The 4 Main Archetypes inside everyone

The 12 archetypes feature so predominantly in the ancient mythologies of multiple cultures they cannot be passed off as inconsequential. It is not a coincidence that ancient cultures from all over the world placed an important significance on the number 12.

A logical conclusion for the consistent repetition of 12 archetypes, is that these energies are central to emotional healing and self-development. Today’s psychoanalysts also allude to this fact by classifying 12 “personality types” which they attribute to the 12 major archetypes.

Archetypes are essential catalysts for self-realisation. They are psychic energies that reflect human nature. When all 12 are fully integrated into your conscious mind, you are whole, centred and calm.

Subsequently, understanding the positive and negative attributes of the 12 major archetypes can help you identify and release suppressed content from the unconscious mind and reprogram your personal unconscious.

Carl Jung, the eminent psychologist was the first person to classify archetypes as a psychological tool. He postulated the archetypes were human qualities that were universal to all of humanity and separate from the personal unconscious. 

These four, that are in this blog are the 4 that are the catalyst to pretty much every Limiting, Negative Mindset problem that Humans find themselves in.

The Victim Archetype

The Victim - Don’t be misled by the name of this archetype.

When properly recognised, the Victim can alert you to the possibility that you are about to let yourself be victimised, whether through passivity or inappropriate actions.

It can also help you recognise your own tendency to victimise others for personal gain.

We need to develop this clarity of insight, however, and that means learning the nature and intensity of the Victim within.

In its shadow manifestation, the Victim tells you that you are always taken advantage of and it’s never your fault.

We may like to play the Victim at times because of the positive feedback we get in the form of sympathy or pity.

Our goal is always to learn how to recognise these inappropriate attitudes in ourselves or others, and to act accordingly.

We are not meant to be victimised in life, but to learn how to handle challenges and outrun our fears. In establishing contact with your own inner Victim, ask yourself:

Do I blame others for the circumstances of my life?

Do I spend time in the pit of self-pity?

Do I envy others who always seem to get what they want out of life?

Do I feel victimized by others when situations don’t work out the way I wanted them to?

Do I tend to feel more powerless than powerful?

A Happy Victim

A hospital bed surrounded by concerned faces. A signed cast. “Get Well Soon” cards and roses galore. These are a few of the Victim’s favourite things. Other perks of Victimhood include: ambulance sirens, seeing people go into “emergency mode,” long, and drawn-out retellings of the horrible things that have happened.

Famous Victims

There are people who became famous because they were victims of crime, accidents, disasters, and the like, but this is not the same thing as being a person with a Victim mentality who is perpetually having a hard time with life. Such types rarely become well-known because their energy is too wrapped up in problems to make a name for themselves and their circle of influence is limited.

Victim Entourage

Victims love to get sympathy from any and all who will give it, including: the Angel, Besty, Co-dependent, Advocate, Prince, and Princess. Victims gravitate to: the Vampire, Con Artist, Mythomaniac, Narcissist, and Cheater

Victim in Love

Victims are energy vampires who will gladly suck every bit of joy out of healthy people’s lives with their primary tools: guilt and shame. They make their loved ones feel terrible about their own good fortune and ashamed to experience pleasure of any kind. Their partners better be ready to spring to the Victim’s side at a moment’s notice, give everything they have to make a situation better and pay full attention to the pain and suffering of the Victim. As totally un-fun as this sounds, many find the Victim irresistibly attractive, namely those who have a saviour complex.

Victim Challenge

To think of others and the big picture is super-hard for the Victim because both the conscious and subconscious parts of their minds are tied up with creating the next calamity. But until the Victim achieves a higher viewpoint, he or she will not see that the pattern of victimhood is to some degree self-created.

How to Play

If forgiveness is the path to healing for the Victim.

The Victim not only has to forgive others for wrongdoings and the pain they have caused, but more importantly the Victim must forgive himself or herself for not protecting and defending against harm. The shift in emotional energy that forgiveness brings will allow for a new perspective. A new identity can be formed, and the Victim can transform into a Survivor. A Survivor is someone who overcomes adversity and is stronger on the other side.

The shift may or may not happen immediately. Most Victims find that overcoming this state takes a lot of work. Changing deeply ingrained beliefs and attitudes isn’t easy, but it’s worth the effort because life can be pretty sweet on the other side of Victim hood

The Prostitute Archetype

The Prostitute

None of us thinks kindly of the term ‘prostitute,’ and yet from this archetype we learn the great gift of never again having to compromise our body, mind, or spirit.

You may have already reached the point in which the Prostitute has become a mature part of yourself that circles you with a strong vibrational field that says, “Not for sale.”

The Prostitute archetype engages lessons in the sale or negotiation of one’s integrity or spirit due to fears of physical survival or for financial gain.

It activates the aspects of the unconscious that are related to seduction and control, whereby you are as capable of buying a controlling interest in another person as you are of selling your own power.

Prostitution should be understood as the selling or selling out of your talents, ideas, and any other expression of the self.

The core learning of the Prostitute relates to the need to birth and refine self-esteem and self-respect.

We prostitute ourselves when we sell our bodies or minds for money or when we compromise our morals and ethics for financial gain.

That may include remaining in a marriage or job that endangers our well-being for reasons of financial security.

In identifying this archetype, ask yourself:

Have I ever sold out to people or organizations that I did not truly believe in?

Have I ever remained in a situation that offered me financial protection because of a desire for financial security?

Have I ever put another person in the position of compromising him- or herself in order to gain power over that individual?

Have I ever ‘bought’ another person’s loyalty, support, or even silence, in order to have my way?

From another perspective:

Have I ever offered to help another who was weakened by his or her Prostitute archetype?

Do I judge others because they find themselves continually compromising themselves?

Do I think of them as weak and myself as a better person?

And from yet another perspective:

Have I ever felt myself being pulled into a circumstance that would require me to sell out my ethics, but then found myself strong enough to say “no”?

The Child Archetype

The Child

The mature personality of the Child archetype nurtures that part of us that yearns to be light-hearted and innocent, expecting the wonders of tomorrow, regardless of age. This part of our nature contributes greatly to our ability to sense playfulness in our lives, balancing the seriousness of adult responsibilities. The balanced Child is a delight to be around because the energy that flows from this part of our personality is positively infectious and brings out the best in others, as well as in us.

The Child also establishes our perceptions of life, safety, nurture, loyalty, and family. Its many aspects include the Wounded Child, Abandoned or Orphan Child, Dependent, Innocent, Nature, and Divine Child. These energies may emerge in response to different situations in which you find yourself, yet the core issue of all the Child archetypes is dependency vs. responsibility: when to take responsibility, when to have a healthy dependency, when to stand up to the group, and when to embrace communal life. Each of the variants of the Child archetype is characterized by certain tendencies, including shadow tendencies.

Wounded Child

The Wounded Child archetype holds the memories of abuse, neglect, and other traumas that we have endured during childhood. This is the Child pattern most people relate to, particularly since it has become the focus of therapy since the 1960s. Many people blame the relationship with their parents that created their Wounded Child, for instance, for all their subsequent dysfunctional relationships. On the positive side, the painful experiences of the Wounded Child often awaken a deep sense of compassion and a desire to help other Wounded Children. From a spiritual perspective, a wounded childhood cracks open the learning path of forgiveness.

The shadow aspect may manifest as an abiding sense of self-pity, a tendency to blame our parents for any current shortcomings and to resist moving on through forgiveness. It may also lead us to seek out parental figures in all difficult situations rather than relying on our own resourcefulness.

Orphan Child

From Little Orphan Annie to Cinderella, the Orphan Child in most well known children’s stories reflects the lives of people who feel from birth as if they are not a part of their family, including the family psyche or tribal spirit. But because orphans are not allowed into the family circle, they have to develop independence early on. The absence of family influences, attitudes, and traditions inspires or compels the Orphan Child to construct an inner reality based on personal judgment and experience.

The shadow aspect manifests when Orphans never recover from feelings of abandonment, and the scar tissue from family rejection stifles their maturation, often causing them to seek surrogate family structures to experience tribal union. Therapeutic support groups become shadow tribes or families for an Orphan Child who knows deep down that healing these wounds requires moving on to adulthood. For that reason, establishing mature relationships remains a challenge.

The Magical/Innocent Child

The Magical Child sees the potential for sacred beauty in all things, and embodies qualities of wisdom and courage in the face of difficult circumstances. One example is Anne Frank, who wrote in her diary that in spite of all the horror surrounding her family while hiding from Nazis in an attic, she still believed that humanity was basically good. This archetype is also gifted with the power of imagination and the belief that everything is possible.

The shadow energy of the Magical Child manifests as the absence of the possibility of miracles and of the transformation of evil to good. Attitudes of pessimism and depression, particularly when exploring dreams, often emerge from an injured Magical Child whose dreams were “once upon a time” thought foolish by cynical adults. The shadow may also manifest as a belief that energy and action are not required, allowing one to retreat into fantasy.

Nature Child

This archetype inspires deep, intimate bonding with natural forces, and has a particular affinity for friendships with animals. Although the Nature Child has tender, emotional qualities, it can also have an inner toughness and ability to survive–the resilience of Nature herself. Nature Children can develop advanced skills of communicating with animals, and in stories reflecting this archetype an animal often comes to the rescue of its child companion. Many veterinarians and animal rights activists resonate with this archetype because they have felt a conscious rapport with animals since childhood. Other adults describe being in communication with nature spirits and learning to work in harmony with them in maintaining the order of nature.

The shadow aspect of the Nature Child manifests in a tendency to abuse animals and people and the environment.

A love of animals is not sufficient to qualify for this archetype, however. A life-long pattern of relating to animals in an intimate and caring way, to the extent that your psyche and spirit need these bonds as a crucial part of your own well-being, is your best clue.

Puer/Puella Eternis (Eternal Boy/Girl)

This archetype guides us to remain eternally young in body, mind, and spirit, and not to let age stop us from enjoying life. The shadow Eternal Child often manifests as an inability to grow up and embrace the responsible life of an adult. Like Peter Pan, the Eternal Boy resists ending a cycle of life in which he is free to live outside the boundaries of conventional adulthood.

The shadow Puella Eternis can manifest in women as extreme dependence on those who take charge of their physical security. She cannot be relied on nor can she accept the aging process. Although few people delight in the end of their youth, the Eternal Child is sometimes left floundering and ungrounded between the stages of life, because of not having laid a foundation for a functioning adulthood.

he Dependent Child

The Needy or Dependent Child carries a heavy feeling inside that nothing is ever enough, and is always seeking to replace something lost in childhood – although exactly what is never clear. As with the Wounded Child, this leads to bouts of depression, only more severe. The Dependent Child tends to be focused on his own needs, often unable to see the needs of others. As with all apparently negative archetypes, you can learn to recognize its emergence and use it as a guide to alert you when you are in danger of falling into needy, self-absorbed attitudes and behavior.

Divine Child

The Divine Child is closely related to both the Innocent and Magical Child, but is distinguished from them by its redemptive mission. It is associated with innocence, purity, and redemption, god-like qualities that suggest that the Child enjoys a special union with the Divine itself. Few people are inclined to choose the Divine Child as their dominant Child archetype, however, because they have difficulty acknowledging that they could live continually in divine innocence. And yet, divinity is also a reference point of your inner spirit that you can turn to when you are in a conscious process of choice. You may also assume that anything divine cannot have a shadow aspect, but that’s not realistic.

The shadow of this archetype manifests as an inability to defend itself against negative forces. Even the mythic gods and most spiritual masters — including Jesus, who is the template of the Divine Child for the Christian tradition — simultaneously expressed anger and divine strength when confronting those who claimed to represent heaven while manifesting injustice, arrogance, or other negative qualities (think of Jesus’ wrath at the money-changers in the Temple). Assess your involvement with this archetype by asking whether you see life through the eyes of a benevolent, trusting God/Goddess, or whether you tend to respond initially with fear of being hurt or with a desire to hurt others first.

The Saboteur Archetype

The Saboteur

This may be the most difficult of all the archetypes to understand, because its name is associated with betrayal. Yet the purpose of this archetype is not to sabotage you, but to help you learn the many ways in which you undermine yourself. How often do you set new plans in motion, only to end up standing in your own way because of the fears that undermine those optimistic plans. Or you begin a new relationship and then destroy it because you begin to imagine a painful outcome. You begin a working relationship with another person and find yourself once again in a power struggle that could be settled peacefully — but you fall into the same destructive pattern because you fear the other person.

The Saboteur’s fears and issues are all related to low self-esteem that causes you to make choices that block your own empowerment and success. As with the Victim and Prostitute, you need to face this powerful archetype that we all possess and make it an ally. When you do, you will find that it calls your attention to situations in which you are in danger of being sabotaged, or of sabotaging yourself. Once you are comfortable with the Saboteur, you learn to hear and heed these warnings, saving yourself untold grief from making the same mistakes over and over. Ignore it, and the shadow Saboteur will manifest in the form of self-destructive behaviour or the desire to undermine others.

To learn how to become aware of the action of the Saboteur within, ask yourself these questions:

What fears have the most authority over me? List three.

What happens when a fear overtakes me?

Does it make me silent?

Do I allow people to speak for me?

Do I agree to some things out of fear that I otherwise would not agree to?

Have I let creative opportunities pass me by?

How conscious am I in the moment that I am sabotaging myself?

Am I able to recognize the Saboteur in others?

Would I be able to offer others advice about how to challenge one’s Saboteur?

If so, what would it be?

Does it irritate you to see people succeed if those people don’t happen to be you?

Do you pretend to be a team player all the while secretly plotting to put a wrench in the works?

Do you tend to make mistakes that are fatal to the project or purpose at hand and then skilfully pass the blame to others?

Then, hello, Saboteur!

Building something special and spectacular?

The Saboteur is the one who” accidentally” sneezes and then take secret pleasure in seeing the house of cards come down.

The Saboteur is puts the proverbial fly in the ointment and has a whole array of faulty ingredients to make sure the recipe won’t succeed.

The Saboteur may listen to instruction but will be sure to mess it up by putting his own spin on it. When disaster follows the Saboteur insists that she was “only trying to help.”

The Saboteur has much in common with the Destroyer, except Destroyers are out and direct with their intentions, whereas Saboteurs have a latent desire for destruction.

On the surface, they may even seem to be supporting and building along with the team, but don’t be fooled: the Saboteur’s wheels are always turning with diabolical genius, waiting for the perfect opportunity to implode the whole project, then walk away undetected.

Saboteur Superpowers Getting inside access with the builders, movers, shakers, and doers Hiding ill intent and fiendish fantasies Masking a love of destruction Acting innocent Pretending to be as upset as everyone else when it all goes wrong.

A Happy Saboteur

The Saboteur is happiest at the moment of detonation and watching the aftermath. This type feels a power surge when surrounded by the crushed spirits of those who have worked so hard to do something useful or beautiful.

Famous Saboteurs

Max Manus (one of the most famous Saboteurs of World War ll), Belle Boyd (a confederate spy in the American Civil War), Dick Dastardly of the cartoon, Wacky Races Saboteur Entourage. The Saboteur can lurk in any crowd or around anyone who is trying to succeed at a big ambition or important task. This type can bring down the: Artist, Athlete, Cheerleader, Queen Bee/King He, Activist, Vegan, Techie, Explorer, Overachiever, Diva, and more.

Saboteur in Love

The Saboteur is a seductive and seemingly supportive partner who secretly has problems with a partner’s success. Maybe it’s out of jealousy, or a need to be around the thrill of chaos, but the Saboteur will make sure that nothing goes right and that it’s all someone else’s fault. The world, it seems, is against the Saboteur. Woe begets partner who doesn’t catch on quick and separate from the Saboteur before this person brings him or her all the way down.

Saboteur Challenge

Saboteurs are often unaware of their own sickness. Many believe that they have nothing to do with the disasters that regularly occur around them. They really do think that it’s a coincidence that wherever they go madness, destruction and epic failure ensues. Because of their oblivion, the Saboteur’s biggest challenge is in recognizing the pattern and realizing that the common denominator of each situation is the Saboteur himself or herself. Owning up to the tendency is the first step to stopping destructive behavior.

How to Play It Occasionally people you trust will let you down – that’s just life. But if this becomes a pattern beware: the person you are trusting just may be a Saboteur. In this case, do not accept help from this person or give this person any responsibility, or you will be sorry.

If you find the Saboteur tendency in yourself, consider what it is you really want and challenge yourself to deal directly with that desire instead of sneaking around in a cowardly way.