The Archetypes

Characters:

The Shadow- the dark side (or unconscious side) of our personality that we project onto others

The Child - related to the hope and promise for new beginnings.

The Self - The ultimate pattern is the Self. For Carl Jung this is the God image. Human self and divine self are incapable of distinction. All is Spirit. Images of Spirit abound. Wind and breath being two very common ones.

archetypal men—kind father, ogre, friendly dwarf, ominous giant, noble knight, devilish trickster, wise man, wizard, saint, sinner, the frog with the prince inside, and the tyrant king with a demon inside

archetypal women - the Good Mother, the Terrible Mother, the shrew, the lovely princess, wicked queen, the wise woman, the witch, the heroine in armor, the huntress ,the Virgin, the Earth Mother, and the Soul Mate

hero – always running in to save the day

teacher—another form of the wise man/wise woman

outcast – cast out of society or left voluntarily

scapegoat – gets blamed for everything

star-crossed lovers – joined by love but unexpectedly parted by fate

orphan – experiences a great loss

wanderer – has decided it is time to move on; someone without a permanent home

warrior – exhibits bravery in the face of opposition

altruist – intentionally helps others

innocent – experiences true bliss; marked by naivete or lack of guilt

magician – holds the power to change the world

Symbols:

water - creation, birth-death-resurrection, purification, redemption, fertility, growth

sun  - creative energy, law, consciousness, father principle, passage of time

garden - paradise, innocence, fertility

tree - immortality

desert - spiritual emptiness, death, hopelessness

red - blood, sacrifice, passion, disorder

green - growth, fertility

blue - truth, spiritual purity

black - chaos, death, evil

white - purity, innocence, but conversely death, terror, and the supernatural

circle - wholeness, unity

serpent - evil, sensuality, mystery, wisdom, destruction

three - unity, spiritual awareness

four – associated with the circle, life cycle, four seasons, four elements (earth, air, fire, water)

seven - perfection

Motifs or Patterns:

Hero’s Journey-The hero is involved in a quest (in which he battles monsters, solves riddles, or overcomes obstacles). He experiences initiation (involving a separation, transformation, and return). And he serves as a scapegoat, that is, he dies to atone.

Creation – perhaps the most fundamental of all archetypal motifs—virtually all mythology is built on some account of how the cosmos, nature, and humankind were brought into existence by some supernatural being(s)

Immortality – generally taking one of two basic narrative forms:

¨ escape from time: “return to paradise”

¨ mystical submersion into cyclical time: the theme of endless death and regeneration

The task – character(s) is driven to complete some duty of monstrous proportion

The quest—character(s) is searching for something, consciously or unconsciously

The loss of innocence

Rites of Passage (similar to the Initiation of the hero)