archetypal living as a system & main menu for playing life

introducing archetypal matrices as a tool for tapping into symbolic truths/essence and bringing construct-awareness into practice.

consciously or not, you have multiple systems for living.

for starters, we all have:

a "life operating system".

your ontology. epistemology. belief system. your set of habits (of perceiving, of thinking, of feeling and of acting). your language. your nervous system, DNA, memories and other biological predispositions.

and a "life management system".

how you see and manage yourself. your life. your resources, challenges, projects, relationships, tasks, etc.

if we're designing ourselves & our lives (the task of ontological design), we can see these systems for what they are - extensions of ourselves. and instead of leaving their development up to chance happenings and short-term reflections/iteration, we can take on the task to design them with an end in mind. they can be inherently regenerative and/or disruptive systems.

the alchemist is the archetype in the domain of life operating systems. it's the one who discovers, decodes, transforms, transmutes.

the architect is the one who can take on these principles and apply them to all other systems.

you can substitute "alchemist" for wizard, magician, witch, or whatever resonates with you. same with "architect" - the king/queen, strategist, commander.

the point is, these archetypes are actually foundational.

the alchemist works (mostly) in the realm of spirit. the element of fire. the feeling of fear.

the architect works (mostly) in the realm of mind. the element of wind. the feeling of joy.

the other 2 naturally missing archetypes are the builder (hands, earth, anger) and the artist (heart, water, sadness). which can also be seen, respectively, as the warrior and the lover.

some would say there's a fifth element, the ether. to me, ether represents what's "meta". existing in a different dimension, perhaps above the others, but still, connecting them. and to me, the archetype that better represents this element is the archetype of the player.

the player is the one who will tap into any archetype when it's necessary and live/play life to the fullest.

this is what i found to be my archetypal matrix. yours might be slightly different.

i figured out what clicked for me after feeling these energies within me for a long time, and informing myself based on many perspectives, especially - integral quadrants, jungian archetypes, moore and gillette’s king warrior magician lover, native american shamanism, wild mind’s intrapersonal view of the self and subpersonalities, and possibility management’s archetypal lineages.

perspectives on the archetypes

but this is not just an idea, a model. it can be a mode of living.

just like in a game when you select a character, you usually also select a class (a mage, an archer, a healer, a berserker). this is the exact same thing. it's a menu.

you can picture it like a compass. whenever you're heading north, you're going in the architect's way (wind), while west is the artist's territory (water), east is the alchemist's (fire) and south is the builder's (earth).

perhaps all of these models don’t match perfectly, but it’s through feeling, perceiving, experimenting with them - their complimentarities and dissonances - that we can tap deeper into these archetypal forces that are driving us.

by naturally acting in our day to day, we'll be pulled more into one or the other. but we can also choose which archetype to play. and by roleplaying our way into it (e.g. pretending to be a “better alchemist” than we are), we actually develop the awareness and capacities of that archetype within ourselves.

let’s say you want to explore more of the world of the alchemist. do something an alchemist would do!

state your intention for this exploration. why are you doing it? then let go of that and go around some place in nature, find some flowers, plants and parts of trees. mix and match them according to some sort of relationship (colors, smells, texture, weight, etc). ask these specimens for what they have to convey, then listen. give yourself time and space to sit with it. finally, make an offering. or do an experiment. figure out what this particular combination of elements at hand can create. what kind of art form, what kind of expression they might amalgamate into.

then share your discoveries with us. i’d love to know :)

this simple example shows why an archetypal matrix is the one of the simplest yet most profound psychotechnologies/tools for deliberately developing systems for more conscious living.

beyond an imaginary tool, it's an energetic tool. you can use it to feel yourself, know your vibe and tell where to go from the vibe/feeling of each of the archetypes.

and it's one of the core tools for developing regenerative/disruptive l1f3 systems.

that's why for over two years now i’ve been experimenting with making my whole life archetypal. you might have seen it on social media - my dozen or so of c4ss1us profiles.

in a next article, i'll go into more detail by introducing the l1f3 streaming and l1f3 player systems. but for now, i'll share a brief perspective on what i’m doing in these domains and why this concept of archetypal matrices made a lot of practical sense to me.

my main (social media) profiles are 5 (1 per element):

c4ss1us.alchemy / c4ss1us.design (architect) / c4ss.art / c4ss1us.lab (builder) / c4ss1us.player

and the secondary profiles are:

c4ss1us.athlete / c4ss1us.AI / c4ss.music / c4ss1us.regen / c4ss.host

(also 1 per element, but less of the archetype and more of a specific “class” i choose to play)

even though i don’t want to use social media that much, i chose to do it all for segmenting my work/life and being able to both consume and create more intentionally.

these profiles are different emails, instagram profiles, twitter profiles, youtube accounts, etc, that i intend to connect to a single unifying system/interface in which i manage my whole life - knowledge, relationships, responsibilities, goals, etc. that’s the essence of the (platform-agnostic) l1f3 streaming + management systems i’ve been working on, that aim to make it as easy and fluid as possible to capture, organize, execute on and share your life/work.

“capture/process/create once, save and share to all relevant/adequate media automatically based on your own pre-established rules and designs.”

this is just one example of an application of archetypal living to give us completely new possibilities to build, discover and share.

lots more to come…

the future is ancestral augmented by technology.

hope you enjoyed it. :)

love,

c4ss1us.l1f3