The Hero
The archetype of transformation through ordeal. A triangle inscribed in a circle: directed force contained by wholeness.
The Shadow
Two overlapping squares: the self and its hidden double, rotated 45 degrees from recognition.
The Sage
Concentric circles bisected by a single radial line: knowledge organized in layers, illuminated by a single ray of insight cutting through all levels.
The Trickster
Pattern Language
Every archetype is a pattern -- a recurring solution to a recurring problem of human existence. The Hero pattern solves the problem of stagnation. The Shadow pattern solves the problem of self-deception. The Sage pattern solves the problem of information without meaning. Each pattern is a verb disguised as a noun: not a thing but an action, not a character but a process.
The systematic study of archetypes is not psychology in the clinical sense but architecture in the deepest sense: the identification of load-bearing structures in the construction of meaning.
Form follows function follows archetype.
The Anima
The soul-image: a circle containing a leaf form. The container and the contained, outer structure and inner life, logic and feeling in dynamic balance.
The system of archetypes is not a catalog but an ecology. Each pattern exists in relationship with every other. Remove the Shadow and the Hero has no quest. Remove the Sage and the Trickster has no rules to break.