Myth as Construal, Part 2: Archetypes and Alignment

Building on the idea that myths are methods for construal at scale, we now turn to archetypes: recurring symbolic forms that guide collective alignment across cultures and generations.

Archetypes as relational patterns

An archetype is not a fixed character or plot but a pattern of relational alignment. It defines roles, possibilities, and interactions, offering a template for how events, actors, and meanings can be organised. Archetypes allow individuals to navigate potentialities while contributing to the coherence of the collective symbolic system.

Guiding but not determining

Archetypes guide construals without dictating them. They are flexible structures, allowing variation and adaptation while maintaining recognizable relational patterns. For example:

• Hero figures guide the emergence of courage, risk-taking, and transformation.

• Trickster figures guide the navigation of ambiguity, subversion, and relational tension.

• Mother or nurturing figures guide care, cohesion, and relational stability.

These patterns do not prescribe actions in a deterministic way; they provide frameworks for actualising potential, influencing how people align with each other and with the symbolic field.

Alignment across scales

Archetypes operate at multiple levels simultaneously:

• Individually, they shape personal construals and choices.

• Collectively, they coordinate social expectations, rituals, and narratives.

• Symbolically, they structure the evolution of myths over time.

This multi-scale coordination ensures that certain relational possibilities remain open while guiding the enactment of others, producing a dynamic, evolving architecture of meaning.

Implications for method

Understanding archetypes relationally illuminates how symbolic forms function as collective methods of construal. It shows that the evolution of possibility is not just cognitive or social, but also cultural and symbolic, mediated through shared patterns that sustain and channel relational alignment.

The next post will explore the evolution of symbolic possibility, tracing how myths and archetypes adapt over time in response to changing relational configurations.