Which Archetypes Do You Embody?
Archetypes are a POWERFUL tool to help us understand ourselves and the people around us.
In this episode of The Twelfth House podcast, Michelle and Wallis talk about what archetypes are, where they come from, how to use them in your work and life, and how to cast your own archetype wheel.
Want to learn more about how your archetypes can help you grow? Take our quiz and find out which Intuitive Entrepreneur archetype you embody — and what that means for your work in 2021!
Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Caroline Myss, and Archetypes
My sophomore year of high school was my favorite, because I had this amazing teacher named Mr. Rhodes.
Mr. Rhodes was a cool teacher who made us feel like adults. As a middle-aged, single white guy who waxed poetic about his time studying at the Sorbonne and wore paisley shirts with skinny crocheted ties, he represented the glories of academia to 15-year-old me.
He gave us mountains of readings on topics like the dharma beliefs of bodhisattvas, Plato’s Cave, and the Id and Ego. The first book we read in his class was Erich Fromm’s “The Art of Loving.” I could literally feel my brain growing new wrinkles during his class; my mind was expanding faster than I could keep up with, and I felt as if every day the way I perceived the world changed just enough to keep me on my toes and excited about learning. The true sign of an amazing teacher.
Although much that I learned half a lifetime ago has stayed with me, by far the most important introduction that Mr. Rhodes made was to Joseph Campbell.
If you’ve taken a basic English writing or film class, you’re probably familiar with Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey, Campbell’s framework for nearly all human myths and stories.
Campbell leaned heavily on psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s idea of archetypes while he explored and categorized the myths of humanity. Jung and Campbell both found that throughout the world, across time and space, similar myths, stories, and ideas of characters like heroes could be found in cultures that were completely unknown to each other. Jung described this “collective unconscious,” a sort of deeply shared gnosis amongst all people—that somehow, we inherently share a soul-level understanding of myth and story.
Carl Jung — the originator of many ideas that are still used in pop psychology like Shadow Work, Unconscious Mind study, and Dreamwork — used archetype as a word to describe the symbols that rise out of the collective unconscious. Campbell took the idea further by integrating it into his Hero’s Journey. Later, spiritual teacher Caroline Myss would use archetypes to teach students how to understand their sacred contract with their own souls.
What is an Archetype?
An archetype is an original model after which other similar things are patterned. In the psychology of Carl Jung, archetypes are the images, patterns, and symbols (see also symbol) that rise out of the collective unconscious and appear in dreams, mythology, and fairy tales.
They’re in our myths, our art, our spirituality, our stories, our cultural icons, and our everyday lives. In fact, we embody archetypes within our personality.
“As human beings, we love patterns—they bring order to our lives. We are continually scanning our world for patterns, particularly in people, because we know intuitively that if we understand someone’s behavior patterns, we understand how she relates to herself, to her life, and to us,” says Caroline Myss. We file people into archetypical roles innately, she argues, as a way of understanding them.
Similarly, we embody archetypes ourselves. We use archetypal patterns to examine our personal myths, beliefs, drives, motivations, actions. All of our relationships are organized and energized by their archetypal patterns—for better or worse.
Teacher and student.
Creative and administrator.
Bully and peacemaker.
And archetypes are universal patterns seen across time and space. The archetype landscape is VAST. There are infinite archetypes because they continue to be created as we exist in the world and forge new paths! But, there are a few dozen primary archetypes that many of us would easily be able to see in our lives.
Archetypal Patterns and Us
Think about the Queen, or the Rebel, or the Bully, or the Visionary — you can likely think of real people who embody these archetypes. (Beyonce, Rose McGowan, Trump, Obama, anyone?) Or maybe you even had a specific person in your life pop into your mind as you read that list. That’s the power of archetypal patterning. Not only do we have archetypes that connect us with our personal myths, fantasies, and ideas about our world, but life itself is governed by archetypal experiences that are common to us all.
So, what do archetypes have to do with wellness and well-being? Well, just as astrology, and Human Design, and the Enneagram, and Numerology help us to understand the prismatic aspects of our personalities better, owning your archetypes can help you get to know all the dimensions of your personality and serve those dimensions as best you possibly can.
Getting to Know the Dimensions of Yourself Through Your Archetypes
The goal isn’t to be perfect and all “light.” Archetypes are inherently neutral—they are neither light nor dark, negative nor positive. Although you may have a personal negative connotation with an archetype ( like, just because you hated when your dad called you “Princess” when you whipped out a whiny attitude doesn’t mean the archetype itself is bad!), all of the archetypes contain light and shadow elements. And they all have a gift to give us.
When in balance, archetypes work to help us move forward. When out of alignment, they can work against us. Owning the archetypes within you is the first step to working with them and finding alignment.
Your 12 Primary Archetypes
According to Caroline Myss, we all contain 12 major archetypes within ourselves. You are multidimensional! So are the archetypes that you embody. Your personal archetypes can be mapped out into 12 sectors of your life, just like an astrological natal chart with 12 houses.
Your 12 archetypes can be broken down into two sections:
Your four Survival archetypes
Your eight Personal archetypes
Survival Archetypes
All of us contain the four Survival archetypes within our personalities and charts. These archetypes are:
The Child
The Victim
The Saboteur
The Hustler
Remember, these are archetypes that every. single. person. contains within them. Even if you really don't wanna own that Victim archetype ... you still got her in there somewhere, bb.
Personal Archetypes
After the four survival archetypes, we have eight slots left for our personal archetypes. Because we are born with our archetypes and they don't change or leave us as we age, these are the archetypes that you likely identify with deeply, and have since childhood.
Some of your archetypes may also be very triggering to you. If you have a really violent reaction to an archetype — "THAT IS SO NOT ME" — uhm, well, that could very well be you. (!) Hey, listen, it's OK. Usually, we're triggered by an archetype because we have a negative connotation attached to it. But that connotation, dear one, may or may not be truth.
Narrowing Down Your Archetypes
Remember, there are infinite archetypes out there. That being said, there are some main archetypes that show up often in modern life:
Addict
Advocate
Alchemist
Angel
Artist
Athlete
Avenger
Beggar
Bully
Child
Clown
Companion
Damsel
Destroyer
Detective
Dilettante
Don Juan
Engineer
Exorcist
Father
Femme Fatale
Gambler
God
Goddess
Guide
Healer
Wounded Healer
Hedonist
Hero/Heroine
Judge
King
Knight
Liberator
Lover
Martyr
Mediator
Mentor
Messiah
Midas/Miser
Monk
Mother
Mystic
Networker
Nun
Pioneer
Poet
Priest
Prince
Hustler
Queen
Rebel
Rescuer
Saboteur
Samaritan
Scribe
Seeker
Servant
Shaman
Shape-shifter
Slave
Storyteller
Student
Teacher
Thief
Trickster
Vampire
Victim
Virgin
Visionary
Warrior
How to Use Your Archetypes
Once you've nailed down your 12 archetypes, you can begin to dive deeper into understanding the light and dark sides of each. Why is this helpful? Welp, because it can really help stop you in your tracks when you begin to self-destruct. Kidding! Not kidding, though!
For example, I have the Detective archetype in my Third House. The Third House describes how you express yourself and your communication style—your speech, writing, and language. The Third House also governs the conscious mind, the cognitive function, learning capability, and early education.
I've had this Detective energy since I was a little kid. I love mysteries, I'm excessively skeptical, I am a finder of facts and a purveyor of tiny details. When out of balance, I tend to be bitingly cynical in my communications with others. I question their motives to the nth degree. I snoop. I go down rabbit holes looking for more more more information. When in balance, this archetype keeps me curious, aware, and really good at finding the answers I need.
To keep this archetype in balance, I need to feed it with lots of intellectual opportunities. Taking classes, reading, and learning as much as I can keep this archetype happy. This archetype can also get a little stuck on ideas or theories (think: obsessive-compulsive patterns), so I know that I need to do things that prevent me from getting in that zone. Staying away from too much caffeine and giving myself a daily meditation moment helps.
Beyond keeping it in balance, I know that to help this archetype thrive I need to present myself with "mysteries" and challenges. Finding solutions for situations that others have deemed impossible doesn't just satisfy this archetype in me, it helps me evolve.
Do you see how understanding your archetypes could be really helpful in navigating your well-being? If you're anything like me, I bet you're nodding your head yes!
Additionally, I strongly recommend reading more of Caroline Myss, Joseph Campbell, and Carl Jung's work around archetypes. These lessons are so powerful, and so helpful to understand!
