by Gary Z McGee; The Mind Unleashed
“We don’t so much solve our problems as we outgrow them. We add capacities and experiences that eventually make us bigger than the problems.” ~Carl Jung
Before diving into archetypes, let’s tackle a key question. What would you do if you already had a billion dollars? Forget the how or why of acquiring that wealth. Forget what you’d purchase. Focus instead on how you’d spend your days now that financial worries are gone.
What activities bring you joy? What fuels your passion? What makes you eager for more (beyond money)? What fills you with vibrant energy and pure delight?
The answers hold the key to getting your life together. Exploring those answers, and noticing how they connect, can reveal your life’s purpose. As Stephen Kotler noted, “Passion exists at the intersection of three or more things you’re really curious about.” Identifying what you love gives you direction, and that’s the first step toward order.
If you’re stuck on this step, move directly to the second one. Practicing the second step regularly will eventually help you answer these vital questions.
The second step involves giving your newfound purpose a clear focus—something your mind can latch onto. Your mind requires leverage. It needs markers, anchors, and symbolic milestones. It needs archetypes.
Archetypes offer a powerful framework for understanding the human psyche. They chart the complex layers of our inner world. The human mind is far from singular; it’s richly plural. A host of archetypal figures dwell within, many in the unconscious, operating behind the scenes yet shaping nearly everything we do. They drive behavior, stir emotions, and infuse life with meaning.
“Archetypes,” Jung wrote, “are the living system of reactions and aptitudes that determine the individual’s life in invisible ways.” They are unconscious psychosocial symbols representing patterns, themes, and concepts in the world.
Archetypes are ideas that resonate broadly across human experience, regardless of background. They’re like a universal human story, something we instinctively grasp. They feel inherently true.
Why is that? Because the human mind is a storytelling machine—a symbol generator that processes and produces symbols mostly beneath our awareness. Archetypes are simply the mythological embodiment of these unconscious symbols. They transcend cultures. So when you think of archetypes, view them as shared behavioral patterns common to all humanity.
Here’s a brief list of common archetypes:
The Hero: warrior, adventurer, outlaw, revolutionary. The Shadow: inner darkness, dark side, fear, power. The Trickster: fool, jester, shapeshifter, sacred clown. The Eternal Child: inner child, beginner’s mind, youth, rebirth. The Old Wise Man: wizard, magician, sage, monk. The Old Wise Woman: Mother Nature, caregiver, nurturer, womb.
So how can archetypes help us get our lives together? The more we understand how archetypes operate, the better we become at recognizing the patterns that drive much of human behavior. The deeper our grasp of archetypes, the more we can differentiate from them. That’s crucial because the more we distinguish ourselves from archetypes, the less unconscious control they exert over us, and the more conscious awareness we gain.
Differentiating archetypes also helps us see their influence on others. And the better we identify archetypes in those around us, the clearer we perceive behavioral patterns within ourselves. Conversely, witnessing these patterns in ourselves fosters greater empathy for others.
Archetypes serve as gateways to behavioral change. They open doors to self-knowledge. They reach the root of what troubles us. They guide us down into the unconscious forces lurking beneath the surface.
Walking through the Hero’s doorway, for instance, instills courage. The hero archetype becomes a tool to invite more bravery into our lives. It plants the seed of a heroic mindset. It tunes our ears to hear the call to adventure. It strengthens our heart to tackle heroic challenges. Most remarkably, it unlocks access to other archetypes. As Maya Angelou said, “Without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” Or, for that matter, get your life together.
With the courage cultivated from the hero archetype, we feel motivated to take bolder leaps. The Shadow is the natural next step.
When we enter the Shadow’s doorway, we encounter a major part of our inner landscape. It holds our deepest fears, shames, regrets, and judgments, but also our greatest power, hidden beauty, and sacred self.
While the hero teaches courage, the old wise man/woman teaches wisdom, and the trickster teaches humor, the shadow teaches fierceness. Fierceness is essential for getting your life together.
One of the most powerful interventions in a turbulent world is confronting our own inner storm. That’s the strength of using the shadow archetype as a tool for order. It accounts for all our personal baggage—inside and out. The full scope of life’s chaos is put into perspective, making it easier to manage.
Once we’ve somewhat handled our own mess and gained the courage to sift through it, we can move into other archetypes. There are countless to explore, and nearly anything we imagine carries some form of archetypal energy.
Entering the Trickster’s doorway, for example, teaches us to find humor in our mess. It shows us how to look into the eye of a category-five life storm and laugh. Sure, it’s unpleasant. Yes, there’s chaos everywhere. But it’s all laughable—a cosmic joke with us as the punchline. And that’s fine.
The Trickster archetype injects a humorous perspective into our worldview, fostering humility, which further strengthens the courage and fierceness from the Hero and Shadow. Now we can laugh boldly and fiercely, despite our troubles. Now we’re fully open to further archetypal revelations.
As we peel back the layered onion of the self, it may bring tears and stink up the place, but deeper awareness outweighs the discomfort. Recognizing, accepting, coordinating, integrating, and synthesizing the self—and the archetypes that symbolically compose it—is what matters now. This is a form of psychosynthesis.
From individuation to self-actualization to self-transcendence and beyond to self-overcoming, archetypal psychology becomes an existential method for further self-development.
So ground yourself, take a deep breath, and let your archetypal journey begin. There will always be challenges to face, but the archetypal path makes them more manageable and, as a bonus, more entertaining.
Ultimately, the quest for deeper self-awareness is what helps us get our lives together. That’s why the archetypal path matters so much. It constantly seeks itself. It helps us finally discover where our energy should go. As Walker Percy said, “The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.”
