Female Archetypes. Earthly Mother And Great Mother

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Archetypes

Archetypes are the filling of our soul, it is the language in which we can speak with our unconscious. Only by establishing contact with our soul, we will be able to understand ourselves, our feelings and our actions. But the archetype is what lives in the soul of every person, no matter where in the world he lives, no matter what language he speaks, no matter the color of his skin, from his religion. This language is spoken by both the President of a Great Power and a member of a wild tribe. An archetype is a product of the collective unconscious.

What is the collective unconscious and where does it live. And the collective unconscious lives in the deepest layers of our psyche - this is the history and wisdom of human civilization, given to us by our ancestors. Each of us is the keeper of knowledge about the entire human race from the beginning of its formation, we are like a flash drive for millions of gigabytes. But, alas, none of us is able to open this flash drive in our earthly life. And only occasionally can we catch a small part of the information that, like a light breeze, sweeps through our dreams and visions, in the form of images through which archetypes express themselves.

But, the archetype, if not realized, has no practical use, in fact, what use is a flash drive that stores information about where the treasure is hidden if there is no USB port.

In order to gain access to your Soul, you need to learn to understand the language of the unconscious and then Archetypes will become the key to the treasury.

Here I want to give a definition of the Archetype, which was given by Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of the doctrine of the collective unconscious.

Archetypes are, in essence, unconscious content that changes when it becomes conscious and perceived, and uses the colors of the individual consciousness in which it manifests itself. An archetype is a hypothetical and unimaginable model, a kind of "behavior model" in biology.

There are not so many archetypes proposed by Jung, but there are millions of images expressing them.

The most famous and widespread Archetypes: Anima, Animus, Shadow, Mother, Spirit, Trickster.

Mother Archetype:

The maternal archetype includes two prototypes: Great Motherand Earthly Mother. At the same time, the Archetype of the Great Mother lies deep in the innate or preconscious structure of the soul, while the Image of the Earthly Mother is formed in the individual psyche of a person and depends on the personal image of a real mother.

However, according to Carl Gustav Jung, the personality of a real living mother has very limited significance. Thus, the influence exerted by the mother on the child

"Does not come from the mother herself, but rather from a prototype projected onto her, which brings mythological subtext into her image and gives her power and divinity" (from the article "Psychological aspects of the mother archetype").

The archetype of the Earthly mother can carry both positive and negative manifestations inherent in a real mother. She can be both good and evil, she can be protective and betraying, she can be affectionate and cold. At the same time, the archetype of the Earthly mother appears in an infinite variety of images. The first in importance are their own mother and grandmother, then any woman with whom a parent-child relationship develops: a nurse, a teacher, a teacher, a neighbor. The archetype of the Earthly mother is more often associated with animals and birds: Horse, rabbit, dog, chicken, pig, cuckoo. Moreover, many of these images bear a certain characteristic characteristic of earthly mothers. “It is fertile like a rabbit”, “Mother hen”, “mother cuckoo”. The exception is the she-wolf. Usually the image of the She-Wolf is associated with the archetype of the Great Mother. This is due to the "ideal motherhood" characteristic of the wolf breed. In books, wolves are very often cited as a model of motherhood: justice, protection, training in survival skills.

If at an early age for a child the Archetypes of the Earthly and the Great Mother are not separable, because for the child the Earthly Mother is his only world, his Universe, then with age these mother archetypes begin to separate.

According to C. G. Jung, the path to realizing the archetype of the "Great Mother" is associated with the formation and development of the ego.

“With the awakening of the“I”consciousness, the mother’s participation gradually weakens and the consciousness begins to enter into opposition with the unconscious, its own predestination. This leads to a weakening of the "I" from the mother, whose personal qualities gradually become more distinct. Everything fabulous and mysterious associated with her image begins to disappear and goes to the person closest to her, for example, to her grandmother. As the mother of the mother, she is more significant than the latter, she is already the “Great Mother”. She is often credited with the wisdom or qualities of a Witch. Further, the archetype leaves consciousness, and the clearer the latter becomes, the more the archetype acquires mythological features. The transition from mother to grandmother means that the archetype has reached a higher level"

This can be seen very well in the funeral rituals of many tribes. A burial sacrifice for young people or children is humble and consists of the usual humble food, but with each generation produced by a person, the sacrifice becomes more significant. And if a great-grandmother or great-grandfather is buried, then the sacrifice is comparable to the sacrifice offered to the gods. For the sacrifice is offered not to the Earthly mother, but to the Great Mother.

What is the fundamental difference between the Great Mother and the Earthly Mother? The archetype of the Great Mother is endowed with magical and mysterious properties. The archetype of the "Great Mother" is the secret of the universe, this is the mysterious way of giving birth to a new life. Its main function is to maintain life on earth. She is not kind and not evil, she does not have the characteristics of a person. She is the keeper of human life, she is the protection of Life. That is why the goddesses, and especially the Mother of God, most often act as images expressing the archetype of the Great Mother. Also, the image of the Great Mother is conveyed in figurative images, denoting the desire for rebirth and eternal life: paradise, the Kingdom of God, Heavenly Jerusalem, etc. The images of the Great Mother also include things that give food to all living things: water, heaven, earth, forests, the Planet, the Moon. Because of the protective function, the magic circle, the mandala can be attributed to the archetypal images of the Great Mother.

Similar images can come to us in a dream, or in reality: in reservations, visions, memories, etc. Often such images come to us from fairy tales. At the same time, if an archetype is relevant for us at a given moment in life, then a fairy tale that conveys this archetype can unexpectedly become exciting for us, cause vivid emotions. You should listen to your emotions and feelings in order to learn how to speak with your soul.

The Maternal Archetype in Fairy Tales

In almost every fairy tale, there is a mother archetype, but there is a certain category of fairy tales, where all the heroes of fairy tales are an image expressing the mother archetype. The most famous of these tales is Vasilisa the Wise. The analysis of this tale is described in detail in the book “Running with Wolves. The Female Archetype in Myths and Legends”K. P. Estes. Here I will briefly dwell only on the images of the mother archetype.

Each and every one of the heroes: his own dying mother, and the evil stepmother, and Baba Yaga - this is all the Mother's Archetype. The deep meaning of this tale is the path of female initiation, through the realization of the mother's Archetype.

I propose to recall the content of the tale.

A kind and caring mother, dying, gave Vasilisa a doll with the words: “These are my last words, darling,” said the mother. “If you get lost in the forest or you need help, ask the doll what to do. She will help you. Always carry the doll with you, do not tell anyone about it, but if you want to eat, feed it. Here is my maternal covenant and my blessing, dear daughter."

After that, the Evil Stepmother comes to Vasilisa's house with her daughter. The stepmother and half-sister mock Vasilisa in every possible way, forcing her to do all the dirty work, not giving a minute to rest. Vasilisa obediently fulfills the demands of her stepmother. But she hates her more and more, and in order to completely extinguish the fire in the hearth and send for the fire to Baba Yaga.

Vasilisa, overcoming fear and horror, goes for fire and finds Baba Yaga, who promises to give her Fire if she obeys her in everything and obeys her orders. Well, if Vasilisa does not please her, then she will eat her. But Vasilisa, with the help of a pupa, performs the most difficult orders of Baba Yaga and receives the long-awaited Fire

Then she returns home with a smoldering Fire, which burns her stepmother.

So, let's try to clarify the role of each hero of the fairy tale from the point of view of the mother archetype, influencing the female initiation of Vasilisa. First of all, one should accept that all elements of a fairy tale are qualities and manifestations of the mother archetype living in the female soul.

My own mother. This image features such characteristics as overprotective and overprotective. Such a mother is not suitable as a guide to adulthood. Such excessive care and concern interferes with their own development. Accordingly, in order for initiation to become possible, it is necessary to allow a too kind mother to die. If she does not die, then the true woman will not be born. Allowing to die means giving up those principles and values that hinder the path of growing up. But, dying, his own mother gives Vasilisa an invaluable gift - female intuition, in the role of which is a doll.

Evil stepmother. This is also a maternal archetype, but it carries completely different properties of a mother. This is a castrating mother. The lexicon of such mothers consists of phrases: "You can't handle this", "Nothing worthwhile will come of you", "Where are you climbing!" "So they waited for you there!" How often we are powerless in front of such mothers, we cannot resist them, they extinguish the creative fire, our potential. This is exactly what happened in the fairy tale. The stepmother put out the fire and sent Vasilisa to certain death. And only if Vasilisa passes this test, she will be able to get rid of the castrating mother, who can no longer do anything with the reborn female soul. And Vasilisa's path lies to Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga. This is another maternal archetype. But this is no longer just Mother, this is the Great Mother. This is the Witch who Knows, she knows for sure the secret of the universe. Baba Yaga, the Wild Mother, is a mentor who can advise us in these matters. She will teach us how to put things in order in the house of our soul. It instills in the ego a different order - one in which miracles can happen, joy can reign, appetite can play out, and everything can be done with taste. Baba Yaga is an example of how to stay true to your Self. She teaches both death and renewal. Baba Yaga is neither kind nor evil. Baba Yaga is fair, because she is nature and acts according to the laws of nature. It cannot but reward unnecessarily, nor punish without doing, it only symbolizes that a person receives only the fruits of his labors. As a result, Vasilisa received from the Hands of Baba Yaga what she had come for, namely Fire. The Great Mother kindled the creative fire, the fire of life.

This is how, after going through all the maternal Archetypes, the process of female initiation takes place.