Archetypes

The Short Story:
Archetypes are energetic patterns, or “original models”, for behavior, roles, and ideas that cross cultures and time. The theory was first put out there by Plato and was fully fleshed out by Carl Jung. Archetypes are most often represented by symbols (like a Circle, or a Castle, or the idea of Father) because they provide seemingly simple packages with tons of potential for depth.

The Full Story:

Archetype is a word coined by Carl Jung – a big mover and shaker in the formation of psychology – when he was studying (seemingly inexplicable) patterns and similarities between things like the dreams and art of his patients.

He noticed that there were some ideas and associations that crossed the barriers of age, experience, language and even culture and he wanted to know why that was.

He decided that the Collective Unconscious (an idea for a whole other class) held models for behavior, roles, and ideas that all of humanity could tap into to figure out how to interpret, or behave in, a particular situation (etc…)

Basically, Jung’s Archetypes taught us how to be human. (When you read Jung’s work you’ll read about very specific Archetypes like the Anima (the model for how to be a girl) and Animus (ditto for boys), etc.)

The Perfect Rose

Jung didn’t create the idea though he borrowed it from Plato (an old, Greek philosopher) who, one day while pondering the Universe and everything, came up with the idea that everything we see and experience is only a reproduction, an imitation of a perfect model. He believed that in “heaven” (not what we generally mean by the term, but it works for convenience) there was one perfect rose. And that every rose on Earth was just a copy, an attempt to capture and convey the perfection of The Rose. Because they were the models for everything in our world he called them Types (“Typos” – Greek – literally means “model”).

It’s interesting to note that he didn’t believe that anything in the material realm could come close to capturing the perfection of that energetic model – but we, and the Universe, keep trying.

More Than Just Things

Jung added the word “Arche” to Plato’s types to make it clear that he was talking about original and pure models for life, not human based ones.

He theorized that there were models for everything (while Plato talked about esoteric and practical models – like Roses, Chairs and Beauty – Jung talked about Human and Psychological models), that a newborn understood the mother-child relationship because there is an archetype for “Mother” and one (at least) for “Child” too.

Later, scholars who loved his work and ideas started seeing archetypes in a lot of other places. Particularly, within Story and Mythology (and all the forms we have of conveying those today including movies and video games). That themes (defeating the monster), characters (the hero), plot devices, small details and large (like the moral of the stories) repeated. And that they repeated across time (through centuries even), through language and culture – that they passed inexplicable barriers. And so these ideas too became to be seen as archetypes. (Oh, the rich world of archetypes in stories and movies is delicious – you’ll want to start with Joseph Campbell if this intrigues you. Also, I’m currently reading Christopher Booker’s, The Seven Basic Plots – so good!)

It didn’t take long for students of the occult (just means “secrets” of “mysteries” – what we would call New Agers now) to figure out that a lot of their studies and tools were archetypal too. That numerology and tarot work because they contained universal ideas. We all understand the Type A personality (our words are new, the energy/personality is ancient) or the pain of having to let go of something so we can grow.

Today, archetypes are still being studied and their list of possibilities is growing (considering no one really ran with the idea till Jung it’s a pretty young field) and modern enthusiasts have found that certain experiences, like Betrayal (see Carolyn Myss’ work) and even Environments, we all know what someone means when they say they are “in a desert”, (see Collette Baron-Reid’s newest book) can be archetypal.

The cool thing is that because Archetypes are stored on an energetic plane (like a way cool, planet-wide, holographic computer) they are ever expanding. As we – individuals and humanity as a whole – change, evolve, and experience life we continually write to this computer. We add new archetypes (like the Geek) and we expand on the information stored within the old ones (what does and doesn’t make a hero for example). Nothing learned from ancient wisdom is ever lost (that’s what Jung was seeing in the art and dreams), and everything we learn now is continually being added.

One of the way cool things about archetypes is that it doesn’t matter if you are talking about a mythical Goddess, a Tarot card, or an Element they apply to everyone there is a system (and a facet within it) that will strike you right to the heart because archetypes are created by the soul’s human experience. If you can point to the archetype that resonates with who you are, or how you feel, or what is happening right now – then you can get amazing insight and depth out of it simply by examining the archetype (and using it as a prompt/guide for examining you).