YOUR HEALTH
Spirit
SHAMANIC
ARCHETYPES Shamanic instructor and practitioner Shanon Harwood introduces shamanic archetypes…
L
ET’S begin by defining an Archetype as
a building block of the universe. This ‘building block’ is an energy that is so repeatable, so constant, that its energy has been consistently recognised and described by humans around the world since before recorded history, though the Archetypes used will often vary with the region and the ethnicity of the practitioner. Archetypes have been a focal point of conversation and debate for centuries. Plato first wrote about them in the fourth century BC, describing them as patterns or forms of energy. Plato’s protégé Aristotle called them spheres -“disembodied messengers that emanate from the divine unmovable mover”. It is often thought
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HOLISTIC THERAPIST 2022
that Aristotle was referring to angels and when he used the term ‘unmovable mover’ it was a very general reference to The Creator. Archetypes showing up in astrology in the first century BC where they were identified with the planets and the constellations. In the tarot, dating from the 15th Century, the Archetypes virtually came to life when they were represented by the twenty-two cards of the major arcana. Fast forward to the 20th Century when Dr. Carl Jung, one of the pioneers of modern psychology, recognised that the Archetypes derived from the collective consciousness. Later, Jung concluded that rather than being a part of our psyche, the Archetypes are energies that are influencing upon us and completely autonomous from us.
holistictherapistmagazine.com
