The King Archetype in Dreams
The King Archetype, Watercolour
Is the energy of The King manifesting in your life? He can call you through your inner world, visiting in dreams and imagination. Or appear externally in your behaviour, the behaviour of others, or outer circumstances.
What is the King archetype?
The archetype of the king can manifest as a powerful, beneficent leader or a power-hungry tyrant. In the positive form, we can associate him with the sun and appreciate his powers of warmth, discernment, leadership, and generativity. In his opposite form, the King archetype assumes dominion in the underworld, becoming controlling, destructive, and cruel. Perhaps a balanced King needs moonlight to gently illuminate the darkness, and guide his way back to the divine masculine.
Carl Jung emphasised the transformative power of juxtaposition - two polarities meeting in sacred marriage and birthing new possibilities. Within this principle, we can see how new creative potential can emerge through the union of feminine and masculine energy.
In alchemy the union of the opposites are seen in Sol and Luna; the sun and the moon representing masculine and feminine, consciousness and the unconscious, body and spirit (or the material world and the divine).
If you are wondering how this might relate your life, and your creativity, consider which stage of projects you usually meet obstacles.
Exploring Creative blocks
Do you struggle with creative blocks? Do you feel inspired and have endless ideas but struggle to get them started? Do you start lots of different projects, burning with enthusiasm… then find your energy peters out? Do you struggle with issues relating to how to attribute value to your creativity to generate abundance? If so, working to balance your receptive feminine energy and dynamic masculine energy could help get your creativity back into flow.
One way to explore how these energies may be playing out in your own life is by tapping into your inner world. Working with dreams can give access to the realm of the psyche, and open up new perspectives. By keeping a dream journal you can begin to recognise recurring motifs - both personal and archetypal. Try writing down your dreams for a week or so, then look back and review the prominent masculine and feminine characters.
This article relates specifically to King energy, and relates to issues surrounding bringing your inner creativity into the material world. If you are struggling with opening up to creative energy, this might relate more to feminine energy (Queen archetype article coming soon!).
Working with the King archetype in dreams
In dreams we can see both positive and negative manifestations of King energy.
Positive King Archetype can appear as -
a wise beneficent elder
a leader
a protector
a warrior
a kind father
positive boundaries
symbols of abundance
peaceful kingdom
Negative King Archetype can appear as -
rigid structures - either buildings or bureaucracy
dictators
persecutors
judges
the mafia
cruel father
prison or other confinement
Perspectives on the King archetype
In The Black Sun, Stanton Marlan discusses the King in relation to the beginning of the alchemical process, pointing out that the primal matter in the nigredo phase of alchemy is creative potential, birthed through destruction, putrefaction and chaos. The King exists at the heart of this transformative renewal, emerging from the chthonic chaos as a golden Sun King. While possessed by the forces of destruction, the King is the shadow side of the sun but when the strong solar energy is balanced by feminine, lunar energy, it can re-emerge with compassion. Marlan points out that we can see this cycle of destruction and creativity, chaos and form, or death and rebirth, personified by the solar eclipse.
Jungian analysts, Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, cover the multi-dimensional aspects, and light and shadow energy, of this archetype in King Warrior Magician Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine. They state that, developmentally, the King evolves from the Divine Child. In an ideal situation this maturity brings embodied wisdom. However, in modern cultures, the rites of passage that foster inner strength are lacking and the focus is on achievement and external power. For this reason, it may be necessary to create our own initiations and rituals that lead us towards personal growth and our authentic, creative potential.
Archetypal King energy is evident in government, institutions, and other organisations as well as individuals. Positive qualities of order and equanimity can be overshadowed by dominant and unyielding forces, creating arbitrary or unnecessarily restrictive rules under the remit “For Your Own Good”. When the pendulum swings too far in this direction we can expect a chaotic restructure, and ultimately the emergence of a desire for freedom from totalitarian regimes and authoritarian dictators.
Balancing Creative Dynamism and Creativity
Although represented in masculine form, King energy is also a part of the feminine (whose corresponding archetype is the Queen). We can see the energy of the King emerge in women, just as the energy of the Queen can emerge in men. Here, we can consider Jung’s concept of the anima and animus. A positive emergence of the King in the feminine would be a step towards individuation, wholeness, a reconciliation of the opposites. Tempered by feminine energy, the King’s strong leadership can be balanced with compassion, his rigidity offset with flexibility, and his creativity blossoming through receptivity. This process requires constant adjustment to remain in balance. Like every archetype, it also exists in constant flux and in interrelationship with the other facets of the psyche.
A King whose feminine energy has become too strong may be unable to stand in authentic power. This masculine energy can become imbalanced in women, just as in men. Without positive masculine or King energy, creative projects may remain in stasis and there can be resistance to outer growth. On the other hand, if certain aspects of the King are embraced at the cost of true inner strength, there can be a loss of appreciation for the gentler and subtler ways of existence. Dynamism at the expense of receptivity may propel us in the wrong direction. As Joseph Campbell pointed out, ‘One can spend one's whole life climbing the ladder, only to realize it's been placed against the wrong wall.’
Creative projects go through many different stages - from gestation to birth, and ongoing nurturing. Our life is an inherently creative process. Working with your inner King is an exciting way of exploring any challenges you are experiencing, and activating a new perspective.
References
Marlan, S. (2008). The black sun: The alchemy and art of darkness. Texan A&M University Press.