Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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Archetypes
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1 "According to the Ancient Wisdom, the world issues by means of archetypes, the Divine Ideas or forms of Plato. These are nonmaterial matrices or guiding fields, geometric in nature, which shape forms from within." Ancient Wisdom, Modern Insight (Shirley Nicholson)

2 "Ideas are certain original forms or permanent and immutable models of things which are contained by the divine intelligence. They are immutable because they themselves have not been formed; and that is why they are eternal and always the same. But though they themselves neither come to be nor perish, yet it is accordfing to them that everything, which can come to be or pass away or which actually comes to be and passes away, is said to be formed." St. Augustine, Lib. 83 Quaest., q. 46 Introduction to Saint Thomas Aquinas (Anton C. Pegis, editor)

3 "The archetypes are here to help us evolve, collectively and individually. In honoring them we grow." The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By (Carol Pearson, Ph.D.)

4 "Archetypes are perennial themes that reside at the level of the collective, universal soul. These themes are representations of our collective soul's yearnings, imagination, and deepest desires. These themes have existed forever. We see them in the writings of ancient cultures, in literature throughout the ages. Their shapes shift depending on where we are in history, but their core remains the same." Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire (Deepak Chopra)

5 "The essential reality of Beauty exists as an Archetypal Power in the Divine Mind, and the existence of this Power is the true reason why our minds are able to perceive beauty where they might otherwise have discerned only mathematical balance, for example, or biological aptness, or a certain refraction of light." The Sword and The Serpent (Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips)

6 "The soul must contain in itself the faculty of relationship to God, that is, a correspondence, otherwise a connection could never come about. This correspondence is, in psychological terms, the archetype of the God-image." 'Psychology and Alchemy' Collected Works (Carl Jung)

7 "Within the divine, incorporeal, and eternal sphere are included all the lower manifestations of life – all that is, has been, or ever shall be. Within the Kosmic Intellect all things spiritual or material exist as archetypes, or divine thought-forms." The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)

8 "Archetypal means a pattern which is universal and existent in all people in all cultures at all periods of history." The Mythic Tarot (Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene)

9 "When I say as a psychologist that God is an archetype, I mean by that the 'type' in the psyche. The word 'type' is, as we know, derived from (the Greek word for) 'blow' or 'imprint'; thus an archetype presupposes an imprinter." 'Psychology and Alchemy' Collected Works (Carl Jung)

10 "If these primal spiritual forces – these archetypal powers – can work through the collective unconscious to touch and influence [us] through our myth and ritual and imagination, including imaginative prayer, then we can in actual fact alter the course of history." Myth, History & Faith (Morton Kelsey)

11 "The essential realizations of the pivotal work of Jung's career were, first, that since the archetypes or norms of myth are common to the human species, they are inherently expressive neither of local social circumstance nor of any individual's singular experience, but of common human needs, instincts, and potentials." Joseph Campbell, 'The Portable Jung' Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy (Ken Wilber)

12 "Sooner or later nuclear physics and the psychology of the unconscious will draw closer together as both of them, independently of one another and from opposite directions, push forward into transcendental territory, the one with the concept of the atom, the other with that of the archetype." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

13 "In myths and fairytales, as in dreams, the psyche tells its own story, and the interplay of the archetypes is revealed in its natural setting as 'formation, transformation/the eternal Mind's eternal recreation.'" Collected Works (Carl Jung)

14 "Archetypal images are found in virtually all cultures and during all ages, thus representing a kind of universal language." The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience (Ralph Metzner)

15 "The ancient mathematical philosophers probed into the archetypal patterns and found them in nature." A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art & Science (Michael S. Schneider)

16 "The human body (is) a miniature replica of the earth's surface. For it resembles our outer planet remarkably, being composed of the same elements in the same proportion: three quarters water and one quarter solids, both organic and inorganic, with swift internal flows, occasional eruptions and gentle daily tides. And there is a corresponding similarity between the atom and the solar system, where the sun represents the proton and the planets the electrons that orbit around it. Such preponderant structures notably demonstrate how material forms are ordered in regular and meaningful ways by nonmaterial abstractions, such as symmetry and conceptual archetypes. This applies to everything from crystals to supergalaxies, all of which in essence may be considered alive." Seven Mysteries of Life, An Exploration in Science and Philosophy (Guy Murchie)

17 "Archetypes were, and still are, living psychic forces that demand to be taken seriously, and they have a strange way of making sure of their effect. Always they were the bringers of protection and salvation." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

18 "Dante said, 'The elements of all things that Nature begins, whatever be their mode, observe an inner order. It is this Form that makes the Universe resemble God.'" Robert Lawlor, 'Pythagorean Number as Form, Color, and Light' Homage to Pythagoras, Rediscovering Sacred Science (Christopher Bamford, editor)

19 "Archetypes, that is, universal and inherited patterns, taken together, constitute the structure of the unconscious….archetypes are the forms or river-beds along which the current of psychic life has always flowed." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

20 "Mandalas are also formed with the hands, danced, and represented in music (for instance Bach's 'Art of Fugue')….When a mandala is being formed, everything round and square known to man works on it too. But the impetus for its formation comes from the unconscious archetype." C. G. Jung: Letters, 1951-1961 (Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe, editors)

21 "All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes. This is particularly true of religious ideas, but the central concepts of science, philosophy, and ethics are no exception to this rule. In their present form they are variants of archetypal ideas, created by consciously applying and adapting these ideas to reality. For it is the function of consciousness not only to recognize and assimilate the external world through the gateway of the senses, but to translate into visible reality the world within us." 'The Structure of the Psyche' Collected Works (Carl Jung)

22 "Archetypes are the architects of our lives. They are the energy companions through whom we can learn to understand ourselves." Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (Caroline Myss)

23 "Archetypes are vital to understanding and defining who we are, individual expressions of a collective consciousness." Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire (Deepak Chopra)

24 "The earth is identical with the sublime figure of Wisdom….On closer examination this is really a tremendous thought. The 'Wisdom of God' in the Bible was the playmate of Yahweh, who was with him before the beginning of the world. In patristic literature she was defined as the 'archetypal world' or as the sum of eternal ideas in the mind of God, the prototypes from which he created all things." Aurora Consurgens (Marie Louise vonFranz)

25 "The sky is moist and dry, cold and hot, bright and obscured by turns; these are the rapidly alternating forms included under the one ideal or universal form of the sky. The earth is ever passing through many changes of form; it generates produce, it nourishes the produce it has generated, it yields all manner of crops, with manifold differences of quality and quantity; and above all, it puts forth many sorts of trees, differing in the scent of their flowers and the taste of their fruits. Water takes different forms, now standing, and now running. Fire undergoes many changes, and assumes godlike forms;…they are like our mirrors, and reproduce the ideal or universal form in visible copies with rival brilliance." Hermetica (Walter Scott, translator)

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite