archetype: Wise old man

A quick hand drawn sketch of the wise old man (Jungian archetypal figure):

Wise Old Man

Jung’s archetypes

What is the soul? Jung considered the activity of the soul to be the ceaseless flow of images that move through dreams, daydreams, fantasy, and myth. Images are as present during the day as they are running through our dreams at night, but during our waking lives they operate more or less unconsciously, affecting our lives in ways beyond our conscious knowing (Sardello, 1995).

The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes. Jung also called them dominants, imagos, mythological or primordial images, and a few other names, but archetypes seems to have won out over these. An archetype is an unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way.

The archetype has no form of its own, but it acts as an “organizing principle” on the things we see or do. (Boeree, Dr. C. G, 1997/2006)

The archetype is like a black hole in space: You only know its there by how it draws matter and light to itself.

Sardello, R. (1995). Love and the soul. New York : HarperCollins

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.html , accessed 23/06/10