The role of Archetypes in understanding ourselves

I have always been a big fan of learning about Archetypes ever since I started my own personal growth journey.

Archetypes really helped me understand different facets of my own unconscious behaviours that I wasn't in approval of and didn't want to even acknowledge or see.

Sacred Contracts and the Roles We Play

In her book — 'Sacred Contracts' — Caroline Myss proposes that all of us have agreed to play out an energetic contract even before we are born, and the way we play out these contracts is based on how we live our lives.

The roles we play in our lives and how we relate to others and the world around us.

It is as if in every connection we make we are playing out an already existing contract.

Shadow Work and the Parts We Hide

The way I have related to archetypes in my own journey is that there are all of these places that I was unconscious of, or didn't approve of, within myself.

I understood them as my subconscious patterns or my shadow. I was (and am) confronted — or triggered — by these parts when I discovered them or someone pointed them out to me.

I had to investigate these behaviours and patterns and understand what was happening. I learnt about the shadow aspect of it and their exalted forms. For example, where do I play the role of a victim, or when I am at work I have to play the role of a good employee or a manager or a businessman. At home, I am in the role of a husband, a partner, a lover. And then in terms of shadow — what am I ashamed of, what is my relationship with submission and domination.

The Many Faces of Archetypes

A lot of people have covered the idea of Archetypes — there are the 4 divine masculine archetypes: King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. Jung talks about 12 different archetypes based on our own unconscious and the collective unconscious. The Archetypes of the Enneagram. There are also different types of personality tests.

However, all of these, I believe, are a way of understanding:

• Our own unconscious relationship to self
• Our unconscious behaviour in relation to other people and the world
• A collective unconscious that is being lived through us

So the work becomes about understanding what is in our subconscious or unconscious mind and why we are not in approval of that part of us. The more we shine light on those parts, the more we have to figure out how to be in approval of them. This is the kind of inner work at the heart of self-discovery coaching.

From Unconscious Patterns to Conscious Living

What I really find interesting in Caroline Myss' work is that there is a sense that in the collective energy these archetypal patterns already exist, and we as humans are the manifestation of these archetypal patterns. Through our lives and our interactions we are bringing something that was in the unconscious into the conscious.

There is also a sense that the transmutation and the alchemical process of bringing the collective unconsciousness into consciousness is part of some grand energetic unfolding — and we are all connected to each other and in our unique way solving our small piece of the puzzle by bringing parts of collective unconscious into conscious.

When we look at life from this lens our lives become a journey of living our sacred contract via understanding of our own archetypes; and the reward for our soul — for doing our part and executing our sacred contract — is Eternal Bliss. Nibana. The movement from unconscious pattern to conscious presence.

If you're curious to explore where your own patterns are most active, the Presence Score is a free 15-question assessment that shows which area — Identity, Presence, Desire, or Practices — is most limiting your growth right now.

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