The Collective Unconscious and the Patterns of the Soul (Part 3)

This is part 3...I believe, in a series I am doing on Jung's book The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read...): 
Jung shows that beneath our personal unconscious lies a deeper collective unconscious, filled with archetypes that shape human life everywhere. The Hero, the Shadow, the Mother, and the Father appear in myths, in Scripture, and in stories like The Lion King, Star Wars, and Tangled. These patterns are powerful. If we ignore them they can take us over, but if we recognize them they can guide us toward wholeness. Scripture reminds us that “what has been will be again” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), and for Christians, the deepest archetype, the Self, points to Christ in whom all things hold together (Colossians 1:17).

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For the PDF version you can click here: https://www.jungiananalysts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/C.-G.-Jung-Collected-Works-Volume-9i_-The-Archetypes-of-the-Collective-Unconscious.pdf

Why do some stories stay with us long after the credits roll? Why does The Lion King still stir something deep when Simba climbs Pride Rock? Why do Star Wars and Tangled feel more like sacred myths than simple entertainment? And why do biblical stories like the Exodus, the Cross, and the Resurrection still move us after thousands of years?

Carl Jung would say it is because these stories touch something deeper than memory or culture. They reach into what he called the collective unconscious, a part of the psyche that belongs to all humanity. In this section of The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (pp. 42–53), Jung explains the difference between our personal unconscious and the collective, introduces us to archetypes as universal forms, and shows how they shape our lives, our dreams, and even our history.

The Two Depths of the Psyche
The unconscious, Jung says, is not one thing but two. The first is the personal unconscious. This layer contains what each of us has forgotten, repressed, or simply failed to notice. Jung describes it as “lost memories, painful ideas that are repressed, subliminal perceptions, and contents that are not yet ripe for consciousness” (Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, p. 42). Think of it as the attic of the mind, filled with boxes you may not have opened in years.

The second is the collective unconscious. This layer is different. It does not come from your personal story. Jung explains, “The collective unconscious is not individual but universal. In contrast to the personal psyche, it has contents and modes of behavior that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals” (p. 43). This means the collective unconscious is an inheritance shared by all human beings.

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This diagram above helps make this clear (I hope). At the top we find consciousness: the Ego, the “I” that makes choices, and the Persona, the mask we wear for society. Beneath that lies the personal unconscious, where our complexes reside. Deeper still lies the collective unconscious, which contains archetypes. At the very center is the Self, the image of wholeness that unites the whole psyche.

Complexes, then, are personal. Archetypes are collective. Complexes come from our personal histories. Archetypes come from humanity itself. Scripture captures this sense of depth beautifully: “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls” (Psalm 42:7). Our private depths resonate with a universal depth.

Click the image or follow this link to learn more about
​​Jung and his art: https://artsofthought.com/2022/04/12/major-jungian-archetypes/

Archetypes as Forms Without Content
So what exactly are archetypes? Jung writes, “The contents of the collective unconscious are made up essentially of archetypes” (p. 43). He describes them as “forms without content, representing merely the possibility of a certain type of perception and action” (p. 44).

This is an abstract definition, but Jung gives us an image. “Archetypes are like the axial system of a crystal, which, although not visible to the eye, determines the crystal’s shape” (p. 44). The axis is hidden, but every crystal grows according to its pattern.

Think of archetypes like cookie cutters. The dough changes, but the shape remains. The Mother can be Demeter in Greek myth, Mary in Christianity, Sarabi in The Lion King, or Hannah with Samuel in Scripture. The Father can be Zeus, Mufasa, Gandalf, or God the Father who speaks at Jesus’ baptism. The Hero can be Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, Rapunzel climbing down her tower, or David facing Goliath. The mold repeats again and again.

This explains why stories feel familiar even when they are new, this is why they stick with us and move us. When Simba flees and later returns, when Luke leaves Tatooine to face Vader, when Rapunzel leaves the tower and discovers her royal calling, we recognize the journey because it's already inside us. Ecclesiastes 1:9 says it plainly: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

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Leonardo and the Two Mothers
To show how archetypes work, Jung turns to art. He considers Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of St. Anne with the Virgin and Child. Freud had argued that Leonardo painted two mothers because he himself was raised by two women. Freud explained the image through biography.
Jung disagreed. He writes, “One cannot avoid the assumption that the universal occurrence of the dual-birth motif together with the fantasy of the two mothers answers an omnipresent human need which is reflected in these motifs” (p. 46). The motif of two mothers is not just about Leonardo. It's an archetype.

We find this motif everywhere. Pharaohs were said to have both human and divine mothers. Heracles was the child of a mortal mother and Zeus. Christ was born of Mary, both virgin and mother.

And we see it in modern stories. Simba is torn between two worlds: the carefree refuge of Timon and Pumbaa, and the royal calling of the Pride Lands. Luke Skywalker is torn between farm life and Jedi destiny. Rapunzel is pulled between loyalty to her false mother Gothel, who seeks to keep her trapped, and her true identity as the daughter of the king and queen (some Gnostic themes there).

We live this too. We are children of our families, but also children of God. We belong to this world, but we sense we belong to another. The archetype of two mothers names this universal tension.

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Archetypes as Instinctual Patterns
Jung takes the idea further. “The archetypes are the unconscious images of the instincts themselves. In other words, they are patterns of instinctual behavior” (p. 44).

Think about that and really take it in...

Instinct is translated into image through archetype. The instinct to nurture becomes the Mother. The instinct to fight becomes the Warrior. The instinct to guide becomes the Sage. Instinct lives in the body. Archetype lives in the imagination. Together they shape us.

Because they are tied to instinct, archetypes carry enormous force. Jung warns, “There is no lunacy people under the domination of an archetype will not fall a prey to” (p. 48).

He saw this in history. Reflecting on the rise of fascism, he wrote, “Thirty years ago anyone who had dared to predict that our psychological development was tending towards a revival of the medieval persecutions of the Jews… and that onward millions of warriors ready for death would lure instead of the Christian Cross an archaic swastika, would have been hooted at as a mystical fool” (p. 48). Yet this is what happened. An archetype possessed a nation.

The same lesson appears in story. Scar in The Lion King is the Shadow. When he rules, the land withers. When Vader in Star Wars is the Shadow, the galaxy descends into tyranny. Gothel in Tangled is the Shadow. She appears as a mother but is really a thief of life, draining Rapunzel’s light to preserve her own youth. These figures grip us because they reveal what can happen in us.

Scripture tells the same truth. Pharaoh’s hardened heart, Saul’s jealous rage, Judas’ betrayal. These are not only historical episodes. They're archetypal. They show what happens when instincts, unchecked, rule the soul.

Archetypes are like fire. In the hearth they warm. In the forest they consume. The difference lies in whether we recognize them and contain their energy. That is where our ego, and "carrying our own crosses" comes in. 

The Method of Proof

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How do we know archetypes are real and not just interesting ideas? Jung offers a method. “This is done by examining a series of dreams, say a few hundred, for typical figures, and by observing their development in the series” (p. 53)
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One dream could be coincidence. But when the same image appears across many dreams, changing and unfolding like a character in a story, then we are in the realm of the archetype.

Anyone who has worked pastorally or clinically knows this too. People come with recurring dreams. A house keeps appearing, or water, or a journey. The details shift, but the form remains. These are not just private symbols. They belong to humanity’s deep inheritance. I've experienced it myself.

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This section closes with a striking example. Jung describes a patient suffering from megalomania who declared himself both God and Christ. That might sound like delusion, but in his visions appeared the motif of the “ministering wind.”
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Jung notes, “It is in the highest degree unlikely that his vision had anything to do with the rare medieval representations of the same motif” (p. 52). Yet the image arose spontaneously.

For Jung, this was proof. Archetypes erupt on their own. They are not invented by the individual. “We must look for motifs which could not possibly be known to the dreamer, and yet behave functionally in his dream in such a manner as to coincide with the functioning of the archetype known from historical sources” (p. 49).

For Christians, the symbolism is powerful. The Spirit comes as breath and wind. In Genesis 1 the Spirit of God hovers over the waters. In Ezekiel 37 the prophet calls on the breath to revive dry bones. In John 20 Jesus breathes on the disciples. At Pentecost the Spirit arrives as a rushing wind. Jung’s patient, even in illness, stumbled into imagery that belongs to humanity’s sacred story.

Why It Matters
These ten pages remind us that our lives are not just personal. They are archetypal. Our dreams and struggles connect to humanity’s larger story. When you dream of rebirth, you are in the archetype of renewal. When you feel torn between loyalties, you are in the motif of dual parentage. When you wrestle with temptation, you are facing Scar, Vader, or Gothel within.
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This is why myths, films, and Scripture endure. They echo what is already alive in us. The Exodus is the archetype of liberation. The Cross is the archetype of sacrifice and transformation. The Resurrection is the archetype of renewal and new life.

Jung observed this in psychological terms. Scripture says it directly: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Archetypes are timeless.

If we ignore them, they can possess us. If we recognize them, they can guide us. This is the task of both psychology and faith. Both invite us to face the Shadow, to honor the archetypes, and to move toward the Self at the center. For us as Christians, the Self points to the image of Christ, who Colossians 1:17 says is “before all things, and in him all things hold together.”