Archetype is the representation of what we call the collective unconscious. This was a concept developed by the founder of Analytical Psychology, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. This conclusion was due to the fact that he observed that there is a common perception of behavior patterns in coping with everyday situations. That is, there are situations that have characteristics that are perceived in a similar way by almost all human beings.
According to Jung, archetypes are ideas that existed and accumulated for generations even before the individual's own experience, and the set of these ideas forms the collective unconscious. Thus, he concluded that we do not only bring biological inheritances, we are also products of our history, and understanding this system is fundamental for self-knowledge.
Throughout his studies, Jung came to the conclusion that such behaviors could be associated with characters who represent common social roles in any society such as the sage, the hero, the fool, the mother, the father, among others, and called them archetypes. .
In short, archetypes are representations that can be translated into symbolic images, which carry messages that facilitate the understanding of human behavior.
However, the use of archetypal representations has millenary origins and, according to studies, emerged in ancient Greece through questions from the philosopher Plato, who used ideas related to archetypes to conclude that pure and true forms were imprinted on the soul even before birth. . For a long time, this concept was treated by other philosophers as “human essence”.
It is believed that it was using this symbolic language, from the common archetypal force in the human journey, that the Tarot was created. That is, the Tarot is formed by Symbols, Arcana and Archetypes. All together they are nothing more than archetypal representations of the human trajectory that establish a connection with our unconscious and open portals for the expansion of our consciousness, allowing a deeper dive into our interior in such a way that we make contact with our ancestral energies.
For a better understanding, let's clarify what Symbols, Arcana and Archetypes are. The word "symbol" emerged in Greece - "sumbolon", which brings together the spoken, visual or written language that focuses on the figures of the Arcana of the Tarot, revealing the unique and universal meanings of the unconscious integrated into our evolution and existing as a generating source of our thoughts, actions, ideas, wills, desires and sensations, which makes the mind and feeling go beyond the observed figure.
According to Jung, the archetype becomes the archetypal image, represented by symbols and identified by the human consciousness, which plays a unifying role experienced and recognized by the individual regardless of times, ethnicities, regions or beliefs.
Thus we come to the Arcana, a term that means “secret”, “mystery” or “key to access knowledge”.
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Thus, the Major Arcana of the Tarot, based on this knowledge, lead the being to a deep transformation based on the rediscovery of the essence kept in the deepest part of its interior.
In Tarot, all Arcana will have light and shadow aspects, knowing that no Arcane is good or bad, positive or negative, they all have bilateral points, and what will present what is the face and / or tendency revealed in each situation. or circumstance will be the appropriate and respectful handling of this ancient wisdom that will be revealed in the context of the game, of studies, of deep knowledge and experiences revealed by its symbols and traced by the archetypal path of the human being.
