While “archetype” may sound like a foreign term, you’ll soon realize archetypes are everywhere from the movies we watch, to the brands we buy, but most importantly you’ll see them in yourself and your life. Commonly thought of as a universal pattern of behavior, Caroline Myss describes archetypes as “the psychic lenses through which we view ourselves and the world around us”. Rather than digging into the abstract definitions, let’s look at some examples.

If I were to point someone out and say that person is a rebel, or a hero, or a hermit you would have an immediate idea of who they were. This understanding would go beyond just they’re behavior patterns, you would also have a sense of their needs and what they value. This an archetype. Now few of us are purely one archetype, most of us have several dominant archetypes.This makes us the complex creatures we are.

Aside from our personal lives, myths and popular media also serve examples of archetypes. One familiar storyline contains many archetypal figures is Star Wars. Here Luke Skywalker begins as an Innocent but is quickly thrown into a quest which transforms him into the Hero. Darth Vader, personifies the shadow aspects of the Destroyer.

Notice that I said Darth expresses the shadow side of the Destroyer, not the Destroyer in general. Despite what you may think no archetype is good or bad, but they are all capable of being both functional and dysfunctional depending on how we express them. Or expression is largely dependent on how conscious we are of that archetype in our life. It is important to point this out- archetypes are not destiny, nor are the permanent. They shift throughout the phases of our lives and simply becoming aware of an archetypal pattern often shifts its shadow expressions.

Why should you care? In depth coaching, we foster awareness of your personal archetypal patterns. Then we go deeper… by interacting with our personal archetype as if they were separate selves (rest assured this is only a useful metaphor) we can give voice to those disowned shadow aspects of ourselves. This is often the key that unlocks rapid and lasting change.

If you are sick of feeling as though your best efforts are self-sabotaged, or would simply like to learn more about your archetypal patterns Click Here to book a free exploratory session.