FAQs

Olympian Foundation

 

 

 

        
             
Are Gods and Goddesses archetypes?

Short Answer: No.
Long Answer:
    The discovery of Archetype Theory was one of the biggest influences in the pre and post-World War II period of the 20th Century. In particular Carl Jung's ideas provided Hitler with the Aryan archetype and psychoanalysts since with a framework for understanding the unconscious.
    Archetype Theory has won over many adherents with its claims that the huge complexities of human behaviour can be explained by hierarchies of archetypes and devotees have noticed this hierarchy in the poetic works of Hesiod, whose creation myth appears to mirror the structures of archetypes, with primary pairing and secondary and tertiary levels of offspring deities, a sub-division giving rise to a whole pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. 

As a consequence psychoanalysts have returned to the world of myth, believing it to be a rich source of explanatory potential, as did Jung himself. 

'Instincts form very close analogues to the archetypes, so close in fact that there is good reason for supposing that the archetypes are the unconscious images of the instincts themselves; in other words they are the patterns of instinctive behaviour,' said he.

Classical mythology does not portray the Olympians in flattering illumination. They are depicted as quarrelsome and jealous, capable of eating their own children, incestuous, violent and vengeful, and from time to time in dire need of human wisdom to help them out with a difficult decision. In Homer's epics: Iliad and Odyssey they are seen playing with opposing sides, attempting to outdo each other causing trouble for each other and for mortals.
    To many psychoanalysts, the classical writers' portrayals of the Gods was not so much about independent super beings, 'out there', they were actually depicting the inner world of the human psyche, the archetypes of the interior unconscious realms that influence human behaviour.
    As astrologer analyst Liz Greene observes: 'These ancient and sacred figures which for so many centuries we perceived as Gods. We still do not know what they are. It is more accurate now, for purposes of collective evaluation to call them drives, or motivations, or archetypes.'

But is she correct?

Hesiod's legends of creation and the family of Gods does seem purpose-made for Archetype Theory. That the classical myths are human constructs and reflect a human's unconscious there can be no doubt. No one claims for them, as does the Bible, that the contents are literally the words of the Gods made textual. The classical myths are imprinted with the psychological bias of their authors. Hesiod the poet was somewhat hardened by sibling trouble and as historian Charles Freeman points out, maintained a deep-rooted prejudice against women.

Architecture of the Unconscious

It is no easy task to comprehend the architecture of the unconscious when it is by definition everything not conscious. Archetype Theory, like so many theories which purport to explain what exactly are Gods and Goddesses, denies their reality by applying a theory to explain them and make them safe. Archetype Theory, albeit sweet-seeming is notoriously difficult to prove either way. For more information we recommend the excellent Michael Harding's 'Hymns To the Ancient Gods'.

Throughout the ten years and more of the Foundation's work the Gods and Goddesses rarely volunteer intimate details of their personal affairs as classical myth would have us believe, nor their family connections, nor their history, which through the writings of Hesiod so neatly provides a perfect hierarchical model which has since gifted psychoanalysis with Archetype Theory. 

However, if by archetype we mean, more widely, the organising principles of creation, then perhaps so.

Team-members describe their encounters with the Olympians as extremely real. And so too their concerns: Our world, they love and for which they are responsible is being seriously polluted as a result of ignorance, greed and  corruption. This is why they now appear face to face to so many people.
     Not as instinctual drives from within, but as independent individuals with a warning for our future.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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