About Archetypes
About Archetypes
The Greek origin of the word archetype comes from the words archē, meaning ‘beginning’ or ‘original’ and typos, meaning ‘pattern, model or type’.
Plato suggested archetypes are an imprinted, invisible sense of knowing within an individual's soul, born into our being as the intrinsic qualities of our inner nature.
Swiss psychoanalyst, Dr. Carl Jung, believed archetypes are inherited traits in all humans from birth, present long before consciousness develops.
In 1920 Jung developed a classification for twelve archetypes based on common human character, need and desire. He believed they were the key attributes to becoming whole.
Jung suggested the ‘collective unconscious’ is a series of pre-determined patterns that are universal and shared among all humans.
Contemporary teacher and mystic, Caroline Myss, expands Jung’s theories on the patterns of archetypes unique to every individual, and the sacred contract she believes pre-ordains our archetypes before birth.
