Eternal Patterns That Influence Me
In a world, that honors and promotes growth, it feels like a rebellious act to focus on personal depth. With personal depth, I’m referring to an inner understanding and exploration of our personal emotions, values, beliefs and experiences.
While personal growth, at least what we often see in the personal development sphere, is often cruising on the surface and focuses rather on the desires of the ego, which might never fully still our hunger.
Both are important, but personal depth will create a more long-lasting satisfaction and understanding. As we focus on the underlying energetic structure on which our ego can rests. If the foundation is unstable, we can’t build a solid house on top. The same is true for developing our ego.
A part of the energetic structure are archetypes.
I have always been drawn to things I found mysterious.
Archetypes are such a theme.
Watching a good movie, listening to certain music or looking at art evokes an energy that creates a certain aliveness inside of me. And that is not only true for me.
This is universal. This is why stories, art & music work and have such a grip on us. These forms of expression help us get out of our own repetitive stories that form our identity and connect us with archetypal structures.
As Julia Turk, creator of the Navigators Tarot said:
“You become receptive to cosmic vibrations by
setting aside the demands of the ego-personality”
C.G. Jung, psychiatrist, scientist and a pioneer of the unconscious realms, discovered the psyche of every person is rooted in what he called the “collective unconscious”. He recognized certain patterns, and dynamics that were present in the area which is below our surface.
As they are part of the collective, they are part of each individual. They are primordial images that inform us. A blueprint of our psyche.
Archetypes are timeless patterns of behavior, qualities and values that are deeply ingrained in our nature. We see them across cultures and generations. These clusters are embodied in archetypal figures such as the hero, the wise old man, the king/queen, the wizard/witch, the warrior and the fool. They appear in literature, mythologies and modern culture. And they have a grip on us.
King, Warrior, Magician & Lover Archetypes
The Power of Consciously Connecting with Archetypes
There are different ways in which this basic understanding of archetypes can help us.
1. Inner Guidance
Each archetype is rich in wisdom. They give us inner guidance that comes from the unconscious, which can provide us with valuable insight and direction in life. Connecting to the archetype of the king inspires the king within us and with it, we get a sense of the qualities. We are able to shift into a different seat, profit from the instinctual knowledge and use it for our expansion.
Being surrounded by archetypal energy makes it easier for us to embrace the desired or needed attributes.
2. Personal Depth
It also helps us to look below the surface level and better understand our behavior patterns and which archetype are we dominated by. Here we can ask ourselves, what archetype balances it out? Being always in the warrior energy might be useful for a while, but we also have to access the lover in order to have intimate relationships to other people and the world around us. The warrior and the lover are examples of archetypes that balance each other out.
3. Relationship Depth
It helps us to create deeper relationships. We constantly project onto other people. A part of the projections is archetypes. We might sense the Guru archetype in someone, we look up to them and but are blinded by our own projection. Recognizing that we project an archetype will set our expectations right before we get disappointment. Because no one can carry for us the energy of an archetype. We are so much more than just an archetype.
4. Interconnectedness
The archetypal lens allows us to see the interconnectedness of all things and how everything is connected to a deeper, universal meaning. This can give us a sense of purpose and belonging, and help us to understand our place in the world, in our culture, tribe, projects and at work.
We can stand in the way of the healing energy of the archetype
There are archetypes that are more difficult for us to connect. Even though they have an important function in our psyche. If we suppress them, we tend towards one-sidedness and that leads us to places of stuckness. We need to balance it out.
“If you are not in touch with the king (or queen) in the other world (referring to the archetypal world),
your life in this world is going to be a terrible mess.” Robert L. Moore
The energies of archetypes that we suppress are often those that carry a bad reputation.
An example is the warrior. When we hear about the warrior we might think about the shadow aspects of the warrior.
All the unnecessary violence, blood, lack of compassion, etc. But where there is a shadow, there also has to be some light.
A similar resistance can come up when connect to archetypes through stories, art or music.
It can become difficult for our ego to connect to the energy behind art. Remember the quote from the beginning of this post? “You become receptive to cosmic vibrations by setting aside the demands of the ego-personality”
Our triggers can stand in the way to connect to the energy. This is something that I witnessed in my own life but also in the life of people around me. There is resistance, even though if we look below our triggers we can discover some truth and some value.
Let’s say we want to connect to the warrior, the warrior is often represented on a battlefield.
This can create a lot of resistance as we might connect with a shadow aspect of the warrior.
But if we look behind the image we will sense the assertive, focused and vigorous energy of the warrior.
This is what we want to connect with.
We want to embrace the focus and the strength that can move mountains, make things happen, that clear obstacle and is in action for a higher good. The fire of the healthy warrior.
A few months ago, I was in a group call with training that I’m co-leading. We had a guest speaker who was talking about the archetype of the hunter. He visualized the hunter as the person who kills a deer, rips out its heart and feasts on it.
A quiet violent image.
But connecting to an archetype is not about the image. Our ego’s complexes might stay stuck at the surface level, but when are able to look below it we are able to connect to the cosmic vibrations of the archetype and use it for good.
Do not confuse the image or the word, with the actual essence of it. It’s about the instinctual energy, that is in all of us, the energy that helps us to connect to the complete range of experiences, qualities and feelings.
We are not made to fly, even though the energies of the archetypes
might make us believe that. Our soul is in our soil, down at the ground.
I believe this is not talked enough about. There are so many embodiment courses of certain archetypes that have names like “Embody the Divine Goddess you are” or “Embrace Your Inner Warrior: The Art of Embodying the Warrior Archetype” and I’m sure they all have value. But we should not confuse ourselves with an archetype.
We are not the archetype.
In the book “Facing the Dragon: Confronting Personal and Spiritual Grandiosity “ by Robert L. Moore he warns us of inflation through certain archetypes.
If we tap into the frequency of an archetype, we might fall into the trap of overidentifying with it. The trap is that it actually will feel good. It feels powerful to be immersed so deeply in the energy of an archetype.
But you are not living any more from your own essence. To bring you back into homeostasis, the psyche will deflate your ego again.
After the rise, the fall.
This is most of the time, not a comforting process.
We suddenly recognize that this is not us, we are not the goddess expressed in a human body.
Everyone knows that experience.
We feel a boost of energy, almost like we are under an external influence that gives us a high. We have a great day, everything works out smoothly.
We believe everything is possible, we believe we are at the top of the world. A wonderful feeling. But if this is not coming from a rooted, strong space, we will experience a wake-up call.
The story of Icarus talks about that. He turns away from the ground, flies too high, burns his wings at the sun and falls down back to earth.
We are not made to fly, even though the energies of the archetypes might make us believe that. Our soul is in our soil, down at the ground. If we dismiss the soil and the roots, the soul will create a balance again.
The Fall of Icarus (1602–1607) engraving by Marten de Vos.
A Process of Connecting with Archetypes
1. Choose some qualities that you want to embody more. These can be qualities that are balancing out a dominating quality or qualities that are at this moment of your life especially important. Let us say you are working long hours every day and you are not able to fully connect with other people around you and you lose a sense for the beauty around you. The quality that would balance that out would be e.g. gratitude and presence.
2. Based on this quality find which archetype resembles this quality the best.
There are endless amounts of archetypes. To make it easier for the beginning we will only focus on four archetypes.
Archetypes that embody a wide range of qualities are:
King/Queen, Warrior/Huntress, Magician/Priestess, Lover.
King/Queen: Responsibility, Justice, Authority, Generosity, Power, Boundaries, Order, Leadership, Compassion
Warrior/Amazon: Courage, Determination, Strength, Confidence, Discipline, Focus, Honor, Loyalty
Magician/Priestess: Creativity, Intuition, Transformation, Visionary, Inspiration, Curiosity, Analytical
Lover: Appreciation, Presence, Compassion, Love, Sensual, Sensitive, Grateful, Joy, Alive
3. Invite the energy of one of the archetypes that you need right now. Make it your task to connect with the energy on a daily basis. This can take many different forms. A few examples here:
Listen to music that invokes a certain energy
Watch movies represent that archetypes
Create a mood board of the archetype and place as a background or screensaver
Place images of the archetype
Listen to relevant stories, mythologies or fairy tales
Reach out to a person that resembles this archetype
With this, you are inviting the archetypal energy into your psyche. You will be able to feel into the qualities that are needed and to bring them into your own life.
I could finish this off, as a “good” coach would do, with some commitments you should take based on your experience of the above points. But so often I notice that just immersing ourselves with the right energy is already enough. You will intuitively know what actions you need to take. So for this exercise, just surrender, trust into the process and infuse yourself with the archetype.
Archetypes play an important role in our personal life and understanding of ourselves. By connecting with these timeless patterns of behavior, qualities, and values, we can gain inner guidance, improve our relationships, and see the interconnectedness of all things. This knowledge can inspire personal depth and creates an innerstand for our life. Try to acknowledge these universal patterns inside of your own life, your stories and in the life of the people around you.
It is truly amazing how this is all connected.
If this article created some curiosity feel free to reach out to me, ask some questions or give me some feedback.
Furthermore, this topic has deeply informed the way I work with my 1:1 clients. If you want to explore more, reach out and we can have a chat.