C. G. Jung said, “The Archetypes are the great decisive forces, they bring about the real events, and not our personal reasoning and practical intellect.....The archetypal images decide the fate of man.” (CW 18: 371)
This is an audacious statement. What does it mean?
Every archetype carries negative and positive forces. It would appear that the archetype of the patriarchy in its negative form is riding high when we consider the Iraq “war” which looks more and more like a quagmire; the promise of a “war on terrorism” which has no end; a ruling administration which may be the most secretive in the history of this country; a President who arrogates power unto himself in a manner which seems above the law and threatens the rights of individuals as guaranteed under the US constitution; the unprecedented shifting of the nation’s wealth to the wealthy, and one could add to this list.
Those qualities associated with the feminine, e.g. Eros, and with the positive pole of the patriarchy, e.g. Justice, often seem absent from the prevailing Zeitgeist. However, there is more to the picture than the eye can see and it behooves us to explore the potentially transformative archetypal currents that are endeavoring to move and transform the collective psyche from beneath the surface.
In considering Jung’s bold assertion, we will explore two currents relevant to our inquiry into the Western psyche at the cusp of the 21st Century: moral consciousness and its historical roots, and reconnection with nature. In so doing we stir up the critical archetypal images that hover at the horizon of our human and ecological fate.
Jerome S. Bernstein, M.A.P.C., is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in Santa Fe, N.M. He has
published numerous articles on political psychology, the application of archetypal psychology to local and international conflict, ritual, and rites of passage. He was consultant to the Navajo Nation from 1971-1976 and has ongoing personal and clinical relationships with the Navajo Tribe. His first book was Power and Politics: The Psychology of Soviet-American Partnership (Shambhala 1989). He has also published "On the Borderland" in the Institute of Noetic Sciences Review.
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