Archetypes are like Plato’s pure forms. Like super metaphors that have a force of their own and no single cultural drive. The tarot is all archetypes, as are most divinatory systems, though those are very often poorly understood these days and badly interpreted. The “death” card from the tarot. Death is a universal archetype, but there is a lot of awareness around that idea of death. Liberation is linked to death as well as loss. The Hang Man (hanging from his foot) as a symbol for transition. Odin’s crucifixion on the world tree. The connection Jesus has with the dogwood tree and with the rose, but I digress…
Part of why metaphor is so universal is our deepest mind thinks only in terms of identities. The core mind can’t do literal. Your inner mind, your subconscious, cannot conceive of “is not” or “does not exist.” It just has no circuits for it. This is why they can’t use negative suggestion in hypnosis. There will just be the positive suggestion of the destructive behaviour. The subconscious mind can conceive only of things, perceive only things.
Is our identity rooted there? Yes. This is why they call it a “self image”, and the self image partakes of the power of the archetypes also. This is why when we hear fantasy stories and myths, we can often readily identify with one or more of the characters. Those characters are in us. Zeus is in you. Hades is in you, or Persephone and Hera.
We intuit much of nature and human nature that our education gives us no model for. We feel forces in the world and in ourselves, and we desire to “get a grip” on them quite naturally.
I thought metaphor was something about literature? It relates to literature, yes, and all stories, and ritual as well.
In this context, maybe metaphor means something different, philosophical? Metaphor in the literal sense. Not what something literally is but “what it’s like.” There are many things in our experience we can only think on by thinking about what they are like.
The foundation of the whole creative process, yes? “I wish I could have something like…” It is. It is how we create a new thing. How we can imagine something entirely new is by metaphor. This is why it shows up in literature so much.
Example of perhaps one of the most primal metaphors is a “totem.” The cultures that used totemic lore didn’t mistake themselves for anything other than human. They were not psychotic.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~