What are archetypes?
You might have heard of the concept of archetypes. In particular, you might have heard of the concept of king or queen, warrior, magician, and lover. These were the original four archetypes named by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette back in 1990 as a result of Robert Moore’s exploration of Jungian psychology.
But over the years, other people have developed other names for the archetypes so that, for example, the king archetype and queen archetypes may have become known as the sovereign. The magician may have become known as the transformer, or sorcerer, wizard, priestess, and such like, and the lover may have become known as the feeling body.
But all of these names are designed to encapsulate one aspect of the archetypes, which is the qualities that they bring to us and to our lives. However, at this point, you may be wondering what on earth an archetype actually is, and it’s a fair question because it’s an obstruse psychological concept formulated by Carl Jung in the early 20th century.
What do we mean by “archetype”?
Basically, an archetype is a pattern of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings that resides within our genetic structure as a species. The specific way in which the archetypal “program” is expressed that allows us to differentiate between the different expressions of the archetypes in different individuals.
So for example, while your king or warrior might be strong, leading you to be bold and assertive in the world, you may know someone whose king and warrior are weak, so they cannot assert themselves. Or you may, for example, know somebody whose king or queen allows them to be confident and explore the world with self- assurance and self love, while you may know someone else who is less able to put themselves “out into the world”.
All of these variations are natural, but the one thing that we all have in common is that these archetypal patterns are an essential part of us and contribute to our physical, psychological, and social attributes and makeup.
Obviously, it would be very helpful as a human being in the society in which we live if we were able to develop and control these archetypes as we wish! Well, the good news is that you can actually develop the archetypes and you can also control the way in which each of the archetypes is expressed in you, in your individual way of being in the world. Let’s take a look at how we can go about finding the king within.
This archetype is the part of you that allows you to behave with confidence, holds your self-worth, sets a vision for your life and your future, and allows you to make decisions that serve the whole of your kingdom or queendom, whatever that may be, in a way that’s positive, affirming, wholesome, generative, and supportive. (When we talk about kingdom or queendom, what we basically mean is any area of life for which you are responsible or in which you are the leader.)
And that fact leads us onto the next aspect of the sovereign archetype, which is the quality of heart-centered leadership. A heart-centered leader is always compassionate, looking out for the good of everybody, and his motivations or her motivations will always be based upon the principle of “what in this situation would be best for all concerned?”
Heart-centered leadership is a complicated issue, yet very fundamental to leading a good life – and having a qualify of life that is satisfying and enjoyable. If you’d like to know more about the qualities of the heart-centered leader, then this book by Rod Boothroyd is the one you must read.
Before we move on to the Lover, let’s briefly think about the Warrior.
The Warrior Archetype
The archetype of the warrior is the part of us that allows us to go out into the world, while confidently asserting ourselves and making an impact in whatever field of enterprise we’re involved with. The point about the warrior archetype is that it’s not associated with warfare per se, although originally in our evolution as human beings, we would have had an impetus to defend our territory and perhaps even to attack other tribes in order to survive.
Regrettably, perhaps, this archetypal energy still exists within us, but today it’s much more aligned with the purpose of asserting ourselves and making an impact on the world so that we can assert ourselves. And so that we can have an impact on the world, we can get what we want, we can make our presence felt, and we can actually achieve what we wish in the world by taking action.
Now, the archetype of the warrior often gets a bad rap because it’s associated with warfare in people’s minds, but the truth of the matter is that for anybody, living in any kind of society, having a powerful warrior is absolutely essential. Without this energy and without this impetus, which allows us to make an impact on the world, we are basically impotent. We have no power, we have no authority. We have no way of asserting ourselves or indeed of setting boundaries.
Yes! Setting boundaries, especially in the world of love and romance, and in all our interpersonal relationships, is another aspect of the warrior, one which is absolutely critical to our well-being. You may well have experienced people invading your boundaries at some point during your life, asserting themselves in your world in a way that was unacceptable to you.
The question at that point is: do you have the power and authority to assert yourself and stop this happening? In many cases, people will find that their warrior isn’t strong enough or doesn’t know how to prevent this kind of psychic or physical invasion of their world. To maintain a healthy position in the world you need to learn how to develop your warrior. If you’d like to know more about this, then this book by Rod Boothroyd shows you some powerful ways of asserting your warrior and gaining traction and authority in the world in which you live.
More about the warrior archetype
Of course, the warrior can over-develop, and in some cases, as you may well know from your own personal experience, it can develop into a loud, aggressive bullying part of us. This is generally due to an inability to channel the warrior in a wholesome and balanced way. For anybody who finds that they have difficulty channelling the warrior in a good way, some kind of therapy or counselling or coaching (in fact the best option is deep process psychotherapy) is a very good idea. This allows you to find out why your warrior was so unable to assert him or herself in the first place; and, better, to correct whatever deficits of development have led to that situation.