“The Archetypal Lens” is a presentation exploring the preliminary application of an Integral approach to archetypes and archetypes in the cinematic arts. Presented at MetaIntegral Academy for the Advanced Meta‐Movieology Course on April 16, 2015. (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3885.0724)

1. A Lecture/Presentation for the Advanced Meta-Movieology Course
MetaIntegral Academy
April 16, 2015
Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
An Integral Approach to Archetypes and Archetypes in the Cinematic Arts

2. One way of understanding Archetypes from an Integral perspective is to see them as
Primary Patterns of Being and Becoming that have their roots in the first forms of
involution residing at the very edge of the Formless itself
What is an Archetype

3. "The entire manifest world arises out of
the Formless (or causal Abyss), and the
first forms to do so are the forms upon
which all others will rest – they are the
"arche-forms" or archetypes. Thus, in
this use, the archetypes are the highest
Forms of our own possibilities, the
deepest Forms of our own potentials –
but also the last barriers to the Formless
and the Nondual.“
– Ken Wilber
First Forms of Involution

4. At the First Form level archetypal patterns are
essentially forms without content or contentless
templates. Examples of these contentless root
archetypal forms or “arche-forms” or what I am
calling proto-archetypes, include the elemental
patterns of beingness, consciousness, bliss, love,
and compassion.
Proto-Archetypes:
Forms Without Content

5. Content is added to these Proto-Archetypes
or forms without content as these forms are
channeled down through the stages of
involution from formlessness into form and
then back up through humanities evolving
individual and collective developmental
structures or levels of consciousness. The
content is added as these forms are adopted
by and translated through the constructs
and perspectival fields of each
structure/level of individual and collective
consciousness which then fills them with
content skewed toward that particular
structure or level. In addition, these
translations are also channeled through
various other cultural, sub-cultural, social,
and individual psychological and behavioral
dimension-perspectives acting as 'strange
attractors' drawing various constructs, signs,
and symbols to them (1).
Formlessness
(Non-Dual)
Involution
World of
Form
(Separation)
Evolution
Archetypal Development and the
Involutionary & Evolutionary Arc

6. Proto-Archetype
Primary
Archetype
Archetype
Meta-
Archetype
Major Categories of Archetypes
As Proto-Archetypes or the First Forms
without content are translated and filled
out with content, other major archetypal
patterns appear including:
• Meta-Archetypes or archetypal
patterns that contain other archetypal
patterns;
• Primary Archetypes or general
archetypal patterns that have multiple
manifestations of its general form and
act as a kind of parent of an archetypal
family for these other forms;
• And individual Archetypes or
translated and content-filled
archetypal forms themselves.

7. SELF
Higher
Self
Anima
Shadow
Ego
Persona
Animus
Meta-Archetypes:
Multi-Archetype Archetypes
Jung’s concept of the Self can
be viewed as a Meta-Archetype
because it holds within it the
other archetypal patterns of
the Persona, Shadow, Animus,
Anima, Ego, and Higher Self.

8. Primary Archetypes act as the
parent for a family of archetypes
that are variations on the
primary archetype itself. For
example, the Child archetype is
the primary or parent archetype
for an archetype family that
includes the Divine Child,
Wounded Child, Orphan Child,
and Innocent Child archetypes.
Child
Divine
Child
Wounded
Child
Orphan
Child
Innocent
Child
Primary Archetypes
and Archetypal Families

9. Individual Archetypes or translated and
content-filled archetypal forms
themselves are the archetypal patterns
that are commonly referred to when
people talk about archetypes from the
everyday roles we take on to symbolic
patterns we see and experience in the
world within and around us. There are
many different theoretical schools and
systems of archetypes including the
Platonic philosophical ideas referring to
pure forms, Jungian archetypal theory,
comparative anthropology, archetypal
literary theory, and more esoteric
traditions such as the Tarot.
Archetypes

10. From an integral perspective we can map out an archetype’s genealogy
which includes:
• Root Proto-Archetype or the contentless Arche-Form from which
the archetype has arisen from (i.e., Love being the Root Proto-
Archetype of the Lover archetype, etc.);
• Root Altitude or the developmental altitude which operates as the
archetype’s altitudinal center-of-gravity (i.e., the Magician
archetype’s Magical/Mythic roots, etc.);
• Root Quadrant or the quadrant that operates as the archetype’s
quadratic center-of-gravity (i.e., the Self being rooted in the UL
subjective quadrant, etc.);
• Developmental Arc or how an archetype has and/or is evolving back
up the evolutionary ladder or it’s altitudinal development pattern.
• ContentTranslation Constructs or how an archetype and its content
are being translated and interpreted in a given time and situation,
including whether it is being translated through pre-personal,
personal, or transpersonal or pre-rational, rational, or post-rational
lenses of interpretation (2).
Integrally Mapping
Archetypal Genealogy

11. Archetypes have the potential to
operate as tetra-evolutionary catalysts
and channels of development in that
they are deeply embedded in the
involutionary-evolutionary arc, and are
tetra-enmeshed in all dimension-
perspectives having constructs and
construct-influence potential in all four-
quadrants (psychological, behavioral,
relational/cultural, and social).
Archetype
Psychological
Constructs
Archetype
Behavioral
Constructs
Archetype
Cultural
Constructs
Archetype
Social
Constructs
Archetypes as Tetra-Evolutionary
Channels and Catalysts

12. Archetypes and the Cinematic Arts
The Star Wars saga and the father-son and hero-villain archetypal
complex represented in the Luke Skywalker and DarthVader
characters.

13. • The Quest
• Rebirth
• Tragedy
• Lovers
• Rivals
• Adversaries
• Birth
• Death
• Initiation
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Sidekick
Character
Archetypes
Event
Archetypes
Story
Archetypes
Relationship
Archetypes
Cinematic Archetypes
(Narrative/Text-Based)
Archetypal patterns in the
cinematic arts can be found in a
cinematic works textual dimensions
of characters, relationships, events
and story structures with these
patterns being reflected through
the work’s images, sounds, and
temporal structures as well. Some
sample archetypes from each
category are integrally mapped in
the quadratic diagram to the left.

14. Cinematic Archetypes
(Symbolic/Audiovisual-Based)
Cinematic Archetypal patterns based in the
symbolic and audiovisual dimensions can
also be found in a cinematic work as well,
from the more concrete level of symbols
such as a cave, castle, tower, etc. to more
abstract forms such as the juxtaposition of
light and darkness and symbolic shapes and
patterns like the circle and it’s connection to
the feminine and nature.These symbolic
audiovisual archetypes are often deeply
embedded in the narrative like the use of
falling into and rising up out of a well/pit in
the Dark KnightTrilogy and it’s “fall and rise
back up” narrative subtextual storyline.

15. Cinematic archetypal patterns can
deeply resonate with archetypal
patterns in the viewer and stimulate
powerful emotional resonance and
immersion, as well as potentially
catalyze shifts in awareness and
personal development. For example,
multilayered representations of familial
archetypal roles of spouse, father,
mother, son, daughter, and sibling in
films like Bee Season (2005) have the
potential to deeply resonate with similar
archetypal roles in the viewer.
Cinematic Archetypes and
Viewer Archetypes

16. Stars as Archetypal Channels
Edgar Morin noted that cinematic
stars can come to personify
archetypes both on and off screen
and have a powerful influence on
both the individual and the
collective, as in the case of Rudolph
Valentino personifying the lover
archetype and James Dean
personifying the rebel archetype
with their influence on individuals
and culture during their respective
time periods.

17. In addition to the tetra-evolutionary
potential for star archetypes, archetypes
in cinematic works can also have tetra-
evolutionary effects. For example, the
Star Wars saga helped rebirth
archetypal storytelling in Western
culture and society at a time when
archetypes were no longer resonant and
it’s archetypal construct of “The Force”
has had such a deep individual and
collective impact it has become an
embedded cultural meme and actually
gave birth to a real-world religious
movement.
Cinematic Archetypes as
Tetra-Evolutionary Catalysts

18. The Dark Knight Trilogy offers a potent and
clear example of the birth and evolution of an
archetype and its potential impact on the
individual and the collective as the Batman
persona helps the Bruce Wayne character
evolve from egocentric to Kosmocentric
circles of care and concern, while helping
propel the culture and society around him
from magical/mythic-traditional to
pluralistic-postmodern cultural and social
altitudes. In addition, the Trilogy also had
significant real-world impact on individuals,
culture and society with the tragic loss of
actor Health Ledger and the Colorado
Theater Shooting which spurred a national
debate about gun violence, violence in the
movies, and mental illness.
A Cinematic Example of the Tetra-
Evolutionary Potential of Archetypes

19. Iconic cinematic moments occur when all
dimensions of cinematic expression (text,
image, sound, and time) synchronize
across all levels of the cinematic narrative
(textual, subtextual, meta-
textual/thematic, and trans-
textual/archetypal) to produce a highly
resonant archetypal pattern that can
deeply resonate with individual viewers
and penetrate the collective as memetic
patterns and produce tetra-evolutionary
effects. These archetypally resonant
iconic moments are trans-archetypal in
that they can transcend and include
multiple archetypes and approach the
proto-archetypal level (3).
Iconic Cinematic Moments as Tetra-
Evolutionary Archetypal Resonance
Patterns
The “Rocky-Steps” scene from Rocky (1976)
captures the trans-archetypal energies of the
everyday hero’s triumph over inner and outer
challenges and against great odds and has
become a deeply resonant iconic cinematic
moment for many individuals and the collective.

21. 1. The involutionary-evolutionary arc can be seen from
a perennial philosophy and metaphysical
perspective as a grand arc from spirit to matter and
back to spirit with various fixed involutionary-
evolutionary givens, or it can be seen from a more
post-metaphysical perspective in which the
involutionary and evolutionary arc is held as an
ongoing organic process that is not fixed by these
pregiven ontological structures. From this post-
metaphysical perspective archetypes are not seen
as concrete unchanging pregiven structures but
Kosmic habits that organically involve and evolve.
2. The purpose in attempting to determine the content
translation constructs for a given archetype is to
address some of the tendencies for
misinterpretation that can occur when working with
archetypes.These include potential
misinterpretations that can arise when one assumes
all archetypes are spiritual or transpersonal by
nature instead of recognizing that a given
archetypal pattern can have Pre-Personal, Personal
or Transpersonal types of imagery, energies, and
meanings attached to it, for example seeing all
archetypes as spiritual or transpersonal can lead to
mistakenly attaching a form to the formless via the
archetypal pattern.
Notes
3. The above pictured examples of iconic cinematic
moments include:The "Frankly I don't give a damn"
moment from Gone WithThe Wind (1939); the lovers on
the beach moment from From Here to Eternity (1953);
the "Rocky-Steps" moment from Rocky (1976); the
"Trust the Force" moment from Star Wars (1977); the
"Here's Johnny" moment from The Shinning (1980); the
"Build it and he will come" moment from Field of
Dreams (1989); the "Carpe Diem, seize the day"
moment from Dead Poets Society (1989); and the "I see
you" moment from Avatar (2009). Note that these
images are representative of a moment that is built up
through referential density over time through many
scenes in these cinematic works; the images here are
only representative of these temporally constructed
trans-archetypally resonant iconic moments.

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References

23. A Lecture/Presentation for the Advanced Meta-Movieology Course
MetaIntegral Academy
April 16, 2015
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3885.0724
Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
An Integral Approach to Archetypes and Archetypes in the Cinematic Arts