Two remarkable talks by Dr. Robert Moore on the archetypes of the mature masculine – King, Warrior, Magician and Lover – delivered in Chicago in the late 1980s.
The first talk focuses on the King and Warrior archetypes. The second talk can be found here
King, Warrior, Magician, Lover:
Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine
By Robert Moore, Douglas Gillette
The best-selling, widely heralded, Jungian introduction to the psychological foundation of a mature, authentic, and revitalized masculinity.
“In this contribution to the emerging men’s movement, Jungian analysts Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette argue that mature masculinity is not abusive or domineering, but generative, creative, and empowering of the self and others. They clearly define the four mature male archetypes – the king (the energy of just and creative ordering), the warrior (the energy of aggressive but nonviolent action), the magician (the energy of initiation and transformation), and the lover (the energy that connects one to others and the world) – as well as the four immature patterns (divine child, oedipal child, trickster and hero). The authors propose the idea of a “man psychology” that is the key to true, mature masculinity.
The corporate “yes man,” the wife-beater, the hot-shot male junior executive and the emotionally distant father are all boys pretending to be men, observe the authors of this liberating guide to self-transformation. Writing within a Jungian framework, they perceive symptoms of “Boycaps per book psychology” all around us–in men’s abusive behaviors, passivity and inability to act creatively. To help males become more nurturing and mature, Moore and Gillette identify four archetypes of masculine energies from myth and literature: the Lover, brimming with vitality and sensitivity; the Magician, guider of the processes of inner and outer transformation; the selfless and wise King identified with Adam or primordial man; and the Warrior, whose energies often go awry in destructive activity. Dream analysis, meditation, Jungian “active imagination” and ritual processes are among the tools set forth in a clear, concise map to territories of masculine selfhood.
The King Within: Accessing the King in the Male Psyche
By Robert Moore, Douglas Gillette
In this pioneering contribution to masculine psychology, Robert L. Moore, a Jungian psychoanalyst, and Douglas Gillette, a mythologist, examine the inner King-one of the four archetypes of the male psyche. Asleep-as far as Ego-awareness is concerned-for untold generations, the King at the center of every man’s soul is now returning to consciousness. His return is heralded by many men’s growing sense of empowered masculine authenticity and by their enlarged capacity to empower others: other men, their friends and co-workers, the women in their lives, and their children. The inner King integrates power and nurturing, firmness and caring, courage and creativity, self-affirmation and self-sacrifice. From his central position between the world of imagination and the world of action, the King within challenges every man to take up his own scepter, to dream dreams, and to make them come true.
This new revised and expanded Text Edition of The King Within recounts, as did the first edition, the many gifts the King can bestow on men. It also offers expanded discussion of techniques for accessing and regulating the King’s powerful energies. Most importantly, it presents, for the first time, a 47-page description of the 16 configurations in which the four archetypes appear in men’s personalities. This additional section includes newly created graphics that illustrate Robert Moore’s ground-breaking “Structural Psychoanalysis,” a new and vital integration of psychoanalytic and spiritual theories that will help men achieve a full and authentic maturity-so as to steward a new and better world into being.
Dr. Robert Moore was Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Spirituality in the Graduate Center of the Chicago Theological Seminary where he was Founding Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Spirituality and Wellness. An internationally recognized psychoanalyst and consultant in private practice in Chicago, he served as Training Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and was Director of Research for the Institute for Integrative Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and the Chicago Center for Integrative Psychotherapy. Author and editor of numerous books on psychology and spirituality, he lectured internationally on his formulation of a neo-Jungian psychoanalysis and integrative psychotherapy. His most recent books include THE ARCHETYPE OF INITIATION: Sacred Space, Ritual Process and Personal Transformation; THE MAGICIAN AND THE ANALYST: The Archetype of the Magus in Occult Spirituality and Jungian Psychology, and FACING THE DRAGON: Confronting Personal and Spiritual Grandiosity.
More about Robert Moore, including free downloads: robertmoore-phd.com
See also The Crisis of the Masculine by Robert Moore