Philosophy in general, especially modern philosophy tends to bore me because it can easily get abstract, running in circles without any bearing in practical reality.
Like how can I apply these concepts into my life, here and now, instead of some airy-fairy understanding of a world that's quite removed from reality?
I think stoicism may be an exception and it's quite amusing to me whenever I come across a book that philosophizes life. It kind of borders on romanticism, which obviously has its place in the grand scheme of life but at its core, philosophy is a way to seek the truth of existence through the love of wisdom, in my view.
Two models of understanding. The first is an inverted tree, the root of the tree as the truth of existence and the different branches as the different ways to get to this truth of existence.
But when I understood that branches can be broken, I abandoned that model altogether even though it well resembles reality.
The second is an ocean, wisdom is inexhaustible like the waters of an ocean and one needs to find the essence of this vast ocean to discover the truth of existence.
Of course, these are just models of reality, not reality itself.
Finding The Source
Now, much to its credit, it's through philosophy that I've learnt about archetypes, which in this context, can be defined as blueprints of human experience and consciousness.
Archetypes serve as fundamental structures that shape our understanding and interaction with the world. For example, creatives often mentioned accessing a realm of pure ideas or forms as a blueprint before they create it into reality, which interestingly aligns with Plato's Theory of Forms.
Some examples of archetypes include; the hero, the mentor, the shadow, and the trickster. These archetypes manifest in various aspects of our lives, in art and literature or through personal development and social interactions etc. Although it's easier to recognize them in the first category than the latter, call it subjective bias.
I think archetypes provide a framework for understanding complex human experiences and behaviors. In the context of creativity, they serve as potent tools for storytelling and artistic expression through tapping into archetypal themes and characters to create works that resonate deeply with audiences across cultures and time periods.
For the most part, the Hero's Journey is an archetypal narrative structure found in countless stories worldwide, both in ancient myths and modern blockbusters. Lord Of The Rings, The Last Of The Mohicans, Star Wars, The Matrix, etc.
Many people, including myself, find the hero's journey resonates deeply because it mirrors the fundamental human experience of growth and transformation. It's basically a narrative structure that speaks to our innate desire for meaning, purpose, and self-actualization.
We see ourselves in the hero's struggles, moments of doubt, triumphs, the universal human experiences they represent.
But more importantly, it offers an archetypal understanding of life's journey, in the sense that it reflects the cyclical nature of challenges, growth, and return that we all experience throughout our lives.
To me and in this way, archetypes provide a middle ground between the airy-fairy abstractions I mentioned earlier and the concrete reality of practical, lived experiences, a more intuitive and interesting way for understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
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