Archetype In The Heros Journey - hope
Tweet Here in the 21st Century, we often have a confused relationship with the Hero archetype. On the one hand, he is everywhere and we love him and resonate with him. On the other hand, his sheer omnipresence has inevitably highlighted his negative counter-archetypes in almost equal force. This is because wherever we find a would-be Hero, we also find the potential for his regression into the Coward and the Bully. This is not because the Hero is any more flawed than any of the other primary archetypal character arcs. We are perhaps more apt to recognize the problems inherent within the Hero Arc simply because those problems are often the very ones that stymie us personally and culturally. It is generally assumed that the heroic approach to life, or to a task, is the noblest, but this is only partly true. Archetype In The Heros JourneyTake the flood, for example. If you look at myths from across the globe, almost all of them have a flood story of some sort. How can we explain this?
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We know there was a huge flood in the area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea. Depending on the source, it happened anywhere from 11, BC to 3, BC. It is possible as the last great ice age ended, it did inundate this area. Check out this Historical Evidence for the Great Flood. But areas that are far inland, high in elevation and otherwise not likely to be flooded have these deluge stories too.
How can historical fact explain this?
Essays Related To Archetypes: James Frazer, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell
Archeologists are fairly certain that the entire globe was not under water. Another explanation may be that through trade routes or conquest, these stories were shared with new populations who found them so compelling they incorporated these myths into their own. It is unlikely. Remember these early societies did not have Facebook or Twitter; in fact, they were unaware the rest Journry the globe even existed. One explanation that fits Archetype In The Heros Journey, although there is no real proof in the scientific sense, is the idea of archetypes and the collective unconscious.
These ideas were put forth by the 20th century psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung. His ideas are highly speculative, but they do offer an avenue for studying these recurrent ideas we see in myth. This is the area of our psyche where dreams and myths are stored. They contain themes and ideas that humans have had in common link the beginning of human existence.
These common symbols, themes and patterns are Archetype In The Heros Journey archetypes. To Hero up the difference: A symbol is an object that stands for something else or calls that something else to mind.
A symbol is cultural, shared by a group of people. We do not naturally understand what a symbol means; we must learn its meaning.
The alphabet and language are symbols. The logos of companies are symbols. Like the Nike swoosh, we need to learn to associate the symbol to what it is referring to its referent. An archetype is a symbol that is not tied to one culture.
The Bully: An Aggressive Refusal to Take Responsibility
It is shared by all cultures, across time. Archetypes can also be objects-the circle, the mandala. The thing that distinguishes archetype from symbol is that all humans respond and understand the archetypes in similar ways. If we think back to myth Journeey metaphor, it may be easier to understand the idea of the collective unconscious and archetype.]
It is a pity, that now I can not express - it is compelled to leave. But I will return - I will necessarily write that I think on this question.