Charisma - Archetypes & the validation of Myth.

Chapt.5-Page 3
"A Cast of Archetypes"

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When we view the myth from our present-day standpoint it is well to remember that we do so with a vastly different viewpoint, formed by differing factors. We cannot 'feel' what they must have meant as a symbol of hope to the people living in those times of oppression.

Hollywood has done much to obliterate our myths by turning epic champions into cardboard cut-out figures, rewriting history and even manipulating geography to suit their own ends. A fairly recent movie, starring Kevin Costner as Robin Hood, showed him landing in England beneath the white cliffs of Dover, towards the end of a long journey home from the Middle East. Strange that he chose to complete his journey to his estates near Sherwood Forest by a detour of several hundred miles via Hadrian's Wall on the Scottish border.

In Oct.1997, an interesting conference, at which academics from around the world spent three days discussing the legend of Robin Hood, was held at the University of Rochester, New York. Speaking to reporter Roger Dobson; Stephen Knight, Professor of English at the University of Wales at Cardiff, who has studied the progress of the myth over the past 500 years, said,

"In times of genuine revolution, Robin Hood is too hot to handle, but he is popular in times of conservatism, as in the era of Thatcher and Reagan."

The professor stated that Hood's popularity peaks in times of authoritarianism and repression such as the 1980's, while interest in him wanes in more liberal times.

Archetype (Gk. arkhétupon) First model. Basic elemental tendencies of the human personality which produce certain specific kinds of thinking patterns common to the entire human species.

In the history of humankind's societies there have arisen a whole range of personality types. Most of us are a mixture of differing behaviours for differing circumstances. Each one of us has done things that we would rather remain unknown to others, even as we have achieved things that gave us pride. Generally speaking, we tend to act within our characters. An Archetype is a mythical human being who has come to represent the embodiment of a particular set of traits in a strongly emphasised, almost pure, form.

They are so well known to us that they permeate our folklore, legends, dreams, poetry, fairy tales and the arts. The Wise Woman, the Noble Leader, the femme fatale or Wicked Witch, the Earth Mother, the Fool, the Adventurer, the Messenger, the Virgin Maid, the Warrior, the Magician; it is a long list. Each one of these figures is not only represented in a stylised form, they are classically presented as possessing character traits that go with the role.

When a person adopts the attitudes and personality of one of these archetypes, it can be said that the archetype is active within the person. In our personalities we each of us have, to some degree, a mixture of the traits that archetypes personify. It is this mixture of dominant and recessive traits that exemplifies our personality. As we grow and develop, so do these traits continue to become more or less dominant in us. An understanding of the archetypes that can be said to be working through us, is a means of understanding ourselves and our reactions to the external world, and those with whom we relate.

A Validation of Myth

Myths are the stories of psychologically important characters; important in both the cultural and individual sense. Whether or not, at some time in our history, the mythic personalities actually existed as discrete individuals, or existed as a conglomerate of personalities, is irrelevant. The ultimate criterion is that they remain the focussed embodiment of notable deeds and thoughts. Identifiably human beings, they exist in our minds as the personification of ideals and strengths from which we, in turn, can draw strength.

They are the mirrors in which we see our nobler selves reflected; the embodiment of our cherished hopes and dreams, standing out from the mass, yet undeniably of us. Tempered in the fires of potentially mind-numbing, spirit-crushing ordeals, they chose to move forward. They are the reminders and examples of each of us at our best; or worst.

None of them sprung, fully fledged from their mother's womb; each one of them served their apprenticeships, drawing from the accumulated knowledge of those around them, learning their craft and codes as they grew in stature. Being human, they frequently suffered doubts, sometimes losing their way; but then they would draw themselves together and move on, along the path of their set purpose.

Not being superhuman, not all of them achieved their goals, but, when they finally went down into time, they were all facing in the right direction. Their true importance is that they reflect our own aspirations and help shape our sense of identity. They are alive among us today with as much presence as ever.

It is our tribal myths that give us a direction in life and a feeling of belonging. Without them, we are served up a succession of celebrities and 'stars'; people who are far too often shown to have feet of clay. Characters that strut their fifteen minutes on the stage of life then disappear from the body of common knowledge, forgotten by all except for those few sad wannabes still gathering in their fan clubs like surfers who have missed the tide.

In, 'Magic, Science and Religion', Bronislaw Malinowski had this to say on the subject of myth:

" ... (it) expresses, enhancies, and codifies belief, ... it vouches for the efficacy of ritual and contains practical rules for the guidance of man. Myth is a vital ingredient of human civilisation, it is not an idle tale, but a hard-worked active force."

The greatest danger to our mythic life, the one above all that brings it into disrepute, is when the mythic raiment is draped around the shoulders of shambling superstition. Archetypes and their myths serve a vital function, whereas superstition is ignorance reified.

Superstition has no basis in reality and serves no purpose other than to keep us in fearful ignorance. Almost invariably, the main tenets are concerned with power, subjugation and appeasement. Stemming from times when people were ignorant of basic physics, they tend to offer incredulous explanations for events that we now know to be otherwise. Without a sound understanding of the way things work, primitive peoples attributed all natural happenings to the acts of gods who, for reasons unexplained, chose to amuse themselves at our expense.

Every misfortune, from being struck by lightning to breaking one's leg, was seen as the result of the victim having unwittingly offended those unseen powers. The injury was always exacerbated by some self-appointed expert in the ways of the god, who would then insist, for the good of the collective, that the injured party should be forced to atone for his or her bad luck. Confiscation or destruction of prized belongings, sacrifices of offspring, stoning, mutilation or banishment; all were grist for the mills of the power brokers.

It stretches the bounds of credibility to read that several states in the U.S.A have banned the teaching of all knowledge concerning our evolution, on the grounds that it conflicts with the teachings of the bible. This is only one small step removed from the tenets of the Inquisition and the book burning frenzy of the Third Reich and Stalinist Russia. I am totally dumbfounded that, in this third millennium, people still believe in the creation superstition when each year the mountains of truth are doubled in volume.

These ugly beliefs add nothing to the quality of our lives. To the contrary, they would have us accept that we are powerless sub-beings whose sole purpose in life is to sublimate our free wills to the demands of middlemen having the ethics of second-hand car salesmen. Those mean spirited authority figures who, by one means or another, choose to make life miserable with the pious chant of, "I am doing this for your own good". Yeah, right!

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