archetypes
ever-growing log of archetypes
“the archetype (so far as known) denotes completeness but is far from being perfect. It is a paradox, a statement about something indescribable and transcendental.”
Crone
“Mother makes more conscious boundaries; virgin speaks her truth that shatters idealized projections; crone contains paradox. Mother loves, virgin perceives, crone forgives. Deeper, higher, broader, the cycle moves. As mother-virgin consciously surrenders to her destiny, each crossroad takes her closer to the crone. She becomes a consciously surrendered instrument attuned to the cosmic matrix. Through her, love flows” (Woodman, 1992, p. 202).
Wise, weathered, unfettered by the expectations of others, free in her acceptance of the inevitable cycles of loss and growth, the crone is a guiding pillar of light through the darkness. I’ve personally thought a lot about the crone. here is one essay on my early process understanding the virgin-mother-crone archetype in my first quarter of grad school, and another devoted specifically to understanding Hekate
books:
Circle for Hekate
Leaving my father’s house
Goddesses in older women
Fool
“Many will laugh at my foolishness. But no one will laugh more than I laughed at myself.”
(Jung, The Red Book, p. 145)
“The soul demands your folly, not your wisdom.”
“Since my contemporaries, understandably, could not perceive my vision, they saw only a fool rushing ahead.” (MDR, 356)
“Hold on tight beginner’s mind. The current’s far too strong. It will carry you along till you’re just like everyone. Stay a while, my inner child, I’d like to learn your tricks, to know what makes you tick, to nurse you when you’re sick.” ~Conor Oberst, Beginner’s Mind
bright eyes – the people’s key (2011)
“Zero is infinite and timeless, encompassing the qualities of a quiet and unfound confidence. The number 0 kind of looks like a seed. Seeds, like the fool, imply potential.” – from something i wrote
see also: tarot
Maiden / Virgin
The “negative aspect of the virgin can perhaps best be seen in a paralyzing demand for perfection” (Woodman, 1982, p. 84)
books:
The Pregnant Virgin
Addiction to Perfection
Mother
Great Mother
The mythological Great Mothers are usually a danger to their sons. (Jung, Aion, p. 111)
the mother is the darkness, the original unconsciousness. Out of the mother came individual consciousness. (Jung, Dream Symbols, p. 123)
Negative Mother
Hermit
“Happy is he who can be a hermit in his own desert. He survives.” (Jung, Red Book, p. 447)
see also: tarot, solitude
further reflections on the hermit
Water Bearer
“The Water Bearer seems to represent the self. With a sovereign gesture he pours the content os his jug into the pouth of Piscis austrinus, which symbolizes a son, a still unconscious content.” (Jung, MDR, p. 339)
see also: aquarius
every archetype is capable of endless development and differentiation. It is therefore possible for it to be more developed or less