ABSTRACT
3 Archetypes
Archetypes can be construed as:
significant events (such as birth, death, falling in love, marriage, war)
characters (Mother, Father, Hero, Wise Old Man/Woman etc)
symbols (heart, crucifix, mandalas), and
motifs (adolescence, midlife crisis, heartbreak, abandonment, transcendence)
Archetypes are possessed of a spiritual quality/energy which increases their force and may be felt as overwhelming. The word ‘archetype’ comes from two Greek words which translate as ‘first pattern’ or prototype. An archetype is a potential; it is the predisposition that is inherited; not the experience or image. Jung sees archetypes as possessing both what he somewhat obscurely describes as ultra-violet and infra-red poles whereby the instinctual end is seen as being infra-red (implying blood red, full-bodied – including physiological reactions to situations such as a fast-beating pulse when in contact with an archetypal situation), and the spiritual aspect as being ultra-violet (Jung 1954c par.414) (or shading towards blue, thus pointing to the sky and the spiritual dimension). Jung’s model of the psyche consists of the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Archetypes are conceptualised as being situated within the collective unconscious. They are universal motifs.
