What Are Archetypes?

Deep within who you are lies a unique pattern that determines your essential nature and conditions your life experiences. This pattern, that I call the Heart’s Plan, is made up of a variety of archetypes.

Archetypes

Each archetype is an energy pattern that has a central theme. Your archetypes determine the basic designs and raw materials of your Heart’s Plan.

There are numerous models or systems for categorising archetypes. And the name of each archetype depends on the model you use. But here are a few examples that would belong to many systems:

  • The Wise Old Man/Woman
  • The Lover
  • The Warrior
  • The Hero
  • The Shadow
  • The Child

Templates

Archetypes were understood by the ancient Greeks to be underlying all existence. For them, archetypes were like templates, through which the rich diversity of life is channelled into being.

This may be a little like how the colours of the rainbow materialise when white light is refracted through a prism.

And Life Forces

But the Greeks also imagined archetypes as dynamic, energised, life-forces. They were the gods and goddesses; concerning themselves with all human affairs.

The dramatic encounters of these gods, told in ancient myth and story, can vividly describe archetypal encounters within ourselves, and in our lives, even today.

Like Inner Gods

Psychiatrist Carl Jung and mythologist Joseph Campbell believed archetypes to be like inner gods, and to be fundamental to human psychology. In this way they understood archetypes as having a sacred quality.

They also discovered that the same archetypes are expressed throughout many different cultures.

Plato’s Idea

It was Plato’s idea that archetypes are imprinted upon the soul at the time of birth. He believed that your archetypal imprint is at the root of your character and your life’s destiny.

Archetypal psychologist James Hillman took this as the basis of his idea of the ‘soul’s code’. That each life has a blueprint, a pattern that is the essence of that life, and calls it to a destiny.

I describe this blueprint as your Heart’s Plan.

Why Explore Your Archetypes?

Taking the time to get to know your own archetypal energies can help you get a better understanding of who you are and why you are here.

It can connect you with the inner wisdom of your Heart’s Plan, and guide you toward growth, healing, and change.

Intuitive guidance can explore:

  • Who are your archetypes?
  • How do they motivate you?
  • How are they expressed in your thoughts and feelings, your appearance, your relationships, your beliefs and values, your career?
  • How are they expressed in your life story?
  • How might you rise to their potentials, and better meet the demands of their challenges?
  • What is the gift you bring to life?
  • What is trying to happen deep inside you, right now, and how does this relate to what is happening in your life?
  • How could you better co-operate with this deeper intention?
  • How might old patterns now be transformed?

You will learn information about some of your key archetypes in our first session. Of special value is the attention we can pay to how your heart’s plan is currently unfolding.

It’s a journey

But learning to see your life in an archetypal way is a journey. It involves learning to see in a new way, opening your intuition, noticing the guiding synchronicity or coincidences in your life, and actively exploring your inner world and life story for recognition of your archetypes at work.

You may come to discover that your life is truly rich with meaning, and that you have a unique potential.

By tuning in to your own Heart’s Plan for guidance and wisdom it becomes more possible to create your life like a work of art.

 

Continue reading about Archetypes here. This next page is about Archetypal Models (Astrology)

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