The Four Powers of the Human Psyche
The Four Powers of the Human Psyche symbolized by the Mandala, The Self, Cosmos, or The Axis Mundi (World Tree).
These powers might be what the Navajo called the Four Winds. It might be what the Hindus mean with: the Four Faces of God.
Humans Quadrate the world in mythic images. The Warrior, Magician, Lover, and King/Queen are representing the core structures of the human psyche according to Robert Moore (1984, Professor of Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Spirituality at Chicago Theological Seminary, Jungian Analyst). In this blog, we will talk about these energies.
Toni Wolff thought there were four structural forms of the female psyche. Robert Moore thought they correspond to four energies in the human soul. In every one, we can find the warrior, magician, lover, and king/queen energies. Although the journey to the Center (Self) is different, the energies are universal.
Just as a woman in mid-life is powering up in her aggression, a man is discovering the opening of his heart. A lot of people meet a partner during an important transformation in mid-life. The initiation into the Lover/Warrior. There is a strong natural tension between these poles. A reason why in this phase a lot of people are splitting apart. The split can also happen in the psyche. Jungian Analysis is often started during this stage in life.
The four energies correspond to four stages in life: adolescence, early adulthood, mid-life, and maturity. For men the journey to the Center starts with the Warrior, continues with the Magician, in mid-life the focus is on the Lover and finally, the Center is found through the King energy reaching maturity.
A lot of men move into mid-life and become depressed, suicidal, and/or addicted. All of that is related to Heart Energy and the Lover Archetype.
Tribal cultures knew that you needed to initiate the warrior in a young man. Otherwise, the aggression energy would damage his community and probably himself. Tribal initiations of the Zulu, Masai, and the Zuni learned the young man what his aggression was for. Once you master the aggression you can use it to focus and discipline yourself. Create a container and a strong body that is grounded. You can gather knowledge (Magician) and learn things to teach and help others. While being in service to yourself and others with healthy boundaries you can learn to dance, love, sing, create and open your heart so you improve your relationships and the relationship with your inner world. The archetype of life (Anima) becomes an important part of the development for men, moving towards mid-life.
You put our species down anywhere, and we will create myths and rituals. With the four foundational powers (warrior, magician, lover, king) we will create the software we need to actualize our hardware, the potentials in our hardware. - Robert Moore, Archetype of Initiation p. 166.
We as humans have the task to balance these powers in our Journey to the Center. The Hero’s journey, our individuation. Without initiation and rituals, we will experience chaos.
Most men, reaching mid-life, experienced by now what happens when we don’t power up in the erotic energy. They will lose important relationships. Families. James Hillman writes about how we meet the Anima through suffering in his essay: ‘Betrayal.
May I sum up? The unfolding through the various stages from trust through betrayal to forgiveness presents a movement of consciousness. The first condition of primal trust is largely unconscious and pre-anima. It is followed by betrayal, where the word is broken by life. For all its negativity, betrayal is yet an advance over primal trust because it leads to the ‘death’ of the puer through the anima experience of suffering. This may then lead, if not blocked by the negative vicissitudes of revenge, denial, cynicism, self betrayal and paranoid defenses, to a firmer fatherhood were the betrayed can in turn betray others less unconsciously, implying an integration of a man’s untrustworthy nature. The final integration of the experience may result in forgiveness by the betrayed, atonement by the betrayer, and a reconciliation - not necessarily with each other - but a reconciliation by each to the event. Each of these phases of bitterly fought and suffered experiences which may take long years of fidelity to the dark side of the psyche, is also a phase in the development of the anima, and that has been, despite my emphasis upon the masculine, the main theme of this paper.
Psychoanalysis is one example of a safe container in which a ritual elder (the analyst) that has been initiated by ritual elders (his/her analysts) can contain certain spiritual energy to allow an individual to transform. The goal would be to guide the individual towards his/her Center/Self or Axis Mundi.
The journey to the Center for Women and individuals with Eros as their inner compass.
Women start with an overload on Lover energy and in our culture, their journey begins with separation from feminine values. Because there is so much emphasis on the Warrior we can see a split from the spiritual power of the Lover in a lot of young women. It is their challenge to reclaim that power and use the Lover energy.
Identification with the masculine is symbolized by Athena. She was born from the head of Zeus (seen as the King Archetype) King of the Greek Gods. The woman possessed by Athena is identified with the masculine and is not able to use her Lover energy. Logos (masculine principle) and Eros (Feminine principle) are about discerning and relating. We need to balance these principles and learn to act out of our true nature. For most women that is Eros. Learning to deal with the Power of the Magician is an important next step. The Magician is the transformative power. With knowledge, we create power. The shadow side of this power is seen in manipulation, betrayal, and control. In our world, we see manipulators all around us. The Magician is the Mentor, the Ritual Elder. It is the Witch that initiates young women. We need Magicians/Witches in our culture so we can initiate the next generation. It is about using wisdom to serve the community.
Some men reaching early adulthood, have not been initiated into the Warrior, often this is because we lack role models and mentors. Our fathers are absent and/or lack initiation themselves. Boys/Girls will need to find a mentor or the result will be Chaos. Because a lot of boys start with a lot of warrior aggression when they reach adolescence, they get into trouble. Not knowing how to use this power, a lot of them end up in jail. If we would understand the potential of a vessel, as a juvenile detention center has, and we offer some real mentorship, we could change the chaos into the journey towards the Center.
Percival is a practice that wants to help initiate young people. In my clinical experience, I see this model in practice. For women reaching mid-life, or early adulthood, the challenges are mostly about the initiation of the Warrior and the road towards the Queen (Center). Sometimes it’s about the Magician, instead of just quoting others and projecting the Magician's energy onto role models, they need to start using their own true inner wisdom (aka dealing with the Animus) and trust their body in knowing. Intuition. They can become a role model for others and feel meaning by sharing their wisdom. Sometimes it’s about reconnecting to the Lover because of an Animus possession (Athena complex or identification with the masculine).
For Men, it very often is about the Lover and the road towards the King. Feeling the energy of the Center or the Self. Feeling calm and centered. Grounded and with a vision. We all need something that we can build and is worth defending, our own realm. And sometimes it is also about reconnecting to the warrior because there has not been initiation and in that case, the young man can be ascending (Magician) and skips the warrior initiation. Without the Warrior, there are no boundaries and no discipline. The one-sided trickster will not come very far eventually he will need that initiation.
In most individuals, I see that the Lover Archetype is undervalued. While this Archetype might actually be the most important of all. Being instead of Doing. Letting go. Not being obsessed about an outer object, finally making time for the inner world. Creating, writing, reading, dancing, singing, laughing, playing, enjoying, painting, claying, hiking, surfing, sporting, chilling.
Remember: We are human BEings, not Human DOings.
What do you think about these four powers and how is your balance between these poles?
There is a natural tension between these forces. The images below illustrate that. Carl Jung notes that we can not prevent one-sidedness in our consciousness. There will always be a dominant power. Often this is related to our complexes (Father, Mother). Sometimes we need the dominant warrior to finish writing a book but we might be wise to plan a vacation after, so we can recharge the lover's energy and balance our psyche.
I will end with this quote:
“It is in fact, one of the most important tasks of psychic hygiene to pay continual attention to the symptomatology of unconscious contents and processes, for the good reason that the conscious mind is always in danger of becoming one-sided.” - Carl Jung, Aion
References:
The Archetype of Initiation, Robert Moore.
The Heroine’s Journey, Maureen Murdock,
Four Eternal Women: Toni Wolff Revisited - A Study in Opposites
