Archetypes
A Journey of the Characters in our Lives
Four year old Jonathan sat on the toilet doing his daily business. Four year old Jonathan liked to talk, and more so, loved to listen. Two ears served as bookends between his brain and one mouth served to ask compelling questions.
So, he talked…and listened. For there was a paint splotch on the bathroom wall of his childhood home. This splotch eventually became “Cue”, a guardian angel and confidant to share stories with during Jonathan’s daily business.
I updated Cue on my life, confessing secrets and sharing enjoyable moments I gathered throughout the day. I assumed Cue loved to hear everything I had to say. I knew he wanted to share wisdom with me as well. So I listened and learned to communicate with my imaginary friend.
I’ll never forget him. And anytime I see that splotch shape - (by the way, it looks like a fat tear drop with only a mouth in the shaped of a turned down orange slice, hence the name “cue” as if you were saying the word “cue”.” ANYTIME, I see a my friend, I say hi, confess something and listen.
Cue operated as one of my first selves, the archetype of the Confidant, the Priest, the Bartender, the Therapist, the person in our lives who listens and asks great questions. I personally relish in this archetype, or spirit, in my life. Anyone who knows me usually complains to their friends, “I like Jonathan, but why so INTENSE?”
This archetype has helped me in my hospice work. You can imagine how often I needed to walk into a home, ask some great questions to prime years worth of trauma and suffering into “what do you need from your nursing team in the next 6 months?” - and having to do that all in under 60 minutes while doing nursing care - in short, the archetype really helped me gain trust quickly and authentically.
So, for the unforeseeably future, I will share some of my favorite archetypes with you. I’ll use a few decks I have collected with cool pictures and illustrations from Dungeons and Dragons, probably some Lord of the Rings references and stories from my own life.
Here are some storytelling principles that I believe about archetypes.
Archetypes are characters on stage playing out a story known as your life.
Archetypes can become “divas” and take over your story - known as possession, who remove choice from your life.
You are the director, we are the audience, the archetypes are the characters.
You probably prefer some archetypes over others. All can help. All can hinder. That depends more on what role they take in your life and whether or not you hand over control.
Carl Jung said “until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our life and we will call it “fate”. Yes, there are some things you cannot control, but in this instance, you are still in charge of the archetypes and their abilities to run your story. This brings hope for those of use who have been “possessed” by a character, only to learn that we can hire a new lead role to change our story.
This means I plan to bring light to darkness in revealing the archetypes. I want to know the difference between ME and the characters that run amuck on the stage of life - sometimes they help, sometimes they hinder.
I’ll be starting with Caroline Myss’s Archetype collection. I hope you enjoy!
As a child, Cue was completely separate from me, and honestly the first being I “prayed” to - intuitively knowing that I was not alone in this world. Older 42 year old Jonathan knows him to be still with me today. He is me, and yet compartmentalized in my imagination and yet, very real.