1. Archetypes ”. . . the work of art strikes some very deep chord!”
Joseph Campbell
The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology
Jennifer A. Bennett
Sanderson High School
Raleigh, North Carolina

2. Archetypes
Universal symbols that transcend boundaries of culture, race, gender, time and geography
Part of humanity’s collective unconscious
Carl Jung
Swiss psychologist
Student of Sigmund Freud
Joseph Campbell
Author and anthropologist
Considered the leading expert on myth and archetypes
Examples include certain images, colors, numbers, character types, and motifs

3. Best Practicioners Disney Advertisers and marketers
Anyone involved in storyline creation or graphical design for stories required to read Joseph Campbell
Advertisers and marketers

4. Sun as Archetype Sun (fire and sky) creative energy consciousness
father principle
passage of time and life

5. Sun as Archetype Rising sun Setting sun Birth Creation Enlightenment
Death

6. More Setting Suns and Death
The Last Pale Light In The West Ben Nichols In my hands, I hold the ashes In my veins, black pitch runs In my chest, a fire catches In my way, a setting sun Dark clouds gather 'round me To the west, my soul is bound And I will go on ahead, free There's a light yet to be found The last pale light in the west The last pale light in the west
(The Governor’s theme song)
The Walking Dead
Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove At recess, in the ring; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us . . .
Emily Dickinson

7. Water as Archetype Purification and redemption Mysteries of creation
Sea
mother of all life
timelessness; eternity
River
birth—death—resurrection cycle (baptism)
transitional phases of the life cycles

8. Color as Archetype: White
Positive aspects:
Light,
Goodness,
Purity,
Innocence;
Timelessness; Eternity

9. Color as Archetype: White
Negative aspects:
Death
Terror
Emptiness
Blinding truth of an inscrutable mystery

10. Color as Archetype: Green
Positive
Growth
Hope
Fertility

11. Color as Archetype: Green
Negative
Decay
Death

12. Color as Archetype: Blue
Highly positive; associated with
truth
religious feeling
security
spiritual purity

13. Color as Archetype: Blue
And who could forget Linus’s security blanket?

14. Color as Archetype: Black
Darkness—associated with
Chaos
Mystery
Death
The Unknown
The Unconscious
What other messages do colors convey in this image?

15. Color as Archetype: Black
What significance does color add to this image?
How about this one?
Compare and contrast the two.

16. Color as Archetype: Red
Associated with
Blood,
Sacrifice,
Violent passion,
Disorder

17. Archetypal Color Combinations
What do these images have in common?
What do they communicate?
How about now?

18. Archetypal Color Combinations
What do these images have in common?
What significance do they carry re: the context of the stories they represent?

19. Archetypal Color Combinations
Analyze the archetypal colors in this image. What significance do they have within their literary context?

20. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Revelation 6 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. 3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword. 5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

21. Circle as Archetype Circle (sphere): wholeness, unity
No beginning or end
Egg (oval): the mystery of life and forces of generation

22. Circle as Archetype: Wheel
Wheel: symbol of fortune, fate

23. Circle as Archetype: Wheel
Wheel in the Sky
Spinning Wheels

24. Circle as Archetype: Yang-Yin
Yang-Yin: a Chinese symbol; represents the union of opposite forces (Jungian theory of anima and animus)
Yang: masculine principle; light; activity; the conscious mind
Yin: female principle; darkness; passivity; the unconscious mind

26. Circles and Colors

27. The Garden
Paradise
Innocence
Unspoiled beauty
Fertility

28. The Serpent
Evil
Corruption
Sensuality
Destruction
The Unconscious

29. The Tree Life Consistence and growth Proliferation
Immortality— generation and regeneration

30. The Tree of Souls, Avatar
The Archetypal Tree
The Tree of Souls, Avatar
The Tree of Life (what kind of life?)

31. The Family Tree

32. The Desert Emptiness Spiritual aridity (dryness)
Hopelessness (wasteland)

33. “Desert Places” by Robert Frost
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it – it is theirs. All animals are smothered in their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to count; The loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less –
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

34. Analysis
What do the archetypes in these images communicate?

35. Numbers as Archetypes: 3
Spiritual awareness and unity
Light
Male principle
Examples:
Holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
Spiritual rebirth (water, blood, spirit)
Father Time (past, present, future)
Beginning, middle, end
Three Pillars of Eternity
the Creation,
the Fall,
the Atonement
The Three Pillars of Eternity by Bruce R. McConkie

36. Numbers as Archetypes: 4
Associated with circle, earth, nature
Four corners/four directions (North/East/South/West)
Four elements (earth, air, fire, water)
Life cycle
Four seasons—spring, summer, fall, winter
Humankind
Four limbs
Female principle
Mother Earth (Gaia)
Mother Nature

37. Numbers as Archetypes: 7
Most potent of all symbolic numbers
Union of 3 (divinity/heaven) & 4 (mankind/earth)
Relationship between God and man
Revelation, chapters 1, 4, 5
Completion of a cycle; perfect order
Seven days in a week
Seven days to create the world
Seven stages of civilization
Seven stages of man
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage“
Source:
Source:

38. The Seven Stages of Man
JAQUES All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth.

39. The Seven Stages of Man
And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. As You Like It, William Shakespeare

40. Numbers as Archetypes: 7
More examples:
Seven Deadly Sins
Seven colors in the rainbow
Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
Seven seas
Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church
Seven Horcruxes

41. More Analysis
What do the archetypes in these images communicate?

42. Female Archetypes The Good Mother The Terrible Mother The Soul Mate
The above two represent the duality of the Earth Mother— like Mother Nature
The Soul Mate

43. The Good Mother Positive qualities of the Earth Mother
Associated with life principle
Represents birth, warmth, nourishment
Represents protection and abundance

44. The Good Mother

45. The Terrible Mother Negative qualities of the Earth Mother
Femme fatale
Witch, sorceress, siren, harlot, seductress
Associated with fear, sensuality, danger, darkness, emasculation, death
Generate examples!

46. The Terrible Mother
Expected, right?

47. The Terrible Mother

48. The Terrible Mother?

49. Definitely!

50. The Soul Mate
Sophia figure—associated with spiritual wisdom and purity
Princess or “beautiful lady”
Holy mother
Incarnation of inspiration and spiritual fulfillment
Jungian anima (completion)

51. The Soul Mate: Examples
Wizard of Oz— Glenda the Good Witch
Pinnochio— the Blue Fairy
The Fifth Element— the Diva (blue woman)
Galadriel

52. The Wise Old Man Savior, redeemer, guru figure
Personification of the spiritual principle
Represents knowledge, reflection, insight, wisdom, cleverness and intuition
Also represents moral qualities such as goodwill, readiness to help, honesty & truth, loyalty,
The sagacious and helpful old man
Examples: Obiwan Kenobi, Yoda, Merlin, Gandalf, Mr. Miyagi, Splinter, Rafiki, Teiresius, Dumbledore

53. The Hero Archetypes Archetypes of Transformation Redemption
The Hero’s Initiation
The Hero’s Quest
The Sacrificial Scapegoat

54. Hero’s Initiation
Initiation from ignorance and immaturity to social and spiritual maturity (rite of passage)
Three-fold process:
Separation—the hero literally separates (is removed from) his community/environment
Transformation—the majority of the plot where the hero grows in maturity, preparing him for the
Return—the hero literally goes back to his community, now spiritually and emotionally mature and able to contribute positively to society

55. Examples of Hero Initiation
The Lion King

56. Examples of Hero Initiation
Huck Finn
Ebeneezer Scrooge
The Prodigal Son
Finding Nemo—both Nemo and Marlin

57. Examples of Hero Initiation
Shrek
Ironman
Thor

58. The Sacrificial Scapegoat
The hero upon whom the welfare of the tribe or nation relies
Must die—
to atone for the people’s sins
to restore the land to fruitfulness
Examples:
Jesus
Aslan

59. The Sacrificial Scapegoat
William Wallace (Braveheart)

60. The Sacrificial Scapegoat
Maximus
Harry Potter

61. The Sacrificial Scapegoat
Gandalf
Sommersby

62. The Sacrificial Scapegoat
Harry Stamper (Armageddon)

63. The Hero’s Quest Undertakes a long journey
Has an important goal to achieve
Must perform impossible tasks and overcome insurmountable obstacles
Is often a savior/ deliverer figure—he saves the day

64. Other Archetypal Motifs
Creation
Myth—a story both necessary and credible which articulates into a significant whole all the disparate and discrete experiences of life; a fundamental and unifying force in life; does not necessarily refer to falsehood)
Genesis
Gilgamesh
Native American myths
Immortality
Battle of Good vs. Evil