Archetype

The concept of the archetype was introduced by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung in the early 20th century to describe innate images shared across all of humanity, part of what he called the collective unconscious — the Shadow, the Anima and Animus, the Wise Old Man, the Great Mother. Unlike personal memories, archetypes aren't acquired through an individual's own experience; they show up repeatedly in the myths, fairy tales, and dreams of unrelated cultures, which Jung took as evidence of their universality. The concept became a key to reading Tarot symbolically: each Major Arcana card — the Fool, the Magician, the Empress, Death — embodies one archetypal chapter of the human journey, so a card resonates not because it predicts an event, but because it names a recognizable inner process. In self-inquiry practice, noticing which archetype is currently "active" in your own life — the Hero mid-struggle, the Orphan seeking support, the Sage simply observing — helps you step back from a situation and choose a more conscious response instead of automatically playing out the role.