The King Archetype
Finding the Sovereign within
In a recent post on sacred masculinity, I talked about archetypes.
What is an archetype? From Dictionary.com
the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.
(in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.
In their book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette write,
Jung and his successors have found that on the level of the deep unconscious the psyche of every person is grounded in what Jung called the ‘collective unconscious,’ made up of instinctual patterns and energy configurations probably inherited genetically throughout the generations of our species. These archetypes provide the very foundation of our behaviors - our thinking, feeling and our characteristic human reactions….it is constant and universal in all of us….all human beings can access the archetypes…for their own benefit, for the benefit of all those around them, maybe even for the planet.
Archetypes are many; any model of a way of being, long practiced by humans, from mother, son, hunter, trickster, etc. Robert Moore, working from Jung’s notion of a “double quaternio”, settled on four primary masculine archetypes, King, Warrior, Magician and Lover. Our focus here is on the King archetype.
Two functions of the King energy make this transition from Boy psychology [Divine Child/Hero] to Man psychology possible. The first of these is ordering: the second is providing fertility and blessing…The King…Is the central archetype…the good King at the center of the world. He sits on the throne on the central mountain, or on the the Primeval Hill…from this central place, all of creation radiates in geometric form to the very frontiers of the realm. “World” is defined as that part of reality that is organized by the King. What is outside the boundaries of his influence is non-creation, chaos, the demonic, the non-world.
The mortal King is a stand-in for God, embodying “‘for the people of the realm this ordering principle of the divine world.” It is fashionable these days to think that a concept so “toxic masculine” as a king could only have come from Western culture, aka white supremacy. But the sacred king was a concept everywhere: the Pharaoh of Egypt as Ra the sun god, Indian Raja’s as the embodiment of Dharma; the Persian king as the container of khshathra, symbol of the light and truth of Ahura-Mazda; the Tibetan king was the dharmaraja, embodiment of the sacred order; the Chinese emperor the axis mundi holding together earth and heaven; Korea’s Pak Hyokkose, who rules by light; the Japanese emperor akitsu-mi-kami, manifestation of the sun-god; the Mayan king constellating the world tree; the central Mexican priest kings of Quetzalcoatl; etc. 1.
The second function of the King archetype is fertility and blessing. If the King is fertile, strong, powerful, so goes the realm. If the king is weak, the realm is weak. The blessing of the King is life renewing and enlivening.
But I am writing from America, which came into being rejecting the divine right of kings. The Declaration of Independence is an explicit rejection of King George and the King generally. We idealize democracy in America, which has it’s own problems, even as the President is very much like a stand-in for the King. George Washington, according to Gore Vidal, was chosen to be the first president in large part because of his idealized king-like energy.
The iron-clad 40% support for Trump and Biden is like a legacy of unquestioning support for the King. It has been seen in the idealization of CEO’s and Billionaires. For many in America, Jesus is King. The King archetype is alive and well even in secular America.
Obviously too the King can exist in shadow, as the tyrant or the weakling.
Though most of us have experienced some of this energy of the mature masculine…most of us have to confess that overall we have experienced very little of the King energy in it’s fullness…mostly what we have experienced is what we are calling the shadow king…the tyrant king hates, fears and envies new life…he senses it is a threat to his slim grasp on his own kingship. The tyrant king is not in the center and does not feel calm and generative. He is not creative, only destructive….he is afraid - terrified, really - of his own hidden weakness and his underlying lack of potency….under the rage is a sense of worthlessness, of vulnerability and weakness.
The point of understanding the King archetype is not about restoring a King to power in society, it is about finding order, calm, fertility and blessing in one’s own life, that we may bring the same to our “realm”, to family, friends, work, the people we meet.
Realistic greatness in adult life, as opposed to inflation and grandiosity [or weakness], involves recognizing our proper relationship to this and the other mature masculine energies. The proper relationship is like that of a planet to the star it is orbiting…to keep the proper orbital distance from the life giving, but also potential death dealing energies [of the archetype]…steward of the king energy, not for the benefit of itself, but for the benefit of those within it’s realm.
The King archetype is a powerful energy affecting us whether we see it or not, within our psyche. To be unaware is to more easily fall prey to shadow king energy, to collapse into chaos, to not thrive - or to remain the boy hero/divine child. Without this ordering principle our “realm” is a mess, we act like petty tyrants toward others, we cannot bless ourselves or others.
But when we are accessing the King energy correctly, as servants of our own inner King, we will manifest in our own lives the qualities of the good and rightful King, the King in his fullness…we will feel our anxiety level drop. We will feel centered and calm, and hear ourselves speak from an inner authority. We will have the capacity…to bless ourselves and others. We will have the capacity to care for others deeply and genuinely. We will ‘recognize’ others; we will behold them as the full persons they really are. We will have a sense of being a centered participant in creating a more just, calm and creative world. We will have a transpersonal devotion not only to our families, our friends, our companies, our causes, our religions, but also to the world.
As government, corporations, banks, billionaires and experts of all kinds fail us, if there is any truth to the theories of Oswald Spengler, and in the late decline of this civilization we will see petty Caesars rise in response to rising chaos, we would do well to find the king in our own heart and mind, as opposed to looking for some king-like figure to save us, to restore order in America. The current “King”, those elite who have stood in for the King in this “democracy”, the untouchable, unquestionable Federal Government (the divine rights of the bureaucracy) have long been trying to control the narrative to hide the fact they are losing control and generating chaos, preying upon the people in shadow. The center is not holding. Many on the ‘left’ seem to be looking to government to be the (shadow) King. Some on the right hunger for a King to rise. But this is America. I for one will not kneel before any king, of any kind. I would much rather embrace king energy within myself and radiate calm order in service to all around me.
I imagine a nation of people embracing the king and queen energy in themselves, finding their inner sovereign, that they need not be ruled, that they become ungovernable, to be in service to the people, the world around them and the idea of America. 2.
The King Within, Moore and Gillette, chpt 3, Historic Images of the Sacred King, pg 59
This is the first in a series of posts on the four masculine archetypes as outlined. The archetypes are like a tool for understanding the self. There are many such tools; the work of Moore and Gillette was very helpful for me when I was younger. This is like a refresher course for me, and I hope you find value in it.
I absolutely loved this post. Very empowering. I just got down my old copy of Jean Shinoda’s “Goddesses in Everywoman”. I had forgotten how strengthening studying mythology and archetypes could be. Thank you for reminding of that.
William! I just posted this link and one from your Late Thoughts in Winter in a reply to Mara on my last episode. She's also talking about the Jungian shadow, and I had your episode saved as a draft for a future post.
I appreciate being able to continue the conversation as an exploration of things we're both trying to understand. I hope that my comments are seen in that light.
You write, "It is fashionable these days to think that a concept so “toxic masculine” as a king could only have come from Western culture, aka white supremacy." But then you show that the concept of supremacy isn't exclusive to whites. Does that make it not toxic? In trying to differentiate between tonic, I've been asking myself what toxic really means. What's the poison that tonic heals? I think it's the concept of supremacy, superiority, domination, competition.
I wondered if 'archetype' had a common root to archon, the Greek word for rulers that hierarchy derives from. The Merriam-Webster says: Archetype comes from the Greek verb archein ("to begin" or "to rule") and the noun typos ("type"). So it's the firstborn, in primogeniture, to whom the right to rule was passed down.
I've stopped using the term matriarchy because it has the same concept of supremacy but with women as the rulers. The word matrix, however, comes from matri- and is a network, not a pyramid.
How can the King put everything in order with everything outside being chaos? Where do women fit if even fertility has become part of the King archetype?
Just some thoughts but I know our hearts are in the same place on this, so I'm just thinking aloud with you as a reality check. Your thoughts?