Universal Symbols

ARCHETYPES

The 12 Personality archetypesCarol S. Pearson created a system of 12 archetypes using influences from literature, anthropology, and psychology. Studying Pearson's archetypes can help you:

•Better understand your own journey

•Increase communication between your conscious and unconscious minds

•Trigger a greater sense of meaning and fulfillment in your life

•Inspire and motivate others

•Cope more effectively with different personalities

•Have greater flexibility to respond to the challenges of life

•Be more effective within your family, workplace, and community

The 12 Personality archetypes

Personality Types

1. The Innocent 2. The “Every-person” 3. The Hero

Personality Types

4. The Caregiver 5. The Explorer 6. The Rebel

Personality Types

7. The Lover 8. The Creator 9. The Jester

Personality Types

10. The Sage 11. The Magician 12. The Ruler

The 12 Personality archetypes

Pearson’s main purpose is to provide a vehicle for individuals to realize their full potential.

"The heroic quest is about saying 'yes' to yourself and in so doing, becoming more fully alive and more effective in the world…The quest is replete with dangers and pitfalls, but it offers great rewards: the capacity to be successful in the world, knowledge of the mysteries of the human soul, and the opportunity to find and express your unique gifts in the world.”

Pearson’s point? Archetypes can help awaken the capacities of our psyches… because…

WE ARE ALL HEROES OF OUR OWN JOURNEY.

But Pearson wasn’t the first to come up with this idea of different personalities. She updated a version of character archetypes that originated from…

Carl Jung (1875 – 1961)

• scholar of Sigmund Freud

• founded analytical psychology

• developed the concepts of extraversion and introversion

• he believed in a “collective unconscious”

Carl Jung (1875 – 1961)

DEFINITION

• archetype | ärk(i) tīp| (noun) a recurrent symbol or ˈ ˌmotif in literature, art, or mythology

• archein, means "original or old"; typos, means "pattern, model or type.”

• The combined meaning is an "original pattern" of which all other similar persons, objects, behaviors, or concepts are derived, copied, modeled, or emulated.

Archetypes provide a deep structure for human motivation and meaning. When we encounter them in art, literature, sacred texts, advertising—or in individuals or groups—they evoke deep feeling within us. These imprints, which are hardwired in our psyches, were projected outward by the ancients onto images of gods and goddess. Plato saw them in philosophical terms as "elemental forms."

ARCHETYPES

• Images, characters, or patterns of circumstance that reoccur throughout literature and are thought of consistently enough to be a universal idea or concept

• Authors use archetypes to convey big ideas

• We use archetypes to make meaning of our worlds and share the human experience

the fall

ARCHETYPE ASSOCIATIONS EXAMPLES

serpent / snake nemesis, ultimate enemy, deceiver, villain

Jafar, Voldemort

tree knowledge, pride, flawed ambition, truth

Bodhi Tree and Buddah, Christ died on a tree, LOTR, Avatar, The Giving Tree

garden / forest rugged wilderness, unknown, evil or escape

The Secret Garden, Magic Tree House, Forbidden Forest

apple temptation or knowledge, truth, teachers, education

Snow White, Johnny Appleseed, Heracles’ Twelve Labours, Eris’ golden apple