Archetypes in pair

[JustLikeYou]

I’m having a hard time with the study in pairs.

I found the study of the pairs to be uniquely challenging, too. I didn't realize how little I understood them until I tried to make sense of the pairings. I eventually decided that I couldn't make sense of the pairings unless I had imagined each of the archetypes as personas or characters or roles, each with a specific set of concerns, strengths, and tendencies. The pairings then began to represent the possibilities for human relationships in which we play roles with respect to one another.

Can anyone help me see the polarity of the Transformation/Great Way of Mind (The Lovers/The Chariot)?

Per my suggestion above, it should help if you think of the Transformation of Mind as a single persona. On the card, there are three figures, each with a different perspective, so you'll need to make sense of the presence of multiple figures within a single persona. My interpretation is that the persona exists in relation to another persona; it can't be properly imagined otherwise. I also associate these archetypes with the feminine masculine polarity. The Transformation strikes me as feminine because it is all about the polarity within the unconscious of the sacred and the profane. The unconscious mind has elements that pull in different directions from each other, so while it is the same unconscious, it has two distinct personifications. The name I landed on for this archetype is the Muse.

The same approach should be applied to the Great Way of the Mind as well. Of course, since these are archetypal relationships, you can be sure that you haven't landed on the correct interpretation if the relationship is arcane and unfamiliar. The archetypes are the pure, original possibilities for our existence as personalities, so they should be very familiar to us, both in life and in our stories. In other words, the two in the pairing need to be obvious matches for each other. For the Great Way of the Mind, I landed on the name Hero. Now I know this word has lots of archetypal baggage, and a good argument can be made that the Fool is the Hero archetype. So my understanding of this archetype is that he is the Hero in the romantic sense of the word: he gets the girl in the end (think rom-com). Of course, since mind is all about stories and coming to know, the romance does not need to be sexual; rather, romance is about the desire to know and the meaningfulness of having committed to a relationship in which you come to know another better.

I also had difficulty with the Hierophant and the Choice pairing. That made me realize I do not understand the Choice very well. As the Fool, I understand it as the leap of faith, the spiritual Fool, in his element by stepping into air. But when I look at that Egyptian version I am at a loss to explain it. There are some similarities such as the jugs he carries balanced on his shoulder. Maybe the crocodile is similar to the dog. The Significator mentally chooses the direction of his Will and the Choice is the living and walking of that initial choice? Within/without.

I interpret the Fool as the subjective self whose act of choosing is identical to its act of paying attention. So, since the mind is a storyteller, I think of the Fool in relation to it as the audience.