Archetypes: The Mind of Man

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Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell

These two men are the prominent scholars in the field of psychoanalysis and mythological origins for human and social behavior.

Carl JungJung worked to unlock the

unconscious mind, looking to the mythological forces that shape human personality.

Carl JungJung’s work birthed the Collective

Unconscious and the Archetype to explain dream commonalities and universal human situations.

Think of the collective unconscious as an invisible web that connects every single human’s mind in existence from all cultures and all times (yes, even the earliest humans).

Carl JungJung believed that all human

behavior and though have the same roots in a common palette of characters and situations retained from early conscious development. That palette of characters is what makes up the archetypes.

An archetype is a recurring pattern of character, symbol, or situations found in mythology, stories, and culture.

The roots of the word are as follows in Greek:◦Arche = beginning, origin◦Tupos = pattern, model, map

Popular archetypes include but are not limited to:◦The Child◦The Great Mother◦The Wise Old Man or Sage◦The Trickster ◦The Devil or Enemy◦The Seductress/Tempter◦The Mentor◦The Hero

Carl JungMost important to our studies is

the hero archetype. To Jung, the hero is every person’s mind searching for individuation; we all struggle to be unique—to find ourselves.

Joseph CampbellCampbell built on Jung’s concept

of the collective unconscious to encompass all of the world’s mythologies.

Joseph CampbellCampbell studied art, religion, history,

and stories, discovering common threads everywhere he went.

Call it the “collective dream” or the “song of the universe,” Campbell’s search found a human need for social and psychological meaning throughout the ages.

Both Jung and Campbell felt that the experience of being human can be examined collectively across time, space, and culture.

Archetypes are a precursor to conscious thought. They are in our unconscious minds, not the physical world. We can’t be archetypes, but we can express them in art, myth, literature, and religion. I’m

not real.

The hero is not someone out there, but a form in all of us and our need to grow and mature.

All cultures have similar hero stories, as all humans seek the same psychological goals. They are a metaphor for the human search for self-knowledge.

The Hero CycleIn other words, the hero shows us

a path to our own consciousness through his/her journey. Campbell represented this through his Hero Cycle.

The DepartureThe Call to

Adventure◦This is where the hero

is invited to cross into the heroic realm. Star Wars: Princess

Leia’s message inside of R2D2.

◦Sometimes (not always) the hero refuses the Call to Adventure. Bilbo, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s

The Hobbit.

Departure, cont… Supernatural Aid

◦ Here is where the hero receives advice from a mentor or guide. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Merlin, Gandalf, Dumbledore, Good Witch of

the North, etc…

◦ Many times, the hero gains a traveling companion who helps for much or the adventure. Samwise Gamgee, Timon and Pumbaa, etc…

◦ The helper often offers useful wisdom or trinkets to guide the hero. Sting (Bilbo’s sword), Red Slippers, Lightsaber, etc…

The Departure, cont…Crossing the Threshold

◦This is the first barrier, be it physical or symbolic, that the hero must cross.

◦The world as he/she knew it fades and he/she enters into an unknown world.

◦More often than not, the Threshold is guarded.

The Road of TrialsThis is where the trials

and tests occur for the hero, testing his/her limits and abilities.

These tests can be physical, mental, or spiritual.

This is where we learn about the hero; we find out about his/her character by the choices they make and how he/she pulls through them.

The Road of TrialsMeeting the Goddess

◦Often the hero falls deeply, completely in love. This love is representative of a promise of eternity, often through children, but symbolically through the fulfillment of a very deep desire of love, lust, and comfort that is now quenched.

◦The “Goddess,” in this case, is present in every woman.

The Road of Trials, cont…Temptation:

◦More often than not, the hero is confronted with temptations. These can be beautiful women, treasures, or power, to name a few, but heroes have a knack for staying true to their intent.

The Road of Trials, cont…The Whale’s Belly

◦Yes, sometimes this really takes place in a whale’s belly. Jonah, Pinocchio, etc…

◦More often, though, this represents the lowest part in the hero’s adventure and is very symbolic. This can be a decent into a cave, hell, a body of water, or is perhaps the faceoff with the ultimate villain.

◦This is the point when the hero is willing to undergo a metamorphosis.

Road of Trials, cont…Atonement with the Father

◦Look at the word Atonement (At-One-Ment). This is the place where the hero becomes one with (usually) his father or father-like figure. This is uncannily common (apparently most heroes have daddy issues). This is where we face an incredibly powerful figure face to face. Luke and Vader, Simba and Mufasa, etc…

Apotheosis◦A big scary Greek

word that means, basically, to become godlike. This is where the hero is seen in all his/her power or wisdom. Buddha’s

transcendence, Odin’s grasp of power, Luke’s becoming a Jedi, etc…

The Boon◦A funny word for

the goal of the quest. This could be treasure, a great secret, peace and order, or even simply relief from a monster.

The Return

Often, heroes want nothing to do with the world they’ve left. They’ve seen paradise and want to stay. They refuse to return.

Hmm…should I go

back?

The Magic FlightWith treasure (or knowledge) in hand, the

hero must return home, often encountering as many troubles as on the way to his/her goal.

Rescue from Without◦Sometimes

the hero needs helpers or guides (just as in the beginning) to start his/her return to the world.

The Return, cont…

The Return of the hero is a sign of the end of his/her cycle. He/she has become the butterfly he/she was meant to be and is ready to come back to the world as we know it.

Master of Two Worlds.This is the stage in which the

hero lives in two worlds, one of the gods or divine, and one of humans and mortals, equally comfortable in both.

Jung, a psychologists, saw the hero’s “slaying of the dragon” as a representation of our unconscious slaying lust or rage. The hero acts as a map to our own unconscious mind. We all have our own quest and dragons.

A hero’s victory is victory for us, as we can strive, like them, to achieve a higher level of consciousness. Heroes give hope for life after death, relief from suffering, and a sense of order to rule our lives.

Heroes are timeless, too. They evolve with the culture in which they reside. A hero represents and reproduces a culture’s values and traits.

This is good and bad, though, as has been seen throughout time. If a culture is militant and violent, so are its heroes. If heroes reproduce societal traits, then, logically, a war-based society will continue in its violent, destructive ways.

Sadly, with a decline in the relevance of religion and mythology in modern man’s life, heroes are no longer a bridge between a healthy conscious and unconscious.

With a severed collective unconscious, we fall to extreme individualism devoid of the heroic need to return to society and share our boon.