Allan Hunter

Here is a brief explanation of The Six Archetypes. 

You'll find much more in the book 'Stories We Need to Know' along with ideas about how to overcome the obstacles on your path to spiritual growth. 

A brief run through of the archetypes will help.  These are figures that have appeared in literature for at least three thousand years, always the same, always in the same order, always leading to spiritual growth. It seems that literature has been giving us developmental mile-posts for centuries, but we've forgotten how to notice them.

The first Archetype is the Innocent.  We all start as Innocents, first as babies, and thereafter whenever we try anything new.  We trust, we believe, we are unususpecting - until we're hurt.  Think of your first heartbreak.  The shattering of that naive idealism is actually a sad loss, even though we may become wiser and choose better in our next relationship.  Yet the experience will have made us cautious.

This ushers in the Orphan archetype.  Most of us see that the world is far from perfect, that we are not perfect, and we really want to fit in, have friends and be loved.  That's the Orphan - one who wants to be 'adopted' and therefore belong.  There's nothing wrong with this. If you've ever been on the outside of a clique wanting to get in, you'll know the feeling.  The trouble is we can spend our lives conforming so we fit in and quash our originality in the process.  The Orphan will 'settle' for what's available in life and in love.

When the Orphan breaks out of this rut she becomes a Pilgrim - one who leaves the safety of the socially accepted way of being, the safe job, the predictable life, and goes searching for something more satisfying.  This is a risk and everyone thinks the Pilgrim has gone nuts - at least the Orphans do.  The Pilgrim begins the process of finding out who she really is when she's not in a familiar social situation. Moses, Mohammed, Jesus, Buddha, King Lear, Hamlet - all of them went out into the wilderness to find out their truths.

The Warrior-Lover is the result of the Pilgrim's search.  This is when the individual says, 'This is who I am, and this is what I believe, and I'll fight for it.'  Since we can only fight for those things we love, the balance of Warrior and Lover is crucial.  We become compassionate Warriors for peace.  The Lover aspect is especially important, since we cannot truly love until we are prepared to risk everything as a warrior risks life and limb whenever she goes to defend her beliefs in battle.

The next archetype is the Monarch-Pair, the balance of King and Queen. When a Warrior-Lover achieves the equilibrium of decisive action and compassion it is necessary to bring this into the larger world.  The Monarch is one who does not fight all the battles herself.  Instead she nurtures trust and love in others, so that the kingdom as a whole can benefit.  Think of the Warrior-Lover as the parent who heroically does everything for the family of small children.  Then think of the Monarch as the same parent who encourages the teenage children to do their responsible part in running their own lives in a meaningful way.  This requires trust, faith, the occasional corrective measure, and above it it means the Monarch has to respect that everyone is different. A monarch won't rule long if the people feel oppressed, so it requires skill and delicacy.

If the Monarch can achieve this, and empower those she cares for, something unexpected happens.  People take charge of their own lives and start doing extraordinary, wonderful things. This is the mark of the Magician.  The Magician allows freedom and creativity and sparks those in others, not because of any material reward, but because every creative act is a way we claim our souls.  The Magician is the person who stays open and guides others by not seeming to guide at all, sometimes.  Think of the coach of a truly successful team.  The coach isn't on the field, but on the sidelines. But a gifted coach knows how to pick players, where to place them, and how to get the very best out of each individual - and that's a kind of magic.  Now, expand that idea. Think of the person who said half a dozen wise words to you once, words that changed your life. That's the Magician at work. Or think of an occasion when you said exactly the right thing, and you had no idea why.  That is when you allowed the Magician to flow through you.

This is the brief version of what the archetypes are and how they can be seen around us every day. Literature is full of them, and once we know what to look for they'll be popping out at us from every corner.  These are the mile-posts of human development and like a teenager with clothes, we grow into them for a while and then grow out of them. 

The danger for all of us is that we'll get stuck in one archetype.  This happens because we don't know there are other possibilities, or because we lose courage, or because our ego needs for things manages to get in the way.  Knowing about the six stages can prevent us getting stuck.

And that's why I wrote the book - because I don't want anyone to get stuck at a level less than their full potential.  It's a hard world out there, and we need everyone to be in top condition.  What hope can we have for peace otherwise?

So, right now, you can ask yourself which stage you are at.  Where are you?  The chances are that if you've read this far you are interested in spiritual growth, so you'll be at least a Pilgrim, looking for deep meanings. Perhaps you're already a Warrior-Lover, wondering what the next stage might be?

What's an Archetype?

An archetype is a figure or character that represents a whole class of people.  So if I say the word 'doctor' you may not think of a specific doctor, but you will tend to think of a person who reflects certain values and expertise. If you shout, "I need a doctor!' you have a pretty good sense of what those abilities are, but you don't care what the individual doctor looks like.

'Doctor' is not likely to have the same mental image for most of us as 'jockey'.

An archetype is a bigger version of this way of thinking, a larger category, that conveys the essential human experience first.  So one archetype is the Pilgrim.  We will all have a period in our lives when we go on a search for something that matters to our souls. 

The Pilgrim archetype therefore describes a spiritual and psychological state that everyone will encounter.  Not everyone will be a doctor or a jockey, but we'll all be Pilgrims at some point.

Here's the way the Pilgrim archetype is depicted in the Tarot (Rider deck), where it's called the Hermit. The Hermit looks for inner truth while on the way to a holy shrine, since the staff is for walking long distances. 

Pilgrims exist in many forms.  Take a look at this poster from 1903. 

Perhaps this stately goddess is offering us the chance to leap on the bike and head to wherever it is your pilgrimage will take you.  You can leave the mundane behind. You can be a Pilgrim.