Jungian Archetypes

Archetypes are a universal term introduced by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, that represent the archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed down from our ancestors. 

In accordance with Darwinian Evolution, Jung believed that archetypes stand in for universal patterns and images that are part of the collective unconscious. And we, each of the human generations inherit these archetypes much in the way we inherit instinctive patterns of behavior.

While Jung agreed with Freud that the unconscious played an important role in personality and behavior, he expanded on Freud's idea of the personal unconscious to 'collective unconscious' from human evolutionary genetics.

Different from Freudian the psychic theory of id, ego and super-ego, Jung proposed that the human psyche was composed of 3 components lined up from base to top:

• the Conscious Ego
• the Personal Unconscious(contains memories including those that have been suppressed)
• the Collective Unconscious(a unique component of psyche served as a form of psychological inheritance, containing all of the knowledge and experiences that humans share as a species).

According to Jung, the personal

Assuming collective unconscious is assimilated to a grand forest while archetypes are as if the plants that exist therein. These archetype-models are nothing less than innate, universal and hereditary birth-gifts granted as soon as we are born, which can be compared to 'the factory settings of a mobile phone', to human namely 'the unlearned basic cognition despite the level of literacy to propel one to function to organize how we experience and behave with certain things.

In a profound sense, infants' initial instincts can all be deemed as being driven by these 'primordial images' within archetypes, which are traced back to the human mind that retains fundamental, unconscious, biological aspects of our ancestors, serving as a basic foundation of how to be human and actualize self in a proper manner. Specifically, it is these archetypes that symbolize BASIC human motivations, values and personalities. However, Jung believed the actual way in which an archetype is expressed or realized depends upon a variety of factors including an individual's cultural influences and uniquely personal experiences.

Suppose the 'personal unconscious' is 'the function in use' that is invoked from the 'function pool in general', namely the 'collective unconscious', plus the Jungian notion of most people being dominated by ONE specific archetype,  'personal numerology' seems to be hereby justified. 

'Follow your heart' is essentially an ultimate creed that reminds every human being to take advantage of every life moment to uncover and decode your 'persona life mission' varying individually. 

Moreover, 'Mindful living' is intended for functioning our consciousness both inwards with introjection and outwards with projection, not only to recognize, assimilate and mirror your inner minds from the external world thro the gateway of our senses, but to translate the visible reality world within us. By consciously applying and adapting the archetypal ideas that inspired from real life experience to reality back and forth, humans' cognition depth evolved, in the discovery of all the truth behind things and reason for human beings, in regard to yet not limited to subjects of religion, science, philosophy, ethics, culture etc. 

Once one finds the true numerology coded on one's personal unconscious, every past experience in memories that seemed unrelated or vain all turns to make sense and unit each other to serve your exclusive life mission, by all means to help you reach the only life goal of 'self-actualization'. By the time all your tasks on mission are fulfilled within your life span, you are more than satisfied, blessed and gratified to be freed from this restricted cycle and so move on other timeless &spaceless dimensions of realm which is out of our current perception, where light beings are around.

Jung identified four major archetypes but also believed that there was no limit to the number that may exist. The manifestation and existence of these archetypes can not be observed directly but can be inferred by looking at religion, dreams, art and literature.

• the Persona 

The Latin word 'persona' represents all of the different social masks that we wear among various groups and situations. It acts to shield ego from negative images. Jung considers the persona may appear in dreams and take different forms.

'What is actual is rational.'--------the primitive urges, impulses and emotions that are not considered socially acceptable have developed ever since childhood into hidden underneath the 'persona mask', in order to allow people to adapt and fit themselves in with society's expectations and norms, otherwise constant 'negative feedback' from environment can deprive one's survival resources or life force and destroy one's self-esteem.  

• the Shadow

The archetype of the shadow exists as part of the unconscious mind and is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, various desires, instincts, shortcomings, and other negative aspects.

The shadow forms out of our attempts to adapt to cultural norms and expectations that are acceptable in society, and also to one's own personal morals and values by the super-ego, such as 7 Sins - envy, greed, lust, prejudice, hate, gluttony or aggression, etc.

Jung suggested that the shadow can appear in dreams or visions and may disguise itself in a variety of forms as a snake, monster, demon, dragon, or some other dark, nasty, wild or exotic figure.

**Note that these latent dispositions of shadow are present in all of us, Jung believed, those who denied its existence will instead project it onto others.

• the Anima or Animus

The Male Psyche: anima is the 'feminine image' within;

The Female Psyche: animus is the 'male image' within.

The anima/animus represents the invisible 'TRUE self' rather than the persona(self IMAGE) we show to others.

Jung believed that the physiological changes, social influences as well as the influence of the animus or anima archetypes(the intensity of masculine aspect in women while the anima aspect in men), altogether contributed to the development of sex roles and gender identities. 

The archetypal images of anima or animus are based on what is found in the collective and personal unconscious. 

For example, a normal man's personal images of women are contributed to by: 

1. Collective Unconscious: how women should behave
2. Personal Unconscious: experience with wives, girlfriends, sisters, and mothers or female contacts 

In this sense, every human can be seen as 'hermaphroditic'! Only when the combined anima and animus(known as 'syzygy' or the 'divine couple') are fairly explored properly without over-adopting traditional and rigid gender roles neither original bio-archetypal images being over-suppressed, the psychological development therein won't get undermined, and so a human being's personality, sex role& social functions, especially the capability of empathy, compassion, responsibility to the opposite gender can be nothing less than a paragon--------on behalf of 'completion, unification, and wholeness'.

• the Self

This archetype stands for the UNIFIED unconsciousness and consciousness of an individual. Jung often represented the self as a circle, a squre or mandala(inter-being, inter-balanced, inter-complementary).

The creation of self occurs through the 'individuation' process, in which the various aspects of personality are integrated, usually by age 3. 

The disharmony between the unconscious and the conscious mind could trigger signs of 'anxiety', and end up with psychological problems. The meaning of life hence can relate to what religions define as 'self-redemption'-----Proactively bringing these 'anxiety' conflicts(commonly derived from childhood mal-individuation)into 'awareness' and 'accommodating them in 'CONSCIOUS awareness' is a critical part of 'complete individuation', in another word, 'the full growth of psyche'.

Jung suggested the whole personality of true self and the ego can be imagined as an entire circle with a dot right at the center. What we see from one's personality is manifested by one's EGO that make-up the 'center of consciousness, which actually propelled by the 'unconscious self' that lies at the center of personality beneath.

For Jung, the ultimate goal for numerology is to achieve a sense of 'COHESIVE SELF', similar to the Maslow's concept of 'self-actualization'.