“A dark and powerful warrior’s face in blacks and reds. He wears a steel helmet, broad square face, open mouth with square teeth and a full black beard.” That’s Tammo de Jonge’s description of the Warrior archetype from his The 12 Faces of Humanity artwork.

As we all know, Chrysalis Tarot may correctly be called a “feminine tarot deck.” Traditional tarot, by contrast, is decidedly masculine and patriarchal. In Chrysalis, we emphasize the Divine Feminine, Earth-centered spirituality, healing, intuition and, above all else, balance.

In our schema, we emphasize many other attributes commonly associated with the Divine Feminine: goddess archetypes, anima and yin symbology, and the importance of the right brain to spiritual growth. In other words, Chrysalis relies upon symbols, patterns and free-flowing feelings, emotions and correspondences.

You will find the exact opposite characteristics in the Warrior archetype. Warrior energy is more commonly associated with the left brain: controlled feelings, logic, and rigid structure. Tricksters have warrior-type characteristics and are generally male figures because tricksters are antistructural agents who help restore balance by restraining or derailing the status quo. This is not to suggest the Warrior archetype is inherently negative. Not at all; he is a transitional archetype who manifests negative energy only when ungrounded.

Herne the Hunter fulfills the Warrior’s role in Chrysalis. He himself is a facilitator of change and well grounded Gatekeeper of Higher Consciousness.

For thousands of years, most of humanity has been living a patriarchal paradigm that has no firm grounding in Divine Feminine attributes. Consequently, we witness rampant aggression, oppression of women, endless wars, and heavy-handed religious dogma instead of holistic spirituality marked by interconnection and a commitment to personal growth.

Fortunately, things are rapidly changing. Once the dust settles, consciousness will  evolve to unimaginable new heights and the world will be a better, more balanced place. This will happen in part because women themselves will form the vanguard of a new warrior class called Rainbow Warriors.

“There will come a day when people of all races, colors, and creeds will put aside their differences. They will come together in love, joining hands in unification, to heal the Earth and all Her children. They will move over the Earth like a great Whirling Rainbow, bringing peace, understanding and healing everywhere they go. Many creatures thought to be extinct or mythical will resurface at this time; the great trees that perished will return almost overnight. All living things will flourish, drawing sustenance from the breast of our Mother, the Earth.” ~ from the Rainbow Prophecy as purportedly passed down by women of the Cree Nation.

Collective Unconscious archetypes provide filters and focus for our lenses of perception and imagination. As the Warrior archetype completes his mission and subsides, the pendulum swings in the opposite direction and balance is restored. Remember, the reemergence of the Divine Feminine does not mean a return to Minoan Civilization matriarchy; quite the contrary, the essence of the Divine Feminine seeks eternal balance.

(This blog is the 8th in a series inspired by artist Tammo de Jongh’s, “The 12 Faces of Humanity.” See the “Recent Posts” section below for the previous blogs.)

© Toney Brooks

“A picture in bright reds and yellows is of a smiling twinkle-eyed Harlequin with his typical gold-stuccoed, triangular hat,” is how artist Tammo de Jongh described his Joker archetype, commonly known as the Trickster.

Archetypes are multivalent fields of information that exist in tandem in the human psyche and the Collective Unconscious. They count upon reflexivity to acquire meaning.  This is to say they reflect nuanced attributes and values to whomever mirrors them. Archetypes are psychological chameleons. Getting your head around the Trickster archetype, for example, can be like fumbling your way through a hall of mirrors. The Trickster is elusive, cunning, deceitful, wise and bizarre.

Trickster, joker and jester archetypes are known as liminal figures; they exist in the margins, the numerous betwixt and betweens experienced in life. It’s the Trickster’s role to jump boundaries and expose inconvenient truths in hope of changing perspective. He is the pin that pricks the bloated balloons of ignorance and delusion, thereby advancing understanding, individually and collectively, and evolving consciousness; awakening new truths.

It ain’t often pretty. Take the recent  U.S. election for example, which has Trickster markings all over it. Manifestations of the Trickster, “generate ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty; they provoke feelings of unease, worry, and even paranoia,” noted George P. Hanson in his book, The Trickster and the Paranormal. Hanson is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

There are other familiar examples of the Trickster in history. Quick-witted Will Sommers, who was King Henry VIII’s personal fool or court jester, said outrageous things to the king that no other members of the court would dare say and expect to keep their heads. The trickster has a knack for imparting wisdom and challenging the status quo. He is the quintessential agent of change.

We recently celebrated Guy Fawkes Day. You recall: “Remember, remember the fifth of November; gunpowder, treason and plot. I can think of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.” The phenomenal Guy Fawkes’ mask art (above) is by Alex Grey. Fawkes indirectly inspired the movie V for Vendetta as well as the Occupy and Anonymous movements that challenged government tyranny.

Many believe the gunpowder plot to blow up parliament was a false flag operation, and that Fawkes along with his co-conspirators were mere patsies. Tricksters often blur distinction between good guy and bad guy. Eventually, history chooses a narrative – the narrative intended by the trickster all along.

Chrysalis is filled with trickster magic. It is imbued in cards such as the Ravens, The Corsair, Kali, Three of Mirrors, The Illusionist and, of course, Merlin and Morgan Le Fay. As I wrote in the Chrysalis companion book, “When the world needs to change, the world turns to tricksters. We could no more excise tricksters from magic than trees from forests or stars from heaven.”

The trick to understanding the unseemly messes made by tricksters is to elevate your perspective (The Acrobat) and discern the bigger picture. As the Somali pirate said in the film Captain Phillips, “Everything gonna be okay.”

(This blog is the 7th of a series inspired by artist Tammo de Jongh’s, “The 12 Faces of Humanity.” See the “Recent Posts” list below for our previous blogs.)

© Toney Brooks

Archetypes, first and foremost, can be defined as constellated energy/in-formation substrates formed in humanity’s Collective Unconscious. The visible, manifest types of these invisible, unmanifest archetypes emerge and re-emerge throughout human history. Archetypes are timeless, hence they become active at different times, in different ages and epochs, and in different cultures. The Collective Unconscious is humanity’s “memory bank.”

Archetypes are “spirit guides” for those who have ears to hear.

Archetypal manifestations in the physical world begin as emanations from the Otherworld. They gradually unfold and help shape our stories, ideas and creative arts. Here, they become templates for reality to awaken the collective imagination, shape individual lives and help fulfill humanity’s common destiny.

Archetypes require no worship, no invocation, no propitiation or mythic hocus pocus of any kind. We anthropomorphize (personify) some of them simply to engender communication (semiotics) and develop personal relationships. Two-way information exchange with archetypes (resonance) is the mother’s milk of human evolution, both physical and spiritual. Communication with archetypes is most effective when it is contemplative, selfless and motivated by the heart. Mandalas, such as Golden Flower (below), are the archetypes of contemplation. The circular image represents wholeness – the Oneness of seen and unseen worlds.

While an archetype itself may constellate many various characteristics or attributes – for instance, the Patriarch calls to mind father, wise old man, leader, holy man, tyrant, emperor, etc. – the level of participation of that particular archetype in human consciousness varies according to the collective need and common good.

When Tammo de Jongh created his image of the Patriarch archetype in 1967, Rachel Carson’s seminal work, Silent Spring, had only recently been published (1962). Her seminal work started a revolution that soon became known as the Environmental or Green Movement. Perhaps that’s one reason the above image of the Patriarch subtly hints at ecology.

The idea for the image’s greenness, nose shaped tree trunk and leafy foliage could have been derived from the same archetypal emanations that influenced Carson years earlier. It’s fun to speculate about such metaphysical convergences and synchronicities. In any event, Tammo’s image depicts a morphology of the Patriarch archetype to the Green Man archetype, a challenging transition that greatly impacts our world today.

Archetypes, like psyches, are dynamical structures. They simultaneously mirror and influence the course of human events via their light and dark, positive and negative aspects. As human consciousness transitions to a more rational, natural, Earth-centered spirituality influenced by the growing awareness in Gaia and Green Man, we find ourselves simultaneously and adversely impacted by the authoritarian, negative side of patriarchy. As patriarchy devolves, its positive qualities are transferred to the evolving successor; as balance is restored, its negative characteristics dissipate into the dustbin of history.

The dark, negative, heavy hand of patriarchy is characterized by rigidity, control, single-mindedness and a rather cold, intellectual way of relating to most everything. Institutionalized, it evolved into its most virulent stage: the three absolutist, monotheistic religions. Patriarchy’s darkness is starkly contrasted with the Green Man’s desire to protect, not destroy, things of value, such as the environment, natural law and cultural integrity. Patriarchy, on the other hand, is most interested in protecting and perpetuating its power regardless of the consequences.

“He values ecology, spirituality, gender equality and concern for future generations,” wrote futurist Sohail Inayatullah about Green Man, who represents what author William Anderson termed the “Archetype of Oneness with the Earth.”

In Chrysalis Tarot cosmology, Green Man is an archetype of regeneration – of the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth – as well as the voice and birdsong of Gaia, Mother Earth herself. The resurgence of interest in the Green Man archetype, which in part began with Silent Spring, represents a clarion call to reckon with the probable outcomes of our unsustainable Western lifestyle. Green Man seeks to maintain equilibrium in nature, as well as in each individual.

Rachel Carson dedicated Silent Spring to Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer who wrote, “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.” Let’s hope it’s not too late.

N.B. You may read and/or download a digital copy of Silent Spring for FREE at this link. (This blog is the 6th of a series inspired by artist Tammo de Jongh’s, “The 12 Faces of Humanity.” See the “Recent Posts” list below for the previous blogs.)

© Toney Brooks