The Child Archetype
Archetype · Nascent potential, innocence, and future wholeness
- First attested
- 1940C.G. Jung and Karl Kerényi, Einführung in das Wesen der Mythologie (1941).
Spiritual renewal requires nurturing the fragile, miraculous spark of nascent possibility.
C.G. Jung & C. Kerényi, Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis (1949).
The archetype of primordial beginnings, miraculous resilience, and emerging future potential.
In mythological traditions and depth psychology, the Divine Child (Puer Aeternus / Kore) represents the archetype of beginnings, virgin potential, and the redemptive future. Appearing in folklore as the abandoned or endangered infant who survives against impossible odds (Moses in the bulrushes, infant Zeus, Krishna, the Christ Child), the archetype symbolizes that which is smaller than small yet greater than great. Jung noted that the Child archetype anticipates future stages of psychic development.
Light
Wonder, playfulness, unconditioned creativity, and hope for spiritual rebirth.
Shadow
Peter Pan syndrome, refusal of adult responsibility, and emotional immaturity.