Use of Carl Jung, Robert Bly & Robert A Johnson to explore archetypes and the "shadow"

1. Masculine & Feminine
ArchetypesArchetypes
Warrior
King/Queen
Lover
Magician/Sorceress

2. What is an Archetype anyway
Let’s start with a dictionary definition
• An original model or type after which other
similar things are patterned; a prototype:
“‘Frankenstein’ . . . ‘Dracula’ . . . ‘Dr. Jekyll and“‘Frankenstein’ . . . ‘Dracula’ . . . ‘Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde’ . . . the archetypes that have
influenced all subsequent horror stories” (New
York Times).
• An ideal example of a type; quintessence: an
archetype of the successful entrepreneur.

3. Jungian Archetypes
The concept of psychological archetypes
was advanced by the Swiss psychiatrist
Carl Jung, c. 1919.
In Jungian psychology, an inherited
pattern of thought or symbolic imagery
derived from the past collective
experience (“the collective unconscious”)
and present in the individual unconscious

4. Jung outlined four main
archetypes:
• The Self, the regulating center of the psyche and
facilitator of individuation
• The Shadow, the opposite of the ego image,
often containing qualities that the ego does notoften containing qualities that the ego does not
identify with but possesses nonetheless
• The Anima, the feminine image in a man's
psyche
• The Animus, the masculine image in a woman's
psyche

5. Other Archetypes
• Although the number of archetypes is limitless, there are
a particularly notable, recurring archetypal images:
• The Hero
• The Great Mother• The Great Mother
• The Wise old man
• The Trickster
• The Puer Aeternus (Latin for "eternal boy")
• The Mentor
• The mad scientist

6. The Warrior
– Associations: Air, Swords, Thinking. East
– The Warrior archetype represents physical strength and the
ability to protect, defend and fight for one’s rights. The
Warrior is linked to invincibility, loyalty, stoicism and
discipline.
– The Warrior sets boundaries that cannot be violated and
display toughness of will and spirit as well as physical
strength. He is self-sacrificing (to death if need be) and a
conqueror of his own ego and physical desires.
– The classical warrior does not win by brute strength. Instead
he plans, schemes and uses his wisdom and insight to
defeat the foe (“know your enemy”).
– At his best, he is a devoted and loyal servant for the King and
fights for the just and honourable cause.

7. Woman Warrior
• The Warrior archetype is just as connected to
the female psyche as to the male/ Women have
long been defenders of their families.
• Amazon women are legendary for their ability to
engage in fierce battle, Chinese martial arts
movies feature women as well as men.
• In today’s society Warrior woman has emerged
again to champion those needing representation
and a voice.

8. The King
• Associations: Earth, Pentacles, Sensation, South
• The King represents power and authority in all men
when they have gained sovereignty over their own
affairs. Symbolically his court can be everything from a
country, corporation or his home.country, corporation or his home.
• He is sometimes pictured as a wicked or weak king as
the fable of Emperor’s New Clothes but is more fairly
shown as benevolent and protective of his country
and subjects such as the persona of Solomon or the
Pharaohs.
• There is a strong association to material abundance
and the joy of the senses and possessions such as
food, clothing and the home. This is like the Celtic
belief that the state of the country is in harmony with
the state of the ruler.

9. The Queen
• The Queen represents power and authority in all women
when they have gained sovereignty over their own
affairs. Symbolically her court can be everything from a
country, corporation or her home.
• She is sometimes pictured as a wicked queen as in
Snow White (“who’s the fairest of them all”) but is moreSnow White (“who’s the fairest of them all”) but is more
fairly shown as benevolent and protective of her
country and subjects such as the persona of Queen
Elizabeth I (the virgin queen).
• There is a strong association to material abundance
and the joy of the senses and possessions such as
food, clothing and the home.

10. The Lover
• Associations:– Water, Cups, Feeling, West
• The Lover Archetype is obviously joined with those
who are romantically inclined, but also in anyone
who exhibits great passion and devotion. One can bewho exhibits great passion and devotion. One can be
a Lover of art, music, fishing, fine machinery, nature or
things nautical. The key is in the having of unbridled
and exaggerated affection and appreciation for
someone or something that influences the organisation
of your life.
• It is strongly linked to your self-esteem especially
regarding your physical attractiveness

11. The Magician/Sorceress
• Associations: Fire, Wands, Intuition, North
• The Magician is concerned with using, intuitive,
(seemingly) supernatural, psychic or occult/secret
powers to convert matter, events or time into his own
use for an altered expression of himself.
• The Magician produces results outside of the ordinary• The Magician produces results outside of the ordinary
rules of life, whether changing the weather to stormy or
calm or causing objects (or obstacles) to disappear.
• The Magician will have extraordinary powers that
might be just natural to them (“born different”) but they
will also study and devote a great part of their life to
the use and increase of these powers.

12. Archetype Map
North – Fire
Magician
East - Air
Warrior
West – Water
Lover
South – Earth
King/Queen

13. The Ultimate quest?
• To know yourself
• to will - to change that/ accept that/ work
with that
• to dare - to put the real/ new improved/• to dare - to put the real/ new improved/
accepted you into action
• to keep silent - to be able to live with
yourself in silence (loving yourself)
The Magician, Warrior, Lover, King fulfilled

14. Part 2 Shadow
Me and my Shadow
(strolling down the avenue)

15. What is Shadow?
Often thought to be all that is dark within us that
is suppressed or pushed down into our
unconscious by the ego.unconscious by the ego.
“The things a person has no wish to be.”
It appears in dreams and fantasies

16. More than that
• Besides what we don’t like in
ourselves we can hide what our
parents and others tell us to hide
• “Always be nice” “Sit still” “Stop
daydreaming”
• Spontaneity, intuition, exuberance,
creativity can get put into shadow

17. The four archetypes and the
active/passive shadow
• Each archetype can have a shadow in the active
or passive pole
• For example the king’s active shadow is the
tyrant while the passive shadow is the weaklingtyrant while the passive shadow is the weakling
• Or the lover’s active shadow is the addicted
lover while the passive shadow is the impotent
lover
• Or the warrior’s active shadow is the sadist while
the passive shadow is the masochist

18. The long bag we drag
behind us
Robert Bly’s masterful A little book on the
human shadow says we d-r-a-g a long bag
behind usbehind us
Qualities, “defects”, facets of ourselves are
stuffed into the shadowy bag
Men put their feminine side in there and
women their masculine side

19. It works on a big scale
too
• Nations put qualities into the bag and ascribe
them to other races – Jews are money-hungry,
Reagan said Russians are “the evil empire”
• Cultures, groups & religions do it too
• Christians tend to put sex in the bag, pagans
may put Christians in the bag
• Socialists put greed, right-wingers and
capitalism in their bag, capitalists put socialists
and “bleeding hearts” in their bag

20. 5 Stages starting with
Projection
Bly describes 5 stages of exiling, hunting
& retrieving the Shadow
We project our shadow onto someone else
for relieffor relief
A man projects his witch onto his mother
and then his wife
A woman projects her tyrant onto her father
and then her husband

21. We hear a rattle
• The projection has a flicker or
loss of video
• The “tyrant” husband is kind• The “tyrant” husband is kind
• The “witch” wife is loving
• We meet a compassionate
educated Moslem

22. Refit time
• We make a desperate attempt to refit the
mask
• Subconsciously we can try to make the
projection trueprojection true
• The wife dents the car so the husband will
be a tyrant
• The husband comes home late so the wife
will be a witch

23. “Moral Intelligence”
• Supposed “moral intelligence” can be used
to do this
For example the guru’s sexual
predatorship is OK because he’s apredatorship is OK because he’s a
“special” person or using “non-Western”
methods
It’s OK to look down on Asians because
we are noble and they aren’t

24. Diminishment
• We feel the diminishment of ourselves
caused by our projection
• We’ve been giving a part of ourselves
away
• In fact it’s a lot of parts we’ve been giving
away – maybe there’s not much left

25. Reclaiming
• It’s time “to eat” our shadow
• We can “ask” for it back from our
projection target
• We can use art, music, imagination and• We can use art, music, imagination and
creativity to claim our shadow back
• The object is not to destroy your shadow
but to embrace it

26. All stations to Reclamation
• It’s not quite so simple
• We are in all five stages at once!
• This is a process over time that never
endsends
• But it’s empowering work!

27. Carl Jung on the
Shadow
• The task of midlife is not to look into the
light, but to bring light into the
darkness. The latter procedure, however,
is disagreeable and therefore not popular.is disagreeable and therefore not popular.
• In each of us there is another whom we do
not know.
• Everything that irritates us about others
can lead us to an understanding of
ourselves.

28. Dr Jekyll &
Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story was based on a
dream he had and told his wife. She said write the story.
The oh-so-good doctor Jekyll and the diabolical murdererThe oh-so-good doctor Jekyll and the diabolical murderer
Hyde (“hide in shadow!)
This is what can happen if we don’t acknowledge and eat
our show
The nightly news shows what happens when the shadow is
unacknowledged. It is then acted out in powerful ways in
Mr Hyde fashion

29. The House of Gathering
If you imagine someone who is brave enough to
withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual
who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man
has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He
has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now
unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong,unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong,
and they must be fought against. He lives in the "House
of the Gathering.“
Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is
in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own
shadow he has done something real for the world. He
has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal
part of the gigantic
Carl Jung