Recently I’ve been doing a fair amount of soul searching. Coming to the end of my time as a student, I was facing change, uncertainty and a strong sense of the unknowable. In fact, in many ways I still am, but I’ve changed my perspective so that I now embrace positive change. By doing this, I’m finding that the world is full of exciting opportunities – in fact, it’s positively vibrating with energy and hope.
One of the ways in which I’ve achieved this alteration of my perspective was through investigating the idea of life purpose. I read the book Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss (which you can find in my bookshop), in which she asserts that we are all drawing upon the energy of 12 archetypes. 4 of these archetypes are the same for all of us: the child, the victim, the saboteur and the prostitute. The other 8, however, are specific to your life’s purpose.
Now, I have wrestled for many months over which archetypal energies I draw upon in the everyday of my lived existence, and in many ways I am continuing to mull over my choices, discarding previous choices, selecting and exploring new ones. I don’t think this exercise is one that’s supposed to be done in an afternoon! After all, it’s partly the journey that allows one to reveal important aspects of the self.
One of the archetypes that I had been struggling over specifically, was ‘the photographer’. I thought it was a natural fit – I love to take photos, I feel a sense of flow when I have my camera clutched in my hand, I simultaneously lose myself and find myself through the lens. And yet…
For some reason it just doesn’t fit. It doesn’t feel right on many levels, and I’m not wholly convinced that this is a confidence issue – that because I don’t feel that I’m a ‘good enough’ photographer, I can’t accept the archetypal energy. I think it’s more powerful than that. To my mind, photographers are fascinated by the technology of the image. The camera itself, the various lenses, settings, and acoutrements all factor into their love of photography. I don’t share that fascination for the technological.
It was only when I began to explore the archtype of ‘the poet’ that I finally understood my love for taking photos.
A while ago I wrote a series on photography called The Fire of Images. The title was derived from a quote outside Edinburgh’s Writers Museum by George Mackay Brown:
In the fire of images gladly I put my hand.
This quote really resonates for me, not only because of the beauty of the metaphor, but also because it helped me to gain clarity on what it was that I enjoyed so much about photography: it allows me to think and express myself and the world through metaphor.
When I take a photograph, I am not only sharing my own view on the world with others, but I’m also composing it for myself. It’s helping me to explore thoughts and feelings about the big questions… life, the universe and everything. That’s basically what I do here, on this blog: I select one of my most recent images and I articulate the thoughts that are sparked by the image.
When I realised this, ‘the poet’ archetype seemed a perfect fit to help me explore my love of photography. It helped me to see that I am creating metaphors, I am creating meaning. Upon realising that, I don’t feel the need to explain why I use iPhoto to edit my images instead of a more expensive option like Photoshop. I don’t feel embarrassed to admit that I don’t own, nor know how to use, a DSLR camera. It no longer concerns me that I can’t tell you why the lighting in one image is better than another. I’ve never claimed to be an expert in photography, (actually, I’ve never claimed to be an expert in anything!), and yet I still find it immensely liberating to realign myself with ‘the poet’ rather than ‘the photographer’ archetype.
This process of exploring just one archetype has taken me a long time, and yet I’ve found it immensely clarifying. It showed me that these archetypal energies do not necessarily manifest in the most straightforward, direct manner, and to truly understand them, and yourself, you need to be willing to think outside the box.
How about you – have you explored archetypes? What have you discovered about the process of discerning your own set or about the recognition of archetypes in others? Have you had a similar experience in choosing a more obvious archetype only to disregard it for one which, on first impression, seemed a strange or obscure choice? Would love to hear from you!
Hi Amy,
As a happy amateur snapper myself, I really enjoyed reading this post
Photography for me is a means of communication rather than a technical discipline. I too am happy to leave it to the experts but enjoy the products of more than just the professionals too.
The images I like convey emotions, sense of place, thoughts, relationships and many more things besides. A glimpse into another person’s perspective and consciousness!
Will definitely be looking up more about what archetype I am too
Best Regards
Paul
First off – that’s a bit of a stunning photograph Mrs
Secondly, I know the Archetype is a personal thing, but the Poet seems to fit perfectly with my understanding of you.
Thirdly, it’s always a surprise to find out just how much of the things I think I about, someone else thinks about – but in this case, you always seem to be steps ahead in your understanding!
Your words and your photos are a beautiful contribution, Amy.
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I have been wondering for a couple of years how to use and benefit from my archetypes. I read Caroline’s book a couple of years ago and someone walked me through selecting my archetypes. I am now going to go back and look at them with a different perspective of how to apply them to me. I’d love to know how you explored them. There are certain archetypes that make sense and I’ve wrestled with the shadow side to fully understand that part. I’d really like to do what you have accomplished! Thanks for sharing this, it’s incredibly expanding of thoughts!
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Beautiful, thoughtful post, Amy, thank you!
Archetypes are fascinating, I did some research into archetypes in families a few years ago and really enjoyed it but didn’t have the time to consider them at any length on a personal level … but I definitely will now, thanks to your inspiration. I think the poet archetype resonates through your work, both words and images are imbued with poetry!
When it comes to photography, I have no idea about the technical side either. I have only recently started using a ‘proper’ camera, rather than my little mobile phone! I just love capturing images of things I find beautiful or interesting and sharing them with other people. (Flickr rocks!)
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There is a poet in all of us. It takes time to listen to it and then provide an opportunity to allow it to speak.
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Amazing post – just when I described you in my latest blog draft as someone whose posts are envy-inducingly short, you go and surprise me with this gem! The photo is stunning, you ARE a photographer, but I completely agree with the poet conclusion. You have an amazing talent for snapshotting life, which is what poets, painters and photographers have in common.
I struggle with assigning archetypes too because of the way my journey’s evolving me, but decided that as one of life’s rearrangers, it was OK to combine a few and invent! I know it defeats the point of archetypes, but hey, it’s fun!
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Hi Amy, this makes a lot of sense to me from what I know of you too – your pictures, your writing, your tweets, and the person I’ve got to know as a very dear friend.
I’ve also been reading about archetypes recently as I delved into the Hero Within – made so much sense of a lot of things for me. I also did a bit of work summoning up the archetype I was needing by using pictures, words, images that I associated with it and creating something a bit like a vision board. I’ll show you when I see you… you might find it interesting.
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What an insightful posting Amy, congratulations. Over the years I’ve explored archetypes and last year had a lovely consultation with a lady who combines them with Astrology – her feedback was remarkable. There are some which I found very uncomfortable and as in all learning that’s where we have to look hardest – there can be no light without the dark.
@ Janice – I’ve got the feeling that as we evolve and learn more, our archetypes will change – my belief is that nothing is set in stone, and everything is a learning tool – be it from personality types, metaprograms, astrological signs, etc etc. None of it is to keep you in a box and we must not allow it to become an excuse to rest on our laurels.
@ Joanna – what a lovely idea to make a visioning board – I use mindmaps to help me make sense of things when I’m stuck – it’s great for writing too! They seem to pull the left and right brains – which I guess is what the vision board does too.
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Hi Amy,
It sounds like you’re enjoying post-PhD life. I hope I don’t come across as the unruly dissenter, but here goes…
Just a thought, but I wonder how many photographers (whether amatuer or professional) would also align themselves with the ‘Poet’ rather than the ‘Photographer’ archetype. Is the category ‘Photographer’ subsumed under the category of ‘Poet’? In which case, is there a hierarchy of archetypes? Janice’s comment above really resonated with me, with her suggestion of mixing and inventing archetypes to the point that there is something inherently fluid/dynamic about them even when you have subscribed to one archetype as opposed to another archetype.
Steven x
No archetypes, but I know just what you mean about the cameras. I sort of dally with the idea of a DSLR every now again and then realize that I don’t want to hoik all that weight around me. I like to get the best out of a smaller camera, but I don’t care about the technical stuff, the lighting, beyond some very basic techniques. I feel rather empty without a working camera by my side, because it triggers my creativity to carry it around and always subconsciously be on the lookout for something cool to capture.
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I wish I’d seen this earlier. It was written on my birthday and I was being miserable about another one.
You wrote “To my mind, photographers are fascinated by the technology of the image. The camera itself, the various lenses, settings, and acoutrements all factor into their love of photography. I don’t share that fascination for the technological.”
I totally understand what you mean by that and you expressed it well. I feel the same way about my art. In the early days there was some fascination with the tools and techniques but for some time now I have no interest in them except for what they help me express. I have never completely identified with the artist archetype (though I’ve spent a lifetime defining myself as an artist) and thought many times that perhaps I missed a road I should have taken (back there) towards another field. But no, that’s not true. Blogging – writing – has provided me a voice that art has never allowed and that has awakened a need in me to be more than an artist, much more. Where this revelation will take me I don’t know, but it is a joy to know more adventures await me.
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I’m not sure about the archetypes, but that is a seriously lovely image. Great tones and framing. Nice work!
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