The Warrior Archetype

Archetypes

Archetypes, universal ideals, provide the deep structure for human motivation and meaning. When we encounter them in art, stories, or in individuals or groups, they evoke deep feeling within us. These archetypes become imprints, which are hardwired in our psyches and are incorporated into the scripts we adopt while growing up. Carl Jung, Psychiatrist, was the first to call these elemental forms archetypes. Carol S. Pearson has built upon Jung's work and has created a system of 12 archetypes. Pearson describes archetypes in various ways depending upon whether you are a spiritual seeker, an academic, a scientist, a religious person or someone who is interested in human growth and development. We use the term as a metaphor and as a guide to assist our understanding of ourselves as we travel along in the journey of life.

The Warrior Archetype

As the Warrior archetype is hardwired into our nervous system, therefore, instinctual, we will benefit by becoming conscious of this archetype. We are then better able to bring about positive manifestations of its energy. The Warrior wants to win and fears weakness and powerlessness. The Warrior has the energy of courage, high levels of assertiveness and self-control and is not afraid to take risks. The Warrior is also adaptable. Such a person exhibiting warrior energy is able to be confrontive, and fights for what really matters. Carol Pearson in her book, Awakening The Heroes Within, describes the well-developed internal warrior as necessary to protect our boundaries and to give a defense against the demands and intrusions of others. When we have an addiction to the behavior and thought patterns of the Warrior to achieve and have success, we become out of balance and less likely to experience our authentic Self which can result in limiting our life and our choices.

Our Artwork

"Ancient Ritual," represents the "Warrior Archetype," in a crossroads moment. The two men have found themselves in a deadly contest to become the alpha male in their struggle for the lovely woman in the mirror. The situation calls into play their warrior self. Nature has wired in strong sexual energy as the desire motivating the cowboys to activate their warrior identity in order to become the alpha male. In their warrior self, the cowboys live out their battle as scripted by nature and ego. Each is willing to fight to injury or death to win the attractive female. As a crossroads, this particular story art represents an event that could have been avoided without the strong script embedded by nature.

A Personal Example

An example of a time I had to call upon my warrior energy occurred after my mother had a major stroke from which the doctors did not expect her to recover. Wanting to avoid the experience of loss, and continuing a denial of her condition, some family member held on to the idea that she would recover at some point. I was convinced, by my mother's health directive and what she had shared with personally, that she was ready and wanting to move on even before her stroke. I was assertive in my effort to reach a conclusion on how to handle our mother's situation. I felt I was doing battle to fulfill my mother's wishes. With the help of the medical staff, the choice became clear, to let her go or to "warehouse" her without any hope for further rehabilitation. Even at this point, my Warrior self had to figure out a way to let her go that worked for everyone. There was no way to avoid the grief and feelings of loss we all felt in the end. The family eventually recovered both from the battle and also from the deep loss of our mother.

Sharing Stories

We plan to cover many different archetypes through our art and writing and hope that you will share examples from your life in the comment sections.

We offer our art to stimulate your imagination to make up a story that you might want to share with us. Although we will present specific art works on this blog, you can also choose one from our website gallery:

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