Everyone knows what a warrior is. Every civilization ever has had them, yet the warrior is misunderstood. You know, a Spartan or fearless samurai; something along those lines. The warrior in these forms are extremes. Direct embodiment's of the archetype due to societies portrayals through books and movies. For the most part, modern culture isn't comfortable with "the warrior" energy.
Understanding the universal archetypes can give you an advantage when it comes to branding and connecting with the end consumer. These archetypes can be found in any part of the world during any time period. They provide a blueprint to truly express the embodiment of the personality type. Movies do this all the time and it's always a great movie when the archetype is portrayed accurately. This is the breakdown of The Warrior archetype.
The warrior archetype has been unfairly associated with violence, injustice, and oppression.
This alteration to the warrior has damaging effects on both men and women. Young boys have been indoctrinated to think that enthusiastic expressions (masculinity) of the archetype are toxic, while women have been encouraged to artificially re-create patents of masculine behavior as a triumphant act of vanity and ego worship.
Society encourages us to live in ways that aren’t aligned with our psychological maturation, it presents deformed images of our archetypes. These images demonize their mature expression like discipline, focus, awareness, adaptability, and humility while elevating the lower traits as expressions of virtue, power, and self-assurance of things we’ve never attained because we’ve never matured psychologically to actually obtain them.
The world deceives us by playing to our weaknesses. On one hand, telling us we are strong, brave warriors while slipping us the poisons that make us feel weak. As the effects of the "drugs" wear off, we will return to that place of clarity and become confronted with ourselves as weak, insecure, and fragile beings. We’ll return to the seductions of our deceivers again, and again, and again… Appeasing our pain with meaningless and empty platitudes that appeal to our vanity at the moment; at the expense of our organic maturation.
Culture is the re-transmitter of the archetypal patents. So, if the people at the head of the culture are dominated by the lower attributes, the dysfunctions of their archetype will permeate through the entire culture.
The warrior is a masculine archetype, and anybody can embody the characteristics of the warrior archetype. The root word being “war”, which is what this archetype embraces. The warrior needs a battle to fight and there are many types of battles the warrior faces: addiction, relationships, career, health.
In the midst of all hell breaking loose, the warrior remains cool, calm, and collected. This archetype has tremendous courage and composure; they do what needs to be done. Period. The warrior can rely on their good instincts, quick response time, and adaptability. Tapping into latent powers, giving a sense of invincibility, and a resolve that nothing can hold you down. The warrior that doubts themselves die.
The warrior must tap into their intuition and intuition is spontaneous. There is no time to mull over a decision in times of conflict. Immersed in fast-paced situations the warrior tests their intuitive abilities to see how well they can follow their instincts and strengthen this sixth sense. This desire of mastery is what sets the warrior apart; the investment in themselves to attain a new level of skill.
The enlightened warrior knows that the true enemy is the enemy within. The sense of invincibility of the warrior can lead to an inflated ego but the true power of this archetype is the ability to release selfish ends and conquer malevolent forces. The enlightened warrior uses their heart to drink from the gift of life and cultivates compassion in peacetime.
The warrior expresses themselves by overcoming obstacles and by embracing death, ultimately leading to an outpouring of their life. Whoever makes a friend of death truly lives!
The Shadow Warrior
The warrior lives for the "battlefield" and is always training for the next confrontation. There's an element of the warrior mentality that can be all-consuming and obsessive in nature – an unbalanced warrior chooses conflict over diplomacy every time.
Society asks us to be courteous and kind to suppress the inner warrior in the face of conflict. Regardless of gender, this bottling up of anger/emotion without properly channeling it causes the unexpected eruptions of violence that are becoming common. The suppressed and undisciplined warrior becomes the heartless barbarian. This is the shadow.
The shadow warrior creates conflict when there is none. An undisciplined warrior will become heartless. The violence isn't only directed externally; the fire of the battle intensifies internally. The shadow warrior becomes numb to pain, that of their own and that of others.
Part of the healing process for this archetype is learning to manage emotions and finding healthy outlets for them. You should know, integrating the shadow is necessary for anyone to fully develop... a conversation for another day.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness's of other people. - Carl Jung