The Nature of Archetypes

[Sagittarius]

Have been reading some of Jung's lectures in the last few days for me his description of the archetypes and the unconscious is very effect. I'll copy a good excerpt from one of his lectures.

As the archetypes, like all numinous contents, are relatively autonomous, they cannot be
integrated simply by rational means, but require a dialectical procedure, a real coming to terms
with them, often conducted by the patient in dialogue form, so that, without knowing it, he puts
into effect the alchemical definition of the meditatio: "an inner colloquy with one's good angel."
[46] Usually the process runs a dramatic course, with many ups and downs. It expresses itself in,
or is accompanied by, dream symbols that are related to the "representations collectives," which in
the form of mythological motifs have portrayed psychic processes of transformation since the
earliest times.

Archetypes are very difficult to describe as inevitably when one has found words and symbols to portray an archetype that is still only a drop in the pool of the complex as a whole, not only that but archetypes are felt before they are perceived, for me at least I will feel the influence and then connect that certain feeling to prior experience and then will I consciously look around to identify recognized symbols or to uncover new ones.

This process then repeats and the quantification of archetypes in my mind becomes clearer and more usable in experience. The tricky part for me is now using that knowledge to serve and how I can help the recognition of the archetypes in others. How to tell my friend when I notice the claws of the negative anima in his psyche or to help another when the wise old man archetype has just helped him come to a personal truth. Hard to point it out to somebody who has no prior knowledge or map of the subject or the fact that they may not even want to know and forcing it upon them will achieve nothing.