The document discusses common archetypes and symbols found across myths and religions, including: - The hero's journey pattern involving a birth, challenges, death and resurrection. Examples given are Oedipus and Christ. - Common symbols and their meanings, such as colors (red for blood, blue for spirituality), numbers (3 for unity, 7 for completion), and directions (east for birth, west for death). - Mythic figures that appear, including temptresses, earth mothers, and the soul mate. - Common quest archetypes involving restoring fertility to wasted lands, as seen in searches for the Holy Grail or Moby Dick.

1. A universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated Sometimes noted as stereotype

3. Birth-death-resurrection; purification and redemption; fertility and growth The sea: mother of all life; death and rebirth; the unconscious; timelessness Rivers: death and rebirth (baptism); the flowing of time into eternity; phases of the life cycle

4. Creative energy; father figure; passage of time and life Rising sun: birth, creation, enlightenment, associated with the east Setting sun: death, associated with the west

5. Red: blood, sacrifice, violent passion Green: growth, sensation, hope, fertility Blue: usually positive, associated with truth, religious feeling, security, spiritual purity Black (darkness): chaos, mystery, the unknown, death, the unconscious, evil, melancholy White: Positively – light, purity, innocence, timelessness Negatively – death, terror, the supernatural

6. Wholeness; unity

7. Symbol of energy and force; evil; corruption; sensuality

8. Three– light; spiritual awareness and unity Four– associated with the circle, life cycle, four seasons; four elements (earth, air, fire water) Seven– (most potent of all symbolic numbers) signifying the union or three and four; the completion of a cycle; perfect order

9. Paradise, innocence, unspoiled feminine beauty; fertility

10. Growth; proliferation; life; immortality

11. Spiritual aridity Death Hopelessness

12. Journey through life

14. Traditionally, the hero’s mother is a virgin, the circumstances of his conception are unusual, and at birth some attempt is made to kill him. He is spirited away and reared by foster parents. We don’t know much about his childhood, but upon reaching manhood, he returns to his future kingdom and reigns uneventfully, but later loses favor with the gods. He is then driven from the city after which he meets a mysterious death, often at the top of a hill. His body is not buried, but nevertheless he has one or more holy sepulchers. Characters who exemplify this archetype to a greater or lesser extent are Oedipus, Theseus, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus, Moses, Christ, Arthur, and Robin Hood.

15. The hero, with whom the welfare of the tribe or nation is identified, must die to atone for the people’s sins and restore the land to fruitfulness (Christ)

16. Figure who is banished from a social group for some crime against his fellow man. Usually destined to become a wanderer from place to place

17. Evil incarnate Offers worldly goods, fame, or knowledge to the protagonist in exchange for possession of his soul

18. Young man and woman enter an ill-fated love affair which ends tragically in the death of either or both

19. Earth Mother – symbolic of fruition, abundance, fertility; traditionally offers spiritual and emotional nourishment to those with whom she comes in contact Temptress – sensuous beauty; protagonist is physically attracted to her and ultimately brings about his downfall Soul mate – source of inspiration and a spiritual ideal for whom the protagonist has an intellectual rather than physical attraction Unfaithful wife – a woman, married to a man she sees as dull and unimaginative, is physically attracted to a more virile and desirable man

20. Personification of the spiritual principle Represents: Knowledge Reflection Insight Wisdom

22. Describes the search for someone which when found and brought back will restore fertility to a wasted land, the desolation of which is mirrored by a leader’s illness and disability. Search for the Holy Grail Ahab’s quest for the albino whale in Moby Dick is a variation

23. To save the kingdom, to win the fair lady, to identify himself so that he may reassume his right position, the Hero must perform some nearly superhuman deed Odysseus must string the bow Arthur must pull the sword from the stone Beowulf must slay Grendel

24. First existential ordeal, crisis, or encounter with experience in the life of a youth Ideal aim is knowledge, recognition, and confirmation in the world This situation is concerned with the introduction of youth into adult society From this experience the youth is expected to learn a new code of conduct and meet the challenges of the world as a mature man

25. Used to send the Hero or a group of travelers in search of information or some intellectual truth The Odyssey The Canterbury Tales

26. The cosmos was brought into existence by some supernatural Being or Beings

27. Descent from a higher to a lower state of being Usually involves spiritual damage and/or loss of innocence and happiness Usually accompanied by an expulsion from a kind of paradise as a penalty for disobedience and moral transgression Paradise Lost Adam and Eve

28. Through escape from time, a return to Paradise before the Fall into corruption and mortality Achieved by submitting to Nature’s eternal cycle (four seasons): death and rebirth. Morning and springtime = birth, youth, rebirth Evening and winter = old age or death

29. Check out this website for even more types and symbols from the Bible: http://www.newfoundationspubl.org/types.htm