Blossom Into You

Archetypes are both inner energies and outer roles.  They are specific, universal images that most people would understand, e.g. the mother archetype.  Each archetype is also an energy force, an unexplained inner urge to do something or react in a specific way, e.g. the warrior archetype likes to tackle challenges head on.  There are many different archetypes in the collective unconscious and we all have access to all of them.  As we grow up we learn to use some of them and are actively encouraged to use some and discouraged to live out others. E.g. boys are encouraged to live out their warrior archetypes while girls are discouraged to do this and rather encouraged to engage with their mother / caregiver archetype.  Different archetypes come to us in different stages of our lives and when that stage of development is completed, we can let go of that archetype to move on to the next one that will be most helpful.  It is important to note that we are not our archetypes, they are merely different aspects of our consciousness that we can use to our advantage in our personal growth.  Archetypes are present in our lives whether we know it or not and they play a role whether we like it or not.  By being aware of them and consciously using them we can improve our self awareness and make our journey significantly easier.

Usually when we feel lost or stuck, it can be traced back to one of two reasons:  either we over-identified with a specific archetype to the detriment of others, or we repressed the normal development of an archetype and now it is not available for us to use in our current challenge.  E.g. if a stay-at-home mother over-identified with her mother/caregiver archetype, she may not have developed her warrior archetype and has trouble standing up and taking care of herself when her children leave home.  Her first few attempts to access her warrior archetype might be clumsy or overly aggressive until she learns to work confidently with this energy.  Another archetype that may be repressed during our lives as parents or adults trying to establish ourselves in our careers while paying off the mortgage, might be the wanderer archetype.  Feeling the energy of this archetype may make us feel like abandoning the job, the house, the relationship, the kids and just run away from it all.  By consciously working with this energy we can take a good look at our lives and try to find a way to accommodate the wanderer archetype, rather than just jumping ship and buying a new sports car, only to find that it wasn’t what we really wanted!  If we learn to use archetypes naturally, they don’t have to create problems or symptoms to get our attention.

Being aware of how archetypes are playing out in our daily lives may help us to better understand our own behaviour, know why we always get stuck with a specific task or person and why other things come easily to us.  If we can recognize the archetypes playing out in other people, we have a much deeper understanding of their behaviour and can adjust our responses accordingly.  Understanding and using our favourite archetypal energies can help us choose fulfilling careers.