Archetype and Archetypal Hero

An Archetype is a recurring pattern of character, symbol, or situation found in the

mythology, religion, and stories of all cultures. In the context of archetypes, the great
mythologist Joseph Campbell explained his research into archetypes as a search for "the
commonality of themes in world myths, pointing to a constant requirement in the human
psyche for a centering in terms of deep principles." Campbell further explains that, [A]n
archetypal hero is usually the founder of something--a new age, a new religion, a new city,
new way of life. In order to found something one has to leave the old and go in quest of the
seed idea, a germinal idea that will have the potentiality of bringing forth a new thing.
Frequently, the archetypal hero must go through several critical stages and experiences in
the process of becoming the hero, a process Campbell summarizes as Separation, Initiation
and Return; this process Campbell also explains in more specific stages as the Quest Cycle.
The great Swiss psychologist Carl Jung defined his concept of the archetype as a pattern
that is the result of "countless experiences of our ancestors. They [i.e. archetypal patterns],
are, as it were, the psychic residue of numberless experiences of the same type." Jung
called the process by which we reconcile the conscious and unconscious aspects of the
psyche Individuation ; Jung argues that archetypal heroes in myth frequently symbolically
portray and enact the psychic and spiritual experiences undergone in the Individuation
process . Thus, when the archetypal hero delves into a cave or underground mere, and
then encounters and perhaps slays a monster, he is actually facing a dark and perhaps
dangerous aspect of the unconscious, in order to assimilate and transcend that aspect of
his consciousness. The mythical stories of such archetypal heroes can be thought of as
road maps to successful assimilation of the conscious, rational mind with the unconscious.
The images of the archetypal hero in his Separation from the known and familiar, his
journey resultant in the death/rebirth of Initiation , and his Return as a deeper, wiser and
more spiritual individual provide the limited conscious mind with new patterns and
concepts into which it can expand. In Jungian terms, the archetypal hero myths provide
both a record of archaic pre-scientific encounters with the unconscious and a prompt for
individuals to enter into the struggle for higher and deeper consciousness within
themselves. Functioning in this way, archetypal heroes can provide men and women with
symbolic guidelines and paradigms for a personal spiritual journey.
Both Campbell and Jung understood that the experience of spiritual growth can be
examined collectively across time, space, and culture, and that our commonality can be
traced to the most primeval origins and levels of the human consciousness, where the
archetypal themes originate. Archetypes can be thought of as the precursors to conscious
thought, existing in the unconscious mind as expressions of psychic and spiritual
experiences, but expressed in the conscious world of art, literature, and religion.
Unconscious energies are given form in this way. Therefore, the hero is not someone "out
there" in the world; he/she is all of us and our need to grow and mature. All cultures share
similar hero stories not because they coincidentally made them up on their own, but
because archetypal heroes express a deep psychological aspect of human existence. The

archetypal hero personifies the human quest for self-knowledge. The man, the woman,
who represents the archetypal hero, shows us the path to our own spiritual consciousness
through his/her actions.