Defining Archetypes

On Sunday’s blog radio interview and in the previous post, I talked about Michael Jackson and the archetype of the boy that never grows up. This week I was riveted by the archetypal drama and pageantry of Michael Jackson’s funeral, (as I was with Princess Diana’s). Funerals bring up all kinds of archetypal associations because they are rites of passage. Also, just as last year I wrote about the “feng shui of Halloween,” that is the energizing movement of masked people through a community, there is another type of feng shui motion associated with the funeral procession, whether that be people in a motorcade or walking behind a coffin, as, for a short while, they accompany the body of the loved one who is beginning his or her Journey to the World Beyond.

To better clarify what I mean when I use the term “archetype,” here is the definition I provided in the glossary of my book, “Tarot For a New Generation.”

“Archetypes are regarded as patterns within the mind that correspond to important human instincts and experiences; the Tarot is a collection of archetypal images: for example, the Hermit is an image designed to portray the archetype of the search for wisdom, the Empress is an archetype of loving nurturance, and so on. Archetypes such as Love, Wisdom, Justice, and the like tend to be almost universal, appearing in different cultures in recognizable--though culturally relevant--forms. Archetypes are especially significant to us when they operate through our personalities. For example, the High Priestess card relates to the facet of your personality that yearns to explore the mysteries of the universe, while the Emperor corresponds to the part of you that wants to build stable foundations and create order around you. In other words, you have a ‘priestess within’ and a ‘king within,’ as well as a wise elder, a fool, a magician, and many other characters inside of you that correspond to the main Tarot cards. Of course, some of these archetypes may be more active than others, or at different phases of your life.”

2 Gigs For Sunday

Hi All! Just reminding you that I will be at the Triple Goddess from 1-3 tomorrow, Sunday, July 5th. The theme is Treasures-of-the-Sea, and I will be demonstrating the Seashell Oracle and Tarot readings as described in my earlier post, below. Then, at 7 p.m. Eastern time, I will be doing an interview on BlogTalk Radio, talking about how to consult the Tarot for advice, and doing over-the-air readings. The link to the general radio show is http://www.blogtalkradio.com//beyondworlds. That is affiliated with the site, http://www.DivineWhispers.net. I believe the link to my specific show will be http://tinyurl.com/janina-renee. So, looking forward to a busy day tomorrow, and hope our friends in Spirit will helping out, as getting out a pack of Tarot cards is one way of signaling to the Spirit World.

Michael Jackson and the Power of Archetypes

Archetypal symbolism provides insights into the life and death of Michael Jackson, because he appears to have been “captured by an archetype.” “Captured by an archetype” is a term that the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung used to describe situations where individuals are thoroughly identified with symbolic figures that have so captured their imaginations that they engage in eccentric and stereotypic behaviors, and they’re not fully in control of their lives. Jackson was very much identified with Peter Pan, the un-aging boy who can fly, and surrounded himself with Peter Pan images. (In light of the previous discussions of symbolic twin selves, Peter Pan, as Jackson’s alter ego, was something of a twin self for him.) While a lot of people think that Jackson had his cosmetic treatments and surgeries in an attempt to become white, it may be he was really trying to become ethereal. The desire for ethereality is closely related to the dream of flying, and the desire to be a spirit being. I suspect that many anorexics are aiming at an ideal of ethereality, so it’s interesting that Jackson seems to have also had an anorexic condition.

The dream of flying as it involved one of Jung’s cases led to a tragic end, and I had long been concerned that Michael Jackson was on a similar trajectory. In the former case, Jung had been worried that a patient who had dreams of flying was headed for a trouble. (Note that this does not mean that everyone who has dreams of flying is in trouble.) It happened that the man had been involved in a tawdry business scandal, and Jung saw that in his dreams as well as in his hobby of mountain climbing, this man was symbolically “trying to get above himself.” One day while on a mountain climbing expedition, members of this fellow’s party looked on aghast as he simply stepped off the side of the mountain and plunged to his doom. (Unfortunately, he also took out the guy who was coming up behind him.) Because I saw similarities between Michael Jackson and Jung’s patient, I always feared that he would do something erratic, like step off a roof or balcony. The autopsy results aren’t in yet, but though it seems that his quest for ethereality might have done him in by ruining his health, at least Jackson didn’t go out in a more ghastly manner.

Searching for Treasure—and a little more

As next weekend brings the first Sunday in July, I’ll be back at the Triple Goddess. As part of my seashore theme for July, I’ll be demonstrating fortune telling with a basket of shells, (where each shell has a different meaning ascribed). On past occasions, I have demonstrated some of the interesting things you can do by mixing different Tarot decks, so we’ll also pose the question, “Where can I find my treasure?” by combining the “Tarot of the Pirates” and the “Tarot of the Mermaids” to identify areas of our lives where special treasures are to be found.

Now for just a few more words on the previous topic of Sacred Twinship, (though I am far from having exhausted this subject). In the context of a Tarot reading on twinning, we also have to consider the possibility that the Tarot can point to a “Spirit Twin.” The idea that each person has a kindred spirit who is like a personal counterpart in “Spirit Land,” is found in areas of Afro-Caribbean culture and elsewhere. This may especially be the case if “The Star” comes up in association with images of twinning. It’s also something to consider when using decks that bring in spirit or spiritualistic imagery.

Another thing to look for in these Tarot experiments is what they can tell us about healing, so the topic of the Double engages the interesting possibility of “Illness as Other.” The Other is the Shadow Twin. I ran across a brief allusion to the idea of “Illness as Other” when I was doing some research on a different topic, and unfortunately failed to note the source, and no other information was provided. However, as I ponder what this may mean, it may include the possibility that when you have certain physical or mental conditions, you have to make all kinds of accommodations for that condition, the same as when you have an important person in your life, you have to modify many of your own aims to accommodate that person. Furthermore, illnesses and other physical conditions are like sub-personalities, controlling many aspects of your life and shaping your fate. This would be especially true for bipolar persons—where there are two contending personalities--but it can apply to a lot of other conditions. For me as an Asperger’s person, I often think of Asperger’s as a form of spirit possession where you are the ghost that is trying to take control of your own body—and doing a clumsy job of it.

Now, in light of current events, I want to start a new post about the dilemma of “being captured by an archetype,” which is another condition which could be viewed as a form of spirit possession, or a form of twinship.

Companion Death as a Twin Self

At our previous magical chat, one of the other topics that came up was what if “Death” is one of the cards flanking your “Sacred Twins” card? I have recently been re-reading some of Carlos Castaneda’s works, and there are some interesting passages on Death as companion in “Journey to Ixtlan.” Castaneda’s mentor, Don Juan Matus, told him, “Death is our eternal companion … It is always to our left, at an arm’s length” [54]. Don Juan suggests, “The thing to do when you’re impatient … is to turn to your left and ask advice from your death. An immense amount of pettiness is dropped if your death makes a gesture to you, or if you catch a glimpse of it, or if you just have the feeling that your companion is watching you.” He adds, “Death is the only wise adviser we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you’re about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you’re wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, ‘I haven’t touched you yet’” [55]. With this in mind, it would be especially interesting to note if, in your Tarot reading, Death is to the left of the figures in the central card.

As an alternative explanation, when Death is a flanking card, it could indicate that one’s alter ego is undergoing an extreme transformation, which could include getting down to the bare bones or dying away to make room for the birth of a new facet of the Self. I am also reminded of Rainer Maria Rilke’s writings on how our Death is always a presence inside us, and Heinrich Boll’s assertion that, “The artist carries Death within him, like a good priest his breviary.”

One more literary reference: in cases where the Death card comes up next to the Lovers, I’m reminded of Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ tale of “Skeleton Woman” in “Women Who Run with the Wolves.” Estes describes love as “a union of two beings whose strength enables one or both to enter into communication with the soul-world and to participate in fate as a dance with life and death” [131], and explains, “Because love always causes a descent into the Death nature, we can see why it takes abundant self-power and soulfulness to make that commitment” [140]. She advises us to ask ourselves, “What must I give more death to today, in order to generate more life? … What must die in me in order for me to love?” [150].

Communications from The Lovers

Continuing my discussion of the Lovers card as showing one’s anima and animus (in the context of a reading where you’re asking for information about archetypes of the Twins), another participant got the Lovers, (using the standard Rider-Waite-Smith deck, where the female is on the left, and the male on the right of the picture space), flanked by the Page of Wands and the 8 of Wands. Unfortunately, if I don’t write this stuff down right away, my memory fades, so I don’t recall which sides the Wands cards were on, or whether any were reversed. This is another example of where one of the flanking cards was a court card (emphasizing that expression of the personality), and the other portrayed a grouping of objects, which can pertain to resources the other half of the personality brings in.

Because the Page of Wands has strong communicative qualities, it may indicate that she has a good line of communication from whichever side or her personality the Page was adjacent to, so she may currently be experiencing that anima or animus as a strong conversant in her head, when she engages in self talk. Here, we can pause to consider how one’s inner male might have a different voice and mode of conversation than one’s inner female. Think about it—if you are a person who carries on internal conversations, can you distinguish between male and female voices? (Because I carry on running conversations in my head, I assume that everyone else does, but am I wrong about this?) In the case in point, depending on whether the Page was closer to the male or female of the Lovers pair, that side might be dominating the inner conversation (like a little kid that interrupts a lot).

In some other fine points of interpretation, if the Page of Wands were upright and to the right of the Lovers, it might indicate that the individual’s animus is good at communicating a plan for her future that involves new experiences. If the Page were reversed and to the left, it might indicate the person’s anima is communicating something from the past. However, a reversed Page could also bring some confusion or misinformation into one’s self talk. The 8 of Wands may indicate that the inner male or female is good at organizing her energies to get things done, or, if reversed, that side of the personality might be a factor for disorganization, or involved in some kind of a retro movement.

Anima and Animus in the Lovers Card

I want to say more about Tarot readings done around the theme of twinning on June 7th, and regret that I’m not able to get my posts out faster. In another example from our session, one participant got the Lovers as her twins-theme card, using a deck I’m not familiar with, but in sort of an Asian-Middle Eastern theme. As I recall it, in this version of the Lovers, a man and woman are seated on the grass in a pose that makes me think of something one might see in illustrations for the “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.”

The woman is on the left side of the card, and holds a vessel, which could be a wine jar, but resembles illustrations of the vase of precious dew that is iconographic of Kwan Yin, goddess of mercy. The left flanking card is the Queen of Wands. When a flanking card in a twins reading is a court card, it may denote a distinct personality through which one of your inner Twins archetypes expresses itself. So if the Lovers says something about a person’s inner male and female, the anima and the animus, this person’s inner woman is identified with the active, creative energy of the Queen of Wands. The Queen of Wands is noted for the visionary power of her ideas, and her ability to kindle a creative fire in others. Wands are primarily associated with fire (though in some systems, air), so it may be that the vessel held by the woman in the Lovers provides nourishing moisture to prevent the Wands’ expression of heat from being too harsh.

The man in the Lovers card is to the right, and flanking him was the 9 of Cups. When a flanking card doesn’t represent a personality or Major Arcana archetype, but a Minor Arcana portrayal of some objects, it likely represents a resource that one of the twin selves provides. Because the 9 of Cups can represent fulfilled wishes, it may show that this person’s animus plays a supportive role, nurturing her dreams. To appreciate how these two Selves may be in harmony, consider how this reading might have been different if the Lovers had been flanked by court cards with characters who were looking off in different directions, showing they don't see eye-to-eye, or cards portraying other images that would be at odds with each other.

If you would like to do a Tarot reading to get information specifically about the relationship between your anima and animus, you can do this by posing the request, “Please tell me something about the relationship between my inner male and female,” while shuffling your cards. Then, thumb through the deck until you come to the Lovers, and take note of how the flanking cards may inform your inner masculine and feminine selves. (Actually, I believe, like Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of “Women Who Run with the Wolves,” that we have a whole tribe of inner males and females, but the Lovers card can tell you which ones are particularly present for you at the present time.) Note: in some cases, if you have a deck that portrays the Two of Cups as a man and woman coming together, and you get to that card first, it can also tell you about your anima and animus; being a Minor Arcana card, the flanking cards would show you how their energies are being applied to more mundane concerns.