept at perception and cooperation with archetypes, it is "as if" one could consciously advance one's stage of development. One may cooperate with the unconscious, and work in harmony toward the as-yet-unknown psychic goal. Archetypes, then, can be seen as foci or lenses of the subconscious mind. Using the Tree of Life from QBL as a model of consciousness-development, certain archetypes may be seen as corresponding with different stages of development.
Beginning in Malkuth, the Shadow, representative of the personal unconscious contents, is the first figure to be met and reconciled. The anima and animus are contrasexual figures which often make their appearance projected onto our loved ones (Yesod). Beyond these lie the archetypal images of 'spirit' (Hod) and 'nature' (Netzach); then, the various representations of the Self (Tiphereth) such as the magical child, hero, wise old man or woman, etc. The images become more subtle as we penetrate the depths of the psyche.
Remember, in the developmental model, a firm foundation is built through dealing with the more easily-grasped images. When one image has been comprehended, its energy or libido flows into constellating the next archetype in sequence. This sequence is not fixed, but QBL is a useful tool for study, and orderly progression.
The Shadow, representing the "unlived" side of life, includes not only repressed or rejected qualities, but also the potential for creativity. One simply cannot become whole by rejecting a part of oneself. However, "coming into a relationship with one's shadow" can hardly be used to excuse irresponsible behavior.
People who "act-out" their shadow through various degrees of socially unacceptable behavior, without conscious control, may be termed "possessed." As contasexual images, the anima and animus are often projected to members of the opposite sex. The man's feminine side is represented by his anima. This personal form of anima is conditioned by the totality of his experience with women. A man's consciousness corresponds with the solar principle. His anima, as personification of his unconscious, is lunar.
When the anima is operating unconsciously, it can possess the man causing him to become moody, upset, or touchy: all of the negative aspects of the eternal woman. On the positive side, the anima teaches emotion and relatedness. She is associated with soul or psyche. Anima is the carrier of consciousness in its journey into psyche in both men and women. Identification of the ego with consciousness is the product of a mind under the influence of the hero archetype.
Projections of the transcendent anima appear as Magna Mater, Sophia, Isis, Shakti, Virgin Mary, High Priestess, prophetess. A woman experiences the male aspect of herself through the animus. Her consciousness is characterized as lunar-feminine. Her unconscious is symbolized, not by the sun of day, but by the 'Sol niger' (or dark sun), which is connected with the father-image. When possessed by the animus, a woman is bossy, inclined to make arbitrary statements, and is "always right."
The animus functions logically. Its activation helps the woman to organize her thinking. Animus us representative of the spirit, or logos principle. The animus is projected into the religious sphere as master of wisdom, magician, priest, protector, teacher, etc, or experienced internally as a personified link with the woman's unconscious. Emma Jung states, "what a woman has to overcome in respect to the animus is not pride, but inertia and lack of self-confidence."
When their contents are not projected (and their energetic charge lost), anima and animus form a bridge between consciousness and the unconscious (represented in QBL as the Middle Pillar). They function as filters of the contents of the collective unconscious to the conscious mind. They function very effectively as long as the tendencies of the conscious mind. They function very effectively as long as the tendencies of the conscious and unconscious do not diverge greatly.
Anima and animus should be born constantly in mind in evaluating one's interactions. Constant observation pays the unconscious a tribute that more or less guarantees greater harmony. The integration of the shadow, or the realization of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage of the "descent" into the depths of the psyche. Without it, a recognition of the anima or animus is impossible.
The anima or animus is developed through a relation to a partner of the opposite sex, generally. Only in such a relationship do the projections become activated and observable. There are three basic reasons why one should try to learn to use these projections as operatives: 1) to gain communion with one's contrasexual aspect, 2) to strengthen the link between consciousness and the unconscious, 3) to come into real relationships with others, rather than relating to one's illusory image of them. The multiplicity of archetypal forms is contained or coordinated in the archetype of the Self. It shows an underlying unity in multiplicity.
The archetype presides over the process of psychic transformation or the spiritual quest. Its common images are child, king, or sacrificed god. It has been personified in the Christ, Holy Guardian Angel, and the higher Self. Reality is contained in many symbols. One can relate them via a system of correspondences. Seeing the signs, hidden meanings, extracting the subjective value builds a structure. Then, we can read the message in the apparently formless flow of events.
Archetypes bring with them a sense of destiny, a certain fatedness. They activate synchronistic phenomena; they are an acausal connecting principle. Through the "vocabulary" of the correspondence system, one may assemble corroborating evidence that particular archetypal patterns are at work in one's life. For instance, falling in love may correspond with some transit of Venus in the birthchart.
The magical correspondence system allows us to consciously choose to produce a certain turn in our psychology. We use the correspondences to create the atmosphere of any given portion of the personality, and later of the individuality. The correspondences speak in a language the subconscious not only understands but also responds to, willingly. The imagination is very important in this archetypal structuring. According to Jung, magic is "the first achievement wrested by primitive man from instinctual energy, through analogy-building."
The imagination, in creating and using the correspondence system, is one of the great pointers for Reality. It is the creative path which enables man to survive, adapt, and progress. A magical ceremony creates working potential for relationship to the psyche. Because of its value it exerts a determining and stimulating effect on the imagination. By taking imagination seriously, tapping into the level beyond personal fantasy, we may view the images produced and correspond them to a major archetypal pattern (usually determined by their mythical counterpart).
This establishes a link of conscious and unconscious. Now, one may simply overlay a system or discipline which one wishes to use, to methodically assimilate some qualities of a given archetype and move beyond unconscious domination by it. The unconscious is too intimidating to encounter en masse. It is, however, possible to relate to a portion of it at a time.
Once a particular way of looking at reality is established, it automatically sets up limitations, or boundary conditions. However, there is great latitude if one has the ability to subjectively choose from many such realities, without falling prey to identification. The whole person participates in the choice, rather than being compelled by unconscious motivation.
This description of archetypes is conditioned by the assumption of a hierarchal/developmental fantasy, which itself is one literalization of the archetype of "The Way." We could have, on the other hand, examined archetypes from another perspective. When archetypes are seen as existing co-laterally with one another, or in constant, co-equal relationship, the stages-of-development fantasy fades into the background. It depends on one's conditioned point-of-view.
Both viewpoints together illustrate the psychic reality. The ability to embrace divergent points-of-view without conflict, leads to the ability to use them both as tools. This prevents a one-sided dogmatism. The developmental model is monotheistic; it emphasizes the One God seen through many forms. The polytheistic model recognizes the sovereignty of the various gods and goddesses. It is based on relatedness, not goal-oriented development. Remember, the world appears as you are conditioned to experience it. Different archetypes can cause you to alter viewpoints dramatically.
Gods affect our styles of consciousness, and change our point of view. In conclusion, here are some things archetypes are not:
1) defined or confined by phenomenological studies or lists of their qualities, characteristics, and correspondences;
2) they are not themselves portrayals of concepts which can be mapped out as things or places;
3) nor translatable into scientific terms from other disciplines including philosophy, as they aren't empirically derived;
4) archetypes are not restricted to principles or categories of therapy;
5) nor are they to be considered contents of the unconscious, something contained within something else.
The sacred archetype is not separated from the profane image. None of these methods of amplification define or exhaust the possibilities of archetypal forces. They are means in expanding cognitive and emotional experience of the archetypal region, but the archetypes are cosmic forces spanning a broader continuum of existence than human mind or intuition can comprehend.
ARCHETYPES
An attempt to break down the archetype's course of activity might reveal the following stages:
1. The archetype is quiescent, a structural factor in the psychoid realm of the collective unconscious, an invisible "nuclear element" and "potential carrier of meaning."
2. Through a suitable constellation--which may be conditioned by individual or collective factor---it receives additional energy; its charge is increased, and its dynamic operation begins. The individual constellation depends on the individual's state of consciousness, the collective constellation on the corresponding state of consciousness of human groups.
3. The charge of the archetype is manifested in a kind of magnetic pull on the conscious mind, which, however, is not at first recognized. It takes the form of vague emotional activity, which may swell into violent psychic agitation.
4. Attracted by the charge, the light of consciousness falls on the archetype; the archetype enters the actual psychic area, it is perceived.
5. When the archetype as such is "touched by consciousness,: it can manifest either on the "lower" biological plane and take form, for instance as an expression of instinct or as an instinctual dynamism, or on the "higher", spiritual plane as an image or idea.(3) In the later case the raw material of imagery and meaning are added to it, and the symbol is born. The symbolic guise in which it becomes visible varies and changes according to the outward and inward circumstances of the individual and the times. The encounter with the consciousness of a collectivity and its problems gives rise to collective symbols (e.g. mythologems); contact with an individual consciousness and its problems gives rise to individual symbols (as, for example, the image of a witch with the features of one's own mother).
6. The symbol acquires a certain degree of autonomy in its confrontation with the conscious mind.
7. The meaning with which the symbol is "pregnant" more or less compels the conscious mind to come to terms with it. This may occur in the most diverse ways--either spontaneously, through contemplation, representation, interpretation, etc. or in analysis. 8.
The symbol may
a) be brought closer to the conscious mind by understanding and be felt and recognized in some degree belonging to the ego, but without being wholly fathomed, so that it continues to be "alive" and effective;
b) be completely fathomed and explored. Then it seems wholly integrated with the ego and assimilated by the conscious mind, but it loses its "life" and efficacy, and becomes mere allegory, a "sigh" or a conceptually unambiguous content of consciousness;
c) not be understood at all; it may confront the ego consciousness as an expression of a complex hidden, so to speak, behind it, as a hostile foreign body, split off from it and causing a dissociation in the psyche. It then becomes an autonomous splinter psyche, which can make itself felt in the form of "spirits," hallucinations, etc., that is, in all kinds of neurotic symptoms.
The Shadow:
Whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are acquired during the individual's lifetime, the contents of the collective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present from the beginning. Their relation to the Instincts has been discussed elsewhere. The archetypes most clearly characterized from the empirical point of view are those which have the most frequent and the most disturbing Influence on the ego. These are the shadow, the anima, and the animus.
The most accessible of these, and the easiest to experience, is the shadow, for its nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the personal unconscious. The only exceptions to this rule are those rather rare cases where the positive qualities of the personality are repressed, and the ego In consequence plays an essentially negative or unfavorable role.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and It therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psycho therapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period.
Closer examination of the dark characteristics that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality. Emotion, incidentally, is not an activity of the individual but something that happens to him. Affects occur usually where adaptation is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or scarcely controlled emotions one behaves more or less like a primitive, who is not only the passive victim of his affects but also singularly incapable of moral judgment.
Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections,, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary.
While some traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too much difficulty as one's own personal qualities, in this case both insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the other person. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral observer that it is a matter of projections, there is little hope that the subject will perceive this himself. He must be convinced that he throws a very long shadow before he is willing to withdraw his emotionally- toned projections from their object.
Let us suppose that a certain individual shows no inclination whatever to recognize his projections. The projection-making factor then has a free hand and can realize its object if it has one or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power. As we know, it is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting. Hence one meets with projections, one does not make them. The effect of projection is to isolate the subject from his environment, since instead of a real relation to it there is now only an illusory one. Projections change the world into the replica of one's own unknown face.
In the last analysis, therefore, they lead to an auto-erotic or autistic condition in which one dreams a world whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d'incompletude and the still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation is intensified. The more projections are thrust in between the subject and the environment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusions. A forty-five-year-old patient who had suffered from a compulsion neurosis since he was twenty and had become completely cut off from the world once said to me: "But I can never admit to myself that I've wasted the best twenty-five years of my life!"
It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him.
One might assume that projections like these, which are so very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, would belong to the realm of the shadow that is, to the negative side of the personality. This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point, because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the same but to the opposite sex, in a man's case to a woman and vice versa. The source of projections is no longer the shadow which is always of the same sex as the subject but a contra sexual figure. Here we meet the animus of a woman and the anima of a man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and unconsciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections.
Though the shadow is a motif as well known to mythology as anima and animus, it represents first and foremost the personal unconscious, and its content can therefore be made conscious without too much difficulty. In this it differs from anima and animus, for whereas the shadow can be seen through and recognized fairly easily, the anima and animus are much further away from consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever realized.
With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow so far as its nature is personal. But when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the abyss of evil. ~Carl Jung, Aion, Pages 7-10.
Whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are acquired during the individual's lifetime, the contents of the collective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present from the beginning. Their relation to the Instincts has been discussed elsewhere. The archetypes most clearly characterized from the empirical point of view are those which have the most frequent and the most disturbing Influence on the ego. These are the shadow, the anima, and the animus.
The most accessible of these, and the easiest to experience, is the shadow, for its nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the personal unconscious. The only exceptions to this rule are those rather rare cases where the positive qualities of the personality are repressed, and the ego In consequence plays an essentially negative or unfavorable role.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and It therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psycho therapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period.
Closer examination of the dark characteristics that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality. Emotion, incidentally, is not an activity of the individual but something that happens to him. Affects occur usually where adaptation is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or scarcely controlled emotions one behaves more or less like a primitive, who is not only the passive victim of his affects but also singularly incapable of moral judgment.
Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections,, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary.
While some traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too much difficulty as one's own personal qualities, in this case both insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the other person. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral observer that it is a matter of projections, there is little hope that the subject will perceive this himself. He must be convinced that he throws a very long shadow before he is willing to withdraw his emotionally- toned projections from their object.
Let us suppose that a certain individual shows no inclination whatever to recognize his projections. The projection-making factor then has a free hand and can realize its object if it has one or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power. As we know, it is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting. Hence one meets with projections, one does not make them. The effect of projection is to isolate the subject from his environment, since instead of a real relation to it there is now only an illusory one. Projections change the world into the replica of one's own unknown face.
In the last analysis, therefore, they lead to an auto-erotic or autistic condition in which one dreams a world whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d'incompletude and the still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation is intensified. The more projections are thrust in between the subject and the environment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusions. A forty-five-year-old patient who had suffered from a compulsion neurosis since he was twenty and had become completely cut off from the world once said to me: "But I can never admit to myself that I've wasted the best twenty-five years of my life!"
It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him.
One might assume that projections like these, which are so very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, would belong to the realm of the shadow that is, to the negative side of the personality. This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point, because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the same but to the opposite sex, in a man's case to a woman and vice versa. The source of projections is no longer the shadow which is always of the same sex as the subject but a contra sexual figure. Here we meet the animus of a woman and the anima of a man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and unconsciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections.
Though the shadow is a motif as well known to mythology as anima and animus, it represents first and foremost the personal unconscious, and its content can therefore be made conscious without too much difficulty. In this it differs from anima and animus, for whereas the shadow can be seen through and recognized fairly easily, the anima and animus are much further away from consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever realized.
With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow so far as its nature is personal. But when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the abyss of evil. ~Carl Jung, Aion, Pages 7-10.
shadow-steven-kenny
SHADOW ARCHETYPE
“Shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors…If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the source of evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investigation that the unconscious man, that is his shadow does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses etc “ [CW9 paras 422 & 423].
[Even God has a Shadow]
The spirit of the depths took my understanding and all my knowledge and placed them at the service of the inexplicable and the paradoxical. He robbed me of speech and writing for everything that was not in his service, namely the melting together of sense and nonsense, which produces the supreme meaning.
But the supreme meaning is the path the way and the bridge to what is to come. That is the God yet to come. It is not the coming God himself but his image which appears in the supreme meaning. God is an image and those who worship him must worship him in the images of the supreme meaning.
The supreme meaning is not a meaning and not an absurdity, it is image and force in one, magnificence and force together.
The supreme meaning is the beginning and the end. It is the bridge of going across and fulfillment.
The other Gods died of their temporality, yet the supreme meaning never dies, it turns into meaning and then into absurdity, and out of the fire and blood oj their collision the supreme meaning rises up rejuvenated anew. The image of God has a shadow. The supreme meaning is real and casts a shadow. For what can be actual and corporeal and have no shadow?
The shadow is nonsense. It lacks force and has no continued existence through itself. But nonsense is the inseparable and undying brother of the supreme meaning.
Like plants, so men also grow, some in the light, others in the shadows. There are many who need the shadows and not the light. The image of God throws a shadow that is just as great as itself. The supreme meaning is great and small it is as wide as the space of the starry Heaven and as narrow as the cell of the living body.
The spirit of this time in me wanted to recognize the greatness and extent of the supreme meaning, but not its littleness. The spirit of the depths, however, conquered this arrogance, and I had to swallow the small as a means of healing the immortal in me. It completely burnt up my innards since it was inglorious and unheroic. It was even ridiculous and revolting. But the pliers of the spirit of the depths held me, and I had to drink the bitterest of all draughts.
The spirit of this time tempted me with the thought that all this belongs to the shadowiness of the God-image. This would be pernicious deception, since the shadow is nonsense. But the small, narrow, and banal is not nonsense, but one of both of the essences of the Godhead. ~Carl Jung; Red Book; Pages 229-230.
In his lecture at the ETH on June 14, 1935, Jung noted: "A point exists at about the thirty-fifth year when things begin to change, it is the first moment of the shadow side of life, of the going down to death. It is clear that Dante found this point and those who have read Zarathustra will know that Nietzsche also discovered it. When this turning point comes people meet it in several ways: some turn away from it; others plunge into it; and something important happens to yet others from the outside. If we do not see a thing Fate does it to us" ~The Red Book; Footnote 32
Day does not exist through itself, night does not exist through itself. The reality that exists through itself is day and night. So the reality is meaning and absurdity. Noon is a moment, midnight is a moment, morning comes from night, evening turns into night, but evening comes from the day and morning turns into day.
So meaning is a moment and a transition from absurdity to absurdity, and absurdity only a moment and a transition from meaning to meaning. ~Carl Jung; Red Book; Page 242.
In Jungian psychology, the Shadow is that place in our subconscious where we cram all of the parts of ourselves that we consider bad, loathsome, or socially unacceptable. In general, the more of our Self that is stuffed away out of sight in the Shadow zone, the more trouble we will have in the quest for a happy and balanced life. Here’s the problem: any part of yourself that you have disavowed and shut away is then free to operate independently, without having to undergo any sort of committee process involving your reason or your better self. And when you least expect it, it’s likely to commit some dastardly act or say some unspeakable thing using your body and your tongue.
I know some of what’s lurking in my Shadow. There’s a Spoiled Child, a Saboteur, a Victim, a Critic and a Bitch, all mixed up with a lot of pettiness and anger and entitlement. These are the entities I’m aware of, and I know there’s more that are still hiding from me.
They pop up from time to time, trying to run things, and every now and then they manage to find a way past my frontal lobes that makes sense at the time. When the Inner Bitch uses my tongue to say the things that lose me friends and win me enemies, she drags my brain along for the ride. It nods, dumbly, agreeing that this all makes perfect sense and even that I’m being wise to finally say these things. Probably because the Saboteur and the Bitch are co-conspirators and enjoy causing trouble.
There is a cure, but it’s painful – it requires looking into the darkness and acknowledging that these unattractive traits really are a part of you, and taking responsibility for their behavior. When you integrate them as part of the self, they lose their power for ambush tactics and are more under control of the Self.
Embracing the dark side also makes us stronger and more powerful human beings. By accepting our imperfections, we become more compassionate towards the more obvious (to us) weaknesses of our fellow humans. Also, there is often strength in the aspects of ourselves that we find unpleasant. Stuff away your anger and selfishness, for example, and you tend to become a doormat. Lock up the child, and you lose spontaneity and your sense of wonder.
A lot of novelists have worked with this idea. George MacDonald explores the shadow in his strange and surreal adult fairytale Phantastes. The hero, Anodos, is told in no uncertain terms not to open a certain door. Of course he disobeys. A shadow runs out past him through the door, and torments and haunts him thereafter. Stephen King probably deals with this a lot, but the novel that comes to mind is The Dark Half.
But Ursula Le Guin does it best in A Wizard of Earthsea. The hero of this tale, Ged, also calls forth a shadow that causes great evil. But in the end Ged understands that he must face this shadow:
“At that Ged lifted up the staff high, and the radiance of it brightened intolerably, burning with so white and great a light that it compelled and harrowed even that ancient darkness. In that light all form of man sloughed off the thing that came towards Ged. It drew together and shrank and blackened, crawling on four short taloned legs upon the sand. But still it came forward, lifting up to him a blind unformed snout without lips or ears or eyes. As they came right together it became utterly black in the white mage-radiance that burned about it, and it heaved itself upright. In silence, man and shadow met face to face, and stopped.
Aloud and clearly, breaking that old silence, Ged spoke the shadow’s name and in the same moment the shadow spoke without lips or tongue, saying the same word: “Ged.” And the two voices were one voice.
Ged reached out his hands, dropping his staff, and took hold of his shadow, of the black self that reached out to him. Light and darkness met, and joined, and were one.”
Ged is healed and empowered in this encounter. http://www.kerryschafer.com/2012/05/20/the-shadow/
I know some of what’s lurking in my Shadow. There’s a Spoiled Child, a Saboteur, a Victim, a Critic and a Bitch, all mixed up with a lot of pettiness and anger and entitlement. These are the entities I’m aware of, and I know there’s more that are still hiding from me.
They pop up from time to time, trying to run things, and every now and then they manage to find a way past my frontal lobes that makes sense at the time. When the Inner Bitch uses my tongue to say the things that lose me friends and win me enemies, she drags my brain along for the ride. It nods, dumbly, agreeing that this all makes perfect sense and even that I’m being wise to finally say these things. Probably because the Saboteur and the Bitch are co-conspirators and enjoy causing trouble.
There is a cure, but it’s painful – it requires looking into the darkness and acknowledging that these unattractive traits really are a part of you, and taking responsibility for their behavior. When you integrate them as part of the self, they lose their power for ambush tactics and are more under control of the Self.
Embracing the dark side also makes us stronger and more powerful human beings. By accepting our imperfections, we become more compassionate towards the more obvious (to us) weaknesses of our fellow humans. Also, there is often strength in the aspects of ourselves that we find unpleasant. Stuff away your anger and selfishness, for example, and you tend to become a doormat. Lock up the child, and you lose spontaneity and your sense of wonder.
A lot of novelists have worked with this idea. George MacDonald explores the shadow in his strange and surreal adult fairytale Phantastes. The hero, Anodos, is told in no uncertain terms not to open a certain door. Of course he disobeys. A shadow runs out past him through the door, and torments and haunts him thereafter. Stephen King probably deals with this a lot, but the novel that comes to mind is The Dark Half.
But Ursula Le Guin does it best in A Wizard of Earthsea. The hero of this tale, Ged, also calls forth a shadow that causes great evil. But in the end Ged understands that he must face this shadow:
“At that Ged lifted up the staff high, and the radiance of it brightened intolerably, burning with so white and great a light that it compelled and harrowed even that ancient darkness. In that light all form of man sloughed off the thing that came towards Ged. It drew together and shrank and blackened, crawling on four short taloned legs upon the sand. But still it came forward, lifting up to him a blind unformed snout without lips or ears or eyes. As they came right together it became utterly black in the white mage-radiance that burned about it, and it heaved itself upright. In silence, man and shadow met face to face, and stopped.
Aloud and clearly, breaking that old silence, Ged spoke the shadow’s name and in the same moment the shadow spoke without lips or tongue, saying the same word: “Ged.” And the two voices were one voice.
Ged reached out his hands, dropping his staff, and took hold of his shadow, of the black self that reached out to him. Light and darkness met, and joined, and were one.”
Ged is healed and empowered in this encounter. http://www.kerryschafer.com/2012/05/20/the-shadow/
Cover art by George Rozen
(1). PERSONA:
The persona is the outer personality presented to others by an individual. It could be pictured as a mask of conformity, which is a conscious adaptive mechanism. Choices in adaptation are made by the ego, which builds up the persona, or "front." It is a response to the demands of society for "normal" behavior. Most people have at least some desire to appear appropriate in their social milieu. Our obsessions for conformity are reflected in fashion, religion, education, and entertainment.
We seek common experiences. We have a desire to "fit in," like a cog in a machine. Persona shows in special costumes or lifestyles; alternatively, our job may determine the type of appearance and behavior "expected" of an individual by society. For instance, who would expect a brain surgeon to be a sloppy, unorganized personality? This would hardly inspire confidence in his patients. So, the persona is the public image, which implies certain constraints and limitations.
The persona lies very close to ego-consciousness, and it is therefore fairly easy to determine symbols of this persona in your personal life. The symbols for the persona are cover-ups: they may appear in dreams as dress, hats, armor, veils, shields; or they may take on the characteristics of a profession or trade, as tools, equipment of various sorts, certain specific books; or they may be reflected in an automobile, or even in some instances a house or apartment. Or the persona may be expressed in awards, diplomas, or a variety of so-called "status symbols."
Persona problems are common in all parts of society, for as people identify themselves as belonging to a certain category they begin to adopt behavior appropriate to that category and to discard what does not fit. Thus the "identity crisis" about which Erik Erikson has written so much, tends to find a partial solution, at least, in the assumption of a persona. It may not be the best solution but it often works, until something happens to break down the persona. While the persona is functioning well, many people identify with it. (9)
It is easily seen that no one can be merely a doctor, a teacher, or an artist. There are many other facets to psychic life which may be explored once the distinction between ego and persona has been made clear in the mind of the aspirant. (2).
THE SHADOW:
Shadows are created on paintings by mixing a color with its opposite. Every painter knows that you cannot even create the illusion of depth without including shadows in the painting. The ego appears as a flat caricature without the shadow-aspects to round-out the form. The shadow includes those qualities of the individual which have been rejected, repressed, or unlived. In short, it represents the inferior side of life, which even though it is autonomous, may be judged as negative from the ego's point of view.
As a rule of thumb, the stronger the persona, the more repressed the shadow side. This can especially be true in religious persons who identify only with the good qualities of brightness and light. But in Physics, the brighter the light, the deeper the shadows which are cast. Jung even explored the premise that there is a shadowy aspect to the subconscious of God in ANSWER TO JOB.
When the shadow and instinctual life are not differentiated, they form a contaminated state which urges the holder of this fantasy to experience "devilish" forms. This shapeshifter is considered the strongly polarized opposite of "absolute good", which is "the adversary." A conscious realization of the shadow produces an inner reconciliation which might open the door to manifestation of some of the unlived potential.
"The sacrifice of innocent purity also implies the realization of the shadow which releases one from identification with the role of innocent victim and the tendency to project the evil executor on to God or neighbor." (10)
Let us take the shadow as an example. It is the image of all sides of personality that I could become. In my dreams he may be a brother, a schoolfriend I feared or even envied, an outcast or a success, or a professional colleague whose traits are those I most dislike--but which are closest to mine. Because of my identification with a personality I call "my ego", the shadow usually appears as inferior and as rejected by society.
The development of one partial personality, the ego, builds a shadow at the same time. Ego development in our culture proceeds through choices between good and bad, right and wrong, like and dislike. The bad, the wrong, and disliked fall into shadow, becoming fearful. Soon the suppressed side becomes the repressed side; the shadow archetype which is a potential of destructive values, an "instinct to evil" or "destrudo", is activated by the cast-off impulses of daily life. The more right I become, the more the shadow is fed with contrary motives until the extremes of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can result.
Because the shadow is an archetypal figure, and not merely a cover-name for the repressed, it is a living personality with intentions, feelings, and ideas.
By keeping innocent and self-righteous in ego-consciousness, I force the shadow into the dark where he archetypally belongs anyway as the devil is depicted in hell and the criminal fantasied in the night. So, in dreams, he will show in ghettos, as a welfare case, an invalid, crippled or diseased. He appears also in the images of power politician, fake guru, street gang, or person of darker skin...The shadow also determines the ulterior motives in plans, the schemes for professional advancement, the nasty gossip, the sellouts, all beyond and in spite of our honest intentions. Although I have described him mainly in terms of ethics, the shadow can as well carry any incompatible aspect--one's unlived sexuality or primitivity and one's unlived potential achievements and cultural sensitivity. Especially, the shadow presents images of one's pathology: sadism, hypochrondriachal complaining, or any of the various psychic syndromes that reflect in caricature one's overall personality structure. (11) (3).
THE DOUBLE:
As the shadow is generally a negative projection of psychic contents onto a member of the same sex, the double manifests as a projection of positive traits to members of the same sex. It is an image of the magical self, operating on the principle of "likeness." Projections of the double may fall upon our "best friend", role models, mentors, etc. There are implications within this archetype which link it to homoerotic love, whether this tendency is lived out sexually, or not. The double carries both spiritual and erotic significance. Its activation means we are coming to an awareness of our own androgynous tendencies, a form of wholeness.
The double is conceived of as beautiful, with a youthful quality of near-perfection. Its aspects include aid, or support, and comfort, a fusion of the fate of the partners, a rapport and camaraderie. The partners share their feelings, needs, dreams, desires, and potential futures in a spirit of profound equality. The double can function as a soul-guide to inner depth and value. When there is an age discrepancy between the partners, the older generally stimulates the process of psychic maturity in the younger; the younger brings a sense of renewal to the older. Darker aspects of the double include a tendency to remain in sort of perpetual adolescence, or a tendency toward homosexual expression may be repressed cutting off a vital avenue to the unconscious. The "other" may instead be conceived of as competition, or someone committed against your success.
...the double is a soul-mate of intense warmth and closeness. Love between men and love between women, as a psychic experience, is often rooted in projection of the double, just as anima/us is projected in love between the different sexes. And as with anima/us, such love may occur within or without the heroic quest. Furthermore, since the double is a soul figure, the sexual instinct may or may not become involved. That is, the double motif may include a tendency to homosexuality, but is not necessarily a homosexual archetype. Rather, the double embodies the spirit of love between those of the same sex. And the spirit of love in the double is what I see as the supportive ground of the ego. (12)
This spirit of love between those of the same sex is often misunderstood:
A psychology that wants to improve its reading of the archetypes can hardly accept a psychotherapy which is biased toward man-to-man relationships, tending to see them only in terms of illness to be cured or controlled. Such is to misplace illness; and moreover, there is then no possibility of seeing through to the Gods who are at the background of these relationships. What appears in the personal picture as 'messes '...are more likely expressions of the conflictive side of an archetype, or frictions brought about by the mixing of archetypes. Seen in this way, psychotherapy, by taking into account the archetype, could propitiate psychic movement following along with the dominant archetype in which erotica among men appears, and it would accept this dominant as the very vehicle for psychotherapeutic movement... (13)
Otto Rank attributed a high spiritual significance to this archetype, and considered it a fundamental of personality.
..a positive evaluation of the Double as the immortal soul leads to the buildup of the prototype of personality from the self; whereas the negative interpretation of the Double as a symbol of death is symptomatic of the disintegration of the modern personality type...Yet the double in its most primitive form, the shadow, represents both the living and the dead person. In animate man there dwells as a strange guest a more feeble Double--his other Self in the form of his Psyche--whose kingdom is the world of dreams. When the conscious Self sleeps, the Double works and watches. Such an image, reflecting the visible Self and constituting a second Self, is, with the Romans, the Genius; with the Persians, the Fravauli; with the Egyptians, the Ka...Originally conceived of as a guardian angel, assuring immortal survival to the self, the double eventually appears as precisely the opposite, a reminder of the individual's immortality, indeed, the announcer of death itself. (14)
This is a curious admixture, where the double represents on the one hand a mutual fantasy between members of the same sex, and on the other the immortal self. It touches on deep areas of social taboo in either event. The androgynous being, whether literal or metaphorical has been traditionally tabooed and venerated, or feared and worshipped at the same time. Mythologically, the hero is a fusion of two separate selves, the mortal and immortal aspects, in a single personality. He has reabsorbed his double, or twin. This yields a self-creative power wherein he works for his immortality by creating lasting achievements. The unconscious union of "like" with "like" in the form of homosexual relationships may appear in dreams as a symbol of a stage in the primitive idea of self-fertilization. In this manner, the double unlocks creative processes.
The Great MOTHER or Virgin Goddess
Whether she is known as the White Goddess, Great Mother, or Virgin Isis the Great Goddess is the symbol of the archetypal Feminine. Her image is inexorably linked to the Moon and the death-rebirth cycle. The worship of the Great Goddess was common in the matriarchal agricultural groups of the Mediterranean and Near East. All the later goddesses of the Greek pantheon are contained in this universal symbol of the Earth Mother.
The Goddess is associated with the vegetarian cycle and the processes of agricultural life. She rules the domestic area of life as well as nature. Her primary characteristic is fertility. This fertility extends to the fecundity of imagination. This feminine goddess is single in essence, but displays many forms.
To the Egyptians, this Great Goddess was known as Isis and her worship continued into the period of rulership by Imperial Rome. At this point the religion became a mystery cult. This cult is described in detail in The Golden Ass of Apuleius, which includes the tale Eros and Psyche which describes the psychological development of feminine consciousness. The initiation procedures of this mystery cult involved a voluntary ritual death and revival.
The Isis Mysteries were the same as the Eleusian Mysteries in honor of Demeter/Persephone. They celebrate the immortality of the mother/daughter relationship. Isis embodies all contrasts. Like the moon, she is light and dark, life and death, beginning and end. This Great Mother is the matrix of all manifestation perceivable by man.
The whole life of mankind is governed by the goddess, Mother of all-that-exists. Isis worship even persists in the modern Christian world through the cult of the Virgin Mary. Even though matriarchal consciousness characterizes the spiritual nature of woman, it also exists in men who allow their anima consciousness to manifest. As she is the source of creative inspiration, the hunches of instinct and intuition, and the raw life energy itself, it is an advantage for men to establish a harmony with the moon power.
She counsels meditation, contemplation, waiting and watching, dreaming, and remembering. Matriarchal consciousness focuses around growth and transformation. In this mode understanding has the meaning of a "conception" and the metaphors of pregnancy and birth are common. The knowledge revealed by the goddess is not one of imparted truths but the personal experience of transformation. She encourages participation. When rational over-achieving ego-consciousness has run its course, quite, reflective lunar consciousness emerges to cool the fires of the spirit. The feminine image holds the keys to experience of the inner planes for both men and women.
This is shown in Qabalah by the fact that the two highest paths of the Middle Pillar correspond with the Moon. She rules the transformative mysteries of initiation. As initiatrix, the Goddess progressively educates the emotions of the aspirant. Magickal training of the image-making faculty is the beginning of a new way of using the mind. One may become self-initiated into the Moon mysteries through careful attention to the stirring of subconscious memories. There is much to learn through psychology concerning the lunar aspects of the soul.
However, the magickal working of Yesod brings a personal relationship to the Goddess which manifests far more than one could ever understand through psychology. The imaginal construction of the personified form of the soul enables a linking between your consciousness and the subtle matter of the Great MOTHER's Soul.
The dual nature of the Goddess is shown bu her two characters. Her elementary nature has both a positive (good) and negative (bad)! She is pictured either as all-embracing protectress, or alternately as the devouring Terrible Mother. Her transformative nature also carries good and bad imagery. She not only governs cyclic rebirth and inspiration, but also the mysteries of intoxication, madness, and death. The negative characteristics are symbolized by the Dark Moon, and the positive are symbolized by the bright Full Moon.
The Great Goddess appears in tandem with her Son-Lover. His death and rebirth are symbolic of the cycle of the seed in the ground and the masculine counterpart of divinity. She is soul. He is Spirit. The stages of the Feminine Mysteries remain valid psychological milestones in personal experience even in modern life.
The worship of the Great Goddess involved a period of contemplation in her temple, religious prostitution with a man who represented "masculine divinity" in an impersonal ceremony designed so the woman experienced a surrender to her instincts. This sexual union was considered a sacred marriage, but it was a wedding which resulted in the "death" of her former condition. But, miraculously, she is transformed into the pregnant Moon Mother, filled with the divine Spirit. This magickal child grows slowly in an organic process which had its initiation at the conception of the child. It is a process which takes place in the dark subconscious, far from the eyes of men.
With the birth of the virgin-born child, the symbolism switches from that of sexuality to that of maternal solicitude. This birth is the woman's spiritual rebirth of her hidden potentialities. Because of her dual nature, she does not remain exclusively compassionate, but turns fierce and intolerant when it comes time to sacrifice this child. What is sacrificed is her incestuous identification with him. Any man must touch upon the depths of his own emotional intensity, not continue to require this from his mortal mother. Each facing this emotional intensity is the second stage of initiation to the Goddess, the impersonal aspect of the Feminine.
The period of the Virgin's Pregnancy corresponds with Yesod. In this period she is One-In-Herself. As Virgin, she is represented by the crescent moon. She is a divine power in her own right. With the incorporation into her body of the masculine solar-seed, she embarks on Path 25, Art, which represents the harmonization of lunar and solar components of the psyche. This results in the birth of the magickal child, his divinity revealed, his demise immanent.
Child, King, and Sacrificed God are all symbols of Tiphareth, Sphere of the Resplendent Sun. Moving past Tiphareth on Path 13, The High Priestess, we are again the realm of the Virgin Goddess, but this time she confers the gifts of potential revealed as the Full Moon, knowledge of the unconscious as past and future. Entry into this timeless realm is the experience of immortality, the supreme inspiration of the medial Feminine.
Here the priestess of the Moon appears as sibyl, or wise old woman. Moving further through the cycle of woman's ages, the waning crescent moon represents the old crone, full of arcane lore, elusive and sinister. Thus woman's cycle moves through organic biological changes from untouched virgin, to initiated sexually-active Virgin, to Mother, to wise old woman. This trinity was known in ancient Greece Goddess (Virgin, Mother, Hag). This divine being is the symbol of the Feminine Self, core of all being.
The Syzygy:
Anima and Animus In the creation myths of many cultures, Primordial Wholeness divides into polarized aspects.
The Syzygy indicates this archetypal coupling where one aspect is never separated from the other. In the "impersonal" aspect of lunar experience, the Great Goddess is never separated from her masculine Son-Lover. One implies the other for wholeness. They exemplify the soul-spirit relationship. On the "personal" level of lunar experience we find the tandem of anima/animus. They are the contrasexual component each human carries within. These soul figures embody our latent capacities for expression and realization of the traits normally reserved for the opposite sex.
Thus, the animus leads a woman to the outer world and promotes her ability in focused, rational thinking; the anima guides a man through the inner worlds of relationship. This is the level of psychological "complex" where there is a blending of archetypal realities and individual experience. Thus, the imagery of anima/us is based in archetypal symbolism and in childhood memories of "significant others" of the opposite sex. This includes parental attitudes and behavior, grandparent's influence, sibling, first love, and cultural expectations and norms.
Anima/us determines our conceptualization of the ideal mate, and is responsible for such phenomena as "love at first sight," and "star-crossed lovers." It takes the elements of fate and destiny and combines them in a personal formula. Anima/us represents the balancing of masculine and feminine traits in the individual. This balancing is a form of coniunctio, or sacred marriage, a union which produces the magickal child which is the higher Self.
The animus is the masculine personification of the soul. He carries both a transcendent spiritual aspect and a personal aspect. He is shown in the magickal symbolism of Yesod: a beautiful, naked, muscular man. On the archetypal level anima/us is equivalent to the Taoist Yin-Yang concept, a system which embraces a non-combative play of opposites, a circulation of soul.
Anima/us are potential guides to the depths of the unconscious, forming a bridge to daily life. They are factors which transcend consciousness, so in a relationship which seems to have everything going for it, there can be friction (or "animosity") produced by unconscious for ces operating below the surface.
Most of these troubles stem from projecting the anima/us image onto our loved ones and maneuvering them into fulfilling our expectations. Internal conflicts come from the split nature of anima/us we experience in modern life. This revolves mainly around the gulf between the Spiritual and Sensual aspects of the inner figure. A man experiences the split between holy Mother Mary and the erotic goddess of his dreams.
For example, the spiritual animus might be projected onto the figure of a wise old man, a ghostly lover to whom a woman goes in fantasy, or an idealized brother/sister relationship devoid of sexual options. The sensual animus might be imaged by darker gods of impersonal sexuality, phallic or obscene. In any event, the animus represents the woman's need for creative expression. The more fully she can manifest this trait, the better her inner relationship to the animus becomes. He provides her with inner light, not inspiration which is a function of her anima nature, core of her Self.
Anima/us excite those feelings of longing, awe, fear of the unknown, and incomprehensibility. The transpersonal power of love can appear as a possession by another, against which rational thought has no protection. Yesod is the experience of this emotional-sexual level and its projections, coupled with the exercise of discrimination between archetypal and personal.
Whether she is known as the White Goddess, Great Mother, or Virgin Isis the Great Goddess is the symbol of the archetypal Feminine. Her image is inexorably linked to the Moon and the death-rebirth cycle. The worship of the Great Goddess was common in the matriarchal agricultural groups of the Mediterranean and Near East. All the later goddesses of the Greek pantheon are contained in this universal symbol of the Earth Mother.
The Goddess is associated with the vegetarian cycle and the processes of agricultural life. She rules the domestic area of life as well as nature. Her primary characteristic is fertility. This fertility extends to the fecundity of imagination. This feminine goddess is single in essence, but displays many forms.
To the Egyptians, this Great Goddess was known as Isis and her worship continued into the period of rulership by Imperial Rome. At this point the religion became a mystery cult. This cult is described in detail in The Golden Ass of Apuleius, which includes the tale Eros and Psyche which describes the psychological development of feminine consciousness. The initiation procedures of this mystery cult involved a voluntary ritual death and revival.
The Isis Mysteries were the same as the Eleusian Mysteries in honor of Demeter/Persephone. They celebrate the immortality of the mother/daughter relationship. Isis embodies all contrasts. Like the moon, she is light and dark, life and death, beginning and end. This Great Mother is the matrix of all manifestation perceivable by man.
The whole life of mankind is governed by the goddess, Mother of all-that-exists. Isis worship even persists in the modern Christian world through the cult of the Virgin Mary. Even though matriarchal consciousness characterizes the spiritual nature of woman, it also exists in men who allow their anima consciousness to manifest. As she is the source of creative inspiration, the hunches of instinct and intuition, and the raw life energy itself, it is an advantage for men to establish a harmony with the moon power.
She counsels meditation, contemplation, waiting and watching, dreaming, and remembering. Matriarchal consciousness focuses around growth and transformation. In this mode understanding has the meaning of a "conception" and the metaphors of pregnancy and birth are common. The knowledge revealed by the goddess is not one of imparted truths but the personal experience of transformation. She encourages participation. When rational over-achieving ego-consciousness has run its course, quite, reflective lunar consciousness emerges to cool the fires of the spirit. The feminine image holds the keys to experience of the inner planes for both men and women.
This is shown in Qabalah by the fact that the two highest paths of the Middle Pillar correspond with the Moon. She rules the transformative mysteries of initiation. As initiatrix, the Goddess progressively educates the emotions of the aspirant. Magickal training of the image-making faculty is the beginning of a new way of using the mind. One may become self-initiated into the Moon mysteries through careful attention to the stirring of subconscious memories. There is much to learn through psychology concerning the lunar aspects of the soul.
However, the magickal working of Yesod brings a personal relationship to the Goddess which manifests far more than one could ever understand through psychology. The imaginal construction of the personified form of the soul enables a linking between your consciousness and the subtle matter of the Great MOTHER's Soul.
The dual nature of the Goddess is shown bu her two characters. Her elementary nature has both a positive (good) and negative (bad)! She is pictured either as all-embracing protectress, or alternately as the devouring Terrible Mother. Her transformative nature also carries good and bad imagery. She not only governs cyclic rebirth and inspiration, but also the mysteries of intoxication, madness, and death. The negative characteristics are symbolized by the Dark Moon, and the positive are symbolized by the bright Full Moon.
The Great Goddess appears in tandem with her Son-Lover. His death and rebirth are symbolic of the cycle of the seed in the ground and the masculine counterpart of divinity. She is soul. He is Spirit. The stages of the Feminine Mysteries remain valid psychological milestones in personal experience even in modern life.
The worship of the Great Goddess involved a period of contemplation in her temple, religious prostitution with a man who represented "masculine divinity" in an impersonal ceremony designed so the woman experienced a surrender to her instincts. This sexual union was considered a sacred marriage, but it was a wedding which resulted in the "death" of her former condition. But, miraculously, she is transformed into the pregnant Moon Mother, filled with the divine Spirit. This magickal child grows slowly in an organic process which had its initiation at the conception of the child. It is a process which takes place in the dark subconscious, far from the eyes of men.
With the birth of the virgin-born child, the symbolism switches from that of sexuality to that of maternal solicitude. This birth is the woman's spiritual rebirth of her hidden potentialities. Because of her dual nature, she does not remain exclusively compassionate, but turns fierce and intolerant when it comes time to sacrifice this child. What is sacrificed is her incestuous identification with him. Any man must touch upon the depths of his own emotional intensity, not continue to require this from his mortal mother. Each facing this emotional intensity is the second stage of initiation to the Goddess, the impersonal aspect of the Feminine.
The period of the Virgin's Pregnancy corresponds with Yesod. In this period she is One-In-Herself. As Virgin, she is represented by the crescent moon. She is a divine power in her own right. With the incorporation into her body of the masculine solar-seed, she embarks on Path 25, Art, which represents the harmonization of lunar and solar components of the psyche. This results in the birth of the magickal child, his divinity revealed, his demise immanent.
Child, King, and Sacrificed God are all symbols of Tiphareth, Sphere of the Resplendent Sun. Moving past Tiphareth on Path 13, The High Priestess, we are again the realm of the Virgin Goddess, but this time she confers the gifts of potential revealed as the Full Moon, knowledge of the unconscious as past and future. Entry into this timeless realm is the experience of immortality, the supreme inspiration of the medial Feminine.
Here the priestess of the Moon appears as sibyl, or wise old woman. Moving further through the cycle of woman's ages, the waning crescent moon represents the old crone, full of arcane lore, elusive and sinister. Thus woman's cycle moves through organic biological changes from untouched virgin, to initiated sexually-active Virgin, to Mother, to wise old woman. This trinity was known in ancient Greece Goddess (Virgin, Mother, Hag). This divine being is the symbol of the Feminine Self, core of all being.
The Syzygy:
Anima and Animus In the creation myths of many cultures, Primordial Wholeness divides into polarized aspects.
The Syzygy indicates this archetypal coupling where one aspect is never separated from the other. In the "impersonal" aspect of lunar experience, the Great Goddess is never separated from her masculine Son-Lover. One implies the other for wholeness. They exemplify the soul-spirit relationship. On the "personal" level of lunar experience we find the tandem of anima/animus. They are the contrasexual component each human carries within. These soul figures embody our latent capacities for expression and realization of the traits normally reserved for the opposite sex.
Thus, the animus leads a woman to the outer world and promotes her ability in focused, rational thinking; the anima guides a man through the inner worlds of relationship. This is the level of psychological "complex" where there is a blending of archetypal realities and individual experience. Thus, the imagery of anima/us is based in archetypal symbolism and in childhood memories of "significant others" of the opposite sex. This includes parental attitudes and behavior, grandparent's influence, sibling, first love, and cultural expectations and norms.
Anima/us determines our conceptualization of the ideal mate, and is responsible for such phenomena as "love at first sight," and "star-crossed lovers." It takes the elements of fate and destiny and combines them in a personal formula. Anima/us represents the balancing of masculine and feminine traits in the individual. This balancing is a form of coniunctio, or sacred marriage, a union which produces the magickal child which is the higher Self.
The animus is the masculine personification of the soul. He carries both a transcendent spiritual aspect and a personal aspect. He is shown in the magickal symbolism of Yesod: a beautiful, naked, muscular man. On the archetypal level anima/us is equivalent to the Taoist Yin-Yang concept, a system which embraces a non-combative play of opposites, a circulation of soul.
Anima/us are potential guides to the depths of the unconscious, forming a bridge to daily life. They are factors which transcend consciousness, so in a relationship which seems to have everything going for it, there can be friction (or "animosity") produced by unconscious for ces operating below the surface.
Most of these troubles stem from projecting the anima/us image onto our loved ones and maneuvering them into fulfilling our expectations. Internal conflicts come from the split nature of anima/us we experience in modern life. This revolves mainly around the gulf between the Spiritual and Sensual aspects of the inner figure. A man experiences the split between holy Mother Mary and the erotic goddess of his dreams.
For example, the spiritual animus might be projected onto the figure of a wise old man, a ghostly lover to whom a woman goes in fantasy, or an idealized brother/sister relationship devoid of sexual options. The sensual animus might be imaged by darker gods of impersonal sexuality, phallic or obscene. In any event, the animus represents the woman's need for creative expression. The more fully she can manifest this trait, the better her inner relationship to the animus becomes. He provides her with inner light, not inspiration which is a function of her anima nature, core of her Self.
Anima/us excite those feelings of longing, awe, fear of the unknown, and incomprehensibility. The transpersonal power of love can appear as a possession by another, against which rational thought has no protection. Yesod is the experience of this emotional-sexual level and its projections, coupled with the exercise of discrimination between archetypal and personal.
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Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.