Core Archetypes Year-Long Study Guide - The "Big Picture"

Your Master Plan for Understanding and Integrating Each of the Core Power Archetypes

Suppose that you've been studying - and using - the power of archetypes in your life for a while now. What will make this year the year in which you achieve personal mastery? What will make this year your breakthrough year, and launch you to a new level of personal success and victory?

You may already understand that as we grow, we go through archetypal "growth stages." Perhaps no one explains this better than Carol Pearson, in The Hero Within. She walks us through how we go from the not-so-empowered Innocent to the fully-empowered Magician.

You may also know, from reading Caroline Myss's Sacred Contracts, that we simultaneously access and use several different archetypes. In fact, she has us select "current" and "desired" archetypes from a roster of a few dozen possibilities.

With all these great teachings, there is still something missing when we seek to fully capture the power of archetypes in our lives - the power to be in the right frame of mind for different tasks, relationships, and intentions. This "something missing" was actually laid out for us in the first seven cards of the Tarot's Major Arcana.

A Master Plan That Goes Back Thousands of Years

The background story tells us that this knowledge actually has a much older provenance than we may have thought. The earliest known Tarot decks are several hundred years old. However, the Major Arcana are based directly on the twenty-two "pathways" connecting "spheres" (Sephiroth) in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Kabbalistic written tradition goes back for hundreds of years; the oral tradition to perhaps a couple of thousand of years. And since the Tree of Life is the earliest known base for esoteric teachings in our culture, the origins may even be earlier. The Tree of Life is mentioned in the earliest known human writings.

In short, it is very likely that a certain "esoteric teaching" - based on mastering six core power archetypes - goes back at least hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years.

Three factors stand out when we undertake this "journey":

• The six core power archetypes (together with two reserve battery archetypes) match directly to three of the four "dimensions" used by Carl Jung in creating his Psychological Types,
• There is a certain order for study and master, and
• There is an "endgame" - that is, we don't want to just master these archetypes in isolation; we desire the ability to pull on each one (or several) as needed. That is true mastery, and it is our goal as well.

 

What is Our Master Plan?

As with all big intentions, it helps us to have a "game plan."

 

Our "game plan" is that over the course of a year, we will spend each semi-quarter on each archetype. Integration, we trust, will be something that we take up as we go along. (We may choose to repeat this study for a few years, each time gaining greater levels of insight and refinement,)

A second - yet very important - aspect of our "game plan" is that we're tying in our intellectual and practical archetype study with our "lab work" - our daily practice of energy exercises and dance movements. We tie all of these together with the appropriate "season", using the traditional Western esoteric approach of assigning and "element" to each "season."

• Winter: Season of Earth (pentacles, the physical body, a "feminine" season),
• Spring:Season of Air (swords, the mind, a "masculine" season),
• Summer: Season of Fire (rods, the spirit, a "masculine" season), and
• Autumn: Season of Water (cups, the emotional realm, a "feminine" season).

 

Master Plan Overview

Each "element" has a set of qualities associated with it, and a particular focus of attention. Our archetypal study curriculum focuses on intellectual study combined with reflection and exercises that highlight each of the specific "archetypes" for the given semi-quarter. When we combine this with pathworking, we add in elements of spiritual discipline, emotional release work, energy cultivation exercises, and (of course) dance movements and techniques and choreography.

The archetypes that we will consider, are (in order):

Winter Quarter - Season of Earth (Pentacles, a "Feminine" Season)

• High Priestess: Dec. 21 - Jan 31 Being contemplative and intuitive, a time for gazing into the fire, creating a "vision board" for the coming year, and being open to "dream-time", and
• Hestia (a reserve battery archetype): Feb 1 - Mar 20 Spring-cleaning - for our homes and our psyches; the classic "wax on, wax off" approach to opening our minds for insight and guidance.

 

Spring Quarter - Season of Air (Swords, a "Masculine" Season)

• Magician: Mar. 21 - April 30 Being a visionary, creating reality according to your "big dream", and
• Emperor: May 1 - June 20 Bringing your desired reality into fruition; business plans, project management, process flows, stabilizing your "empire."

 

Summer Quarter - Season of Fire (Rods, a "Masculine" Season)

• Green Man (a reserve battery archetype): June 21 - July 31 Escape to the "great outdoors," breaking out of the molds that civilization puts on us, and
• Hierophant: Aug 1 - Sept. 20 Becoming a guru/guide for those younger than us - either in years or in skills and understanding.

 

Autumn Quarter - Season of Water (Cups, a "Feminine" Season)

• Hathor (The "Love Goddess"): Sept. 21 - Oct 30 Reveling in sensual beauty and pleasure, and
• Empress: Oct. 31 - Dec. 20 Connecting, loving, nurturing - sending out Christmas cards and gifts, holiday entertaining, time with family, friends, and loved ones.

 

Putting the Master Plan Into Action

For this coming year, each semi-quarter will be devoted to the appropriate archetype. I'll offer resources and guidance, and as you feel led, you can follow up at will. Resources will include:

• Guest Bloggers: Special invited guests for each different core archetype - Giving you insights from the "best of the best," together with real-life stories from others who've achieved amazing results in different areas of their lives,
• Suggested Readings: Links to books and online resources - Get greater depth, and
• Exercises and Checklists (Strictly optional): What to do to get the most out of each archetypal focus.

From time to time, I'll write about the integration process - how we can combine two or more archetypes to create "mastery" for ourselves in different life situations. I'll also point the way to what happens after this level of mastery. (Yes, mastery comes in levels - and the whole work with archetypes is simply the first level. However, it's the level where we need a good foundation before advancing to anything else.)

So here's to you, with very best wishes for an absolutely awesome coming year!

Cultivating Our Core Power Archetypes: First Stage in Becoming a "Master of the Universe"

Six Core Power Archetypes: First Step in Mastery

Mastering ourselves is the first step in becoming a "Master of the Universe."

The Kabbalistic Tree of Life: A Roadmap for Personal Mastery

Several millenia ago, some very insightful mystics and seers somehow discerned that the "roadmap to God-consciousness" (and complete mastery of who they were as human beings) could be described as traversing through various "centers" or "realms of existence." They called these "centers" Sephiroth, and organized them in a map that has been called, throughout the ages, the Tree of Life.

There are ten Sephiroth. (These are the circles on the Tree of Life to the left.) Each Sephiroth represents something very specific - not only a "plane of existence" but also an aspect, or emanation, of God.

 

 

The Kabbalistic Tree of Life

These aspects (Sephiroth) are organized in a logical manner. The "softer, gentler, kinder" ones comprise the Pillar of Mercy (on the right), and the "harsher," more rigorous ones comprise the Pillar of Severity (on the left).

There are, potentially, 10x9/2 different connections between them. (Each one of the ten can connect with each of the remaining nine, and then these total paths need to be divided by two, so that they aren't counted twice.) This means that there are potentially 45 different "connection paths." In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, though, only half of these paths - twenty-two of them - are actually defined and used.

This means that getting from one "center" (or state of consciousness, or realm of existence) to another is not just a "random-jump" sort of thing, but more like an ordered progression. Each step in this ordered progression has a certain meaning, and that meaning corresponds to an aspect of human experience. In fact, it corresponds to a significant step in our adult life journeys.

 

The Three Adult Life-Journeys

The last blogpost discussed this Tree of Life, and how the Major Arcana (from the Tarot) relate to the pathways between the Sephiroth.

We identified three sequences of seven steps (Major Arcana) each. Each of these sequences is a major adult life journey. From the previous blogpost, we recall that these are:

• The Worldly Sequence: We access and cultivate each of six Core Power Archetypes, and integrate them - we are able to use each one as appropriate.
• Turning Inwards: We begin to release our ego. At the end of this sequence, we start to access and cultivate intrinsic life energy, or ch'i.
• The Great Journey: A time of destroying the last of the old "structures" that keep us imprisoned, leading to full realization of our life's purpose and being released to do our "great work."

 

The Worldly Sequence: Cultivating and Integrating Our Six Core Power Archetypes

Our first adult life journey takes us through the Worldly Sequence. During this time, we learn to cultivate each of the six Core Power Archetypes, plus a seventh step (integration):

• Magician (Major Arcana Card I): Power to create "something from nothing."
• High Priestess (Major Arcana Card II): Contemplative inner wisdom.
• Empress (Major Arcana Card III): Nurturing and caring; runs on oxytocin, the "bonding hormone."
• Emperor (Major Arcana Card IV): Strength, stability, structure, and order; the perennial "Program Manager," thrives on building and maintaining structures and things (ranging from a business process to an actual empire).
• Hierophant (Major Arcana Card V): One of the least understood but most important archetypes, this is the mentor/teacher/guide, typified by fictional characters ranging from Albus Dumbledore (in the Harry Potter series) to Mr. Miyagi (in the Karate Kid) to (of course) Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi (in Star Wars).
• Love-Goddess (Major Arcana Card VI): All about pleasure and play; romance, love-making, sensual pleasure in all its forms; she runs on dopamine, the "ecstatic pleasure" hormone.

Various blogposts, as well as sections in Unveiling: The Inner Journey, have described these various archetypes, as well as the seventh step, integration.

Most MOST Popular Post on the Six Core Power Archetypes and Integration:

• How important is it to gain each of your six Core Power Archetypes?: Your Six Core Power Archetypes: What Happens When One is Missing?

The OTHER Most Popular Posts on the Six Core Power Archetypes and Integration:

• The Unveiling Six Core Power Archetypes map to six of the eight of the Jungian Psychological Types, two more are "reserve battery" or "rest and recharge" archetypes: Eight Core Power Archetypes
• Mapping the Unveiling archetypes correspond to the Jungian Psychological Types: Unveiling Archetypes and the Jungian Dimensions
• Moore and Gillette identify four masculine archetypes; two of these are an exact match to the Unveiling/Jungian types, one is a partial, and one is a mismatch (read why!): Moore and Gillette, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: 2 1/3 Out of 4 Ain't Bad!
• Neurohormones and their potential relation with core archetypes: Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Estrogen: A Potent, Heady Mix
• Your eight Core Power Archetypes can help you with your Franklin-Covey roles and identifying life-priorities: The Unveiling Archetypes and the Franklin-Covey Roles: A Useful Synergy

Other Related Posts:

• Introducing the Major Arcana and their relation with core archetypes: Finding Peace and Happiness Through the Power of Your Archetypes
• Characters in The Lord of the Rings embody the six Core Power Archetypes: The Lord of the Rings: A Classic "Inner Journey"?
• What is integration?: Integration: The "Final Step" of Your Power Journey's First Stage

The "Hierophant" as Guru/Guide

The Hierophant Archetype - A Way of Life, Not a Jungian Psychological Type

Last night, I was talking with my dear friend Artie. Somehow, the conversation swung around to Jungian Psychological Types, as expressed by the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). "I used to be an ENFJ," he said, "but now I'm much more an ENFP." He's right, but his comment brought a great insight to me on the relationship between our archetypal modes (Magician, Emperor, Hierophant, etc.) and our "Types" - usually denoted by the MBTI Type-coding such as "ENFJ."

This is important. Artie really has made a shift, over the years. When he was in his corporate career, he really was an ENFJ. His life and his world encompassed the three major masculine archetypes; Magician (NTJ), Emperor (STJ), and Hierophant (NFJ). (Artie was and still is an Extrovert, making him ENTJ, ESTJ, and ENFJ as he expressed each of those modes.) During his professional career, he really did have excitement, energy, and enthusiasm for each of these modes. He led teams that devised new technical approaches, several different times (Magician). He was effective as a team leader and as a project manager, getting projects funded and successfully accomplished, and leading performance demos and reviews for his clients. (All Emperor-related tasks.) And don't get me wrong, he loved each of these roles.

But what was the underlying base for his being? The "river" that flowed consistently through his personailty? It was always his Hierophant mode. He was, and still is, a born teacher.

During the earlier stages of his career, he expressed this as a lot of "career coaching." He also brought together interesting people, and created environments in which they flourished.

In all of these situations, Artie was still dominantly "Judging," or "J." That is, in all of his career roles, he was driven to "come to closure." He may have been coaching a junior member of the team, but the focus (for example) would have been on "how to put together a Powerpoint presentation that will wow the client."

Now, retired from corporate life, Artie is still a Hierophant. He is still a coach/guide/guru. But he is a lot more open-ended about this.

In part, this is because his life is structured differently. In retirement-mode, without the stringent performance demands of today's corporate world, he is able to shift into being more "Perceiving" (open-ended) than "Judging" (coming-to-closure). In a broader sense, he is also more separate from our overall cultural zeitgeist that is very performance-driven, and which tends to demand "Judging" behaviors from us, from childhood on.

In part also, Artie's shift is due to the kinds of people with whom he interacts. He does a great deal of what I'll loosely call "service work." He spends a lot of time just talking with people; being the "wise old man" with whom they can consult as they work out life issues. The people who seek him out the most are themselves a bit more "open-ended" in how they approach life - or at least they are in this mode when they seek out Artie.

So Artie is probably right. He has indeed shifted from being dominantly ENFJ to being ENFP. But according to our archetypal mode system, the NFP "mode" is what we call Hathor - playful and pleasure-seeking.

So is Artie dominantly in Hathor mode now? Becuase he has shifted from "closure" to "open-ended," does that shift his fundamental orientation - that of being a teacher - to being more of a pleasure-seeker?

Heavens, no!

Again, don't get me wrong on this. Artie would be the last one on earth to decline a good dose of pleasure and fun. He may even be more able to enjoy the "pleasurable" aspects of life more now than when he was younger. But at the same time, his fundamental orientation towards life - that which gives him meaning and purpose - that which helps him "define himself for himself" - that which gets him up and going in the morning - is not about "pleasure." Or at least, not about "pleasure" per se. It is about teaching. It is about connecting. It is about making a difference in the lives of the people who come to him.

His shift from "J" to "P" reflects a shift in the way in which he goes about being a Hierophant, but not the fact that - in his absolute core - he is a Hierophant.

But more on how this "shift" is expressed in a later blogpost.

The Eight Core Power Archetypes

Mapping the Eight Core Power Archetypes to the Jungian System

The "eight core power archetypes" - our personal "V8 power-car engine."

One of the key points in Unveiling: The Inner Journey has been that we need all eight; we can't be rigidly stereotyped into just one. This is a significant departure from the line of thinking first popularized by the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, which suggested that not only were we predominantly in just one of these archetypal modes, but that we stayed there all our lives.

 

Congratulations - You've Found One of the Top Blog Posts in The Unveiling Journey

Congratulations!

Whether by luck or by design, you've come to the second most popular blogpost in The Unveiling Journey since the blog was started in 2007. (The six "most popular" blogs are selected by statistics current as of October 22, 2013.)

Since then, we've moved the entire blog series to a new location.

Here are some great reading choices:

• The Unveiling Journey - the most recent blog (we keep getting better!),
• Six Top Blog Posts for The Unveiling Journey - top six as of October 22, 2013 - gives links to this blog post plus five more (including the one I'd recommend the most), and
• Mapping the Eight Core Power Archetypes to the Jungian System - the rest of this post (the one that you started reading here just now).

 

Why the Transition to a New Blog Site?

• Better Intralinking: You'll find related blogposts easier (look at the end of this post on the new site for good links),
• Better Categories and Tags: Interested in a related topic? Want to see what else is covered? Look in the right-hand sidebar on the new site - check out the Categories (main topics) and Tags (people, books, events, and sub-topics), and
• Improved Resources: Look for a Resources Page (main header menu); it will give you a different kind of access to related topics - from the antecedents (books inspiring this ongoing work) to future directions.

 

See you over there - and thank you!

 

Alay'nya (Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.)

 

Post edited and content moved to The Unveiling Journey website, specifically to the Mapping the Eight Core Power Archetypes to the Jungian System blogpost on Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Original post December 28, 2011.