Archetypal image

1. Etymology

Archetypal image names the form or representation of an archetype in consciousness. Related: collective-unconscious; motif; metaphor; numinous.

2. Plain summary

The archetype itself is a dynamism; what we meet is its image—numinous, fascinating, never fully equal to a formula. Religions, mythologies, legends, and fairy tales are thick with these universal patterns. An archetypal content speaks first in metaphors: sun, lion, king, dragon-hoard, life-power—none is “the thing,” and the third thing vexes the intellect by staying unknown.

Personally, archetypal motifs are thought- and behavior-patterns common across times and places. Typical dream situations and figures (shadow, wise old man, child, and others) are motifs arranged under archetypes. Related to primordial image (Sharp See) without opening a second slug this pass.

Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common archetypal-image motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
representation of archetype in consciousness; numinosity / fascination; religions/myths/legends/fairy tales; metaphor clusters; unknown third vs formula; typical dream motifs; shadow / wise-old-man / child series; collective-unconscious basic content; vs personal imago; archetype dynamism behind image.

3. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology archetypal image is archetype-as-met—the conscious form of a collective pattern—kept distinct from the archetype as invisible dynamism. Descent Press keeps Sharp in §4; Samuels discusses under archetype. §5 holds sample CW stamps. Prefer CW 8 / 9i. CW 8 ¶414 also stamps the active imagination leaf.

4. Lexicon

Sharp (1991)

Archetypal image. The form or representation of an archetype in consciousness. (See also collective unconscious.) [The archetype is] a dynamism which makes itself felt in the numinosity and fascinating power of the archetypal image. … An archetypal content expresses itself, first and foremost, in metaphors. … On a personal level, archetypal motifs are patterns of thought or behavior that are common to humanity at all times and in all places.

(Sharp, 1991)

(Discussed under archetype / imago rather than a separate head.) Sharp “Image, primordial” See-refs archetype and archetypal image.

5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

By means of “active imagination” we are put in a position of advantage, for we can then make the discovery of the archetype without sinking back into the instinctual sphere… This means… that the instinctual image is to be located not at the red end but at the violet end of the colour band. The dynamism of instinct is lodged as it were in the infra-red part of the spectrum, whereas the instinctual image lies in the ultra-violet part. … Violet… reflects the indubitably “mystic” or paradoxical quality of the archetype…
(Jung, 1947/1969, CW 8, p. 274, ¶414)

An archetypal content expresses itself, first and foremost, in metaphors. If such a content should speak of the sun and identify with it the lion, the king, the hoard of gold guarded by the dragon, or the power that makes for the life and health of man, it is neither the one thing nor the other, but the unknown third thing that finds more or less adequate expression in all these similes, yet—to the perpetual vexation of the intellect—remains unknown and not to be fitted into a formula.
(Jung, 1940/1968, CW 9i, p. 157, ¶267)

See also: archetype; collective-unconscious; imago; numinous; archaic; dreams; child; wise-old-man; shadow.

References

Jung, C. G. (1968). The psychology of the child archetype. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 9i, p. 157, ¶267). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1940)

Jung, C. G. (1969). On the nature of the psyche. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 8, p. 274, ¶414). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1947)

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.