BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality New Age Let's Talk About Archetypes

Some of you may be familiar with Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, Caroline Myss, and others. All speak a lot about Archetypes.

Here's an article I've written for a general overview of Archetypes: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8998.asp

Some questions:

What Archetypes do you see working in your life?

Some of mine include:

Teacher/Guide
Queen/Warrior
Hermit
Mystic
Rebel
Seeker
Detective
Hedonist
Judge/Critic
Messenger/Mercury
Trickster/Hermes
Lover
Prophet
Writer
Catalyst
Magical Child
Wounded Child

Which Archetypes have posted the most problems? The most opportunities for growth? Would you care to share any stories?

Have you read Sacred Contracts and done the Archetype Wheel? Do you agree with the 12 Arkies only system? What has worked for you?

What books on Archetypes have you read and have found to be helpful?

I look forward to your posts!

Hi, Janet!

My introduction to the idea of archetypes happened just recently (last August) when I stumbled upon Caroline Myss' website! Immediately it struck a chord in me, I purchased Anatomy and Sacred Contracts, and went to work trying to filter down to just 8 arkies particular to me (the other 4 being 'givens' to all of us). I have to say, though, that if there is a school of thought that would extend the number of arkies I can identify as 'mine', that would make such a difference! I had difficulties paring down my list, and there are several that I KNOW are energized within me.

Here's my original list:

Queen
Seeker
Addict
Rebel
Rescuer
Artist (primarily Author)
Jester
Guide
....Victim
....Prostitute
....Saboteur
....Child (Wounded)

The others that resonate deeply within and through me are:

Hermit
Goddess (Hertia)
Mystic
Healer
Child, Divine
Judge
Servant


I've recently learned that the Seeker in Shadow (in my 7th house) has presented challenges, as had the more 'predictible' ones like Sabateur and Victim. Seeker in shadow - especially in Marriage/Relationships - is that lost soul in me always looking for the illusive 'something more', and after a period of a number of years, ending one relationship to try to find 'it' in another.

On the verge of seperation, just this last weekend I decided to engage this shadow aspect of my Seeker, and so using The Work (and with private spiritual counselling), I will be engaged in my marriage in a new and more deeply personal way...the idea that the contract I have with my husband is for one of healing and growth - he's like a mirror, reflecting back to me areas of myself that I need to address. It's sort of complicated to address here, but I'm going to drop certain stories that I have about myself, him and our marriage, in the hopes that we will reconnect in a way that is even more deeply fulfilling and powerful.

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Janey

Wow, we have such similiar Archetypal energies, Janey! I often wonder if Mystic and Seeker keep switching places in the 9th House, for that is where my challenges often are in terms of personal meaning and spirituality.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you recognize Goddess Hestia in your life? How does Judge manifest? Jester? What about Author? I'm very interested, if you're inclined to share. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

(And I think Byron Katie's work is absoultey amazing. Very helpful!)

I tell ya, we're twins seperated at birth (and maybe 14 years...I'll be 47 next month! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> )

sheesh...Thanks for the spell check! Yes, that should read "Hestia" the Goddess of Hearth and Home! LOL (hopefully, if there IS a Hertia, she isn't like the Goddess of Hangnails or something!)

Hestia...knowing very little about Goddesses, the gang over at Myss.com actually helped me out with this one. I was posting about how I 'make homes' no matter where I am...starting when I was a small child making blankets in treelimbs into 'cozy' tents (with baskets of food on pullstrings and everything). I had my first apartment at 19 and ever since, I use whatever is at hand (including a lot of elbow grease and some creativity) and make where ever I'm staying as 'homey' as possible. My old boyfriends used to LOVE this! LOL I just couldn't stand dishes in the sink and 3 months of scum in the tub....I'd arrange things and use whatever was available <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Even now, our house has a lot of 'shabby chic' and 'treasures' I've found at yardsales and thrift shops that I've turned into something fun, mixed in with the occasional new piece, and the overall effect is very peaceful, comfortable and welcoming....hence, Hestia!

Uh, Judge can be ruthless! LOL Judge in shadow lives in a totally black and white realm (she manifests through the discernment of spirits, as well). Listening to all sides, makes the call, sends off with the guilty, and BAM goes the gavel! Next Case! LOL However, Judge in Light is a defender of those that are defenseless, and sort of a superheroine in a black gown. She loves justice and equality for all, but can be a bit close minded when she thinks she's 'right'. She believes in law and order as a way that all can live more peaceably, but woe to the law breaker! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> (yep, gotta watch her, especially if she and Queen get their hackles up together!)

Jester....She's my mask, my protection, although in this past year I've not used her in that mode as much. Landing in my 12th, She presents my truth in a way that hopefully will be easily heard, bringing a bit of sarcasm to the Truth. She always seems to find herself working with those in position of authority, a bit of a liaison between the inner sanctum and the common folk. Using humor, she can get some info into the ear of the King that perhaps the typical Interoffice Memo wouldn't handle well. And she can also take the word of the King back into the trenches, using humor to deflect what might be a stressful, powerhungry situation. And, like I said, I've used humor to protect myself for forever, it seems! Self depreciating a bit...a way to feel out how others think and feel about me.

Now Author/Writer is just me...I've been writing SOMETHING since early in elementary school...poetry, short stories, etc. I'll never forget my favorite Elementary School teacher telling me that one day, she would see one of my books on the rack <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> . But it seems Writer and Healer work together....I can see the pattern of this over the course of my life where I've written one on one to people, bringing hope and encouragement (If Cheerleader was an arkie, I'd probably pick that one too! LOL Exhorter and encourager by nature <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) With the internet, some of my postings at various groups are reaching a larger audience, and I've just been asked to write an article for a counselor friend who is developing an intuitive counselling website! I'm just thrilled! And really, writing is just something I MUST do...it's not even an option! And with all the journalling and stuff, it's been a powerful tool for bringing clarity and healing in my own life! The words just flow from my heart to the page... <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

BTW, I think what YOU do is fabulous!

It's amazing how so many of the arkies overlap, isn't it? Almost as if their all facets of the same diamond, just presenting a different color depending on how the Light hits!!

I want to hear more about you, of course! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Janey

Hi Janey!

I didn't even mean that as a spell check. LOL When I read it, my brain interpreted it to mean "Hestia". <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Didn't even notice it!

You have a good handle on those Archetypes. Wonderful! Believe it or not, I'd have to say a gay uncle of mine must have the Goddess Hestia archetype. What you describe sounds just like him!

I totally get the "discerning of spirits" aspect from Judge. I call my Judge "Judge/Critic", because I think this Arkie for me (in addition to what you insightfully described) has the ability to "critique"--get rid of the dead wood, that which is not working, etc. Perhaps a "pruner" of sorts. Hmm. Never thought of it that way before!

About exhorter: I have a personality book based on the motivations gifts of the New Testament. It's really quite interesting. One of the 9 gifts is "Exhorter", aka "Encourager".


Disocver Your God Given Gifts

The book contains a thorough test to see what your main motivational gifts are.

Bless your heart. :love: I appreciate your encouragement, you encourager you! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Yes!! It is totally amazing! So fascinating.

Gee, I don't know where to start! You know how it goes...everything seems to connect to everything. LOL If you have any specific questions, I'd be glad to answer them! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi ladies! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Janet, I have Guide too, or Guide/Counselor I guess, as I've come to know it. Janey, thanks for explaining about Hestia, that's really cool, I liked reading about how you makes homes everywhere.

I've read Myss' book too and before that I was learning about archetypes through Jung's work and just through literature and movies. I like looking for archetypes in stories and films.

One that's really resonating with me the last couple of years is Magician, because of the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings movies, and I've been dreaming a lot about sorcerers and things like that. Also a couple years ago a friend gave me a beautiful willow staff that he'd made with feathers and hematite rings attached, and a clear quartz on top. If that's not the most powerful symbol of the Magician, I don't know what is! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I really love it.

I think what this is all about is that I'm in a time in my life where I'm really coming into my own power and making positive changes and creating the kind of life that I really want to live.

Counselor/Guide is really present in my life right now as I'm in school part time to get my pschology degree and become a counselor. But it has always been in my life. I was always a person that others would come to for comfort and as a sounding board and for help sorting things out.

The goddesses Persephone & Hecate really resonate with me as part of this archetype. To me Persephone is a guide through and a mediator between the underworld (which could be taken as the unconscious) and the normal world (the conscious). Hecate for me is a guide through the dark times in life - the transition times when one stage of life is dying and a new one is beginning, but it hasn't quite taken shape yet, if that makes sense. I heard it called "liminal times" once, or "the void." Lots of terms for it, just those in-between times.

I'd really like to work at some kind of women's center after I get my degree and counsel women who are dealing with these kinds of issues. Or possibly with people who are dealing with grief or death. I really used to be afraid of the dark and the unknown and then I realized that with this archetype as part of my personality, I'm meant to be comfortable in those places and with those issues. Once I accepted that about myself, it wasn't scary anymore. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> So this has been a really big one for me.

On my Sacred Contracts chart this fell in the 8th house, which Myss calls Other People's Resources. For me it's Scorpio's house, death, sex, regeneration, house of the serpent and transformation. I didn't understand that placement at first. I think her idea of it being about other people's resources confused me, but now it seems very appropriate, and I do think this is an archetype that's present in my family and so in a way is inherited. I have a cousin who works with elderly and dying people, and another who's a paramedic, and an aunt who's an occupational therapist. I think they all have this in their personalities too, because they're not afraid to deal with things most people are very uncomfortable with. I know both of my cousins have faced death many times in their work, and I imagine that they're compassionate guides for those people.

Anyway, I'm just rambling, but others that reasonate with me - Artist and Detective, Mother, Damsel, Queen, Healer. And Mermaid, although I think some people would say that's not an archetype.

Heather

Hello Heather!

Welcome to the New Age Board!

I really enjoyed reading about your archetypal journey and how you see archetypal energies woven into your life.

I'm intrigued...what is a mermaid archetype? I do believe it must exist, especially since archetypes are endless and so many people seem drawn to them! I'd love to hear about how it works in your life. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Very synchronous that you mentioned Hecate and Persephone. I'm reading this book right now by Denise Linn: Secrets and Mysteries: The Glory and Pleasure of Being a Woman

It's been quite fascinating for me, especially as I feel drawn to explore the Divine Feminine. She talks about being drawn to a particular Goddess, or perhaps "just" the Ancient Goddess herself. She lists several Goddesses and three came to my attention:

Selene (Luna)
Hecate
Persephone

I have strong Scorpio elements in my chart and I think that's why I've always felt an interest in Persephone, although I haven't really immersed myself. I've always had an affinity for the Moon so Selene really called out to me. (I hadn't heard of her until I started reading Linn's book.) I found out that Selene is the 2nd phase of the Triple Goddess, the Mother. Hecate is of course The Crone. (That kind of weirded me out because I admit to being prejudiced against "the hag" and oldness.)

I prayed to Selene before I went to bed the other night, asked for insight in my sleep, and had a disturbing dream. My husband is a great dream interpreter, and the message was basically that logic/analysis/left brain activity is not where it's at for me right now--that it's about intuition and going straight to God. I just couldn't understand why the message had to be contained within such a frightening dream! Hmm. Maybe because the effects of the logical mind can be destructive...

Oh, now I'm rambling! Ack! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'm just thinking aloud here because I don't have any experience with the Goddess. Like anything in my spiritual journey, I often feel totally on my own.

Heather, I'd also like to hear about Detective and Queen in your life, if you're inclined. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I have a very, very strong Detective. She's been with me since I was a little girl! I've always loved mysteries, Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, etc.

I think mermaid is what Myss calls the Don Juan or Black Widow/Seductress, does that make sense? I'm still trying to figure it out. I just love mermaid stories and the ocean and I like to collect mermaid stuff. So I figured that might be one of my archetypes.

Cool book! I just bought her book "Sacred Space" and I have her book "Altars." I like her, I'll have to look for this. My own personal triple goddess is Persephone (maiden), Demeter (mother) and Hecate (Crone). <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I think Persephone is very related to Scorpio because she does live half her life in the underworld and so always has access to the hidden world and secrets and stuff. In the Mythic Tarot, (one of my fave decks!) she is the High Priestess card, which seems really appropriate.

The funny thing about Hecate is if you look at how she's portrayed in classical art, like Greek statues and stuff, she's always a young woman, she's never a crone. So I think she sort of got a bad rap as the patriarchal religions took over the old myths and made her seem like an old warty green hag or something. As I've learned more about her, that's not really how I see her, although she still has the wise crone energy.

I have some other books about that you might like - I need to check my bookshelf and I'll come back and post the titles. There are a lot of good ones on goddesses.

I love detective! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> It's been with me since childhood too, like you said, with Encylopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, I absolutely adored Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Now as an adult I'm hooked on P.D. James mystery novels, I love her detective, Adam Dalgliesh. I love the Mystery! series on PBS and I love the Law & Order Criminal Intent on CBS on Sundays. The detective on that show is amazingly intuitive, he solves all his cases based on his hunches and insights. I also have strong Pluto energy in my natal chart and the astrologer who did that told me that's detective energy.

How does it manifest in my life? I'm always trying to get to the bottom of things, it's like a compulsion. It can be good in my job and as a student, because I never get tired of researching and digging around for the truth and the facts. I love doing that and it's an asset in those areas of my life.

In personal relationships it's good because I can often sense when people are lying to me. But it's bad because people do need to have their privacy and appropriate boundaries, and sometimes I get too nosy and it unnerves people. I can't stand knowing that I'm not getting the whole story from someone, it just drives me nuts. So I have a hard time stopping myself from digging around for the truth, and sometimes I don't even have to dig around, I'll just know intuitively what it is and the other person will sense that, even if I haven't said anything to them, and it's unnerving to them if they don't want to be known that way.

My ex-husband was really unnerved by that a lot because, well, he lied a lot. LOL And he covered his tracks really well, but I'd know what was going on anyway.

Other people though, seem to want me to dig around like that. That's one of the reasons I'm going into counseling. I seem to attract people who want the truth to come out, does that make sense? They may not want to tell it themselves, but they sense that I'll figure it out, I guess, and that I won't judge them for it. I've heard a lot of secrets and confessions and stuff like that and none of it fazes me. I think Detective has a strong sense of objectivity and being able to see the bigger picture of things, you know? Detective doesn't make value judgments, it just wants the truth and it can accept the truth whatever it is with condemning.

You know what's funny though? I've never really known anyone with this energy, but the professor of the psych class I'm taking this semester has it really strongly and it's so weird to come face to face with that. It's a group therapy class and it's basically run like a therapy group, so we're expected to participate and stuff.

Well, I'm a really private person, I think most detectives are. They're nosy but they don't like being figured out themselves, right? LOL But he nailed me the other day, he cut straight to the heart of an issue I had and the truth wasn't something that was apparent on the surface at all. It surprised everyone in the class, but it was totally accurate. So now I understand how people can be so unnerved by me! You can run but you can't hide! <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Heather

Hello Heather!

What made you align mermaid with Don Juan or Femme Fatale? I admit, I don't know many stories about mermaids, but it was the Sirens that I always associated with temptresses. Hmm. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Sacred Space sounds like a great book. I'd like to get it sometime, myself.

Are you a Scorpio or have a lot of Scorpio in your chart? (Persephone) I have my Sun and 3 planets in Scorpionic stellium--and in the 7th and 8th Houses! Do you feel that everyone has a Triple Goddess thing going on? I'm new to this although I do have the Triple Goddess Tarot I've yet to read, use, and review...

I just looked at some images from the Mythic Tarot. Interesting. Is that Prometheus as the Hanged Man?

I didn't know Hecate was portrayed as a young woman! Fascinating. Everything I've ever read portrays her as a hag. Patriarchal religion's influence would make perfect sense.

Yes, please do share your books on Goddesses! I'd be very interested.

I totally, totally resonate with the Detective as you described and the "unnerving" elements. (Mercury in Scorpio is archetypically very Detective!) You cast a Myss Wheel, right? Where did Detective land?

(As you can see...I'm nosy. LOL Detective in action!)

Thanks for sharing your process, Heather! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi, Heather and Janet! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Heather, I love the mermaid idea....I almost picked her for one of my own arkies, however, I perceived her energy in a totally different way. The lovely fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson was the first of the mermaid stories I read as a child...I remember so clearly pretending to be a mermaind all the time! In the bath tub as a little one, then later, in the family swimming pool (this went on way into my teen years!)

The energy of the mermaid in my interpretation had mostly to do with:

-rescuing (of the man from the waters)
-rebelliousness (against her FOO and her tribal beliefs)
-martyrdom (in the giving up of her 'tail', i.e., a part of her that made her who she was)
-romance (for the love of the man)

I'm fascinated by your take on her! How do you see her energy played out???

Janey