Running Head: ARCHETYPES 1. Archetypes: An Attempt to Comprehend What is Unknown

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1 Running Head: ARCHETYPES 1 Archetypes: An Attempt to Comprehend What is Unknown Diana Arias Henao diana.arias-henao@my.pacifica.edu M.A./Ph.D in Depth Psychology Emphasis in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California (USA). Introduction Talking about archetypes can be very difficult that the only option is to consider archetypes as if they were a point to which one barely could border through some manifestations or archetypal representations. In the approximate understanding of archetypes there is an important aspect that Jung emphasized, the differentiation between an archetype as such and the archetype as representation. The former is the basic structure that is non-perceptible, it acts as an invisible but fundamental content that pertains to the psychoid factor of the spectrum. The latter is the clothe of the archetype with which the archetypal energy becomes texture, color, and representation, it expresses itself through images, fantasies, patterns of behavior and emotion. The effect that an archetype produces in the individual is characterized by a numinous character that carries the bright and shadow aspect of an archetype, which if brought to consciousness it would have the opportunity to accomplish its purpose: leading towards individuation. This opportunity would depend on the way with which the archetypal material (symbol) is integrated by consciousness either through contemplation, interpretation, or analysis An Attempt To Comprehend What Is Unknown I was in a region like the Alyscamps near Arles. There they have a lane of sarcophagi which go back to Merovingian times. In the dream I was coming from the city, and saw before me a similar lane with a long row of tombs. They were pedestals with stone slabs on which the dead lay. They reminded me of old church burial vaults, where knights in armor lie outstretched. Thus the dead lay in my dream, in their antique clothes (Jung, 1961/1989, p. 172) With Jung s dream and the personal experiences of the unconscious, he began a journey to the development of his theory of archetypes. The characters of his dreams and fantasies were not dead but live expressions of collective elements shared by mankind. This experience represented a turning point in Jung s life because through it Jung realized that there was something beyond his personal experience and childhood memories that led him to the comprehension of a wider knowledge. It is interesting the way in which societies called psychotic or insane those individuals who expressed their visions in a poetic and metaphoric language, excluding the possibility to look at the material that the unconscious is presenting. Jung (1961/1989) wrote, This is the fund of unconscious images which fatally confuse the mental patient. But it is also the matrix of a mythopoeic imagination which has vanished from our rational age. Though such imagination is present everywhere, it is both tabooed and dreaded, so that it even appears to be a risky experiment or a questionable adventure to entrust oneself to the uncertain path that leads into the depths of the unconscious. (p. 188) At the beginning Jung used the term primordial images to bring up the idea of mythologems, fairy tales, and all the universal motifs that exist in the dynamic of the collective psyche. Later, he introduced the term archetype to express what is non-perceptible and non-definable completely, but expresses itself in metaphors. Jung made an important distinction between the two concepts, in which primordial images are the archetypal representations. Images that pertain to human history and come

2 ARCHETYPES 2 alive through myths, fantastic stories, and traditional religious content. In this sense, an archetypal image refers to mythologems, or as Jacobi (1959) mentioned, to an already actualized archetype, expressed in conscious psychic material, an archetype that has become an image (p. 35). On the other hand, archetype as such is the unknown, non-perceptible and non-audible factor that seems to be inexistent through the senses, but alive through the mysterious of the unconscious. This irrepresentable factor is not psychic but psychoid, and potentially psychic when it takes form of an image expressed in consciousness. Jung wrote (1959/1969a), Archetypes are not determined as regards their content, but only as regards their form and then only to a very limited degree. A primordial image is determined as to its content only when it has become conscious and is therefore filled out with the material of conscious experience. (p. 79) An archetype could be read from a biological, mythological, and esoteric perspective, but from a psychological viewpoint the archetypes as such seem to be empty containers without an specific form, but with the texture of emptiness, the sound of the space, and the smell of its own breathing, to which there is not direct access because these remain out of psyche. Only we can speak about it as if, leaving behind any rational desire or interest for apprehending it pragmatically and conceptually. An archetype as such is mysteriously intriguing; as Slater (2014, n.p.) mentioned it is something that one cannot put a finger on ; its roots seem to be in the collective sphere of the unknown, and beyond the personal and conscious aspect, although expressed through it. It is an irrepresentable factor, a disposition which begins to operate in a given moment of the development of the human mind (Jacobi, 1959, p.53). In this sense, everything that we can say about an archetype as such becomes a hypothesis, an intuition, as if it were a forgotten dream that is still alive in the sense of something happened in my dream last night. Its nature seems to be paradoxical since it is possible to be represented but it cannot be presented such as, only it is presented to itself. It, according to Jung (1960/1969b), Is characterized by certain formal elements and by certain fundamental meanings, although these can be grasped only approximately. The archetype as such is a psychoid factor that belongs, as it were, to the invisible, ultraviolet end of the psychic spectrum. It does not appear, in itself, to be capable of reaching consciousness. (p. 213) When I think about the idea of the spectrum I see that color is an important aspect that helps to differentiate the instinctual (infra-red) and the archetypal (ultra-violet) field. (Jung thought that psyche is as a spectrum situated between the infrared pole of biological and somatic process, and the ultraviolet pole of the archetypes at the other (Von Franz, p. 4).) Such importance is produced by what the color represents; red associates with emotions, instincts, feelings and earth, whereas blueviolet represents the sky, the spiritual and mystical sphere. This makes me think that color has a pure character. In this sense, color could be an archetype expressed through the dynamism of the perceptible colors. What is the origin of color? The answer to this question would be the same that one formulates towards the archetype as such : its origin resides in the unknown. Jacobi (1959) mentioned, The origin of an archetype remains obscure, its nature unfathomable; for it dwells in that mysterious shadow realm, the collective unconscious, to which we shall never have direct access, and of whose existence and operation we can have only indirect knowledge, precisely through our encounter with the archetypes, i.e., their manifestations in the psyche. (p. 32) Continuing with the idea of color as an archetype, it is interesting to see the impact that the perceptible aspects of the archetype generate in people when those appear in fantasies, dreams or active imagination. For instance, there is a per se idea in the collective that if a woman dreams about getting married with a black dress instead of a white one, it means bad luck or death in the conscious

3 ARCHETYPES 3 life. It seems like notions such as evil and God, earth and heaven, matter and spirit, life and death, etc., are associated with a color. For instance, in some traditions and cultures, and specifically in the Christian religion, the baptism and first communion are rituals characterized by white color, whereas death is associated with black. Yet, violet color comes alive and brings spiritual content. In this sense, there are present in every psyche forms which are unconscious but nonetheless active-living dispositions, ideas in the Platonic sense, which perform and continually influence our thoughts, feelings and actions (Jung, 1959/1969a, p. 79). Taking into account that, from the angle of depth psychology specifically Jungian psychology it is impossible to represent an archetype per se; instead, it is important to emphasize that they come into existence through the primordial or archetypal images which from my perspective, are containers of those empty containers (archetypes as such), presenting its contents through observable manifestations and perceptible expressions that become conscious through stark emotions, fantasies and images, and that live in every psyche under specific individual forms. Jacobi (1959) says, By primordial images Jung then meant all the mythologems, all the legendary or fairy-tale motifs, etc., which concentrate universally human modes of behavior into images, or perceptible patterns. In the course of history these recurrent motifs have taken on innumerable forms, from the most remote conceptions of the primitives, down through the religious ideas of all nations and cultures, to the dreams, visions, and fantasies of modern individuals. (p. 33) From this perspective archetypes are autonomous forces of the unconscious that have pertained to the history of mankind. However, these are not only expressed in images or motifs, but also in emotions, configurations and patterns of behavior that represent the dynamic of the collective and individual psyche. Whitmont (1969/1991) described an archetype from a dynamic and a formal angle. The former refers to energy: actions, reactions, emotion patterns; and the latter includes representational experiences in the form of a dream, fantasy images and auditory experiences. From my understanding, the impact that an archetype produces in the individual psyche through the collective content, archetypal representations, is characterized by a numinous element that comes to life as a strange force separated from the individual will. In this sense, the numinous character of an archetype is that which gives to some experience the feeling of being sacred and autonomous. It expresses itself as if it was a magical influence that the individual has not originated but rather has been its way of expression by means of consciousness. Jung (1961/1989) said, We know that something unknown, alien does come our way, just as we know that we do not ourselves make a dream or an inspiration, but that it somehow arises of its own accord (p. 336). The numinous aspect of an archetype carries itself a positive or healing effect, and a negative or destructive force. In these terms, whatever its effect, it produces an alteration. Also, I think that this fantastic and phantasmagorical element of the archetype could manifest itself with the purpose of guiding and warning us against dangers in the conscious life when there is a situation that requires our attention. It acts as if it was a spiritual guide. However, I think that this aspect is so mysterious that it is difficult and paradoxical to talk about it, or better, to talk around it. But sometimes we find in our lives or in a patient s life that the encounter with an archetypal form through dreams, visions, or active imagination generates a change in the course of the psychic energy, as if numinous qualities had an intention, a purpose that is beyond our rational understanding, but that needs to be integrated in order to accomplish its goal. Whitmont (1969/1991) wrote, Integration of the archetypal image comes about through recognizing and experiencing it as a picture of meaning (Sinnbild), as a symbol. Its integration involves also a conscious realization of the underlying drive as a powerful impulse toward a meaningful activity or experience which has to be made real in terms of what is rationally and ethically possible. If we remain unaware of the autonomous power of the mythologem and maintain an uncritical identification with our

4 ARCHETYPES 4 drive or vision, we risk being inundated by its force or carried away to destruction by an idee fixe. (p. 80) Precisely, it is the powerful paradoxical force that an archetype carries what generates a change in the dynamic of consciousness. An archetype could be helpful but also it could be dangerous, too. According to Jacobi (1959), an archetype is the essential attribute of bipolarity (p. 65) and from Jung s perspective is the representation of the bright and the dull side. As Jung (1959/1969a) describes, Just as all archetypes have a positive, favourable, bright side that points upwards, so also they have one that points downwards, partly negative and unfavourable, partly chthonic, but for the rest merely neutral (p. 226). From this perspective, I comprehend that an archetype has a numinous element that could be experienced in the individual from a positive or negative side. The latter would be the shadow aspect of an archetype that an individual should face, along with the luminous sphere, to give a wider understanding of the Self, leading the way towards individuation. Psychologically, as Jung (1960/1969b) said, the archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend their way, the prize which the hero wrests form the fight with the dragon (p. 212). Thus, the negative and positive aspects of the archetype generate a movement in the ego, which reacts by avoiding and repressing the archetypal manifestation, or identifying itself with this force. In this sense, the ego mobilizes splitting or overwhelming the emergence of an archetype. I wonder if this numinous aspect of the archetype is manifested not only in the individual but also in the collective. It could be paradoxical that an archetype as such pertains to the collective, to mankind s history, but that its numinous character appears only in the individual through powerful dreams, visions, intuitions, and images. There is no doubt that an individual is psychologically speaking, in charge of himself or herself, is at the same time taking care of the collective, but could be possible that this experience that is impersonal and transpersonal, expresses itself also in the collective. This makes me think of powerful phenomena as hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes where matter moves but also generates a psychic impact, especially in the individuals who live directly into the experience. Such examples might bring inner perceptions of mythological images, and also, through those collective experiences, the psychoid aspect of an archetype might manifest, coming up as a transpersonal base essentially related to both matter and psyche. Jung wrote (1961/1989), All comprehension and all that is comprehended is in itself psychic, and to that extent we are hopelessly cooped up in an exclusively psychic world. Nevertheless, we have good reason to suppose that behind this veil there exists the uncomprehended absolute object which affects and influences us and to suppose it even, or particularly, in the case of psychic phenomena about which no verifiable statements can be made. (p. 352) The numinous character of the archetype in these collective phenomena is related to the notion of synchronicity to the extent that these experiences are shaped before or after the event by significant coincidences, which seem as if the underlying archetype is manifesting itself simultaneously in inner and external events. The common denominator is a symbolically expressed message (Von Franz, 1964, p. 227). Considering this aspect of an archetype, there are situations in life that arise with a sturdy force that it seems as if such circumstances had a purpose, a message behind. These days people sometimes say when something striking takes place in their lives: maybe this is happening because I need to learn something. This expression is related to the idea that a message is behind the situation; in this case there is a meaningful connection between matter and psyche.

5 ARCHETYPES 5 It looks like the numinous aspect of an archetype would have the purpose of ordering, in which consciousness is an important guide, translating, elaborating and comprehending the archetypal content. From this perspective, Jacobi (1959) said, Only when the archetypes come into contact with the conscious mind, that is, when the light of consciousness falls on them and their contours begin to emerge from the darkness and to fill with individual content, can the conscious mind differentiate them. (p. 66) Thus, archetypal content and consciousness interlace their own energy; the numinous aspect of the archetype is felt as if it was a click in consciousness, which mobilizes its contents toward the apprehension of the unconscious material covering it with individual elements. Such movement requires a representation, an image to address the archetypal content; otherwise the collective unconscious would not find its channels of assimilation and translation into conscious language. Depending on the form of assimilation and apprehension made by consciousness the archetypal energy will tend to relieve or conversely disturb. Whitmont (1969/1991) wrote, The energy which is conveyed through the eternal images is as such neither constructive nor destructive, neither healthy nor pathological. Health or disease, growth or decay, depend upon whether or not consciousness is ready and able to confront, mold and integrate the archetypal energies into a concrete personal life-style (p. 100) The conscious representations of the collective motifs are fundamental for psychological process, since these are which show up itself in psyche, open to meaning. However, their energy could make such a strong impact that could generate a danger, in which the conscious mind collapses, causing the collective unconscious to emerge as an autonomous force, resulting in certain pathological states (psychosis, schizophrenia). On the other hand, the activation of the collective unconscious might result in a new psychic order that origins release, setting the possibility of progress. There is another way in which this activation could arise that is neither pathological nor constructive, as Jung (1969b) explains, If, on the other hand, the activation is the result of psychological processes in the unconscious of the people, the individual may feel threatened or at any rate disoriented, but the resultant state is not pathological, at least so far as the individual is concerned. (p. 315) The archetypal image is a key point not only because it is the representation and incarnation of the archetype, but also because it provides meaning. It is interesting to see how a symbol is defined and shaped as such by meaning and image, and from my perspective I see that both of them, in their primordial and raw aspect, come from the archetype as such. The image is its mode of expression, the way through which an archetype presents itself; the meaning arises collectively unconsciousness and consciousness and individually having as foundation the basic and central point, as Jung (1969a) said, Interpretations make use of certain linguistic matrices that are themselves derived from primordial images (p. 32). So the same Jacobi (1959) wrote, The symbolic guise in which it becomes visible varies and changes according to the outward and inward circumstances of the individual and the times. The encounter with the consciousness of a collectivity and its problems gives rise to collective symbols (e.g., mythologems); contact with an individual consciousness and its problems gives rise to individual symbols (as, for example, the image of a witch with the features of one s own mother. (p. 120) Symbols act as if these were bridges that connect the collective unconscious and the conscious mind, and is precisely in the latter where the symbolic language presented itself as representation. Depending on the personal glasses through which the symbol is looked upon, and the movement that the archetype produces in the psychic ground, a meaning and purpose would emerge. At this point,

6 ARCHETYPES 6 conscious mind needs to come to terms with this content through contemplation, representation, interpretation, etc., or else in the course of analysis (Jacobi, 1959, p. 120) since the light of consciousness will determine the way to confront the material presented. When I try to understand these ideas (which is difficult due to its paradoxical meaning) I think of the mother archetype as an example, where it is the container, the archetype as such, that does not have access because it is neither a door (noun) nor the action of opening (verb), but potentially represented in archetypal images or universal motifs that preserve their basic pattern, though these are shaped by the conscious mind in different ways, depending on the personal complexes. Some examples under which the mother archetype appear might be: queen, witch, goddess, Mother of God, paradise, heaven, earth, symbols of water, garden, moon, the personal mother, grandmother, animals, etc. (Jung, 1959/1969a, p. 81). Such archetypal representations are universal symbols that vary according to the individual psyche and have positive and negative meaning, for instance the qualities that define the symbol of a queen are different than those that describe a witch, and depending on the psychic ground where the archetype stands, these symbols would be seen under connotations such as anything that sustains, nourishes and cares for; or under the qualities of the negative side, as anything that repudiates, devours, and poisons. However, some archetypal images have both connotations, as Jung (1959/1969a.) said, the historical example of the dual nature of the mother most familiar to us is the Virgin Mary, who is not only the Lord s mother, but also, according to the medieval allegories, his cross. In India, the loving and terrible mother is the paradoxical Kali. (p. 82) Taking into account these symbols and qualities of the mother archetype, an individual might have the experience of mothering under the negative characteristics of the witch manifested through his or her personal mother. And this is how some of the inner and outer situations that this person will face in life are shaped by these qualities, to which he or she reacts emotionally from the grip of a complex. In this sense, The carrier of the archetype is in the first place the personal mother, because the child lives at first in complete participation with her, in a state of unconscious identity (Jung, 1959/1969a, p. 102). Thus, personal and collective unconscious are interlaced by the basic and structural point: archetypes, where in the end, both have been born. Conclusion Writing about one of the fundamental and basic concepts of Jung has been an attempt to comprehend what is unknown. Its exploration requires differentiating an archetype as such from an archetypal representation. The former is a non-perceptible point that pertains to the collective unconscious and is potentially representable, and the latter is the indirect presentation of the archetype through symbols, pattern of behavior, and emotion. The numinous aspect of an archetype is an important element in the process of individuation because of its effects in the psychic field; consciousness would apprehend the material revealed by the unconscious, making possible the emergence of new elements, and the integration of symbols translated into personal images and meanings. References Jacobi, J. (1959). Complex, archetype, symbol. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

7 ARCHETYPES 7 Jung, C. G. (1969a), The archetypes and the collective unconscious (2nd ed.). In R. F. C. Hull (Trans.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 9i). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1959) Jung, C. G. (1969b), The structure and dynamics of the psyche (2nd ed.). In R. F. C. Hull (Trans.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 8). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1960) Jung, C. G. (1989). In A. Jaffe (Ed.), R. Winston & C. Winston (Trans.), Memories, dreams, reflections (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1961) Slater, G. (2014). Archetypes and the collective psyche [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Course DJA 720 DesireToLearn site. Von Franz, M.L. (1964). In Man and his symbols. New York, NY: Dell. Von Franz, M.L. (1974). Number and time. Princeton, Northwestern University Press. Evanstone. Whitmont, E. C. (1991). The symbolic quest: Basic concepts of analytical psychology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1969)