Archetypes

Female archetype: goddess of Empowered women in search of purpose

Alnsuna, a goddess

Alinsuna is a goddess in the Filipino myth entitled, Making the World a Happier Place to Live In. She was a beautiful goddess who was courted by the god, Tungkung Langit for many years. When they got married, they established a home in heaven, a place where everything was perfectly according to the will of these two gods.

Alunisina’s hardworking husband wanted to bring order to the confused universe. He was the one who arranged the heavenly bodies and maintained order and regularity in the world. One day, Tungkung Langit went for a long journey to organize “time” for the world. Alunsina could not help but send the breeze to spy on Tungkung Langit. When the god knew of the spy, sent by his wife, he got mad at his wife and told her a lot of hateful things. For Tungkung Langit, Alunsina’s act was very ungodly by getting jealous since there were no gods in the world except for them. Alunsina did not accept this painful criticism from Tungkung Langit, so she said a lot of hurtful things to him. This led the god to drive his wife away. After this, the beautiful goddess was never seen again.

We can say that Alunsina did an unacceptable thing to the pride of Tungkung Langit by spying on his job. Alunsina was a very worrisome person who wanted to do something to stop her worry. She sent a spy so that she would feel relieved of his husband’s situation. It is also possible that Alunsina was so in love with Tungkung Langit that she did not want to be away from him. Since Tungkung Langit did all the work in maintaining order in the world, Alunsina did not have anything to do but be a wife to his husband. A wife’s role is to wait for the husband to go home. This role was expected by all husbands who believe in the fragility of women. However, Alunsina was also a goddess. We can say that all gods have limited patience because of the big amount of power they have. Such power brings pride and confidence to do all things they want.

Tungkung Langit found his purpose as a god which was to bring order to the confused world. On the other hand, Alinsuna’s role as a patient wife was not enough for this powerful goddess who can command the creations in the world such as the breeze. Hence, she decided to leave Tungkung Langit. Aside from anger, frustration, there might be other reasons why Alunsina did not return to Tungkung Langit. A god has powers and to appreciate his or her existence, he or she must use it. This analogy is similar to humans’ talents and search for their purpose.

The love of Tungkung Langit is not enough. Alusina may have decided to look for a way to love her divine being as how Tungkung Langit expressed his self-love by maintaining order in the world.

A lot of women today are like Alunsina. We are not confident to look for contentment aside from being a lowly wife. Empowered women love themselves not because they meet the expectations of other but they believe in their feminine beauty and capability to be different.

Male archetype: god of close-mindedness

Archetypes are models that represent ideas. My chosen male archetype is the Sun. Sun was assigned by a great god called Pamulak Manobo to guard during daytime the Underworld which we call earth. Sun, like any normal human fell in love to the feminine beauty of Moon and they had a daughter which they called Star. Star was a beautiful girl. She inherited her beauty from mother Moon. Despite the good beauty Star brings to her parents, Sun was frustrated and disappointed to his daughter. He expected to have a son who would be his heir and not a little fragile girl. So, Sun grabbed baby Star from the crying Moon and tore it to pieces. Then, he mercilessly threw its broken limbs out of their house. Fortunately, the kind wind caught the arms and and feet of the poor infant and asked Pamulak Manobo for help. Pamulak pitied the broken Star and placed her poor broken limbs on the dome of the sky. Now, we see stars every night with he mother moon. The Sun never showed any regret of throwing his daughter. There are times that Sun sees Star appears by day. Unfortunately, the poor star will never be recognized by her father.

Sun represents humans who are small-minded. Such humans cannot control their erupting temperaments. Hence they create disasters. The impulsiveness of the min by judging without consideration is Sun’s character. He is male so I am giving him the label of a male archetype of human’s over-impulsiveness. If you have noticd, Sun, at first, seemed tamed. He prayed to Darago, the greatest Bagobo war god and source of strength, to have a son. When his prayers were not answered, Sun got disappointed. This shows us the spoiled attitude of human beings. When I get specific, I must say that I am referring to boy. However, it is not fair to consider Sun’s behavior only manifested by men. Women are also like Sun. We all tend to be merciless when we get so frustrated about life- this is a time when we realize we cannot control life, and we responded to such disaster with violence.

If we bring Sun’s act to the context of a father, one truth is: there are fathers who disown their children when these children do not meet their ideal expectations. When we havetoo much pride, we expect a lot. A father who expects much is someone who wants his children to either not face the same mistakes he has done or to be like him when it comes to success.

Today, children are freer than before because we have surpassed the time of over patriarchal control in the family. Nevertheless, there are still exceptions who have some of the characteristics of the merciless Sun.

There are also father who do not literally disown their children but they psychologically disown them. One situation I refer to is the pressure given to children (including toddlers) to be a super-student, son or daughter- be the best in class (academic excellence) and be an obedient son or daughter at hime. These children act according to the remote control of the fathers. Hence they are not treated as humans with freedom.

I find my archetype too negative especially too negative especially my controversial view of a father. This view may be biased for I have a very sad relationship with my Papa. Hence, this archetype I created may not be recognized by everyone.