In theory it is the age of individualism and the perceived individuality and freely chosen lifestyle are the driving force of the economy and its illusion of choice. And yes, we all do like to consider ourselves to be quite original snowflakes. Due to the impossibility of leading completely identical lives with identical experiences, upbringing and all gained/received through nature/nurture, this is true to a degree. But there is also a underlying light motive which permeates our society, personal evolutions and the stories we tell – archetypes.

But today we’ll take a look at the interesting similarity of two seemingly very disparate archetypical figures – Carl Jung’s “wise old man” and “the child”. This has nothing to do with old people regressing to the state of a child due to pathologies, but speaks character traits. Do you know why you enjoy spending time with young children (when they aren’t screaming)? Because they show you a pointer to a proper way of being in the world, of living fully, the wide eyed childish curiosity and wonder towards mundane things you’ve seen thousands of times and started to take for granted. The jolt you with their exuberance living in the eternal now and remind you of this wisdom you so often forget in your adult life. This trait is one of the primary distinctions of the child archetype. But the funny thing is that on the opposite side of the spectrum sits the old man – life lived, stories nearly finished, world seen and tasted and yet one of the primary traits of his archetype is the same.

Why does he have the prefix “wise”? Because he didn’t stay a child forever, never maturing or learning to take responsibility, he didn’t stay helpless. He invested the energy and sacrificed what needed to be sacrificed in order to mature and gain wisdom, and then he returned to the childlike wonder – he matured back into it, dispensing with the dangerous naiveté but keeping the positive aspects of a childlike outlook on the world enacted. Like childhood 2.0. You’ll see the wise old man archetype depicted in stories – usually advising the lead character and teaching him something and then reclining back into the shadows because he cannot be present for the last part of the main character’s journey, they need ot do this alone, implementing what they’ve learned. This is Dumbledore, Obi Van Kenobi, Gandalf, “M” from James Bond (the archetype doesn’t need to necessarily be male, although in most literature it is).

Archetypes tell us something valuable of our internal workings, they depict that there is innate intelligence even in the oldest civilizations who’ve began telling stories constructed from the archetypical characters. The more you know the better you can do (if you don’t let yourself be walled of into a box by believing there is no more room to learn and relearn), and the more you know of human nature the better you’ll be operating within it. Reading the user’s manual is crucial if you don’t want to break the machine.