The Addict- Affects every to a degree. The addict is responsible for our submission to routines and at best our ability to acknowledge when a substance or behavior negatively impacts our wellbeing. The addict becomes dangerous when the addictive behavior overpowers our discernment. Knowing if the addict is apart of your compendium is known if you too often put yourself in financial, mental, emotional or spiritual danger because of a habit or practice. An example: the mystic that isolates themselves for practice and sacrifices healthy relationships for the sake of spiritual routine, may be influenced by the addict.
Popular Examples: Yes Man (realizes routine is bogging him down and so tries something new.)
Shadow Addict examples: Go Ask Alice, Thirteen, Requiem for a Dream
The Advocate- “compassion in action”-Ram Dass, inspiring groups of people to further social change. The advocate needs public expression, whether through writing or artwork.
Shadow Advocate: Advocates for the sake of personal gain.
Popular example: Erin Brokovitch, Martin Luther King Jr.
Shadow Advocate example: The Godfather.
The Alchemist/Wizard- seeker of complete spiritual transformation. The archetype for the spiritual seeker that takes the spiritual path less traveled in attempts to demystify the unknown into knowledge. Often owned by the curious scientist that is willing to accept the unfathomable: think Isaac Newton, and Einstein. The Alchemist is also the character that is willing to transform spiritual text from one interpretation to another. think United Church. On it’s shadow side it attempts to do these things for a sense of superiority.
Popular example: Morgan LeFay in Mists of Avalon, turning the Goddess into the Mother Mary to save feminine power during the rise of patriarchy (love!!!).
Shadow Alchemist: Rumplestiltskin
The Angel- Beings of light that are seen as messengers of the divine. In some cultures this can be people that believe they are in communion with angelic energy and in other spiritualities this is the person that tunes into the divine or the universe in attempts to consciously do its bidding.
And example here can be: Doreen Virtue or any spiritual leader that works in what they believe is the name of god. The dark side of this is when these powers are used to manipulate others for personal gain or ego. This is popularly represented in Christianity by the concept of Lucifer.
Popular example: Doreen Virtue
Shadow Example: Lucipher, Cult Leader of the Children of God.
The Artist- Desire to express an aspect of life that is just beyond the five senses. It does not matter what the form of artistry is so much as their devotion to manifest the extraordinary. This artist may be a chef, painter or writer. The shadow side of the artist comes with sacrificial beliefs that they must devote themselves to projects that are beyond the scope of human comprehension which can land them in the stereotype of the starving artist. The starving artist may exhibit madness or mental illness that often comes along side genius.
Popular Examples: Leonardo Davinci in Titanic
Shadow Examples: Pablo Picasso, had a starving period and then was somewhat insane.
The Athlete- Not so much about having a fit physique as it is about the person that transcends physical limits to accomplish what the general populous would believe is impossible. The shadow of the Athlete is the bully that uses their physical strength or resilience to subdue those around him/her/them into submission.
Popular Examples: Arthur, the man that learned to walk again because of Yoga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448
Shadow Examples: George from Of Mice and Men.
The Avenger: Needs to balance the scale of justice. There can be angelic avengers such as Joan of Arc. Avengers are the people that go after war criminals. Closely linked to the advocate and the athlete. Using a desire to right a wrong to empower their bodies to act for the sake justice.
The shadow side of this is the person that is willing to hurt innocent people for the sake of their personal or religious agendas: here we have those that start political wars, ecoterrorists and pro-life activists that bomb abortion clinics.
Popular Examples: Amelie Poulin in Amelie, Antonio Banderez in Zorro.
Shadow examples: (Possibly depending on perspective)The East.
The Beggar: Associated with dependance on the kindness of people. A person may beg for love, attention, authority or material wealth. The beggar confronts self-empowerment at the base level and to learn about the nature of generosity, self esteem and compassion. In my opinion the shadow side of the beggar are those who criticize those whom they beg of and refuses the ability to develop a healthy sense of self. The shadow of the beggar can look like addiction and neediness.
Popular Examples: Oliver from Oliver Twist
Shadow Beggar: T.B.A (suggestions anyone?)
The Bully: The bully manifests as a coward that learns to stand up for him or her self. In light of this archetype the bully is the person that stands up to the bully because their internal state is reciprocal. They are both afraid of something and choosing to be loud or violent about it. The shadow bully, which is the one we are most familiar with, is the bully that misdirects that bravery by abusing those that they perceive as weak. This is often done as a way of associating with their abuser and making sense of the behavior. When it is safe, we should stand up to those who bully us, rather than continuing a toxic cycle.
Popular examples: David from David and Goliath, Jack in Jack and the bean stalk.
Shadow examples: Goliath, the giant
Child (orphan, wounded, magical, innocent, nature, divine, puella):
Everyone has aspects of the child in them. Though at times a dominant child figure can eclipse the others) The orphan is the child is the child that feels abandoned and seeks family or tribes. The wounded child recalls childhood abuse and moves into adulthood tethered to these wounds. The unhealthy wounded child that has become adult, refuses to heal these wounds and uses them to excuse their faults. When we blame others for our short-comings this often related to the wounded child. In it’s light the wounded child is a victim that is healing and learns forgiveness. (Popular example Mommy Dearest) The Magical Child represents the magical parts of us that believes in fairytale and mythos. The magical child believes in the goodness of people and there is almost an optimistic naivety about them that believes that anything is possible or is a magical thinker. For example: they may believe that even in the face of insidious behavior humanity is at its’ core good and that this just needs to be awakened(Anne Frank). At its’ worse the magical child is ignorant to 50% of the emotional spectrum and not of this world, so to say. The Nature child is deeply connected with the botany and the animal kingdom. They are known for coming to the rescue of humanity (think Tarzan or Princess Mononoki). The puella is the eternal child. The eternal child lacks the ability to grow up and at times is unable to act maturely (peter pan). The light of this character is a deep desire to enjoy life and have fun.
Clowns (jester/fool): Associated with the ability to make one laugh or cry while masking his or her own emotions. The clown reflects the emotions of the public to an authority. Satirical cartoonists would be a modern day example of the clown/jester archetype.
Companion: Loyal, tenacity, unselfishness are the positive aspects of this archetype. They provide emotional support and are the right of arms that takes care of the day-to-day work. On the shadowside they can betray their partner. It is important to understand that the companion is responsible for the emotional wellbeing of their cohort, they are not sexualized by the stereotype.
Popular Example: Ron from Harry Potter.
Shadow Example: Iago in Othello
Damsel(princess): One of the oldest archetypes in literature. She is beautiful and vulnerable and always in need of saving. She enables the knight with her neediness. The damsel must learn to take care of herself, as she grows and becomes independent. The shadow this archetype is passed down through the patriarchal belief that women can’t take care of themselves because they are weak. The damsel(princess) must learn to fight her own battles and become a queen otherwise all damsel/knight relationships will lead to failure.
Popular Examples: Rapunzel in Tangled.
Shadow example: Ari in season 1 of The Pretty Little Liars.
Detective/warrior: Ability to seek out information that helps to protect the innocent and to solve crimes. The detective has the uncanny and unusual ability to combine observation with intuition. There are different manifestations of the detective depending on the personality traits that are combined with it. The clandestine detective may be known as the spy or the snoop. The spy being the more respected of the two as the spy is often a professional detective whose undercover work is romanticized. The shadow spy invades the privacy of another for their personal interest.
Popular Example: Velma: Scooby-doo
Shadow Example: Hariette the Spy
Don Juan: A male archetype that is hungry for power and prays on women and embodies sex addiction in order to assert power. He is removed from his heart in shadow side and is cold. The healthy Don Juan uses sexuality and love to empower him and provide more strength.
Popular Examples: Shiva in Shiva/Parvarti relationship
Shadow Examples: Jude Law in A.I.
Engineer: Practical and hands-on is devoted to making things work. On the shadow side of this character, he or she is a master manipulator, who uses his or her creative talents to skew or create artifacts for personal gain, regardless of consequence.
Exorcist/shaman: The ability to confront evil spirits and liberate people from demonic energies. Shaman’s commit rituals that can liberate people from their inner demons and possibly mental illnesses.
The shadow exorcist attacks the demons in others without the courage to face their own demons. An example of this is a person that tries to heal others to vicariously heal himself or herself; the shaman cannot receive healing bi-proxy and so the shadow shaman inevitably becomes either isolated or ill.
Popular Example: Bruce Willis in the Sixth Sense
Shadow Example: Dr. Huff from Huff
Father: The father figure is the person that oversees a family or a tribe. It is not enough to be a male authority figure. The father figure must be emotionally involved in the wellbeing of his community. The shadow of this figure is the dictator who orders around his family and can be abusive mistaking the feelings of his safety for the wellbeing of others.
Popular Examples: Tony Micelli from Who’s the Boss
Shadow Example: The Leader in the East
Femme Fatale/flirt/siren: The counterpart to the Don Juan or the female version. They have fine-tuned skill for manipulating men without emotional impact. For them, sex is the equivalent to power and may indeed lead them to financial wealth after money has been written-off to the femme fatale, she might very well kill her spouse. The Femme Fatale is not looking for security, she is looking for novelty and power. When well directed the femme fatale is embodied sexuality that she uses to steer people towards the an ethical cause. An example would be Pamela Anderson, posing for PETA or another model/actresses who use their beauty and power for philanthropy.
Shadow Examples: Rose from Jane the Virgin, the sirens from greek mythology
The Gambler: The gambler is characterized by his or her extensive risk taking and intuitive abilities. One does not have to be an addict to be a gambler. The gambler prefers high reward and high risk over low reward and low risk. Such a person might be an entrepreneur. The shadow side of the gambler is a drug addict, or a casino addict.
Popular Example: Bill Gates
Shadow Example: Gambler
God: Whether a great worldly power or otherwise; is the embodiment of ultimate male power. He can be benevolent, compassionate and of service to others- this is his positive side. His shadow side can be domineering, judicatory, and dictatorial. Claims for the god archetype require that you have a lifelong relationship with power that is either self-serving or of servitude.
Popular Examples: Harvey Spector in Suits
Shadow Example: Donald Trump
Goddess: The goddess figure is associated with women who are attractive, strong and capable. They have an air of sensuality about themselves as well as a breeze of independence. The various Goddess figures in cultural pantheons can help you to uncover whether or not you have an intimate relationship with the Goddess Archetype. Goddess types often have inseparable power between them and their niche. Example: Athena and the intellect or Aphrodite and love/beauty. The shadow of the goddess becomes obsessed with self exploitation for the sake of wealth and power for no reason beyond low self-esteem and power. We see this within the near-narcissism of hollywood and on reality t.v. shows.
Popular Examples: The Charmed Ones, Charlie’s Angles, Xena Warrior, Buffy Summers
Shadow Examples: Paris Hilton
Gossip: Gossip is associated with the desire to spread and share exaggerated tails. Though most people engage in gossip to a certain degree The Gossip is a person who personally feels at benefit and is responsible for the creation and circulation of gossip in the first place. Anyone who reports for tabloids or writes online celebrity blogs is a Gossip, though this is Gossiping at its best because it actually maintains a cycle that can have financial benefits and exposure to the celebrity. The shadow gossiper is the one that gossips to the detriment of others.
Popular Example: News casters
Shadow Example: Regina from Mean Girls
Guides: Spiritual teachers, wise women who guide others by humbly sharing what we have learned. The shadow guide emerges when a person attempts to use these insights to coerce other into giving to them for their own personal gain. This can happen when the guide is financial stress and also in the cases of televangelists, where people go under the guise of the spiritual teacher.
Popular Example: Paige Halliwell, and Leo Wyatt as Whitelighters in Charmed
Shadow example: The Seer from Charmed
Healer: Passion to repair others in body mind or spirit. An ability to channel the strength necessary to help move people into a place of health and wellbeing. The healer may manifest as the wounded healer, which is called into action as the wounded/victims finds internal strength to facilitate their own healing process. Often people that work as therapists, intuitive healers, caregivers, nurses and analysts will have the healer archetype within their repertoire.
Popular Example: Faith from the Jodi Piccoult novel, Keeping Faith
Shadow Example: Televangelists
Hedonist: Hedonists have a desire for the pleasurable aspects of life. A healthy hedonist enjoys the pursuit of pleasure and uses this fuel positive contribution to the world. The general attitude is: I am happy and therefore I want others to be able to enjoy their happiness as well. An unhealthy hedonist is a person that is a glutton, seeking pleasure at the loss of their or health or at the expense of others.
Popular example: Sookie in Gilmore Girls
Shadow examples:
Hero: The hero or heroine is a person who sets away from the tribe in order to discover their own truth or embark on their own journey and then returns to share their truths with their tribe or builds a new tribe based off of the truth and transformation they have undergone. The shadow hero becomes empowered by disempowering others.
Popular Example: Jesus, Arjuna
Shadow Example: Hilter
Judge: In light of the judge, a person balances justice and compassion equally. The person that carries this archetype relies heavily on the use of this ability. In shadow of the judge a person may strongly critique others destructively, misjudge, have lifelong work around learning to balance judgement with compassion.
Popular Examples: Tracy in Judgement Nuremberg
Shadow Example: John Forsythe in Justice for All
King (emperor, ruler): Inherited male power that has been passed down through generations. History has often followed the rule of ‘good kings’ and presidents (light) in the fall of ‘bad’ kings and presidents. In light of the king, the king aims to kep his subjects happy, healthy and safe. He sees his power as privilege and responsibility. He then chooses to act responsibly. When in the shadow of the king we are looking for ways of maintaining wealth, and power. The shadow king feels entitled and will use and abuse his citizens for hedonistic purposes.
Popular Example: King Arthur
Shadow Example: Macbeth
Knight: The knight is the protector of the princess, chivalrous and fights for honorable causes. The shadow of the knight is the knight that wages war for the sake of wealth and power of seduces a princess that is not available for the sake of power rather than the sake of love. Another tendency of the shadow night is to save others at the expense of himself. We see this with soldier that go to war for the illusion of honor; however, without evidence at we need to protect ourselves.
Popular Example: Prince Charming in Sleeping Beauty
Shadow Example: Damas from Knights of the Round Table
Liberator: A liberator is anyone who is able to help liberate us from the clasp of negativity or undermining patterns. This person can be a leader, but a leader is not necessarily a liberators. Other examples of liberators would be the freedom fighters or freedom riders. On the shadow side of the liberator, are those that pull us out of one tyranny only to impose their own doom onto us. An example would be some religious missionaries that liberate communities from illness and bring medicine, but impose their own dogmatic viewpoints onto others.
Popular Example: Rosa Parks
Shadow Example: western settlers in North America towards Aboriginal Natives.
Lovers: The Lover is an archetype that applies towards love in the grander sense of the word. It is found within people that have intense passions and devotional tendencies. The person may be a lover of art, or nature or other such niches that they are devoted to. The lover can be found within collectors of things and subjects. Often the lover archetype is masked due to low self-esteem. We may say things like, “I love animals but I don’t have what it takes to care for a dog.” With these tendencies we may convince ourself that we don’t actually love to the degree that we do. This makes us more vulnerable to the shadow side of the lover. The shadow side of the lover is the tendency to become obsessed with passion to the point of self-destruction.
Popular Example: Belle from Beauty and the Beast
Shadow Example: Romeo and Juliet
Martyr: The martyr uses service and suffering in means of controlling her environment. Often we recognize the martyr in other people and have difficulties seeing the martyr in ourselves because we don’t want to examine our inner intensions for being of service. Martyrs are often exalted for the work they do for humanity. The shadow martyr manipulates people for personal gain and status.
Popular Example: Ghandi
Shadow Example: Lucifer (let me grant you this in exchange for your soul)
Mediator: The Mediator is found within the people that are able to clearly read both sides of a situation and communicate their findings to the respective parties. The Shadow mediator has ulterior motives for getting involved and has a hidden agenda.
Popular Example: Piper Halliwell, Charmed (middle sister)
Shadow Example: N/A
Mentor: A mentor is a teacher that you can trust. They do more than teach, they pass wisdom and refine their students character. The shadow mentor has an inability to allow their student to move on or surpass them.
Popular Example: Krishna to Arjuna
Shadow Example: Muriel Sparks in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times.
Messiah: The messiah is the person that strongly believes that they are here on a divine mission. On the shadow side is the messiah complex where a person may go psychotic or schitzophrenic and act in criminal ways in the name of god.
Popular Examples: Joan of Arc
Shadow examples: Charles Manson
Midas/Miser: Turns everything he touches into gold This is a person that creates material wealth. Greed is the downfall for Midas, and in the story of Midas, he ends up turning his daughter into gold. This is the shadow side of Midas; one who hoards money at the expense of others or seeks money at the expense of others.
Popular Examples: Lionel Barrymore in It’s a Wonderful Life
Shadow Examples: Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
Monk/Nun: The positive aspects of this archetype is found in the person that is spiritually intense, devotional and dedicated. On the shadow side, this archetype has the tendency to be religiously removed and secluded from society. They may be overly pious and hold an air of better-than-thou.
Popular Example: Amma
Shadow Example: Shiva (in certain stories)
Mother: Life giver and a source of nurturing and nourishment. Similarly to the father archetype; is not enough to be a biological parent. Instead, those who adhere to the mother archetype enjoy nourishing life of any form including plants and animals. The shadow mother is codependent on her children. She needs her children to be dependent on her and has an inability to let them grow up and move on.
Popular Example: Mary Poppins, Tony Danza in Who’s the Boss
Shadow Example: Faye Dunnaway in Mommy Dearest
kind movement. Compassionate mind. Empathic research. 