Depth and Archetypal Psychology: A New Beginning
The Father Archetype and Its Role in the Formation of the Animus and Masculine Energies

Our world today still appears to be a masculine world, yet what is becoming increasingly scarce within it is the development of masculine energies and the archetypal embodiment of those forces.

The world today is full of men who, regardless of their power and social position, are only grown-up boys who have never reached masculine psychological maturity.

Every boy one day passes through an invisible gate and is thrown into a world in which he must find his place as a man.

I remember reading somewhere that for centuries young male bears found their paths through dense forests by placing their feet in the footprints of their fathers, and that this map of passage was carried across generations and became increasingly complete.

In the absence of men who can serve as models and embodiments of a map through the complex world of masculinity, generations of young men today and tomorrow will not only feel throughout their lives the absence of a guide and a genuine father, but will also lose the path toward realising their own capacities.

Every man carries within himself four archetypes: the Father, Warrior, Lover and Alchemist. Somewhere in his heart he knows that to reach the position of the ideal sovereign—the deep dream of many men in life—he must unite these forces within himself.

A man who has developed the higher masculine archetypes within himself embodies an ideal father. In his presence one can feel order, clarity of purpose and the capacity to protect. He is the centre of balance in his own world, and those who live within that world feel a deep sense of equilibrium, confidence, strength and clarity of direction. He is a man who is not only sovereign over his own world but carries within himself a humble and calm warrior, prepared at any moment to confront visible and invisible dangers without fear; at the same time he is an alchemist continually learning, expanding his consciousness, creating and building; and finally he is a lover who knows the art of loving and of union with the feminine spirit.

Every man carries somewhere within himself the wish to be such a man, and every woman carries in her heart a wish to be with and unite with such a man. Twenty years ago Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe, became one of the most popular films in cinema history and still retains an IMDb rating of 8.5/10. A central reason for this popularity, in my view, is that in Maximus—the hero of Gladiator—men see a figure who has developed within himself the father, lover and warrior in the form of an ideal sovereign. Every man, in his masculine energies, wishes to be Maximus.

A man who practises violence in his life, whose way is selfishness and narcissism, and who has accepted falsehood and weakness within himself, stands at the opposite pole from the man who has brought his masculine energies toward maturity and transcendence. A father who becomes authoritarian, and the manager, commander or soldier who treats violence and self-centredness as part of being a man, displays only the shadows of an undeveloped boyhood trying to hide inner fears, weakness and anxiety behind a dark mask.

In The Lion King, Mufasa, father of the young lion Simba and father of the story’s hero, is king of a land he rules with wisdom and justice, protecting the nature and life that flow through his kingdom. When his brother Scar deceives and kills him and becomes king, darkness and decay spread across the land. Animals die in groups, nature deteriorates, and hyenas come to dominate the entire kingdom.

Culture and the state in every society are another embodiment of the father archetype. When this father adopts authoritarianism, autocracy, violence, lack of wisdom and imbalance, not only do sorrow, illness and death spread among the people, not only do the ethical structures of society break apart and falsehood cast its shadow over everything, but even nature itself moves toward drought and decay, because the centre from which life, balance, the clarity of wisdom and truth, and the power of protection should flow through the land has itself become ill.

The truth, within this framework, is that the animus comes alive only in contact with a healthy anima. No man can develop his masculine energies without genuine contact with the sources of the feminine spirit within himself, just as no woman can develop her psychological structure toward a more complete human being without awakening within herself the forces of order and the sources of paternal power and protection.