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This archetype arises out of the paradox of human existence. If an
ancient human being saw a modern adult step out of a helicopter, talk
to distant people using a small decorated 'stone' (mobile phone) they
held in their hand, and produce images immediately using a digital
camera or video, they would believe the person to be a god. The
paradox is that what the ancient man or woman saw as a god is a
fulfillment or projection of their own potential. The ancient human is
the forebear of the modern person. They had the potential in them to
become and develop what we are and have.
A fundamental process of what we call the mind or consciousness is
to give form or words to abstract experiences or things sensed. When
we dream this becomes amazingly obvious. The emotions, conflicts,
sexual urges we feel are put into imagery and drama in our dreams. If
we strip away the images we are left with raw feelings and urges. The
dream imagery makes it all so much more memorable and clear. If we
experience fear while we sleep that might be memorable. But if we
dream of being chased by a two headed monster like a snake, that
imagery sticks with our waking awareness with greater intensity.
The point being made is that even the most subtle things we sense
'out of the corner of our eye' as it were, can be dramatically
represented in imagery either while awake or asleep. While awake such
realisations are called visions, but are expressions of the same
process. See: hallucinations and
hallucinogens.
The development of self awareness presented the human animal with an
enormous and perhaps traumatic change. Prior to having any sense of
being a person, the early human being was constantly directed either
by instincts or learned behaviour common to the group. They didn't
have to make decisions or think about what to do. Millions of years of
experience had etched instinctive responses into them. Also, tens of
thousands, or even millions of years of collective learned behaviour
was passed on in the same way mammals pass on skills to their young.
As an example of how this works, a wonderful study of the African wild
dogs showed the its power. The dogs had been wiped out in a large area
and attempts were being made to reintroduce them. A documentary film
showed two packs of dogs. The one pack were established, and had
arisen from an unbroken line of descent and social relationship for
thousands of years. The second pack had been reared in captivity and
released in the wild with some support. The descended pack showed
enormous social skills in acknowledging and supporting each other's
rank, in working together to hunt, in feeding the pups and mutually
caring for them, and in sharing food with those who stayed to care for
the young.
The released pack didn't have any of those skills. The information
was not being passed on to them from a previous generation. They
couldn't work together. They fought amongst themselves instead of
respecting leadership. They didn't share food but fought over it. They
all quickly died. The unspoken wisdom of generations had not been
passed to them. They had no survival skills. Perhaps this reminds us
of some people in our society today, and points to possible causes.
The arising of self awareness was like a massive new input impinging
on this ready made wisdom early human beings lived with. When the
split came and the new self awareness became more dominant there was a
great sense of loss, and what had been an everyday part of them was
now felt as distant or exterior to them. Because the instinctive or
unconscious survival wisdom had been everything to them, their dream
process of giving form to such an intangible, showed it as a great
parental figure. It was the great Mother/Father out of which they had
emerged. In fact becoming self aware was akin to being born, to
emerging from an immense and ancient womb. This is clearly stated in
story form in Genesis. It says, 'And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves
together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of
Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst
the trees of the garden. And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said
unto him, Where art thou' And he said, I heard thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.'
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If we take Jehovah here to mean the enormous ocean of mind,
instincts and behaviour early humans were guided by, and the
awakening to the arising of self awareness, then the fear is that
of being swallowed up, of losing their new and vulnerable identity
in that ocean of creative life. They were truly naked of the
instinctive knowledge that had previously guided and supported.
Ancient races such as the Kalahari Bushmen in fact say their great
fear is the loss of soul ' identity' by being swallowed up again
in unconsciousness. i.e. in loss of self awareness.
Obviously this is conjecture, but it is conjecture based on
anthropological studies, on the exploration of the deep
unconscious in modern people, and in recovered experience from
depth psychology. The outcome in ancient and modern humans is that
there is still a sense, an 'out of the corner of the eye'
awareness of the enormous depths of mind within us shading right
back to preconsciousness and even cellular life within. We sense
this as the creative matrix out of which we have arisen. We sense
it as having enormous potential. After all, if we have evolved
from pre-conscious human animals, and they from ape like forms, a
human could emerge from us that would be as god like to us as we
would appear to an ancient predecessor. Therefore the god
archetype is an expression of what we sense as our own potential
and of the enormity of life and cosmic processes out of which we
have existence. |
The archetype itself, or what lies behind it, is beyond any one
definition. But being what we are, and considering that we constantly
try to define and give substance to such important processes, past
cultures have given many forms and attributes to their expression of
god or God. They have even at times defined aspects of what they
experienced as the underlying forces of life and personal awareness,
and we therefore have the gods and goddesses.
This archetype has a very powerful influence in everybody's life
simply because it is about our own fundamental potential and origins.
How you relate to it shows the level of connection or conflict you
have with your own resources and origins. It also shows how far you
have come in your mature understanding of how your inner life
functions. In some ways the difficulties and stages we go through in
our relationship with our mother and father are similar to the
acceptance, rejection, killing of, or deep dependence we have in
relationship with what is called God. We may of course relate to this
archetypal power in us like a child frightened of a parent; like an
obedient child who wants to conform; like a rebellious child who seeks
their own independence; like an angry or confused person who denies
any link with their origins; like someone who has lost their memory,
and so has no recognition of their ancestry; like an adult who has
come to terms with their origins and has integrated into their own
processes of mind and emotions, the matrix of strengths and weaknesses
inherited.
None of us can escape the source of our own existence. There is
nothing and nobody who is independent of the universe and its
mysterious origins. We can, however, relate to it in many different
ways. These ways are depicted in the New Testament as the manner in
which people related to Christ. Taking Christ as a symbol of the
cosmic web of sentient life, of our own innate potential,, people can
love it, wash their hands of it, crucify it, ignore it, be healed by
it, lie about it, offer themselves to it, worship it - and so on and
on. The stance we take in our relationship with this larger life we
are an integral part of, is the basic stuff of how we live, and the
quality of our life.
Useful questions are:
Can I recognise that fundamentally my existence depends upon the
creative processes of the universe, and that I am at base the
potential of life?
How do I relate to that mystery of the divine or wondrous at the
core of myself?
Am I taking responsibility for my own potential, or do I project it
outwards as a god figure, or deny it all together? |
