Jungian Archetypes:
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Like one Soft Surroundings blogger, I "like to think of them as artists too who create works of art everyday."
This section of Fashion After 50 explores Jungian archetypes as doors to creative aging and soul wisdom. [Read more about Jungian Archetypes]
The Truth-Seeker -- August 2010
The great quest of the truth seeker in late life is to find meaning. This often requires discovery of the uncompleted parts of the self. Many myths and legends illustrate the hero’s journey, which always starts with the truth seeker character-archetype answering a call to do something. [Read more]
The Storyteller Archetype -- July 2010
The value-of-storytelling is embodied in the archetype of the Griot or Storyteller. This character archetype transcends months and seasons.Mythic stories embody hero archetypes that convey cultural values. Understanding your character archetypes can help heal the spirit and bring wholeness that unleashes creativity. [Read more]
Feminine Makeovers & Alchemical Transmutation -- June 2010
The popularity of feminine makeovers has its roots in the ancient, perhaps even prehistoric, search for alchemical transmutation.The tribal warrior to wears a lion skin to gain the courage of the king of beasts. The corporate woman warrior wears a leopard-print blouse to a business meeting to feel graceful and powerful. Clothing effects alchemical transmutations of their essential self-presentation. [Read More]
Mother Dance -- May 2010
Of all the symbols of spring, the may pole dance best illustrates the reign of Mother Dance in the month of merry May.Mother Dance united in her archetype the sacred and profane, the erotic and unearthly, the visceral and the transcendental.
The may pole dance brings together symbols of spring of innocence and [Read More]
Mother Rain -- April 2010
The April feminine symbol is Mother Rain. Her persona embodies the two faces of Nature – the all nurturing, birth-giving potential and the unrelenting strength of annihilation of world drought.This archetypal antinomy is embodied in the lyrics of a song that celebrates getting caught in the rain -- popularly known at the Pina Colada Song. Bored by each other (an emotional dought), a couple each secretly sets up a meeting using personal ads [Read more]
Hope Symbols -- March 2010
Hope symbols and hope quotations are embodied in ancient myths as the goddesses Elpis and Spes. All religions and cultural are buoyed by this uniquely feminine archetype.It is often older women who offer words of hope to those who falter [Read more]
Mother Light -- February 2010
The archetype of Mother Light has been celebrated in seemingly every corner of the globe since ancient times.
Diwali in India and Jewish Hanukah for example, are celebrations of light.[Read more]
The Winter Mother -- January 2010
The Snow Queen seduces boy-children . . .
The masks of Carnivale translate ice crystals and snowflakes into bejeweled and feathered art on faces as frozen in perfection [Read more]
Why Jungian Archetypes Matter for Aging Women
Archetype of the Month is an exploration of the deepest patterns of my experience as an elder woman and feminist.An Jungian archetype is an ideal or a transcendent template that we can only know through its expression in images in our lives.
These culturally and historically transcendent Jungian images appear in art, folk tales, and all forms of popular media.
Reading Clarissa Pinkola Estes Women Who Run with the Wolves
By digging into age-old patterns for self-development, we discover hidden reserves of creativity and wisdom.
Sources who have inspired and influenced me are here: Book and Media Reviews.
Jungian Archetypes: An Invitation
to Explore Soul and Self
My inquiry into archetypal images of womanhood and aging is shaped by the theory of Estelle Lauter and other contributors to Feminist Archetypal Theory (1985, University of Tennessee Press), as well as by traditional Jungian theory and theorists. Lauter examined hundred of images of women by women artists. She found that contemporary women artists did not always conform to previous Jungian interpretations.
Earlier Jungian theorists suggested two dominant categories -- the nurturing and inspiring mother or the terrible and destructive mother.
Lauter asked whether we should get ride of the notion of archetype altogether if, “The archetype is, presumably nothing more than a tendency to form images in response to recurrent shared experiences of mothers or being mothered” (p. 59, Visual Images by Women, in Feminist Archetypal Theory.
Feminists Expand Lexicon of Jungian Archetype Symbols
She concludes that the greater variety of motherhood images in the work of contemporary woman artists enriches our understanding of this uniquely female experience.Through this variety of Jungian archetypes, Lauter writes, “Presumably we come to know and respect the deepest patterns of our experience” (p. 59).
Like Winter Mother, Lauter holds the promise of new life by re-visioning Jungian theory.
She writes, “The concept of the archetype could, in feminist hands, function as a force against the reification of any one cultural construction of reality. It is the never-to-be-exhausted tendency to imagine that is the ultimate justification of cultural pluralism” (p. 62).
I hope you will take time to share your thoughts, too. You may reach me at Editor at Fashionafter50.com – except use the email symbol for at.
If you live in or near South Florida, you may be interested in the high-quality programs at the Center for Jungian Studies of South Florida. These pages, however, are strictly my own ideas and interpretations.
My arcchetype workshop is a way to explore your connection to your lived archetypes.
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