The archetypes (or primordial images) are universal models present in the collective unconscious. They may be not yet formed in matter; but are always and already present in germ, already active. These are universal images, symbols that influence us on a collective and individual level, dominating our behaviors and beliefs, shaping our emotional lives and cognitive functioning. In short: they are present, constant, universal.
They serve as a foundation for understanding ourselves, for understanding who we are on an individual and collective level. They are a bridge between the interior (the unconscious) and the exterior (the stereotype, behavior). They manifest in myths, dreams, rituals, visions… and in our lives.
The two personalities who laid the foundations of the archetypes are the psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung and the mythologist Joseph Campbell.
They operate in us, whether we like it or not; whether we realize it or not. To repress or prevent the expression of an archetype is to risk that it resurfaces in a violent and perverted way. We must then identify them and ask ourselves the following questions: Are they raising me? Or are they putting me down? Are they serving my ego or my soul? Did I choose them? Or were they imposed on me?
Each archetype therefore expresses itself through us; It’s up to us to know them, cross them and make them symbols of elevation and accomplishment.