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Gail Goodwin © 2012 During his lifetime, Carl Jung, often called the father of modern psychology, put forward his theory about archetypes. He described them as universal patterns of behaviour that reside in the realm of the human collective unconscious. The word archetype has now become a familiar term since experts such as Joseph Campbell, Carol Pearson, Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Caroline Myss have written about them. You could say that each archetype is like a collection of thoughts that have combined to form an idea, and an ideal, and this is what people draw on to shape the roles that they play. Since ancient times, every human being has added their ideas and thoughts to what it means to be a mother for example, or a warrior, a servant, a healer, a hero, and the many other roles that people play. If each person has put their thoughts and ideas about those roles in to this collective ‘pool’, then this suggests that each archetype is subject to transformation and the evolutionary process. Two hundred years ago, if the word hero was used, it was usually within the context of war or the capacity to lead and conquer foreign lands. These days, the word hero has been used to describe Olympic gold medal winners or cancer survivors. Today’s idea of what it means to be a mother or father is undergoing a process of transformation. Mothers and fathers are now ‘parents’. Gender is less important than it was in the nineteenth century. This is evident with the increase in working mothers, stay at home fathers, and single fathers and mothers. Contemporary society is now demanding that mothers and fathers learn to play each other’s roles in order to fill that position whenever the need arises. Archetypes continue to grow, since they are affected by the ever-changing social, environmental, economic and political climates. Since the evolution of archetypal patterns never stops, this also suggests that archetypes have the potential to hold a vast amount of collective wisdom that has been gathered throughout the ages. Having been in development over eons of time, they are now well and truly established, and yet, are constantly evolving forms.Therefore, it would make sense to say that archetypal information never goes out of date. It moves with the times. Archetypes provide contemporary information supported by ancient wisdom. Accessed using your intuition and a gentle stream of consciousness dialogue, this information is available now in the form of your Archetype Profile. Your Archetype Profile usually takes at least four and most often six one hour sessions to complete. There are ten stages involved in its creation. They are listed below: Some time ago, Wayne, an IT expert, called me for help. He wanted to gain insights into his life challenges and lessons and to find out what he could do to stop sabotaging himself and reduce self-doubt. He was also very keen to learn how to listen, trust and follow his intuition. Creating an Archetype Profile so he could understand his stories and what he could do to rewrite them to change his life was just what he needed. So over a period of six weeks, during one phone call each week, we proceeded to create his Archetype Profile. After we spent some time exploring the four primary archetypal stories common to everyone, we began the process of identifying his eight personal archetypal stories. This gave us twelve archetypes to tell us their stories. These were Wayne’s archetypes, arranged into a hierarchy of current importance to him: 1. Olympian Writing archetypal stories is done in an intuitive manner, allowing the words to rise to the surface in a gentle stream of consciousness way without the need to self-correct, or make the exercise grammatically perfect. The thinking mind is put to the side during the process while the intuition is encouraged to speak. There are two sides to any story, so after a dialogue with each archetype to identify their strengths and weaknesses as a single word or short phrase, Wayne then strung each word together, and like precious pearls on a necklace, he wrote a positive and negative story. One story was based on the weaknesses of each archetype, and the other on their strengths. Here’s what the archetypes revealed: This is Wayne’s story, based on his weaknesses: Feeling helpless leads me to into despair. That is when I become disenchanted to the point of feeling hopeless. Sometimes others are disenchanted with me so I abandon them or they abandon me. When I find myself isolated and alone, I try to manipulate others or they manipulate me. Then I lose my passion for life. This causes inner and outer conflict for me, where I expect too much of myself or others, where they expect too much of me, or where I criticise myself and others, or they criticise me. So a fear of criticism influences my behaviour. I feel guilty, others try to make me feel guilty, or I make others feel guilty for not living up to my expectations. I find that I sell myself out trying to prove myself worthy. When I feel unworthy I keep pushing and driving myself to come first.” This is the positive side of Wayne’s story, based on his strengths: “If I remind myself that life’s a game that I don’t have to win, then I would have more energy to nurture myself. Life would be fun and more enjoyable, especially if I clearly define my personal boundaries. Then I would not be overwhelmed with responsibilities. Wayne’s weaknesses helped him to realise the many ways he sabotaged himself while his strengths revealed a way to move beyond sabotage and into a more fulfilled life. Wayne found some major insights into his life challenges and lessons. He discovered what he could do to stop sabotaging himself and reduce self-doubt and in a very short space of time, he experienced a way to listen, trust and follow his intuition. Wayne found the answers he was looking for at that time in his archetypes. He gained a personal development tool that would support him for the rest of his life because the skills he learnt can be applied over and over again. Most people love to tell their story. Archetypes capture the essence of a person’s story, helping them to find greater meaning in life’s difficulties, situations and events. They help a person to relate to the big picture–the shared archetypes that transcend time and culture, and how they may unconsciously influence the ways that you deal with the world. What you are not aware of is unconscious. When something is unconscious, it has the power to influence you like a spell that binds you, but you don’t know about it. Unconscious behaviour, skills and challenges can be brought to light by identifying your personal archetypes. You can break your spells and rewrite your life stories in a way that is empowering instead of disempowering.
Photography by Benno Poeder |
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