During the first half of the 20th century the term "archetype" was brought into
the collective consciousness by
psychologist Carl G. Jung.
Decades later, during
the
pop psychology revolution of the 1960's, the word 'archetype'
became popular
through its use in a
number of different contexts; perhaps too many contexts.
Certain
words can lose meaning with redundancy and I think "archetype"
may be one
of these words.
The way I have come to realize and then understand "archetypes" has been
through
an ongoing paratheatre process (since 1977) of asocial group ritual dynamics.
Out of these
paratheatre processes, the word 'archetype' continues as a
reference
for the invisible,
formless and autonomous forces that
seem
to govern existence
as we know it and
don't know it.
I have never known these forces at their origin point to be subject to any propriety
or to my beck and call or control or comprehension, i.e., I have danced with the anima
but not "my" anima. They have lives of their own -- they come and go much as dreams
do -- and operate at a much higher level of intelligence than my intellect can fathom.
Archetypes seem to take on specific imagery -- Anima/Animus, Hero, Senex, Puer,
Crone, The Shadow, The Self, etc. -- depending on the particular unmet needs
and/or unintegrated complexes of each individual psyche and its interface with
the ongoing chain of collective and cultural zeitgeists.
It's as if these images are charged and maintained by invisible autonomous forces
that
take on various faces and roles to catch the attention of the personal local ego
towards
engagement in the transpersonal nonlocal terrain of the internal landscape.
It is like a
seduction or courtship.
The way I have known this engagement has been primarily through a long physical
training process enabling deep and active internal receptivity towards accessing,
merging, embodying, expressing, extracting and finally disidentifying with these
energies as an ongoing alchemical opus. This process seems to know no beginning
and no end. I am not the archetype but a vessel for their expression through me.
This is also what I meant earlier by my understanding of 'archetype'
following the
realization of the spiritual event itself, of experiencing these forces that
govern
the existing conditions of life as I know it and don't know it. These experiences
have changed my life and perceptions, especially around the diminishing value of
preconceptions and any understanding that exalts itself without firsthand experience.
By learning to permit the autonomy of archetypal forces and dynamics, I have also
learned how to awaken more autonomy in myself and in others.
State of Emergence: A Paratheatre Manifesto