Fol. I — Incipit

archetypos

.dev

Patterns beneath the surface

A field-guide to the recurring figures of myth, dream, and city — bound in leather, pasted in alleyway.

† cf. Jung, Psychological Types, 1921
vol. VI, p. 412 — annotated ✧
CLASSIFIED — N° 0041
EX LIBRIS
descend
II §
001 — Thesis

The patterns
that shape us

Every culture, every myth, every dream — the same figures return. The Hero. The Shadow. The Trickster. They are not relics of primitive thought but the living architecture of the human psyche, repeated across millennia and manifested in every story we tell ourselves about who we are.

— C.G.J., from the margins of a subway platform, 3 a.m.

002 — Method

A living taxonomy

archetypos.dev maps these recurring patterns — not as dusty academic taxonomy, but as a living system of resonance. We trace the archetypal threads from ancient mythology through contemporary culture, revealing the deep structures that connect a Sumerian goddess to a startup founder, a Greek tragedy to a viral meme.

  • ❖Read the figures behind the figures.
  • ❖Trace the symbol across centuries.
  • ❖Name the mask. Meet the face.
003 — Warning
“ The archetypes are not metaphors. They are pressures. When you recognize one, it has already begun to move you. ”
— margin note, anonymous reader, 1967
KNOW THYSELF
III ❖
Chapter the Third

The Twelve

Hover — or tap — each card to turn it. The front is what the world sees. The back is what the archetype knows.

I

The Hero

— seeking mastery
turn →
Verso

Hero

Courage as compass. The one who faces the dragon not to slay it, but to understand what it guards. Fears mediocrity. Shadow: the bully who mistakes violence for strength.

❖
II

The Shadow

— what we refuse
turn →
Verso

Shadow

The mirror's dark side. Everything we refuse to see in ourselves, projected onto the world. The work is not to destroy it, but to reclaim it as raw material.

†
III

The Trickster

— chaos as catalyst
turn →
Verso

Trickster

The boundary-crosser who breaks rules to reveal the absurdity of the rules themselves. Coyote, Hermes, Loki. Every revolution begins as a joke.

✪
IV

The Sage

— seeking truth
turn →
Verso

Sage

Truth as territory. The seeker who understands that wisdom is not accumulated but uncovered — and that every answer is the seed of a sharper question.

§
V

The Creator

— form from void
turn →
Verso

Creator

Imagination made manifest. Shapes worlds from raw possibility. Shadow: the perfectionist who never begins, or the forger who mistakes production for meaning.

❖
VI

The Ruler

— order as offering
turn →
Verso

Ruler

The sovereign who creates stability not through force, but through responsibility. Shadow: the tyrant who builds order on the bones of those who cannot resist.

✪
1. Twelve is not a fixed number. Pearson lists twelve; Jung suggests the archetypes are uncountable. We list six here and invite the reader to name the other six in the margins.
CONTINUED →
IV ❖
Chapter the Fourth

Taxonomy of the Unconscious

Three columns. Three orientations. Four figures each. The archetypes group themselves around the fundamental questions of being.

I.

Ego Types

— the self in the world
  • The Innocentseeking safety
  • The Orphanseeking belonging
  • The Heroseeking mastery
  • The Caregiverseeking service
II.

Soul Types

— the self seeking itself
  • The Explorerseeking freedom
  • The Rebelseeking liberation
  • The Loverseeking intimacy
  • The Creatorseeking innovation
III.

Self Types

— the self as architect
  • The Jesterseeking enjoyment
  • The Sageseeking truth
  • The Magicianseeking transformation
  • The Rulerseeking order
✧ see also: Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) — Pearson, Awakening the Heroes Within (1991)
V ❖
Chapter the Fifth

The Alchemical Process

Jung saw individuation as parallel to the alchemical opus — a transformation of base material into gold. Not literal gold, but psychological wholeness. Four stages, each a season of the soul.

I
Stage I

Nigredo

— the blackening

Decomposition. Confrontation with the shadow — the necessary dissolution before transformation can begin.

II
Stage II

Albedo

— the whitening

Purification. The washing away of impurity to reveal the essential — what remains when everything false has burned away.

III
Stage III

Citrinitas

— the yellowing

The dawn of solar consciousness. Awareness awakens — the gold begins to reveal itself within the prima materia.

IV
Stage IV

Rubedo

— the reddening

Integration. The philosopher's stone achieved — the union of opposites, the Self made whole.

§

“The alchemists were not trying to make gold. They were trying to describe what happens to a person who has stared long enough into the dark.”

— undated marginalia, 17th c.