I'm currently reading Gods in Everyman: Archetypes That Shape Men's Lives by Jean S. Bolen, one of the precious gifts I received last Christmas.
Using the author's words, it's a book about the gods, or the archetypes, in every man.
Archetypes are the innate patterns that lie deep within the psyche and shape men's personalities, careers, and personal relationships.
Again, in the author's words, "every archetype is associated with particular "god-given" or "goddess-given" gifts and potential problems."
I just started the book, so more clarity will come while I keep reading, but a sentence caught my attention and got me thinking for the last few days.
Men are often caught between the inner world of archetypes and the outer world of stereotypes.
If the archetypes are the inner patterns, the stereotypes are the expectations from the outside. In my experience, these expectations are made by society, culture, community, family, and organisation, but, more often than not, myself.
And I've been there. I still am, often.
This morning, I woke up with a third word: prototype.
I am an ever-evolving, work-in-progress version of myself, existing in the liminal space between archetypes' inner world and stereotypes' outer world.