numen (s), numina (pl)
1. A presiding divinity or spirit of a place.
2. A spirit believed by animists to inhabit certain natural phenomena or objects.
3. A spirit believed to inhabit an object or preside over a place
4. Creative energy; genius.
numinosity
The condition or state of being numinous.
numinosum
1. Revealing or indicating the presence of a divinity; spiritual:
"Many religious practices and performances are carried out for
the sole purpose of calling forth the power of the numinosum
at will by invocation, incantation, sacrifice, etc."
2. Relating to the experience of the divine as awesome and/or
terrifying;
designating that which governs the subject outside
of his or her own will.
During the first half of the 20th century the term "archetype" was introduced to the collective consciousness by psychologist Carl G. Jung. Decades later, during the Pop Psychology movements of the 1960's and 70's, the word 'archetype' became very popular and was applied to numerous different contexts; perhaps too many. Certain words can lose meaning with redundancy and misinterpretation and, I think "archetype" may be one of those words.
I use the word "archetype" to address the numen of an undeniably autonomous presence of Othernesss. At its originating point this numinosity emanates a presence of invisibility and power that sometimes appears in our night dreams by taking on the forms of recognizable images, behaviors, and characters, depending on the specific psychological complexes defining the individual psyche. In other words, archetype (as the term is used here) does not directly
refer to any image or character or mythos but the underlying presence and power animating these icons.
Archetypal presence also resides in the hidden hearts of stereotypes and cliches -- predictable and mechanical roles, redundant movements, obsolete behaviors, self-images, personalities -- as demonstrated by the commercial icons created and maintained within the Hollywood entertainment industry. Stereotypes convey a banal sense of familiarity, rather than any numen of Otherness, yet conceal a grain of the deeper archetypal presence. Every cliche can also be traced back to and linked with its archetypal origins.
According to Jung, impersonal archetypal presence interfaces and links with our often unconscious psychological complexes, or fixations. This marriage of the Personal and the Impersonal gives rise and form to specific yet universally recognizably human imagery -- such as the Trickster, Anima/Animus, Hero, Senex, Puer, Crone, The Shadow, The Self, etc. -- depending on the psychological complexes stemming from unmet childhood needs and traumas, fetishes, fixations, and whatever obsessions are currently shaping the individual psyche.
The Anima, the Animus, and the Trickster
Examples of formation in archetypal imagery
The mother complex
(a.k.a. the Oedipus complex) expresses an active component of everyone raised by the personal mother (genetic or surrogate) that informs our attitudes about other women and our assumptions about women in general. For men, this mother complex links with archetypal presence to animate the Anima, the erotic feminine ideal, the cherished female image, within the man’s psyche - an image enflamed whenever he faces a flesh and blood woman who matches the internal Anima image. For women, the archetypal presence married to the father complex gives form to the image of the Animus, the masculine ideal as heroic protector, dramatized as a longing for the ideal lover and parent of future offspring that can manifest externally when meeting a flesh and blood man matches the internal Animus image. The Trickster image can emerge through a marriage of archetypal presence with the inferiority complex of those driven to overcompensate their feelings of lack with spectacular achievements or a super-hero self-image, while running the risk of being 'tricked' by the illusory nature of ego itself.
Whenever these archetypally-charged images of Anima, Animus, or Trickster are triggered by their corresponding external events, a process of psychic projection occurs that usually involves some form of mythologizing, or worship, of the Man (Animus), the Woman (Anima), and/or the Ego (Trickster). Unless the person has earned significant self-awareness, these projections tend to remain unconscious. During the process of the projection itself, the person may react with attitudes of denial, bewilderment, delirium, and/or defensiveness around the psychic event itself. For those showing serious artistic talent and skill, these various psychic projections can also be engaged as sources of inspiration for fueling their creative processes, such as poet Arthur Rimbaud's secret art of achieving exalted states of being through a "deliberate disorientation of the senses".
These psychic projections can also offer insight into the way we perceive ourselves, others, and the world. As the Trickster person becomes tricked by their own ego, so do they unconsciously attempt to trick themselves and the world. The more they get away with it, the more subtle the ego becomes. When this game is exposed and the ego seen as the imposter it can be, enough insight can be gained (into the illusion of ego and the material world itself) to act as an enlightened revealer of illusions in the self and in others. As the Anima-possessed man eventually awakens to his own wretched state of power loss, his healing can begin by withdrawing the Anima projections from the flesh and blood woman herself and tending to the inner life of his own soul. When the Animus-possessed woman is ready to face her out-of-control, controlling behavior she can earn the self-detachment necessary for initiating more reason, logic, and control of her own mind.
Archetypal forces are not subject to any propriety; they do not and cannot belong to anyone. Archetypes come and go autonomously, much like our night dreams do. They also operate at a much higher level of intelligence than intellect can fathom and why defining or viewing any archetype as a character or an image alone, without the context of its marriage with a specific psychological complex, can be misleading at best. At worst, these imposed labels and definitions trivialize the genuine mysteries and depth of any authentic archetypal presence, leading us to self-delusion and the illusion of certitude. Though archetypes may not be subject to human understanding, their power and presence can be experienced firsthand through gnosis, that direct perception or awareness not linked to language and the machine of thinking, but to Presence.
Postscript: I am neither Psychologist or Psychotherapist. The ideas presented in this brief article emerged through a process of gnosis in my ongoing paratheatre work and then, distilled and interpreted through whatever language can most honestly convey the truth of my experience. - A.A.
WHAT ARE ARCHETYPES?
Brief descriptions from a Jungian perspective
On Paratheatre and self-delusion
On "Group Ritual Facilitation"
State of Emergence: A Paratheatre Manifesto