The Elder Leader Archetype

 

Archetypes are both in the world around you and within the structure of your own Psyche. On one level you recognize archetypal images in the forms of roles and “typical” experiences and relationships. At the same time, you have unconsciously internalized these same archetypal formations in the process of being socialized and becoming who you are; developing your complex identity. While this may sound like a different understanding of archetypes than you are familiar with from Jung or Hillman or from more recent, popular authors, as a cultural and psychological anthropologist I see the connection between our role based social identities and the unconscious makeup of human consciousness that embodies at least The Twelve primordial Persona Archetype forms which Dr. Charles Bebeau associated with Sumerian astrological gods and goddesses and that pertain very directly with Jung and Hillman’s archetypal theories and practical therapeutic methods.

The Elder Leader is an excellent example of how an archetypal form is both externally constructed or projected onto others as well as existing internally as a ‘Persona,’ a facet of a person’s character or–as I see it–a member of a person’s internal ensemble cast of archetype character modes. They may be experienced as ‘inner voices’–like the angel on one shoulder versus the Devil on the other–, and they often appear in our dreams as well as in our basic expression of Self in various distinctive situations.

When our various situational persona archetypes, from deeply unconscious to more consciously felt and expressed, combine with one another to contribute in our life pursuits, we draw upon and hopefully learn to integrate these facets of our Self identity as Strengths. In Shadow mode, however, persona archetype traits can also complicate or harm our sense of who we are and they might inhibit our actions and restrict our dreams.

Strengths of an Elder Leader persona can help you to achieve your goals and function effectively in any situation, but internal or external Shadow Elder Leader traits and attitudes can also block your progress or limit your enthusiasm and self-confidence. If you grew up with a punitive father figure, for instance, you may have internalized “Shadow Elder Leader” statements that your father  conditioned you to which dog your footsteps, e.g.: “You are not college material!” or “Do something productive with your life, not art (or music, etc.).”  To this day when I am writing, if I start to become didactic in what I am saying, I hear “Heil Hitler!” in my head; then I know to stop writing, loosen up, and be less rigid with what I am trying to say, because my Shadow Elder Leader has been dominating the work.

The opening paragraph above is more analytical than I usually aim to be with these posts, but if you are reading BETTER ENDINGS FOR YOUR LIFE PATH (this blog), then I do want you to have a clear understanding of how I see Archetypal Psychology uniquely as a cultural anthropologist and how this approach can help you to manifest and Live Your Dream, Now! Basically what I am sharing is that as we  go through life from our earliest conditioning or socialization, we take on roles that help us develop our identity through repeating kinds of situations in our lives (our own recurring Life Themes). Each of these Themes, like Family, Romance, Education, and Work allow us to develop the relevant role aspects of our Self expression as, e.g. a Parent (Elder Leader and/or Nourisher), Lover, Teacher or Learner, and other archetypal persona character modes. Since each of our Life Stories emphasizes a unique blend of Life Themes, Life Mapping can help you uncover which archetypal modes and traits have been most helpful (and, hindering) as you have developed through your life experiences across your distinctive Life Chapters. All this will be in part the substance of the Life Maps Process  tools I will introduce you to with my upcoming book, YOUR LIFE PATH. (My agent will finally begin circulating the book to prospective editors this next month.)

images are gratefully from pixabay.com

 

For Your Journaling or Contemplation Practice:

What are some of your own Elder Leader traits in both Strength and Shadow modes?

 

How do you construct the very notion of an Elder Leader based on your own life experience?

 

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I welcome your Comments and Stories!

Who Are You Now? (and a poem, “Miraculous Surrender” by iithinks)

We establish LIFE THEMES, or recurring types of situations and events, as we wend our way through life, and this thematic warp and weave of our distinctive lives varies a lot from person to person. Where one person might establish a life of Global Travel and Adventure, another might live primarily dedicated to Service activities, or someone might center their commitment around Children and Grandchildren as their most vital LIFE THEMES.  We each compose an arrangement of several LIFE THEMES that weave through our lives, daily.

 

Life Themes are the basis of how we learn and express our social ROLES.  Family roles, Work or Career roles, Relationship roles all require us to develop certain skills and strengths, and slightly different “social personas” that best enact or present these different roles in relation to our major Life Themes. A Doctor, for example, develops a “bedside manner” in the role of Doctor that calls upon specific attitudes and strengths. How we succeed with a Role, or how difficult it might be to succeed with a Role, can affect the development of our total personality and our outlook on life.

Later I will present the point of view I use with the Life Maps Process that these Life Theme based ROLES might be directly connected with what Carl G. Jung and James Hillman would call your personal unconscious Archetypes.  For now it is enough to see how your Life Themes allow you to develop different aspects of your personality and your “presentation of Self”.  A person may be a Doctor—carrying herself or himself appropriately in that role as a Healer, say—as well as a Parent, which evokes a different set of helpful attitudes and behaviors. Different Roles might even bring about some conflicts in our personal representation of Self; as when a Teacher is also the Parent of a child in his or her classroom.

So I am inviting you to identify your Life Themes this week, using the life mapping tool presented Sunday or in the right panel of this week’s blog. Then ask yourself, “What ROLES have I developed in relation to each Life Theme?”

You could make a list of corresponding Themes and Roles, as follows, for example:

LIFE THEME                SOCIAL ROLE

Education                     Teacher (or, Student)

Religion                         mystic or seeker

Work                            (leader, or writer/artist, etcetera)

Family                           Mother/Father, Daughter/son/sister/brother

Relationships                Spouse, Lover, Friend, etcetera)

These are only some possible Life Themes and Roles that might relate to them. I encourage you to discover and reflect on your own. Feel free to share your insights or stories!

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I would also like to share with you a beautiful poem today by the brilliant blogger/ poet iithinks, called

MIRACULOUS SURRENDER

Surrender
In patient faith
Let yourself be guided
To miracles dwelling within

Surrender
Wave the white flag
Turn yourself to nothing
Become what lies beyond your dreams

Your Formative Influences (with interactive stories/ comments)

 

April felt like an Orphan through much of her childhood; though she was the middle child of five she always felt—somehow—like an outsider. She slept in odd places: basements, attics, as if she was always trying to be somewhere else. She did have friends in her sisters and a best friend. Her introverted nature led her to books and games of creative fantasy. Then she discovered writing: poetry, journals, science fiction/ fantasy, and later, anthropology: other vistas, other worlds.

What personal character qualities have you developed as a result of the influences you can identify in your Origin Story (“I am who I am today because…”)?

Two ways to review and reflect on how your Formative Influences have affected you include:

1)  Try writing in a narrative story fashion, as practiced in the story above . This is a reflective, subjective approach. It’s a fine way to express how the FEELINGS of your Inner Self have developed; or

2)  You can review your shaping experience factors from significant memories, identifying kinds of influences. This is more of an ‘objective’ or descriptive approach.  

The most common influences people mention affecting “I am who I am today because…” include:

• People, especially family members/ parents or siblings; also friends, mentors, or role models
• Events  with either strong  positive or negative impacts
• Belief systems
• Educational influences
• Actions (by others or your own)
• Choices and their consequences

For me, while the story above expresses my subjective responses to early influences, I could also  identify more specific shaping factors:

E.G.:

#1: Family: a mixed bag because my father’s highly critical nature affected my early shyness/ introversion; still in retrospect I learned so much: excellence as a work ethic standard; support from/of my siblings and others; I was my father’s 2^nd son while a teen (waxed car, mowed & trimmed lawn; was somewhat a scapegoat and learned to placate my father in a codependent way); I became an athlete/fencer through college years which helped me to develop a stronger character. I learned to be outwardly tough when needed, though inwardly I was oversensitive and harbored an inferiority and shyness complex as the “runt of the family/ unattractive” compared with siblings;

 #2: Friends, including my companion pet friends:  loyalty, companionship, caregiving, honesty, enjoyment of life; but also loss, and how to overcome codependency;

#3: Beliefs, which have led me to adopt spiritual practices of daily contemplation, dream journaling, and that have involved me in many group leadership roles and opportunities and allow me to feel connected with people from several circles;

#4 Education: knowledge, awareness, social connections, a love of teaching,  mentors

#5 Writing (and Reading): always an avocation and a professional vocation (journaling, poetry, philosophy, dream journals, sci-fi, academics, personal development genres); continually expanding.

OVERALL: These influences have led to a life pattern of INCORPORATIVE GROWTH and Individuation / Introspection/ Adaptability

As I review this list of my Formative Influences as an example of how you might develop your own Origin Story, I notice that without intending to do so, I have recreated precisely the set of Life Themes that appear in my basic Life Map. (I’ll be offering some activities to help you to identify some of your own Life Themes and to construct a basic Life Map in coming weeks.)

 

What factors have helped you to develop your most positive character traits?  Which, instead, have posed challenges or have led to fears, inhibitions or self-limiting concepts?

You may experiment by writing from who you are internally, based on your Origin Story. This could be in any medium: narrative, poetry, photo montages, a collage,...

Hints: Regard yourself as the central protagonist of your own Life Story (as you are!). What are your hopes? Fears? Expectations? Conflicts? Patterns? Goals? Basic Feelings? What are your Needs?

Later I will be inviting you to reflect on some of these influences from your Forge of Experience in relation both to your recurring Life Themes and to some “Archetypal” qualities you will be able to identify that are unconscious companions, intrinsic parts of your holistic Self that form an “ensemble cast” of potential Ally characters.

Please remember one thing as you begin to explore your own Life Path: You are absolutely unique (Margaret Mead would add, “just like everybody else!”) There has never been and there never will be again, ever in the entire history of Creation, the specific person, with the unique Soul/character consciousness that YOU ARE!! Your unique character and consciousness are the basis of and contain the seeds of your greatest potentials; they carry the Life Dream that you alone have the Responsibility along with the definite CAPACITY to Realize!

Above slide from : Ajaytao

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I welcome your Comments, Insights and Stories!

(I intend for this site to be interactive and open to all points of view/ backgrounds. I received by email the story below from Gail. Anyone who wishes to share your process with these “life mapping” prompts, please do! I will assemble your stories below the current post and also I will reply to all Comments. Feel free to respond to another’s stories or comments, too.-Linda)

From Gail (5/29/14):

I never have been interested in ordinary horses i.e. Appaloosa, Arabian, etc. I since probably around five or so have had a white Pegasus. The gender changes and sometimes it’s appearance. The tail might have a pink or blue tip. In our travels the forehead always has a star where the third eye is located. Whether doing Soul Travel or musing about a country, state, or city it is my usual choice of transport.
I am originally from the state of Hawaii and now live in Texas. When I was in highschool I went to San Diego. It was for Girl Scouts what the event was I don’t remember. This was the first time I had ever come to the U.S. mainland. It cemented in the physical my understanding I would not remain in Hawaii. When I was 26 I got my first job in Nebraska and
have lived in several states since then.
I had a hard time learning to be a trustworthy person. When I was in Girl Scouts I made a friend who told me something in strict confidence. I have always regretted telling a few people just because I could. Over the years I have learned to keep confidences and be a good listener. Most of my friends, the special ones who I can trust and discuss anything, number about four and they are sisters in ECK. I have one friend who has been in my life since we were three and four. She has a different religious preference and we both practice them with enthusiasm and total commitment. Although we have political
differences and our views are different as to what happens after death we respect that each of us is a child of God. We maintain contact several times a month.

Dear Gail:

Thanks for sharing your story about what has ‘made you who you are today’! You mention Spiritual visionary experiences, plus Moves/ travel, and Friends/ the value of trust. You have shared in earlier comments that outwardly you are visually challenged, so I love how you describe your Pegasus in colorful terms (I have similar stories I could share!); you find spiritual liberation with your soul travel adventures, and that is what you mention first, and last, so it reveals your Core. You also mention Trust as a factor you are exploring in your life; a ‘part’ of you appears to have issues with Trust because of perhaps some early memories and significant life experiences. I believe I might be able to help you explore that aspect, later with the Life Path mapping tools here. Please continue step by step with the tools I’ll set out here, of course if you feel so inclined. I will be building these prompts step by step to gradually open up some deeper areas for people. – Linda