Winding down
inside the mountain.
Fingers tracing the edge of shadows
Trusting
this is leading
to air and light.
Spinning slowly
arms freed from gravity’s holding
into the deep.
I used to think archetypes were stories we collectively tell ourselves that eventually, over time, become the fabric of our personal considerations, but now I understand they are more like skin. More real, more intimate than the clothes we wear to define us. More intrinsically ours. The calluses, wrinkles, birthmarks and scars.
It would seem that in order to have weight, to be as intrinsic as skin, an archetype would have to hold more than just story. We are our skin. Skin is experiential in every sense. It is our largest sensing organ.
Going deeper…individual cells make up the structure of skin. Cells replicate, know their purpose, are in relationship with other cells, have memory.
Archetypes are both the macrocosm and the microcosm of skin. Experience and memory.
photo credit: D. Sharon Pruitt at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/338444355
I like the idea of an archetype as skin, our largest sense organ. We perceive sensations of reality through our archetype.
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I’m sure you have read some of Carl G. Jung’s work on this subject…this man is my muse, mentor, or even father figure in a sense!
I enjoyed your words and the more I read your work the more I am drawn to read it all!
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I’m much pleased EDR because it means we have more to share..more to explore together. I bet you like the word “intrepid”
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Beautiful and illuminating. Also, comforting. Thank you.
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very well spoken
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Interesting thing about this….reaching back into the archives you’ve given me the opportunity for a reflection and continuity in the work before me today. Thanks for your appreciative comment and for the creative nudge.
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I hope you don’t. I am going to give you a link to a song called Archetype that my friends and I made about 25 years ago. Here it is.. http://tedgiffin.com/2015/04/09/archetype-by-the-ambient-zebras/
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