'Archetype': Word and concept 18 comments

17 Aug 2006 @ 15:07, by Max Sandor (thinking of adding this article to the new edition of the 'Your Personal Archetype' book, in order to address some of the frequent questions)... The word archetype stems from the greek concept of 'arkhetypon'. 'arkhe' denotes the concept of the first, initial spark that spawned life, much like the aramaic 'or', the primordial light given to the world by the Elohim in the Genesis of the Torah and the Old Testament. 'typon' stands for the 'stamp' that was used to create seals, coins and other things that were marked by humans. In this sense, the word archetype describes the typology of ancient gods as well as human beings, the copies or 'clones' of those gods. In our times, the concept of archetype is used for all kinds of classifications, most of them useful in their specific concepts. Few, however, have maintained the meaning of the original sense of the word. In most of these classifications, basic attributes of persons, such as 'extroverted' or 'introverted', are made the basis of a typology of human behavior. As useful as these typologies may be, to call them 'archetypical' patterns would usurp a much more specific concept than these systems are able to provide. One of the more appropriate approaches we can find in the archetypes of CG Jung who recognized the importance of them in the lives and destinies of all humans. Unfortunately, his time and context did not allow for a more precise specification and classification. Archetypal roles such as the hunter or the mother are useful but are missing the point that every human Being has an archetype that can be precisely defined, described, and classified whereas the basic roles in life, such as mother or hunter, are describing roles that can be used by a large number of persons who individually may be very different in their approach to life. In this book, we follow the original definition of the word: the stamp that was imprinted during the creation of life itself, faintly visible in the stories of the gods and demi-gods of Sumeria, Egypt, and Ancient Greece, and which is present in every human Being still today, determining its behavior much more rigidly and stereotypically than we would like to admit to ourselves.... We follow in this book the archetypes of the ancient philosophy and religion of Fá, or Ifá, a system of thought and praxis which survived the times in the jungle of Westafrica, which then was carried and embedded into other similar systems in Brazil and Cuba during the time of the slave trade, and which reemerged in the past 50 years within and beyond its original traditions. In its pure form, this system of Fá is empirical and non-dogmatic, thus transcending all barriers of a religious belief system and therefore applicable and useful for every human being and for the study of life and nature itself. It should be clear, that, as with all such deep systems, they can be found embedded in dogmatic religions and cults as well. To give just one example of the empiric nature and the exactness of this system, let us point to one traditional way the archetypal forces can be invoked: playing the 'cosmic code' of one of the more than sixhundred known archetypes on three different drums can be used to 'bring down' this spiritual force to a degree that it can appear to 'possess' a human body for a short time. This process, sometimes called 'incorporation' can be found in Benin, Cuba, Brazil, and other parts of the world. If the drum players are NOT playing correctly the very 'code' of the archetype, the archetype will NOT manifest itself. When it does, however, it will demonstrate its very own attributes in a clear and unmistakable fashion, different from all the other archetypes. In other words, the correctness of this system is determined by its feasilibily, applicability, and repeatibility, the hallmarks of an empiric science which yields its data through observation instead of speculation. Phenomena like these give rise to superstition, scepsis, even fear, in many people. What is unknown is often suspected to be evil or demonic. Yet, let us emphasize again, we are looking at an aspect of our very own nature, and if there should truly be evil in it, whatever this word may mean to you, ignoring it would make it only stronger. Only through knowledge of ourselves can we transcend what separates us from our ideals. It is our intent to surpass the limits of fear and ignorance and to provide a bridge between this profound, ancient knowledge and modern man. The present selection of seventy-three archetypes out of over sixhundred that are known to man was based on a statistical survey of over onethousand so-called life-readings in the USA, Brazil, and Europe. This subset of 73 very well describes the vast majority of humans living in those areas in our time and culture. Apart from the effort to sort out the variety of archaic and modern names of these archetypes, the main purpose of this book is to provide a guide to the archetypes of man in the 21st century, void of superstitions and dogma, for everyone who wants to seeks the deeper truths about the nature of man.

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