Old Archetypes Page
This page holds the text that was on the old "archetypes" page before it was split into three separate topics.
Contents
Periodic Table of Human Archetypes
Introduction and Definitions . . . Historical Origin of the Archetypes
Reasons for Four-Dimensional Classification
Aspects of Reality . . . A Note About "Spirituality" . . . Regions of the Brain . . . Individual versus Group Behaviour
Distinguishing the Shadows: Masculine versus Feminine
Masculine Maturation and Initation . . . The Warrior . . . The Lover . . . The Magician . . . The King
The Feminine Archetypes and Life-Cycle . . . The Maiden . . . The Queen . . . The Mother . . . The Crone . . . Shadows
Periodic Table of Human Archetypes
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Eg ego | Pe persona |
Ae anti-ego | ||||||||||||||
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1 Au animus | Id id |
2 Aa anima | ||||||||||||||
| Masculine | characters | Feminine | characters | |||||||||||||
| IV a | III a | II a | I a | I c | II c | III c | IV c | |||||||||
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3 49.0 K king | 4 97.0 M magician | 5 119.0 L lover | 6 75.0 W warrior | Wi wild |
7 h7.0 Ma maiden | 8 h10.0 Mo mother | 9 h16.0 Cr crone | 10 h13.0 Qu queen | ||||||||
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11 15.4 Di divine child | 12 27.3 Pr precocious child | 13 33.4 Oe oedipal child | 14 37.3 He hero | Ch child |
15 Fl flower- girl | 16 Ig ingenue | 17 Ls "lisa simpson" | 18 Pc princess | ||||||||
| ---------- | --- Shadow | types: --- | ---------- | IV p | III p | II p | I p | -------- | I i | II i | III i | IV i | ---------- | --- Shadow | types: --- | ---------- |
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19 63.3 Ty tyrant | 20 111.1 Dm detached manipul'r | 21 131.3 Ad addict | 22 88.4 Sa sadist | 23 70.1 We weakling / brat | 24 115.2 In denying innocent | 25 138.4 Im impotent / slacker | 26 94.2 Mc masochist | 27 h8.2 Ci cinders | 28 h11.2 Cc critic | 29 h17.1 Bi bitter old maid | 30 h14.2 Re resentful spinster | 31 h8.1 Sd self- destrc've | 32 h11.3 Mr martyr | 33 h17.3 Ww wicked witch | 34 h14.1 Cq control queen | |
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35 23.3 Hc highchair tyrant | 36 28.3 Tr knowitall trickster | 37 35.2 Mb mama's boy | 38 37.5 Gb grandstd. bully | 39 25.3 Wp weakling prince | 40 33.2 Du dummy | 41 36.5 Dr dreamer | 42 39.5 Cw coward | 43 Aqt ugly duckling | 44 Aqq "Lucy" (Peanuts) | 45 Aqp child-Bi | 46 Aqh child-Re | 47 Aqs child-Sd | 48 Aqo child-Mr | 49 Aqe bad seed | 50 Apn child-Cq | |
| \_______ | aggressve | shadow | _______/ | \_______ | passive | shadow | _______/ | \_______ | isolated | shadow | _______/ | \_______ | codepend. | shadow | _______/ |
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Column Designations:
I physical II emotional III mental/intellectual IV integrative & spiritual |
balanced a active c connected |
shadow a aggressive p passive i isolated c co-dependent |
Notes:
* All row and column positions were chosen for reasons, then the sequence numbers were added in simple left-to-right order. * The small numbers in the upper-right of each element are references to sources. For the masculine archetypes, the number gives the page and paragraph in Moore and Gillette [9]. For the feminine archetypes the number gives the paragraph and sentence in Wind Hughes [12]. * The primordial archetypes are not numbered and their positions are not really meant to fit into the structure of the rest of the table. * If you enable Javascript, a click on any element will take you to the description of its archetypal family. * If you like structured charts related to categories of personality, you might also wish to check out my MBTI chart. |
Archetypes in Human Psychological Development
Human beings, viewed distinctly as men and women, undergo a maturation process that leads from prototypical human behavior during early childhood to fully powerful manifestations as mature adults. The mature adult character can be viewed as manifesting itself as a combination of archetypes. Each archetype represents certain attributes of character. In the systems I use, there are four archetypes of each gender, and in most mature adults all eight are found, but with a greater amount of the four archetypes that match the person's own gender.
Historical Origin of the Archetypes
As detailed below, behavioural functions can be divided into categories that correspond to regions of the brain. For the sake of this introduction, let us consider a simple two-category division, between "communication, perception and understanding" on the one hand, and "deduction, decision and action" on the other5.
Note that each occurs equally often in any living thing that exhibits behaviour, regardless of sex or gender. Also, each of these two categories includes physical, emotional and mental aspects. For example, communication can be mental (through words), emotional (facial expressions) or physical (touch, gestures, watching someone move around a room).
The first category (communication) happens between two or more people, while the other can involve a single person or more than one. If you believe in the autonomy of multiple parts of the mind (the Id, ego, and super-ego, an Inner child, etc.) then there is "communication" inside the mind. I consider this to be part of the "deduction/decision/action" category; the individual is using several different skills at the same time. Awareness of the multi-part mind is fairly recent, and is too sophisticated a concept to be relevant here.
In ancient times when story-tellers "taught" wisdom they usually did so through fables involving characters6. Many of the stories that were being told concerned psychology, behaviour, ethics and morality, group interaction, and so on — the kinds of things I am discussing when I refer to "archetypes" and why they are important.
I believe that when the story-tellers wanted to discuss a lesson related to communication, they were more likely to tell the story with a female character. When they wanted to discuss a lesson related to action, they more often chose a male character for their story.6
What happens if a young child is given a vaugely-defined object (say an oddly-shaped piece of wood) to play with? A boy is likely to pretend the object is some sort of tool or weapon, and a girl is likely to treat it like a baby or doll. There is a big Nature versus nurture debate regarding this phenomenon, but that does not need to be resolved here. The only thing we need to agree on is that this phenomenon also affected the story-tellers' choices of what characters to use in their fables6. (Of course, once they made such choices, the resulting oral tradition would have helped amplify the existing gender role bias in the culture).
This use of gendered characters in fables led to a gradual accumulation of beliefs (some of them subconscious) linking lessons to gender-roles. These lessons covered all the areas I listed above (behaviour, morality/ethics, group dynamics, etc.).
Over time, human cultures accumulated a vast body of literature (myths, fables, stories, etc.) containing lessons about behaviour, most of which can be classified into one or the other of the categories I set out above. Newer writers typically built on common themes and clarified old lessons, but the categorization of types of lesson, and association with specific types of characters, continued. Lessons regarding communication/perception/understanding were more likely to use female characters, and those regarding deduction/decision/action were more likely to use male characters.
Our modern descriptions of the archetypes were derived from the mythology fairly recently (e.g. by Jung, Moore and Gillette). The treatment of them as "masculine" and "feminine" is a convenience of nomenclature for those who study and understand the mythology. In general, a Jung/Moore/Gillette "masculine" archetype unifies lessons and wisdom imparted by myths/fables/stories that use male characters.
The association of these with actual male and female people (as distinguished from mythological characters) is an unfortunate accident caused by the terminology.
In other words, our current use of "male" and "female" to refer to the archetypes has no relevant connection to the use of the words "male" and "female" to refer to people — or to the use of "male" and "female" to refer to electrical cable connectors! This is much like the treatment of such words in the east (see for example the relation between male and female in the Yin and yang distinction.) It is no surprise to me that eastern thought has less trouble with the gender words.
Given the problems of "sexism" in teachings that are meant to illustrate the same psychological principles in all people regardless of sex, it might be useful to purge all gender names from the archetypes entirely — but that will be a lot of work. Moore and Gillette describe 24 "masculine" archetypes, and there are another 24 on the "feminine" side (see my table). Nearly all archetypes in the literature, including my sources, have genderized names. I am not going to bother to try to change the names, but in the discussion to follow, I include frequent references to the fact that both "genders" of archetypes occur in both genders of people.
Definition of "Archetype" and Related Concepts
archetype n 1. : a very typical example of a certain person or
thing.
1.c. PSYCHOANALYSIS (in Jungian psychology) : a primitive mental
image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be
present in the collective unconscious.
It is valuable to distinguish between proper-named icons — for example, the typecast personality of Clint Eastwood — the Pandora of Greek mythology — and generic archetypes like the Brother, the In-Law, and the Neighbor — which invoke well-known Western stereotypes of family and community.
I also sometimes refer to the proper-named icons as character archetypes because they are often named after characters in fiction.
Both types of archetypes — proper-named and generic — serve as stereotyped examples of human behaviour by which we can better understand ourselves and those around us. The proper-named icons are very specific, and it is easy to resolve a question of whether that archetype would express a certain attitude or type of behavior. Generic archetypes are more general, and not as clearly defined — we have good neighbors and annoying neighbors. In-laws and brothers also vary widely.
Contrasting both of these is the elemental archetype. These are even more "generic", but also more clearly defined, because they have been reduced to the simplest form. Whereas the proper-named and generic archetypes can be constructed out of a combination of two or more characteristics measured out in equal or differing quantities — an elemental archetype cannot be so constructed out of a combination of others. Each elemental archetype represents the purest distilled refined form — of a single desirable strength, or undesirable weakness.
Here are examples of the three different types of archetypes:
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I tend to use elemental archetypes whenever possible, because they isolate certain specific personality types. For an example of the application of archetypes, see how the Brother, the In-Law and the Neighbor are used to describe promotion.
The most important archetypes I present here represent eight dimensions of personality corresponding to four aspects of awareness and function, with one archetype for each gender — the Warrior, Lover, Magician, King on the masculine side, and the Maiden, Mother, Queen and Crone on the feminine side.
Primordial Archetypes
The main purpose of this article is to present the elemental archetypes arising out of all combinations of the following five distinctions:
- masculine versus feminine,
- four aspects of reality discussed below: physical, emotional, mental/intellectual and spiritual/integrative,
- adult versus child,
- balanced versus shadow, and
- the two extremes of each shadow: aggressive versus passive on the masculine side and co-dependent versus isolated in the feminine side.
Most of these distinctions, taken alone and not combined with any of the others, result in various primordial archetypes discussed by Jung, Freud and others. These include the id, ego, and super-ego; the anti-ego, persona, anima and animus, wild man, and child. I have placed some of these in the periodic table although their positions really do not fit well with the rest of the table and for that reason I did not give them numbers. Select any of the links in this paragraph to read more about them.
Reasons for Having Four of Each
Carl Jung believed that "human preoccupation with quadration" came from a four-sided structure in the collective unconscious[10]. This is reflected in a pyramid-like structure (called a "Quaternio") and a double-pyramid or octohedron (called a "Double-Quaternio") that appear in his Structure and Dynamics of the Self[7]. These structures show (according to Jung) commonalities seen in the symbolism of "various philosophies and religions" including Gnostic and Christian cultures. The quaternio diagrams were adapted by Moore and Gillette (e.g. in [9]) and are now better known in that form.
I consider the symbolism used to illustrate these structures, and the somewhat simplified and modernized appproach of Moore and Gillette, to be too closely bound to non-elemental archetypal concepts (proper-named icons and generic archetypes). Instead, I classify the archetypes by the aspects of reality that they belong to. These are four broad categories of human ability and activity/behaviour.
The Four Aspects of Reality
In the world there is a succession of four types of phenomena: physical, emotional, mental/intellectual and spiritual/integrative. I distinguish these as four distinct aspects of reality, based on the observation that:
- All living things are physical,
- Animals also have emotion,
- Human beings also have intellect, and
- Some but not all human beings experience spirituality, and/or manifest an ability to integrate the other three types of skills.
This is an evolution that occurred through time: living things came first, then animals with emotion, then intellectial (human) beings, and then the human experience of spirituality. (Animals do integrate their limited physical and emotional abilities, but humans have arguably brought this to a much greater level of sophistication and effectiveness).
When viewed independently from this evolutionary progression, the four aspects can also be called dimensions of existence.
In some of my other writing (such as my article on trust) I refer to these as levels, with the physical being the "lowest" and spiritual "highest". The interpretation as "levels" is tied to the following assertions, which are not definitively true:
- All things that have or experience emotion, have a physical existence, but the reverse is not true.
- All things that have or experience intellect also have emotions, but the reverse is not true.
- All things that have spiritual experience also have mental/intellectual ability, but the reverse is not true.
If you do not believe or agree with these, then you should not use the label "levels" to refer to the four aspects of reality. I will avoid the use of "levels" in the discussion to follow.
Here are the four archetypes of each gender arranged by the four aspects:
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This categorization brings a strong new clarity to the many of the details in discussions of what the archetypes are. For example, the classification between physical skills, emotional skills and mental skills helps illustrate how a person applies his/her experience and abilities to the many aspects of a romantic-sexual relationship. In most of the literature (notably in [9]), the entire area of romantic-sexual functioning is lumped into the Lover archetype.
A Note About "Spirituality" and "Integrative"
I distinguish between "religion" and "spirituality" as follows: Religion includes all aspects that are physical, emotional and mental. Spirituality includes is what is "left over" after those parts have been "removed". In other words, spirituality is the part of the religious experience that is neither physical, emotional, mental/intellectual or any combination of those three. Some people never have (any noticable) spiritual experience in their physical lifetime.
Along with "Spiritual" I also use the word "Integrative". This refers to a person's ability to integrate his/her physical, emotional and mental/intellectual skills into a complete facility and maturity. For example, a person who can overcome physical challenges is manifesting the Warrior and/or Maiden; when they are overcoming emotional challenges they are manifesting the Lover and/or Mother — but if they can overcome both types of challenge at the same time they are also manifesting some of the King and/or Queen.
Archetypal Skills and Related Regions of the Brain
To help illustrate the differences between the "communication, perception and understanding" and "deduction, decision and action" functional categories, and to further illustrate what I mean by the four aspects of "physical", "emotional", "mental/intellectual", and "integrative/spiritual", here is a rough guide to the specific neurological functions that are associated with the eight archetypes. In most cases there are more brain regions than are shown here.
| function | aspect | archetype | skill | brain region(s) |
| communication | physical | Maiden | sight, sound, touch, etc. | occipital and temporal lobes, somatosensory cortex, parietal lobe |
| communication | emotional | Mother | empathy; facial expressions; tone of voice | amygdala, limbic system, premotor cortex, (?) |
| communication | mental | Crone | language: speech, listening, and comprehension | left Wernicke's and Broca's areas; anterior insula |
| communication | integrative | Queen | attention-balance spiritual sensation | default network and dorsal attention network (?)
parietal lobe(?) |
| action | physical | Warrior | voluntary muscle movement | cerebellum, somatomotor cortex |
| action | emotional | Lover | overcoming fear/anger/etc.; "deep acting" | amygdala, limbic system, premotor cortex, (?) |
| action | mental | Magician | logical deduction | prefrontal, lateral frontal, and parietal cortex |
| action | integrative | King | oversight, judgment charismatic leadership | cingulo-opercular and fronto-parietal networks
parietal lobe(?) |
The Archetypes in Individual versus Group Behaviors
Each of the four archetypes can also be distinguished by how they are exemplified by individuals and by a group:
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Distinguishing the Shadows: Masculine versus Feminine
Each of the shadows described below (within each of the eight separate balanced adult archetype discussions) occur as two ends of a spectrum. Thus, there are sixteen shadows (two "ends of the spectrum" for each of the eight archetypes). There are also sixteen "child" shadows which are in the table, but most are not mentioned below. The "Boy Psychology" chapter of [9] describes the eight masculine child shadows.
For the masculine archetypes, I have chosen to distinguish the shadows by the amount of balance between controlling ("active") and controlled ("passive"). Thus, the shadows of the Warrior are the sadist (controlling) and masochist (controlled). This, like the four aspects, brings additional clarity to the treatment by Moore and Gillette and other authors.
For the feminine archetypes, I distinguish the shadows by the amount of balance between self ("isolated") and others ("co-dependent"). Thus, the shadows of the Maiden (illustrated as described below by characters in Cinderella) are the closed, isolated orientation of the title character, and the socially-dependent, non-self-defined orientation of her step-sisters.
Note that both shadow-spectrums really constitute a balance of power between the self and others. The masculine/feminine distinction can be described thus: the masculine aspects involve action, competition and strategy, whereas the feminine aspects involve communication, relatioship and community. All of these things exist on each of the four aspects (physical, emotional, etc.) listed above.
The Masculine Maturation Process
For men, the archetypes I use are very close to those (of the same names) described by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette in their books King, Warrior, Magician, Lover; The King Within, The Warrior Within, etc. (see their site [15] for the theory behind these teachings.)
Masculine Initation
It is common for cultures to define, practice or observe various types of initiation for the transition from immaturity to maturity. Although the details differ widely there are a few common elements:
- Boys live among a community of women and children; at a designated age (usually adolescence) the boy is brought out of this community and introduced somehow to the community of mature man.
- Often there is a deliberate and intended process of separation, ordeal and initation following the structure of the Hero's journey.
- The boy, now a man, is no longer limited to the men in his immediate family and now has access to all of the mature men in the community.
- The men provide a frankness and honesty they would not have previously provided, giving the new young man access to their wisdom, mentorship and resources.
This exposes him to the archetypes all at once and in full power. Although he gains access to them all at once, he does not personally have all of them in equal quantity and his life journey involves acquiring the archetypal abilities in whatever order comes to pass, ultimately (hopefully) posessing all in abundance and balance.
The Four Masculine Archetypes
Following is a brief description of the four archetypes used by Moore and Gillette. These are discussed extensively in their books, consult their site [15] for more details.
The Warrior
The Warrior is that part of the mature masculine who overcomes the physical challenges in life. He gives his best, does not quit, and often makes great personal sacrifices, subjugating his needs for the greater good. He is not afraid to die for what he believes in. He fights with honor, and never out of anger.
Shadows of the Warrior
The Masochist
This is the passive shadow of the mature Warrior. Manifestations of the masochist shadow include:
- (This sub-section not finished yet)
This is the active shadow of the mature Warrior. Manifestations of the sadist shadow include:
- (This sub-section not finished yet)
The shadows of the Hero are the Grandstanding Bully and the Coward.
The Lover
The Lover, is that part of the mature masculine who overcomes the emotional challenges in life. He has intuition and the artist's creative impulse; he is empathetic, compassionate and passionate. He is not afraid to tell the truth, even in defiance of the Warrior and the King. He goes deep and will not quit on a man in need until they get what they need.
Shadows of the Lover
This is the passive shadow of the mature Lover. The term Impotent is used in Moore and Gillette; Extremist calls attention to the possibility that the person's external manifestation of emotional behaviour can be a compensation for the difficulty in feeling emotion. Manifestations of the extremist shadow include:
- (This sub-section not finished yet)
This is the active shadow of the mature Lover. Manifestations of the addict shadow include:
- (This sub-section not finished yet)
The Magician
The Magician is that part of a mature masculine who overcomes the intellectual challenges in life. The creativity of the inventor; inspiration; seeking answers to that burning question, and assimilating wisdom — these are his skills. He is not afraid to be wrong, he questions everything and knows that there is always more to learn from the men around him.
Shadows of the Magician
This is the passive shadow of the mature Magician. Manifestations of the innocent shadow include:
- Uncounsciously pretending not to know something, with a result that influences others in some way (if conscious, it is probably the other shadow, the manipulator, see below)
- (This sub-section not finished yet)
This is the active shadow of the mature Magician. Manifestations of the manipulator shadow include:
- "Playing dumb" — intentionally pretending to not know things — in order to gain an advantage in some way. (If the person really doesn't think he knows anything, they're being the "innocent".)
- Pointing out incorrect details to change the topic or derail an argument, even when the result of the argument would be unaffected by those details.
- Stating opinions in the form of questions, so that any answer appears to manifest agreement ("leading" or "loaded" questions, see MCV09)
This is a shadow of the immature masculine described in [9] and posessing properties of both the Innocent and the Manipulator. Hoaxes are often perpetuated by the Trickster mentality:
The King
The King is that part of the mature masculine who manifests spiritual or integrative qualities. (By "integrative" I mean the application of the abilities and skills of the other archetypes in situations that cannot be handled by just one of them). The King brings the Courage of the Warrior, the Passion of the Lover, and the Wisdom of the Magician to the everything in his world. All energy flows from the King, he is the Source. When his life is in balance, his kingdom — the world — prospers. When he is out of balance the world suffers.
Shadows of the King
This is the passive shadow of the mature King. Manifestations of the weakling shadow include:
- Breaking off the conversation in response to other active shadows (can appear as "I am going to take my toys and go home": the man is "leaving" even if he does not physically leave)
This is the active shadow of the mature King. Manifestations of the tyrant shadow include:
- Not speaking personally (see MCV13).
- Making demands; speaking in the imperative.
This can be addressed by asking the person to speak personally. One possible prompt is: I would like you to re-state your demand in terms of your personal desire.
Feminine Archetypes
NOTE: The shadows are immature or negative aspects, they exemplify ways in which people fail to manifest maturity in a particular archetypical dimension. As such, because this is written by a man, I am limiting my discussion of the feminine shadow archetypes and using names that are derived directly from a female author, Wind Hughes [12]. Some of the following still lacks grace and subtlety; I hope to improve it with the help of input from women. Comments and suggestions welcome!
Moore and Gillette do not define the female archetypes distinctly from the male, except to name the Queen as the archetype corresponding to the King. By connecting them to the four aspects of reality, and to four initiation events in a woman's life (described below), I believe I have found a more uniquely feminine characterization of all four archetypes. It is somewhat similar to the progression discussed by Donna Henes2 although mine are in a different order.
The feminine shadow archetypes do not seem to fit the "passive/active" dichotomy that Moore and Gillette apply so effectively to the masculine shadows. I suggest instead the dichotomy of isolated and co-dependent.
Feminine Maturation and Initiation Processes
The four feminine archetypes occur in a fairly pure form in the stories and rituals of pagan cultures, such as those that existed in Celtic Europe before the introduction of Christianity: There they are called the maiden, the queen, the mother and the crone.
Most cultures around the world and throughout history recognize four clearly identifiable physical changes in a woman's life. These four events are: adolescence, entry into marriage (wedding), first childbirth, and menopause. Connecting the four archetypal images with the four physical changes, and the four aspects of reality mentioned above, I see a clear correspondence:
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In most cultures, the four events (adolescence, beginning of marriage, childbirth and menopause) are observed with ceremonies or initiations of one kind or another. Unlike the boy, the girl is not brought out of the community of women and children when she becomes mature — she is already a part of the community of mature women. She has access to all the archetypes through the role models of other women around her — however she gains a special personal connection with the queen, mother and crone archetypes through her own personal marriage, childbirth and menopause respectively. This is quite distinct from the man's experience, which includes only one personal physical change.
The Maiden
The first archetype a woman gains deep access to complements the masculine Warrior archetype. The Warrior overcomes physical challenge. A man becomes a Warrior and is initated into the circle of men when he reaches adolescence. For the woman, this event comes at a similar age, when she is first able to conceive a child.
There are several physical challenges that arise at this time. First is the change in her body itself — a significant and perhaps unanticipated or even frightening physical change. She also has additional physical challenges, in warding off the physical advances of men, and in new adult tasks and roles that she will be asked to take on. She's grown up now.
Associated with this change, there is often a ritual celebration of fertility. Fertility in all its forms (people, the animals, crops and land on which they depend) is very important in ancient human culture. The newly adolescent young women often serves as the symbol of the spring, and of all that is new, beautiful, growing, reborn. All possibilities live in her. The new woman is now manifesting the Maiden archetype. (This "Maiden" is distinct from a "maid" or "handmaiden", and represents all revered aspects of young women — in mythology the purest forms of this archetype are much like the Virgin Mary before the Immaculate Conception.)
Concomitant with her new physical challenges is a newfound physical power — she now gains the interest of the men, which is highly valued — by commanding the interest of men she can solicit their physical help and support. It allows her to begin evaluating men for her most important choice, and the next initiation of her life.
In mythology, the Maiden is exemplified by the Greek goddess of youth, Hebe.[12]
In the table, the shadows of the Maiden are archetypes 31 (the co-dependent side) and 27 (the isolated side). These are addressed thusly by Wind Hughes:
ar31 : She can [...] dangerously [take] risks, becoming self destructive, holding a deaf ear to the inner voice of her own Wise Woman and to the wisdom of others.
ar27 : She may be the dutiful daughter, her self worth linked to pleasing others in order to receive their approval. She has not developed a strong sense of self [...]. — Wind Hughes [12]
The analogies to Cinderella and her step-sisters are clear, and described in my more thorough description of the Maiden shadows below. Based on Wind Hughes' description I am calling archetype 31 the "self-destructive", and number 27 is "cinders" based on the Cinderella analogy. Both appear in male personalities as well.
The child (or girl) aspect of the Maiden is the flower girl; there are also two child shadows (number 43 "child-Ci" and 47 "child-Sd") which I have not yet named.
The Queen
In traditional societies the second archetype for the woman is the one complementing the King, which of course is the Queen. This name was identified by Moore and Gillette.
A woman becomes the Queen by marrying the King. The wedding day — the initation of the marriage — is her introduction into the archetype. This is the day that she receives the commitment of the man of her choice, and the blessing and support of her father and of the community. The commitment of a man is a very valuable thing; it gives her the security she needs to leave her father's house, and to leave her mother and become queen of her own new house.
It is because of the involvement of her community that this day bears the closest analogy to the masculine initiation — it gives her the greatest experience of gaining new connection with all the other, older women in her community. But unlike men, who are brought out of the mother's house into the community of men — the woman on her wedding day is brought out of the house of her father into the house of her husband. This is a big physical change for her — even though there is no body change involved. There is also a surrounding cultural change, the rules of the house are likely to be different — and the emotional change of living with different people.
The shadows of the Queen, are archetypes 34 (co-dependent) and 30 (isolated). They are described this way by Wind Hughes [12]:
ar34 : The powerful queen can abuse her power and direct her knowledge and status for negative purposes, clinging to all she has achieved, becoming consumed with acquiring more and more power.
ar30 : She may respond to her sense of personal, familial or social responsibilities by withdrawing and withholding. [...] She may feel drained, resentful and misdirect her anger [or] feel she has [nothing] to offer this stage of life. — Wind Hughes [12]
The first description sounds a lot like the male archetype 19, the tyrant. To distinguish 34 from the tyrant, and to emphasize the co-dependent relationship aspects, I am using the name "control queen". For archetype 30 I am tentatively using the name "resentful spinster". Despite these female names, both shadows appear in male personalities as well.
The child (or girl) aspect of the Queen is the princess; there are also two child shadows (number 46 "child-Re" and 50 "child-Cq") which I have not yet named.
The Mother
The third archetype the woman enters into, complements the masculine Lover archetype. The epitome of empathetic, compassionate and nurturing feminine character is the Mother. Her entering into this archetype comes of course with her first childbirth.
The woman's experience is actually something men have a taste of, if they are a father. To fathers: consider the day you first learned she was pregnant, and the day your first child was born. The experience affected you in a way that you will never forget. Your priorities changed. In all likelihood the effect that this had on you was unanticipated and very powerful. It can be described as a new awakening of emotional aspects of character, the masculine Lover archetype. Of course, it is only a taste of what the woman experiences.
Unlike the man, the woman has probably been preparing for this since she started playing with dolls as a little girl. And the effect of new motherhood is much more powerful, for 3 reasons: She knows it's her child — unlike the father who might have some doubt; her body is involved — she's the one giving birth; and in all likelihood, for a time at least, she will be the one providing most of the nurturing to the new child.
In mythology, the Mother is exemplified by the Greek goddess of marriage and childbirth, Hera.[12]
The shadows of the Mother are elemental archetypes 32 (co-dependent) and 28 (isolated). They are described by Wind Hughes [12]:
ar28 : [Because we] depend on the mother to nurture us and protect us, [...] she has the power to abuse and abandon us. She can control, criticize and reject the [maiden aspect].
ar32 : [...] She may lose herself into the "other", and dissolve away, taking care of [others] while denying herself, becoming a martyr. — Wind Hughes [12]
Based on these descriptions I am tentatively using the names "critic" and "martyr" for these shadow elements. Both are abundantly common in men and women alike.
The child (or girl) aspect of the Mother is the ingenue; there are also two child shadows (number 44 "child-Cc" and 48 "child-Mr") which I have not yet named.
The Crone
The fourth and final archetype the woman enters into, complements the Magician. The Magician embodies knowledge and wisdom. For women, the knowledge and wisdom to guide other women comes from personal experience, and this experience gains a new level when she has undergone the fourth and final physical change in her life — the change so big that women refer to it simply as "the change".
Along with the Maiden and Mother, the Crone is the third aspect of the "Triple Goddess". The Triple Goddess is a Wicca (neopagan) god with multiple forms or personaliies, in ways similar to the Egyptian Isis and the Hebrew Elohim prior to the doctrine of the 2nd commandment. The Triple Goddess is a metaphor for a woman's life-cycle, and has a symbol that represents three phases of life by a waxing, full, and waning moon.
A reviewer of Donna Henes' book [13] states:
The Crone is the ancient one, the wise one, the all-knowing, all-giving one who dispenses her knowledge with patience and largesse.2
According to Carol Christ,
The older woman or crone is, "The wise old woman, the woman who knows from experience what life is about, the woman whose closeness to her own death gives distance and perspective on the problems of life."1
A woman approaches this archetype at a time when her daughter is now old enough to be a mother, and she is no longer able to have new children. She hands over to her daughter and the other younger women, the role of bringing new children into the community. She becomes a part of the third generation — the generation of Crones — women with the wisdom that comes from having been through all of life's changes. She has had time to evaluate and assess all the decisions she made during her life, compared to the other women around her, and she can help pass on her insight from right or wrong decisions to younger women.
The Crone is looked to by all in the community, men and women alike, as a source of wisdom regarding relationships, family, community, and of course the personal affairs of women.
The shadows of the Crone are elements 33 (the co-dependent extreme) and 29 (isolated). Wind Hughes [12] describes mainly the latter, which I am tentatively calling the "bitter old maid":
ar29 : She can be bitter if she did not complete actualization of the previous stages of life, making it difficult for her to let go of her youth, dreams, people and living in the body. She may isolate herself and may blame others for her misfortunes. Her rage can be fiery. Her sadness and pain deep. — Wind Hughes [12]
We can deduce the nature of archetype 33, the co-dependent shadow Crone, by imagining how her power might be misguided. The Crone's job is described by Wind Hughes:
[...] Her responsibilities have moved into the arena of sharing the knowledge that she has acquired and she welcomes the invitation to share it. She returns the seed of vision back to the Maiden. [...] — Wind Hughes [12]
Combined with the bitterness or resentment mentioned earlier, but without the isolation, I imagine that ar33 would provide incorrect or harmful guidance to the younger women and others in her community who seek her wisdom. I am tentatively calling this shadow the "wicked witch". Despite the female-sounding names, the bitter old maid and the wicked witch also appear as shadows in male personalities.
The child (or girl) aspect of the Crone is a brilliant and accomplished but socially average girl; I have not found an archetypical name and am referring to using an iconic archetype, Lisa Simpson. There are also two child shadows (number 45 "child-Bi" and 49 "child-Ww") which I have not yet named.
Men in the Woman's Life Journey
As the woman acquires her personal connection with the four feminine archetypes, the men in her life play the roles of the complementary masculine archetypes. For this reason, it is possible for a man to view his own life journey (or at least that part of his life that relates to the women in his life) as going through the same four transitions. In chronological order, the masculine archetypes he manifests are Warrior (courting the Maiden), King (marrying the Queen), Lover (father and partner/husband of the Mother) and Magician (providing wisdom to complement that of the Crone).
Shadows of the Feminine Archetypes
Here is a more complete description of the shadows of the Maiden, probably the most easily understood of the four feminine archetypes.
In the periodic table, the co-dependent shadow side of the Maiden is the self-destructive (number 31) and the isolated shadow side is cinders (number 27). "Cinders" is based on the character of Cinderella before the appearance of the Fairy Godmother. This is a woman who has isolated herself, both by rejecting the admiration of others and by not radiating or expressing her beauty to others. By contrast, the "self-destructive" depends on attention and adoration of others and attracts those who depend on her adoration.
The Maiden also embodies the physical aspects of a woman's contribution to the community, for example physical caretaking (as distinguished from emotional nurturing, which is part of the Mother). In this aspect the shadow archetypes of the maiden ar27 and ar31 end up being active and passive respectively, mainly out of compensation for the relationship dichotomy of isolated and co-dependent.
The co-dependent shadow Maiden uses all physical things, including her own beauty, to excess. A stereotypical example is a young woman in American culture who aspires to the less inhibited pop stars as role models; she does not say no to anything physical: smoking, drugs, tattoos, the most permissive available clothing, boys, food, and so on. The result can be similar to that of the masculine addict shadow — the distinction between the two lies in the psychological origins of the behaviour: the masculine addict archetype is at work when the behaviour comes from addiction to emotional pleasure; the feminine self-destructive archetype is at work when the behaviour comes from a co-dependent relationship with peers.
"Cinders" does not acknowledge her beauty, both internal and external. All women are beautiful regardless of what their step-sisters (or the modern advertising industry) seem to be trying to say. Without acknowledging her beauty she is inhibited in self-expression (for example, she would find it more difficult to love others). Another manifestation of this occurs when the young woman does not allow herself to be beautiful. This can happen when an austere and isolated life is chosen for hurtful (self-degrading) reasons.
Examples of both shadows of the Maiden are seen in the beginning of the story of Cinderella. The step-sisters and step-mother embody the "self-destructive" Maiden shadow by being relationship-obsessed and passive caretakers — expecting and even demanding that they be taken care of. In addition they also manifest some of the masculine qualities of the tyrant ar19 and the sadist ar22.
By contrast, Cinderella herself, relationship-isolated, can compensate only by doing all the caretaking. She is convinced by those around her, either that she is not beautiful, or does not deserve to express her beauty4 — and doing all the physical work. This can come from a futile attempt to satisfy the co-dependent and aggressive shadows around her, or from a misguided desire to compensate for her perceived lack of worth.
The Archetypes and Teaching
For this discussion I will use the four "masculine" archetypes as examples, but the same principles apply to the "feminine" archetypes.
People learn almost all of their archetypal knowledge from others around them, and the best learning comes from the best examples. It follows therefore that teachers take the roles of whatever archetypes they are teaching. Everything that can be taught is either physical, emotional, intellectual, or some combination of these three3.
For example, a sports coach takes responsibility for the success of his players in the sport. This is a primarily physical activity and therefore uses the Warrior archetype's qualities. Players teach each other in practice games, and coaches demonstrate needed techniques; all of these are physical activities and constitute a physical teaching/learning experience.
A teacher of an emotional skill (such as acting) will utilize the abilities of the Lover archetype. Acting skill is a fundamentally emotional challenge: getting in touch with needed emotions, and suppressing an unwanted emotion, such as humor, when portraying a sombre, angry or frightened character. In acting workshops, students generate emotions and try to generate those shown by others (e.g. in the "mirror" exercise). A director might also invoke emotion himself either to prod the actor or try to lead the actor to the needed emotional place.
A teacher of a mental skill (such as a professor of mathematics or of law) will use the Magician abilities, primarily asking questions that are designed to help both the teacher and the student learn from the answer. He will encourage the student to ask questions by not giving answers but by presenting just enough information to make the existence of a mystery apparent.
The King teaches mainly by setting an example and being seen. This applies to the social or political King (like some highly-regarded world leaders) or anyone who combines the strengths of the other three archetypes to handle all types of worldly challenges simultaneously. This also applies to the spiritual King (a spiritual leader, or anyone who exemplifies a spiritual life well).
True spirituality cannot be taught — it is up to each person to seek it out and find it for themselves. However many have served as an example of pursuing a spiritual quest and achieving admirable results. Since the qualities of the King cannot be taught directly, he teaches by affinity.
Most actual real-world teachers combine different archetypes in varying amounts. For example, there are emotional and intellectual aspects in most sports, and a good coach handles these aspects well.
Extending the Chemical Analogy
As I described earlier, I chose to arrange the archetypes in a table of rows and columns because that seemed less arbitrary, and more flexible, than the Double Quaternio of Jung. Once deciding to use rows and columns, I then had some options as to ordering, including which distinctions are vertical and which are horizontal; what order the four aspects of reality should go in; whether to put the child next to the adult or the shadow next to the balanced; and so on. The ordering that I ended up with combines several analogies to chemistry, which I list here.
Elements
Each archetype is an "element", because it can not be expressed as a combination of other archetypes in the table. So, for example, the Mother is not a combination of the Ingenue plusthe Queen, or the Lover plus the Maiden, or any other set of archetypes.
However, with a deeper understanding of the structure of the table (or any other orderly structured arrangement) each archetype can be shown to be a combination of primordial archetypes. For example, the Mother represents the communication, emotional, adult, balanced aspect of human personality. The Coward is the action, physical, child, passive-shadow aspect of human personality. The primordial archetypes are therefore analogous to the proton, electron, neutron, and other sub-atomic particles.
"Compounds" found in Literature
Just as chemical elements from opposite ends of the normal periodic table combine to form compounds, archetypes at symmetrically opposite positions in the table are found side-by-side in literature. There are numerous "warrior-and-maiden" stories, in which both are presented as fully mature, good and admirable; and other similar pairings such as Mother and Lover, or King and Queen. Shadows are also often juxtaposed in a symmetrical way — for example, the Wizard of Oz (a Detached Manipulator, number 20 in the table) and the Wicked Witch of the West (archetype number 33).
Iconic or Character Archetypes
I describe "iconic" archetypes as being those that have a specific name, like Icarus, Lady MacBeth, Han Solo, and Hermione Granger. These are characters in mythology and literature, who have a specific personality that is a combination or several or many elemental archetypes. If the archetypes are "elements", then iconic or character archetypes are like "molecules".
In some cases, two characters from entirely different stories (like Doc Brown from Back to the Future and Merlin as portrayed by Disney) can be thought of as "the same personality" because they consist of the same combination of elemental archetypes (in this case, both are an "absent-minded professor", a combination of a strong Magician with child and/or passive shadows of the other three masculine archetypes each in smaller amounts, e.g. the Divine Child, the Dreamer, and the Hero). If we imagine the Magician component to be twice as strong as each of the other three, we would have:
Doc Brown = DiM2DrHe
That is, "Divine Child plus 2 × Magician plus Dreamer plus Hero".
Such cases are actually fairly rare, because characters are rarely so well-defined, and because most characters manifest different archetypes at different times in the story. In fact, such archetypal character changes are an important component of good plot development.
Generic Archetypes
A generic classification, like the in-law or the gunslinger, includes a number of characters that tend to share some archetypal components in common, but differ in many others. If each character is a molecule (as just described), then a generic archetype is a family of molecules (like the Esters, the Amino acids, or the Paraffins).
Footnotes
1 : http://www.naminggrace.org/id32.htm From [8] (page 281) as cited by Viola Larson.
2 : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0975890603 Customer review of The Queen of Myself[13] on Amazon.
3 : Spiritual is deliberately omitted, read on to see why.
4 : The details of plot and archetypal significance varies from one version of Cinderella to another; the story is thousands of years old.
5 : Or more simply, "relationship" and "task".
6 : human characters in fables : Of course, actual history is more complex than this. Many of the earliest known fables used animal characters, not human. According to Joseph Campbell, all mythology began with animal religion and animal symbolism. However, most of the animal stories eventually evolved into a more sophisticated mythology involving gendered (human or human-like) characters. It was during this evolution that the story-tellers were able to choose which gender to give each character.
Bibliography
[7] Carl Jung, The Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, in the Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume IX part II, Carrie Lee Rothgeb (Ed.), Princeton University Press, ISBN 9780691018263
[8] Carol Christ, "Why Women need the Goddess", in Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, by Carol P, Christ and Judith Plaskow (Eds.), Harper & Row (San Francisco), 1979
[9] Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, King Warrior Magician Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, Harper Collins, (New York) (1990), ISBN 0-06-250606-4
[10] Appendix A ("Decoding the Quaternio") from: Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, The King Within: Accessing the Lover in the Male Psyche, William Morrow and Co., Inc, (New York) (1993) ISBN 0-688-09593-3
[11] D.J. Conway, Maiden, Mother, Crone: The Myth & Reality of the Triple Goddess Llewellyn Publications (1994), ISBN 0875421717
[12] Wind Hughes, Maiden, Mother, Queen and Crone, Sowell Magazine, 2000
[13] Donna Henes, The Queen of Myself, Monarch Press (NY), 2004, ISBN 0975890603.
[14] Mary Ovenstone, Understanding the Four Primary Archetypes, interview in Odyssey Magazine. Names the feminine archetypes "Warrioress", "Lover", "Crone" and "Queen". Much in common with Moore and Gillette; also names several composite god and goddess archetypes. Available here
[15] Robert Moore, PhD. Structures of the Self, web page. (First accessed October 2005)
[16] Robert P. Munafo, Marriage initiation ritual, available on this page. Treats the wedding guests as representatives of a larger "community" whose role is to endorse and support the marriage; uses the 8 mature archetypes to represent all aspects of human maturity as manifested by that community.
This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 2022 Apr 02.
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