Finding Your Story: Using Archetypes to Guide Your Personal Journey

By Hugh Marr

Once there was a poor serving girl who was traveling with the family she served through a great forest. In the midst of the wood a band of thieves raided them. The serving girl leaped out of the carriage and hid behind a tree. The robbers murdered everyone else in the entourage and rode away with their jewelry and wallets. The girl came out from behind the tree,and, distraught and lost, she began to cry. It was then that she saw a beautiful white dove alight with a golden key in its mouth. “Do you see that big tree?” asked the dove. “In its bark is a lock; open it with the key.” The girl did as she was told, and inside the tree was bread and a container of milk. When the girl had eaten her fill, the dove returned with a second key and implored her to open yet another of the great trees. Inside she found a little bed, all safe and warm. She awoke in morning to find the dove with yet another key. This time she found the trunk filled with beautiful and bejeweled clothes.

The girl lived in the forest for some time with all she needed for a quiet, comfortable life provided by the dove. Then one day the dove asked if she would do something for him. “With all my heart,” proclaimed the girl. The dove then instructed her where to find a small hut in the wood. In the hut she would find an old woman, who would greet her. But she must say nothing to the woman and instead go into the back room where she would find a myriad of rings of all shapes and splendor. She was to ignore all the beautiful rings, and, instead, pick a very plain, simple one and hasten it back to the dove.

The girl did as she was told and soon found the hut with the old woman. “Good day, my child!” said the hag. But the girl ignored her and hurried to the back room. The old woman grabbed her by the gown. “This is my house! You cannot go in there!” The girl pulled away, again saying nothing, and went into the back room where she saw scores of bejeweled rings. Searching through them, she could not find a plain one among them. It was then that she saw the old woman leaving the house with a bird cage in hand. The girl grabbed the cage. Inside was a bird with a simple ring on its beak. She snatched the ring and ran back to the clearing where she lived and, panting, leaned up against a tree. The trunk softened and the branches, as they encircled her, became arms. The girl found she was being held by a handsome prince. Suddenly the surrounding trees became king’s courtiers and their horses.

“The old woman is a witch who kept me transformed into a tree,” said the Prince. “For two hours each day I could become a dove, but I could not resume my human form so long as she held my ring.” The prince led the girl and his courtiers back to his kingdom where the couple married and lived contentedly.

The above is a fairy tale called “The Old Woman in the Wood” written or collected by the Grimm Brothers. Fairy stories are Western European folklore stories that share certain characteristics: magic figures prominently in them; the characters and settings are very general, with the players often identified only by their character role (prince, fisherman, servant, etc.); and the number three often plays a central part (three wishes, three brothers, etc.; the three trees which held sustenance for the girl are the example in the above tale). The most well known collections are those by Charles Perrault (France); Hans Andersen (Denmark); and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Germany). These stories have endured for hundreds of years because they have archetypal elements. They share commonalities with all of our personal stories; and understanding them shines light on the narratives we live.

Let’s look briefly at “The Old Woman in the Wood” to see how to begin understanding story. We can begin by identifying the story roles, then noting the PMAI^® archetypes. The first story role is that of protagonist, or hero, and it’s helpful to note how she transforms in terms of archetype. Here the protagonist is the serving girl. She begins the story as a Realist, quickly leaping out of the carriage and hiding; the others stayed and were killed. She has lost her job, her familiars, and her way; we might say she embodies the Orphan aspect of the Realist. In most stories in addition to the Protagonist there are Helpers. The serving girl gains a helper in the dove, who is a Magician and a Caregiver that can create food, bedding and bejeweled clothing. All of the story to this point is a prologue, for we have yet to meet the task of the hero and the antagonist she must overcome. The next part of the story is a journey story. Joseph Campbell noted that hero’s journeys are initiated by what he referred to as a Calling to the journey. The calling comes in the form of the Dove asking the girl for help. Unlike some heroes, she immediately agrees to the dangerous task, and thus transforms from a Realist to a Seeker. In the hut deep in the forest she encounters the third story role – that of Antagonist – in this story, the Witch, who is another Magician, although one who practices black magic. In Jungian thought, the dark and unknown forest often symbolizes the unconscious; for Pacific islanders, it is the vast ocean that is the unconscious. But we know this is a German tale, so it is the impenetrable forest that hides the antagonist. Stories are most often about conflict, and the protagonist struggles against the antagonist with the aid of helpers. The serving girl meets the witch and does exactly as she is told despite the temptation and the threat. Both the courage and the resolve she shows demonstrate the characteristics of the archetype of the Warrior. When she can’t find the ring,she embodies her Creator archetype to intuit where the ring lies. The next part of the story is what Campbell would refer to as the Return, which breaks the spell of the witch. Our Seeker/Warrior now becomes a Lover. Note that the Prince has rescued the girl; and the girl has rescued the Prince; their union is one of equals which often characterizes the Lover.

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Developmentally the girl begins lost and abandoned. She has been robbed of even her meager circumstances as a serving girl. She is rescued by the small, free part of the Prince; most of the prince is under the spell of an older woman who keeps him from wandering faraway by turning him into a tree. No wonder she is seen as evil and a witch. Perhaps if we could see it from the old woman’s perspective, she is trying to hold him close and protect him. It is the conflict of every mother as her children find their own way and do not need her in the same manner. Those mothers who are more insecure try to hold on past the proper time, feeding their children’s insecurity. The counter spell of the Lover may finally set the young person free.

Just as fairy tales make their statements about universal situations and the archetypes that are engendered, so, too, do our dreams. Dreams, too, rely on magic and the ordinary laws of logic and physics do not apply. This allows dreams to more easily “cut to the chase” and provide understanding of the stories we live.

If you would like to learn more about your own life story through archetypes and an understanding of the dynamics of story, you may want to work through the exercises in Finding Your Story. There you will learn to understand the vignettes that comprise your story and more about the archetypes that enrich and connect each of our stories to the vast wisdom in the narrative of humankind.

Dr. Hugh Marr is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Alexandria, VA. Prior to that, he worked in all phases of community mental health, culminating in running a partial hospital program for clients with the co-occurring disorders of substance use and major mental illness. Dr. Marr co-authored the books What Story Are You Living and Introduction to Archetypes with Dr. Carol Pearson and developed the PMAI^® (Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator^®) assessment with her.

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Dr. Marr has consulted with a variety of mental health, substance abuse, and healthcare programs. He has designed and taught a range of clinical courses to graduate students, including classes on trauma therapy, family therapy, substance abuse counseling, individual psychotherapy, as well as seminars in humanistic, existential, and constructivist therapies. His most recent book, Finding Your Story: Using Archetypes to Guide Your Personal Journey, is a therapeutic tool that guides the reader to understand their archetypal identity through their personal resonance with stories.

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