Well Balanced Masculine Psychology
The king, warrior, magician and lover
What does it mean to be a man? Today many people are uncertain with regards to their own identity. The question of what a man should be and what it means to be a man is not as clear as it used to be. In their book “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine”, Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette looked to bring new energy into the masculine ideal.
They looked at myths and stories to find out the source of what it means to be a man. They find four different components. These are the:
- King (the energy of just and creative ordering)
- Warrior (the energy of aggressive but nonviolent action)
- Magician (the energy of initiation and transformation)
- Lover (the energy that connects one to others and the world)
The negative poles:
Each of these four sources of energy have immature tyrannical elements to them if they are not maturely integrated in the person.
The fully integrated king energy is creative, nurturing and ordering. Providing just and fair guidance. The immature king is either a weakling who is too scared or weak to show leadership. Or the tyrant who is proactively using his position to assert power and not justice.
The fully integrated warrior is brave and strong, but only use violence as a last resort. The immature warrior energy is either masochistic and violent to himself or sadistic towards others. Using violence to create unnecessary hurt and suffering.
The fully integrated magician has deep knowledge and use this knowledge to initiate people to higher states of being and understanding. The immature magician is either naive and lack enough experience to be able to give people any insight. Or a manipulator, using his knowledge to manipulate people.
The mature lover energy connects people, builds relationships and intimacy. The immature lover is impotent, hesitant and afraid of intimacy. The other side of the immature lover is the addict which is either addicted to the acceptance from other people or sexual intimacy.
These archetypes are built into how we represent masculinity in stories. The YouTube channel “Like Stories of Old (LSO)” has created a series where the four archetypes are explained through the context of stories. Instead of me trying to explain the models further I would suggest that you watch these videos linked bellow in order to get the full experience.
Sincerely,
Bright Blue Dot
