Archetypes, metaphorical images with universal meanings, are found in all cultures and can be identified in oral storytelling, written accounts, and visual artworks. They originate in the human psyche and include symbols such as the mother, the trickster, and rebirth. Archetypal symbols can be artistically manipulated and contribute to cultural expressions. They are understood outside of language and often manifest through the written or spoken word.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung, born in the 19th century and highly influential in the twin fields of psychology and psychiatry in the 20th century, believed that the metaphorical images he called archetypes occur in all cultures with nearly the same meanings. Archetypal symbols that represent man’s most basic desires and fears can be found in oral storytelling, written accounts, and visual artworks. While these symbols can be identified and celebrated by works of art, they originate in the human psyche and are frequent visitors to dreams.
Once identified, archetypal symbols can be artistically manipulated. They sprout from the unconscious, so they are imbued with a sense of mystery and deep meaning. Archetypal images and symbols can contribute to and even infiltrate cultural expressions, but they are not themselves cultural artifacts because they precede any particular manifestation of the culture.
Among the more primal archetypal symbols are the mother, the trickster, and rebirth. Mother images are found not only in maternal figures such as Mother Mary or Mother Teresa, but in the idea of Gaia, or Mother Earth. The mother archetype is the source and origin of life, the nurturer and source of acceptance and love.
The trickster, on the other hand, manifests as a playful but wicked coyote in many Native American tales, a character who deceives those who cannot match his quick mind and quicker actions. Another trickster figure is Shakespeare’s Puck, who manipulates love and despair for his own selfish pleasure. Even the devil himself is a manifestation of the trickster.
Rebirth is a Jungian archetype that has dozens of symbolic representations. Christians will recognize him in Christ’s resurrection when he returned from the dead on the third day after his murder. Rebirth as a central metaphor, however, is much older than the story of Jesus. Early humans recognized and glorified the cycle of life, death, and rebirth of crops that reseeded themselves and created new life year after year. In fact, this archetypal symbol also includes a woman’s ability to recreate herself by creating and hosting a child in her womb until her birth, symbolically her own rebirth.
The universal meanings expressed by archetypal symbols are understood outside of language, although they often manifest through the written or spoken word. Masks are often beautifully symbolic, from the familiar masks of joy and sorrow that the theater world has taken as its own metaphor to primitive masks representing gods and demons. The universality of the archetypes can be seen in how similar the designs of monsters, winged creatures, and even mothers and fathers are, although the children who created these designs may have come from cultures all over the world.
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