The Mother, the Father and the Messiah. Archetypal Dimensions of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
[The original version of this essay was published on this website in the last quarter of the year 2021. This was just before the wide spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, an event which made large masses of people see that 1) the COVID-19 (no longer) was a serious threat for most people, and 2) the vaccines were unable to prevent the contracting of the disease. The tyrannical government oppression of it’s citizens based on medical excuses might have lifted; but the volatile world sitation due to the high inflation in prices and certain high-profile wars means that the threat of tyranny still lingers on.
In 2022 or 2023 I made some relatively minor changes and corrections to the content. This was due to finding a source material on which I had been relying on only through my memory when writing this essay. I will be noting in the text the changes I made after said discovery. Besides those, I’ve made some corrections and changes to make the text more readable.
-Eve G. Admon, 29.2.2024]
1. Introduction
The spring of 2020 turned out to be a profound moment in the history of human beings. As a new type of virus spread globally, governments responded with drastic means causing halt and restriction of unprecedented scale. One country after another shut their borders; non-essential businesses were forced to close their doors; mass and group events were cancelled; curfews were set in place. Besides these measures requiring direct implementation of large-scale state power different kinds of social policies were recommended or mandated, such as wearing masks, using hand sanitiziers, social distancing and working from home. Some countries, like China, had very strict state-enforced policies to control the spread of the virus; some countries, like Sweden, had softer political approaches based mainly on the voluntary actions of their citizens. Most countries fell somewhere in between.
As of writing this, almost two years has passed since the virus was first identified in China. There has been an ebb and flow with the spread of the virus and the policies taken to counter it. The year 2021 brought forth mass vaccination campaigns. The vaccines were hailed by many as the way out of the pandemic. Many countries implemented a policy for vaccine passports, which allowed for individuals fulfilling certain requirements to attend public venues or group events. As the year has progressed, the pressure on citizens to take the corona vaccine has increased. While originally vaccines were represented as voluntary, more and more countries are making them compulsory for some or all of their citizens. This is happening despite the obvious failure of the vaccines to stop the pandemic.
While the populations at large have silently accepted the restrictions governments have set up during the pandemic – some even vocally ushering for more of it – others have been critical of the policies taken. These people are worried about the economical impact of the lockdowns; health risks associated with the hastily made vaccines; and that their countries are turning into totalitarian states. There has been an increase in mass protest around the world against the restrictions and mandates set by the governments.
The risk of governmental overreach has worried me since the beginning of this pandemic. However, I haven't been publicly vocal about my worries as I haven't been sure what level of risk the virus imposes upon the society, and thus wether or not restrictive policies have been necessary. However, as the threat of totalitarianism glooms ever more heavily over the skies of Western democracies I no longer ought to remain silent.
I also happened to have an insight that some people might find useful: I realized that the world is in grips of “archetypal possession”. Archetypal possession is a form of a goup dynamic where people simultaneously experience an archetype; that is, patterns of emotion, cognition and behaviour arising from the deep structures of the psyche. These primitive energies can easily overtake the conscious faculties of individuals, leading in the individual behaving in ways that he or she would not under usual state of consciousness. The pandemic has triggered in the collective consciousness the latent existential dread of disease, death and the fundamental uncontrollability of life. This has resulted into intense levels of fear and anxiety, making great masses of people susceptible to this kind of mass psychosis. My understanding on the concept of archetypal possession is based on an essay written by the psychologist Carl Jung. I read the essay several years ago; unfortunately, I wasn't able to re-find it for this occasion, and thus have relied on my memory of it. [I later identified the text in question to be Essay on Wotan. (Footnote 1)]
There are, of course, other ways to conceptualize the group behaviour we are experiencing. In the Aubrey Marcus Podcast interview clinical psychologist Mattias Desmet analyses this phenomenon through a lense of ”mass formation”; that is, as an emergent group dyamic similar to hypnosis. [Footnote 2] I highly recommend watching the interview in question, and I think that his approach is for most people more accessible and usable than the propositions I make in this essay. However, for those who are interested in the deep structures of human psyche and in the possibilites of transformation hidden within, I think this essay has something of further value to offer.
In this essay I examine the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as a case of archetypal possesion. I begin by explaining the basic concepts relating to archetypal possession. Then I give a description of the specific arhetypal patterns I identify to having being manifested. I attempt to show how these unconscious processes can be seen in the Collective's attitude to the virus, vaccinations and draconian governmental policies taken to control the pandemic. I finish the essay with some positive remarks on how we as individuals might be able to counter the deepening of the archetypal possession through a personal change.
2. Archetype, Archetypal Possession and the Collective
“Archetype” is a concept of psychology first used by Carl Jung. It refers to psychic structures of potentiality within the collective unconscious. The collective unconsious is the accumulated possibilites of patterned experience and behaviour within all human beings. The archetypes are differentiated patterns of possible experience and action within the collective unconscious. Archetypes are in many ways similar to instinct, and they have been descried as the psychic counterpart to the instinct. Different archetypes are activated during different phases of the life of an indivual.
These archetypes have no form in themselves. They are pure potentiality, pure psychic energy. They gain form only when they are activated; that is, when they are experienced by an individual. These energies lay much deeper in the structure of the human psyche than the conscious mind, and thus can easily seize over the individual's consciousness. But when the archetype becomes concretiziced, there is a possibility (though no guarantee) for the individual to become conscious of the energy which created the pattern. If this happens, then it becomes possible for the individual to integrate the archetype into his or her consciousness, making it’s energies accessible in a consciously manageable way.
Besides being expressed in the behaviour of individuals, archetypes can be expressed as primordial images in the realms of dream and imagination. In these realms the psychic energy takes a symbolic form, thus becoming closer to be understood by the conscious mind. An archetype can be ingrained into mythic stories, or be expressed in works of art. An example of such symbolic image is that of Virgin Mary, who represents (among other symbolic meanings) the archetypal Benevolent Mother. Her image expresses the all-encompassing, pure love a mother feels towards her child. [Footnote 3]
However, archetypes are polarized in nature: they have a light side and a dark side to them, and they manifest in infinite expressions. For example, a mother does not always show unconditional love towards her child. Sometimes she may cause harm, unintentional or intentional, upon her child. An archetypal image of the darker asepects of the archetypal Mother is the image of the Evil Step-Mother found in many fairytales. The Evil Step-Mother represents a woman who lacks compassion towards the child she is supposed to take care for. Instead, she spitefully imposes hardships upon the child. [Footnote 4]
An archetype is often projected by an individual onto other people. For example, the archetypal Mother is projected by the child upon her biological mother, or onto some other caregiver who has enough characteristics to arouse the archetypal structure within the child. However, an archetype can also be applied to more general or abstract things, such as life events or cultural institutions. An example of this is how the Christian church is sometimes depicted as a Mother in Christian iconography. The image associates the relationship between the christian institution and its congregation to the one between the Benevolent Mother and the Child, where the former lovingly takes care of the needs of the latter.
The projection of an archetype can also be a group phenomenon, in which case the phenomenon is called ”archetypal possession”. In such case some external stimuli arouses the archetypal pattern within a group of individuals, and the individuals immerse themselves into these raw emotive energies felt in the group. For example, the hysterical adoration of Elvis Presley by teenage girls in the 1950's was based on their projection of the archetypal Animus, the male part of female psyche, on him. (More specifcially, an aspect of the Animus that involves sexual expectation towards men.) These kinds of group projections can arise spontaneously, but they may be elicted consciously by someone wishing to have a certain kind of infulence over some people. With Elvis Presley, the natural effect his charisma had on audience was purposefully amplified so as to increase the sales of his records, concerts, movies and fan collectibles.
{Addendum. Upon re-finding the Jung’s essay I made some changes to the following two paragraphs written by me; which originally also were one paragraph. I also added between them two direct quotations from Jung’s essay. I made the changes because my orignal text contained some factual errors; but also because I wanted to add in some further details. For the original paragraph, see footnote 5.]
While pop star hysteria is quite a harmless phenomenon, there are also highly dangerous forms of archetypal possession - the most devastating one thus far has been the second World War. Carl Jung wrote Essay on Wotan in 1936, a text in which he explains that, in his view, Germans were being possessed by the archetypal image of the wandering storm god Wotan. These people of Germany - who on the surface appeared civilized and rational - quite quickly succumbed under the primordial image they projected upon their Führer. [Footnote 1] This is how Jung describes the archetypal possession of the Germans:
“All human control comes to end when the individual is caught in a mass movement. Then, the archetypes begin to function, as happens, also, in the lives of individuals when they are confronted with situations that cannot be dealt with in any of the familiar ways.”
“We who stand outside judge the Germans far too much, as if they were responsible agents, but perhaps it would be nearer the truth to regard them, also, as victims.”
[Footnote 1]
Wotan has two sides to him: one is the berserker, “a god of rage and frenzy”, and the other is “the master of secret knowledge” who “understands the runes and can interpret fate”. Jung saw that it was the bloodthirsty side of Wotan that had taken over the German people; but he also wrote that in some later time, the latter aspect of Wotan would be likely to come forth too. [Footnote 1] I don’t know how Jung thought the magician would be showing itself, but in my opinion he was working behind the scenes of the Third Reich all along. Whether the “elite” Nazism was intermingled with occultism or not, the fact remains that Nazis did use in a blatant, deliberate and stylized manner both mass rituals and ancient symbols to further their own political agenda. Indeed, it can be argued that the adept usage of these occult methods was what roused up Wotan the berserker —already on the back of his horse Sleipnir, riding like a whirlwind through the collective consciousness of Germans — into the rage of war.
In this essay, I will call ”the Collective” any significantly large group of people under archetypal possession, such as nations. For the formation of the Collective, there needs to be some external stimuli which arouses the latent the archetypal energy in a sufficient number of people. The combined energies of these individuals create a strong shared energy which increases the likelihood of more people succumbing under the possession. This process of possession requires for the individual to relinquish his or her perceptions and thoughts in favour of the opinions held by the group. Often this is a rather easy step for individuals to take, for several reasons.
First reason is that individuals are more or less unconscious that any process is even going on. They are simply swayed into the group dynamic, without much conscious consideration over their situation. Second reason is that the archetypes have strong, invigorating energies to them. Most of the time most individuals are unable to access these sources of personal power; partaking into the Collective makes this energy accessible to them. These energies can feel highly intoxicating and give a sense of power. This makes archetypal possession especially magnetic to those individuals who usually feel weak and powerless. Third reason is that the individuals may fear exclusion from group if they don't share into its opinions. Since humans depend on one another in many ways, being ostracized from a social group is both emotionally painful and potentially dangerous. Sometimes the possessed group is even looking for scapegoats to be sacrificed on the altar of its bloodlust, in which case not being part of the group can be directly lethal.
I have now explained the basic conceptual framework behind my analysis of the psychological patterns seen in this pandemic. In the next chapter, I will explain the specific archetypal patterns I consider to be manifesting during the pandemic.
3. The Archetypal Images of COVID-19
Three major archetypal images have emerged during this pandemic. First is the Devouring Mother who claims to be protecting her child but in reality causes harm to him or her. Second is the Messiah, savior of the True Believers. Third is the Tyrannical Father, who is willing to use open force or violence to achieve his ends.
3.1. The Devouring Mother
The Devouring Mother is a dark aspect of the archetypal Mother. The Mother feels the instinctual need to protect her young; in the Devouring Mother, the instinct has degenerated into overprotection, sometimes even to a manipulative exploitation of power. The Devouring Mother seeks to protect her Children, or pretends to be doing so, but doing so she keeps them weak and in a state of dependency. The Devouring Mother infantilizes her Children, sucks life force out of them, and creates relationships of emotional co-dependency.
A common expression of this archetype are parents overprotecting their children. For children to grow into capable adults, they need to take risks and face challenges. If that is not allowed, there is a risk of stunted psychological growth. Overprotected children can lose the ability to think and act for themselves, or they crumble before the first actual obstacle they face in their lives. This overprotection in most cases arises from a worry that a parent feels for the safety of the child. Taking care of the safety of the child is, of course, a basic task of parenting. It becomes problematic when a parent is unable to face her or his own anxiety regarding the risks the child is facing and because of this err too much on the side of caution. However, overprotecting can also arise from the parent's wish to control the child in the guise of ”protection”. Whatever the motivation of the parent, the result of overprotection is the unnecessary limitation of the child's freedom.
A very sinister expression of the Devouring Mother is a phenomenon called ”Munchausen syndrome by proxy”. It is a situation where a caregiver is creating an appearance of sickness in the dependent person. Usually this is done by a mother to her child. The mother lies about the symptoms of the child, encourages the child to feign illness, or herself causes physical harm to the child. Medical professionals unintentionally enable this abuse by performing unnecessary examinations and medical procedures upon the child. There is a high risk for the child to be seriously injured or even killed by her own mother. The motivation of the mother is usually to gain attention and sympathy.
During this pandemic, large populations of people have been engulfed by feelings of fear, anxiety and powerlessness. Not knowing what to do or how to act, they look for authority figures to take control of the situation, to protect them and to tell them what to do. In a sense they are like overprotected children, incapable of taking self-reliant action or to carry responsibility for their individual choices. As a critical mass of people fall into this regressive psychological state, we enter into the realm of archetypal possession. Psychologically the Collective is now expressing the archetypal image of obedient Child, who seeks safety and assurance from the all-knowing Mother.
As this state of consciousness is not a healthy one for adults – who ought to be capable of taking the responsibility for themselves – the projection is not a healthy one. Indeed, during this pandemic many governments have morphed into the Devouring Mother (or rather, this aspect of the governments has become more apparent). This archetype is projected by a Collective of a nation onto their respective government. The governments usually happily accept this projection, as it is an open invitation to increase their power. The mass media – which has during this pandemic mostly acted as an unquestioning communicator of governmental policy and has tended to express the news in an emotionally manipulative way – is a crucial component in the creation of this pseudo-familial relationship between the governments and their citizens.
Some of the actions taken by these governments have probably arisen from a real concern for the welfare of their people. However, it is obvious that at the minimum these actions are not stemming from a high respect towards the freedoms of indivudals. On the contrary, many governmental actions – such as vaccination passports – quite obviously aim to increase control over populations. Even more disturbingly, sometimes the governmental actions resemble a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Extensive lockdowns cause economical, psychological, social and health-related harm to the people under them; yet they are claimed to be done for the protection of the citizens and the healthcare system, and thus the society.
An interesting question regarding the people in the governmental bodies and in mass media is whether or not they are under archetypal possession themselves. How many of these people are part of the Collective, being swept into the archetypal play unfolding? On the other hand, how many are coldly seizing the opportunity to increase their power through the intentional manipulation of the masses? I find it most likely that it's a mix of both; what is the ratio between them, I dare not speculate. However this might be, without the active or passive expression of the obeying Child by the majority of the citizens, the government cannot express the Devouring Mother.
3.2. The Messiah
The prevailing attitude during this pandemic has certainly not been a stoic one. There has been high levels of fear, anger, fervor and obsessive behaviour. This has been inflamed by the emotion-driven presentation of news by the media. As I was pondering the questions about archetypal possession, it started to dawn on me that these emotion-driven behaviours have a religious tinge to them. There is an insistence on certain set of rituals and behaviours as a proof of moral character; which seem akin to the attitude expressed by those who are involved in fundamentalist religious groups. [Footnote 6]
In fact, it seems that there is an overarching religious narrative for this pandemic. In this archetypal story there is an impending perdition facing the world; a redemption for those who act according to a moral code set by those above; and a relief which is achievable through the one saviour. I name this narrative as ”the Messiah” after the last component, which also represent the high point of the story told.
Obviously, the pandemic itself is the perdition in this story. In the archetypally possessed people's mind the virus causing it seems to have taken apocalyptic proportions. No reaction to it is seen as exaggerated; no amount of social pressure deemed inappropriate; no governmental restriction too tyrannical. In an attempt to control the virus the possessed are unable to see the potentially unrepairable damage brought upon the structure and performance of the society they are inhabiting.
For the Collective, these stern reactions are not panicked or thoughtless actions destroying economies and liberties. On the contrary, they play an important role in the psychological drama they are living through. The sacrifices they endured have marked them as the True Believers, as those eligble of redemption. [Footnote 7] Besides these big sacrifices there are also smaller actions, such as mask-wearing, which carry implications of moral superiority in them. They separate the True Believers from the Heretics who do not wish to participate in these sanctified rituals. As those in the former group have, in their own view, achieved ”higher knowledge” they need to convert the latter into their religion. After all, if the Heretics continue on with their immoral ways, it will result in the end of the world. There is also a belief that the conversion will be good for the one converted, even if the Heretic in question is not seeing it. (It is also important to add that the feeling of self-righteous moral superiority experienced by the True Believer is quite intoxicating.)
Religions need to have dogmas and sermons, since these give rise to, and strengthen the convictions of True Believers. ”Sermons” of this pandemic are mainly delivered through the mass media, which hammers in a certain interpretation of events. They also enshrine dogmas and doctrines through this constant and mindless repetition of certain views on the situation, while simultaneously censoring or angrily attacking the heretical ideas contradicting them. An example of dogma during this pandemic has been the mantra ”follow the science”, which became an expression of the unquestionable purity of spirit within the True Believers. [Footnote 8]
Let us now look into the last part of the drama: the Messiah, the one who will bring lasting peace to those tormented by the unbearable sins of this filthy world. Interestingly enough, it is the coronavirus vaccine that has become the Messiah of this drama. As this pandemic has created a proselytizing religion, absolutely everyone needs to take the Messiah as their saviour. Those who won't do it will be ostracized and punished through social pressure and governmental actions. If the group possessed is powerful enough, they will force everyone to convert. In this case, the enforced baptism is performed via the vaccine mandates. [Footnote 9]
The realization of the religiousness of this mass movement came to me when I heard there have been cases where a family has shunned or abandoned its member who's had an adverse reaction to the coronavirus vaccine. Because of the fear of such reactions from their fervently pro-vaccine surroundings, some people facing adverse reactions to vaccines are afraid to speak out. [Footnote 10] This really shocked me, as it meant that there are people who rather disbelieve and expel their suffering loved ones than tweak their opinions regarding the vaccine. Such reaction indicated to me that a fanaticism of religious proportions had invaded the minds of these people. And since serious adverse reactions are not that common, how many fanatical families were inact only because such an event hadn't befallen them?
As of writing this, it ought to have become evident to everyone that the vaccine is unable to stop the spread of the virus. Thus it is also unable to truly fulfill the role of the Messiah in this play. However, this doesn't seem to stop the fervor of the True Believers; in fact, they often cling even more tightly to their only saviour. So much psychic energy has been invested in this single solution that admitting it isn't working as hoped would force the True Believers to also admit the sacrifices and costs haven't been worth it. This could evoke in them feelings of embarassment, regret, shame, guilt and a sense of individual responsibility. This would be painful, as during the times of self-righteousness they had believed themselves to be in a possession of illuminated and unerring knowledge. If that knowledge is admitted to be lacking or wrong, then the psychological barriers risen as defences against these unpleasant emotions and responsibilites could start to crumble. After all, the conviction of the True Believer was an attempted escape from an anxiety arising from their perceived helplessness.
3.3. The Tyrannical Father
No action has been able to stop the pandemic. Not lockdowns, not social distancing, not even high levels of vaccination. What, then, will the archetypally possessed do from now on? Will they come out of their aggrevated emotional state and be able to assess the situation in a calm and objective manner? While that is true for some individuals, perhaps even for some groups or nations, there is no guarantee that the archetypal possession is lifting en masse. In fact, there is an imminent danger of yet another archetypal pattern emerging: that of the Tyrannical Father.
This archetype has thus far been mostly latent. However, as it's becoming evident that the first two archetypes have failed in subduing the anxiety felt by the masses, this archetype seems to be starting to slowly surface. Obviously the Tyrannical Father cannot truly achieve the emotional task assigned to it any more than the other two archetypal images could; but before that becomes evident to those possessed, expression of this archetype can cause great havoc and destruction to the societies it overtakes.
The Tyrannical Father is after power and control. Unlike the Devouring Mother, who attempts to achieve these things through emotional manipulation and hidden violence, the Tyrannical Father is straightforwardly dominant. If the Devouring Mother muffles freedom out with overprotection, the Tyrannical Father whips it away with open threats or acts of violence. On the level of nations, the Tyrannical Father represent the obviously totalitarian impulses within peoples and their governments.
It seems that the messianic story arc serves as a bridge from the Devouring Mother into the Tyrannical Father. At first, vaccines were represented as voluntary; but everyone was pressured to take them so as to ”stop the spread”; then restrictions were set upon those who did not cave in under the pressure; after that, vaccination was made compulsory for certain occupations; and now there are countries that are about to implement mandatory vacccines for all their citizens; making even getting an exemption from it for a medical reason difficult. [Footnote 11]
When so many people are willing to sacrifice the principles of bodily autonomy and the requirement for consent for performing medical procedures – for a vaccine which has proven to be ineffective at stopping the disease that has a relatively low mortality rate – then how tyrannical things will end up being if things continue on like this? As there is a high risk of economic crash due to the lockdowns and the unholy amounts of governmental debt money infused into societies to keep them somehow functioning during these times of restrictions, I see a significant risk of events taking a sinister turn as the agonies experienced by the masses might lead them to thirst for the blood of the scapegoats. The history of atrocities performed by the archetypally possessed during the 20th century isn't giving too much encouragement on this regard, either.
4. Conclusion
I ended the previous chapter with a rather grim note about the possibilities laying before us. Is all hope lost? Will one country after another end up under a ruthless totalitarian regime?
While there is a real threat of things going terribly wrong, I remain hopeful. Desmet notes in his interview [footnote 2] that most people are not as deep into the mass psychosis as it might seem. The illusion of universal acceptance is created through repeating the same messages over and over again. It is further strengthened by the silence (or silencing) of those who hold views contrary to that message. If this illusion is not broken, then the hypnotism keeps getting deeper and the dark future closes in. But if the questioning and dissenting people talk publicly about their observations and worries – using truth, courage and compassion as their guiding principles – then the turning of the tide is very possible. However, this speaking out should not be postponed unnecessarily; ”later” might already be too late.
When approaching our future through the conceptual framework of this essay, it is important to keep in mind that the archetypes are always polarized. There is a dark expression and a light expression, and a harmonious state in between. If the dark side takes over, then disaster follows; if only the light side is consciously acnowledged, then the dark side takes over. The person who only looks at the light, refusing to see the darkness, becomes as blind as the person who only sees darkness. The healthy expression of any archetype requires us to become conscious of the dualities which they inherently hold – and, by extension, dualities we humans inherently hold. Successfull integration of this duality leads to the harmonious expression of the archetype in question.
However, the process of integration begins only after we have experienced the archetype in ourselves; that is, only after it has overtaken us in one way or another. Usually we externalize the other end of the polarization and internalize the other, not realizing that we have both qualities within ourselves. The Devouring Mother, the Tyrannical Father, the Child, the True Believer... they all – or more precisely, the potentialities expressed by them – are within each and every one of us. Once this realization happens; once we start to see the qualitites we truly have, instead of what we think we have; then the previously compulsive power of the archetype is relieved. As the archetype is no longer simply using our conscious mind for its own unfoldment, we can begin to consciously use the energies innate to it.
This realization can bring forth several positive things. First, we can become conscious how we express or have expressed these energies in our personal lives. For example, have we been in some instance the True Believer, hammering on narrow-mindedly or even fanatically how “our way is the only way”? If we can see our own behaviour in a light of an reflective insight, we can become less rigid in our approaches. Instead of just reacting based on our emotions, we can consciously try and find better ways to respond to the challenges of our lives. We also begin to see how other people are struggling with those same energies, and this insight can inform us on how to respond to them. On a societal level, an understanding of archetypal forces can help us in current and in the future events of mass psychosis to asses things from a calmer point of view instead of being swayed right into it.
If you've just realized you've been archetypally possessed during this pandemic, try not to be too harsh on yourself. This is a part of the learning curve. On the other hand, don't deny or downplay it. Consider, as rationally as you can, what you can do from now on to keep your surroundings from falling deeper into the psychotic state. Noncompliance, in a form or another, is the minimum requirement.
The overarching goal is to find and stay connected to our balanced inner center; to feel our emotions while avoiding losing ourselves to them. Though this kind of deep personal transformation is in itself a remarkable thing to achieve, the hope-inspiring aspect of it is that it won't affect only the individual transformed. The inner freedom radiating from the self-realizing person can light a small spark of the same in others. Thus, it is not necessary for everyone to enter into the depths of the psyche – it is sufficient that you do.
Footnotes
Footnote 1: Carl Jung: Essay on Wotan. https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blog/2020/11/09/essay-on-wotan-by-dr-carl-jung/
Footnote 2: Aubrey Marcus Podcast with Prof. Mattias Desmet: Why People WILLINGLY Give Up Their Freedoms. https://youtu.be/IqPJiM5Ir3A
Footnote 3: Most archetypal images are either male or female. Female archetypes are usually more strongly expressed by women, and male by men. However, archetypes are universal to all humans and thus can be experienced or manifested by anyone. So while women more readily express the archetypal image of Benevolent Mother, men also have this nurturing and protective love within themselves. Likewise, since the Mother is usually closer to the surface of the women's psyche than that of men's, women also show more often the unhealthy aspect of the archetype. And while men are more likely to feel disconnected from their inner Mother, such disconnection occurs in women, too.
On a wider view, the archetypes can be dualized into the basic categories of being either feminine or masculine – the Mother and the Father in a general sense. More specific archetypal images fall under these categories, and these images don't have to be of the same gender as the overarching category. This gender-independence applies also to the external projections of the archetypes, as masculine archetypal energies can be projected onto women and feminine onto men. More than the biological sex of a person matters the physical, psychological and behavioral qualities she or he expresses.
Footnote 4: This theme of evil step-mothers reflects the difficulties experienced in relationships between step-mothers and their spouse's children from previous marriage. However, this archetype also expresses a child's internal difficulty to accept that his/her own mother is not always benevolent. Indeed, a real mother in all her psychological complexity is likely to on occasion envy, despise or hate her child. This painful contradiction between the expectation of being always loved and the harsh reality of the limits of the mother may lead the child to psychologically reject the more difficult aspects of her mother. ”This evil woman is not my real mother!”
Footnote 5: “While pop star hysteria is quite a harmless phenomenon, there are highly dangerous forms of archetypal possession. The most devastating ones thus far have been the two World Wars of the 20th century. Jung wrote an essay before the beginning of World War II on how Germans were being possessed by the archetypal image of Odin - or rather, the old Germanic version of the god. He lamented on how there would've been the possibility to express this archetypal image as the Sage who gains wisdom through internal trial and suffering. Instead, the nation was heading towards the expression of the archetype as the blood-thirsty God of War. The people of Germany, who on the surface were civilized and rational, quite quickly succumbed under the destructive primordial image they projected upon the State.”
Footnote 6: For a discussion about the symbolism related to masks and hand sanitaizers, see Jonathan Pageaus video Masks as Veils. https://youtu.be/heEMyxyCsX0
Footnote 7: It was only after I wrote this section that it came to my attention that there is a book named The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951) by Eric Hoffer. While the themes of the book overlap with those of this essay, the perspective is markedly different.
See also Desmet's interview for a discussion of the psychological importance of sacrifices in strengthening the mass formation [footnote 2].
Footnote 8: This sentence is also an example of orwellian doublespeak, and it exemplifies a reversion of meaning in two ways. First, in the heart of the scientific method stand the open, questioning and critically thinking mind. These qualities are diametrically opposite to the qualities of “following”. Second, throughout the pandemic scientific studies, as well as other evidence challenging or contradicting the official narrative, have been ignored, tarnished or cencored.
Footnote 9: A contradiction in the nature of orwellian double-think is how some vaccinated people believe that the vaccine will protect them against the virus, while simultaneously feeling afraid and disgusted of the unvaccinaited. This attitude reveals also the underlying insecurity of the adherents of this new religion.
Footnote 10: The Aubrey Marcus Podcast with Dr. Aditi Bhargava, Kyle Warner, And Brianne Dressen: A Cautionary Message From Vaccine Advocates. https://youtu.be/lraR1R_Imi8
Footnote 11: About difficulties at getting a medical exemption for the vaccine in Australia, see Bret Weinstein's DarkHorse Podcast: No Exceptions: A Story of Medical Tyranny in Australia. https://youtu.be/-qA0wZD0iPw