Entering the Realm of Storywell
Jung used different terms for the realm of consciousness where archetypes live—he called it the collective unconscious or the psyche and sometimes the archetypal psyche. The archetypal psyche describes a realm of imagination, where life is enchanted; it is the realm of fairy tales, myths, and "somewhere over the rainbow." In the Arthurian legend of the Holy Grail, this realm was the enchanted Camelot, where magic and mystery were fully alive in wizards, spells, and the mists of Avalon. Many years ago now, I myself had a magical and spontaneous experience of the archetypal psyche.
Long ago and far away, two young girls who are close to my heart—five and eight years old—convinced me to play with them in a forest that I had never actually entered, even though it was quite near my home. The eldest girl quickly took on a heroic role, taking the lead with a branch held over her head like a scepter,giving each of us different names and identities for our journey together. She inspired us with dread as we walked near the cave where a monster lived. We forged through a stream, following various paths likely caused by deer escaping danger. In our journey, we navigated unstable terrain and faced perilous moments.
We became engrossed in our wonderful time pretending to be lost, when suddenly I realized I had actually lost track of where we were in relationship to my house! There were no landmarks I could discern,the sun was behind the clouds—and I had entered the dark woods without my phone! By instinct, I got us to a road and suddenly, there was a house through the trees. Walking past it, we found ourselves in a neighborhood I had not known was there, of huge mansions with beautifully kept lawns and flowers all around us. The younger one piped up, saying, "I think we went through a portal into faery land." And it felt like faery land to all of us, even to me, as this place had been invisible until we were in it.
From there, a more mundane street appeared, and we figured out how to journey home on actual roads. We put aside our mythic identities yet practiced the heroic tales we would tell about our trip. The three of us still talk fondly today of what a great adventure we had together, being lost in faery land.
When we first come to understand an archetype we are living, it is as if we go through a portal into a heroic mythic landscape, much like my entry into the deep woods behind my house. You can find that you discover a whole world as seen through the lens of that archetypal character and its many storylines, images, and challenges that need to be overcome.
Storywell provides such a portal—literally and metaphorically—into understanding your life as a heroic journey shaped by certain archetypes. You are invited to embody the heroic adventure of your life story. And remember, what seems at first to be pretend or a fiction, is actually real, as archetypal story patterns reveal the truths of the human heart and the paths to becoming more you.
