archetype discussion

[euroe4]

i read the law of one study guides and i can remember the mention of archetypes but not much substance on that. can anyone point me in the right direction? are they just broad arcing character types like in literature? are they distortions that are so important that they need to be replayed throughout time and space? do we all fit an archetype?

peace and love,
eric

[twva]

according to ra as channeled by l/l research, there are 22 archetypes: seven of mind, seven of body, seven of spirit, and the choice. they correspond to the 22 major arcana of the tarot.

ra says that the archetypical mind is a resource for the adept and that the adept learns how and when to invoke particular archetypes at appropriate times in order to serve more effectively in its chosen polarity (ie to self or others).

for each set of seven archetypes (mind, body, spirit) ra gives the same structure: matrix, potentiator, catalyst, experience, significator, transformation, great way. so arcanum #1, the magician, corresponds to ra's matrix of the mind, and arcanum #8, justice, corresponds to matrix of the body.

the l/l contact stopped when they had only gotten through the first seven cards (the mind), although they did do a very brief run through of all 22 earlier in book 4.

you can read the archetype information at http://www.lawofone.info/results.php?category=tarot and http://www.lawofone.info/results.php?category=archetypical+mind

a nice summary and explication of ra's concepts is at http://secularfreemason.blogspot.com/2008/11/tarot-major-arcana-and-freewill-plan.html

[christincook]

the 22 archetypes corresponding to the major arcana are representative of what can be called "the fool's journey". card 0, the fool is representative of each individual on his journey through life. here's a link for a really great, simplistic explanation...

http://www.learntarot.com/journey.htm

[tuesday]

here is a snip about archetypes, from a website about the life and philosophy of carl jung, here:

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html

snip>>>

jung's theory divides the psyche into three parts. the first is the ego,which jung identifies with the conscious mind. closely related is the personal unconscious, which includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. the personal unconscious is like most people's understanding of the unconscious in that it includes both memories that are easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed for some reason. but it does not include the instincts that freud would have it include.

but then jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theory stand out from all others: the collective unconscious. you could call it your "psychic inheritance." it is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. and yet we can never be directly conscious of it. it influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences.

there are some experiences that show the effects of the collective unconscious more clearly than others: the experiences of love at first sight, of deja vu (the feeling that you've been here before), and the immediate recognition of certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all be understood as the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality of the collective unconscious. grander examples are the creative experiences shared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all times, or the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, or the parallels in dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature.

a nice example that has been greatly discussed recently is the near-death experience. it seems that many people, of many different cultural backgrounds, find that they have very similar recollections when they are brought back from a close encounter with death. they speak of leaving their bodies, seeing their bodies and the events surrounding them clearly, of being pulled through a long tunnel towards a bright light, of seeing deceased relatives or religious figures waiting for them, and of their disappointment at having to leave this happy scene to return to their bodies. perhaps we are all "built" to experience death in this fashion.

archetypes

the contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. jung also called them dominants, imagos, mythological or primordial images, and a few other names, but archetypes seems to have won out over these. an archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way.

the archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an "organizing principle" on the things we see or do. it works the way that instincts work in freud's theory: at first, the baby just wants something to eat, without knowing what it wants. it has a rather indefinite yearning which, nevertheless, can be satisfied by some things and not by others. later, with experience, the child begins to yearn for something more specific when it is hungry -- a bottle, a cookie, a broiled lobster, a slice of new york style pizza.

the archetype is like a black hole in space: you only know its there by how it draws matter and light to itself.

<snip

also, jung's autobiography, _memories, dreams, and reflections, is one of the best books i've ever read.