Archetypal Character Arcs, Pt. 8: Introduction to the 12 Shadow Archetypes

Where there is light, there is shadow. Where is there is a right way to do things, there are usually several ways to do it wrong. So it goes with archetypal character arcs and their potential shadow archetypes—of which there are two for every positive archetype.

Over the last few months, we have explored six successive “life arcs,” represented by the Positive-Change Arcs of six primary archetypes—the Maiden, the Hero, the Queen, the King, the Crone, and the Mage. Each of these positive archetypes represents a rising above the limitations of the previous archetype in the cycle. But they also inherently represent a struggle with related “shadow” or negative archetypes.

Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss (affiliate link)

Specifically, there are twelve negative archetypes—two for each positive archetype. Each positive archetype sits at the top of a triangle that is completed by a potential negative polarity between the two negative archetypes—one representing an aggressive version of the shadow archetype and the other representing a passive version. In Sacred Contracts, Caroline Myss speaks of the inherent power dynamic within this archetypal triangle:

The shadow aspects of our archetypes are fed by our paradoxical relationship to power. We are as intimidated by being empowered as we are by being disempowered.

This is why one of the primary challenges within any of the six positive archetypal arcs is that of grappling with one’s conflicting desire for and fear of autonomy. Only in integrating and accepting the responsibility for this growing power is a character able to escape the beckoning shadow archetypes and instead level up into the next “life arc.”

12 Shadow or Negative Archetypes

The Virgin’s Promise by Kim Hudson (affiliate link)

More or less classically (and with a big nod to Kim Hudson’s The Virgin Promise and Douglas Gillette and Robert L. Moore’s King, Warrior, Magician, Lover), the corresponding archetypes can be viewed like this:

1. Positive: Maiden

Passive: Damsel

Aggressive: Vixen

 2. Positive: Hero

Passive: Coward

Aggressive: Bully

3. Positive: Queen

Passive: Snow Queen

Aggressive: Sorceress

4. Positive: King

Passive: Puppet

Aggressive: Tyrant

 5. Positive: Crone

Passive: Hermit

Aggressive: Wicked Witch

6. Positive: Mage

Passive: Miser

Aggressive: Sorcerer

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)

Just as the temptation and struggle against the shadow archetypes’ corruption is inherent within all of the archetypal Positive-Change Arcs, so too are the two negative archetypes inherent within each other. Although a character representing a negative archetype will usually manifest most obviously as one or the other—passive or aggressive—they are really just two sides of the same coin. For example, inherent within any Coward, there is usually a latent Bully, just as the Bully is often a Coward at heart.

There are many ways negative archetypes can arc:

From negative to positive (a Positive-Change Arc)From positive to negative (a Corruption Arc)From passive to aggressive (a Fall Arc)From aggressive to passive (which is not exclusive to but can be seen in a Disillusionment Arc).Not at all (a negative Flat Arc, in which the character is less likely to be the protagonist and more likely to be the antagonist in someone else’s Positive-Change Arc or a negative Impact Character in someone else’s Negative-Change Arc).The Passive Counter-Archetypes

The passive archetypes represent a fatal immaturity. No matter at what stage characters find themselves within the life arcs, their first challenge will be to resist their own sense of complacency and safety—which would keep them where they’re at. But, in fact, they have little choice about whether or not they will be called into the journey of a subsequent archetype. They can only decide whether they will grow, or whether they will resist.

The passive shadow archetypes are the result of a refusal to grow into the next arc and instead an attempt to maintain power in its former guise. For example, someone who has successfully completed the Hero Arc and is now being challenged to grow into the Queen Arc may resist the call of leadership and responsibility—and hide away within the selfish passivity of the Snow Queen. Life is demanding this character change, but the character resists, cannot overcome fear, and fails to complete proper growth—ending emotionally stunted and unfit to take on the responsibilities that life has now given.

Art and Artist by Otto Rank (affiliate link)

In Art and Artist, Otto Rank discusses the passive archetype as the “neurotic”:

If we compare the neurotic with the productive type, it is evident that the former suffers from an excessive check on his impulsive life…. Both are distinguished fundamentally from the average type, who accepts himself as he is, by their tendency to exercise their volition in reshaping themselves. There is, however, this difference: that the neurotic, in this voluntary remaking of his ego, does not get beyond the destructive preliminary work and is therefore unable to detach the whole creative process from his own person and transfer it to an ideological abstraction. The productive artist also begins … with that re-creation of himself which results in the ideologically constructed ego; [but in his case] this ego is then in a position to shift the creative will-power from his own person to ideological representations of that person and thus render it objective. It must be admitted that this process is in a measure limited to within the individual himself, and that not only in its constructive but also in its destructive aspects. This explains why hardly any productive work gets through without morbid crises of a “neurotic” nature.

In short, facing the passive archetype is one of the earliest steps in any positive archetype’s forward struggle. This fearful shadow aspect of one’s self represents what we often hear spoken of within the Hero’s Journey as the Hero’s “Refusal of the Call to Adventure.” Put simply: he’s scared. And considering the immensity of the journey before him, we all commiserate with exactly why that should be.

But if the Hero—or any other positive archetype—should succumb to this fearful part of himself, he will abort not just the journey but his own ability to grow and mature. He will get stuck as the Coward, and his own progress forward in life will become immeasurably more difficult.

The Aggressive Counter-Archetypes

The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock (affiliate link)

By contrast, the aggressive polarity of the negative archetypes represents not so much the fear of reality but the desire to control it. Although the aggressive archetypes are literally the polar opposite of the passive archetypes, the passive archetypes are still often at the root of a character’s aggression. In many ways, the aggressive archetypes represent an overcompensation in response to the character’s inner fear of change and growth. In The Heroine’s Journey, Maureen Murdock quotes Edward Whitman:

Whether creative possibilities or regressive destruction shall prevail depends not upon the nature of the archetype or myth, but upon the attitude and degree of consciousness.

Even though the aggressive archetypes appear much more proactive and productive than do the passive archetypes, they too represent a stagnation. They may be “getting things done” within their realm of activity, but they are not moving forward.

For example, a Crone who has refused to take her journey into the Mage may get stuck in the aggressive polarity of the Wicked Witch—using the not-inconsiderable power she has gleaned throughout her long life to control others and manipulate outcomes. She looks powerful, but unlike the Crone, the Witch is not expanding. She represents not just a stillness within the character’s maturation, but a stagnation—she has gotten stuck through her own passivity and fear, has refused (however unconsciously) to continue growing, and has instead turned her energy outwards upon a world she resents.

How Archetypes Relate to the Thematic Truth/Lie

As we’ve already discussed, the six archetypal Positive-Change Arcs represent the character’s ability to transition away from a limiting life belief and into an acceptance of an inherent archetypal Truth.

Writing Your Story’s Theme (Amazon affiliate link)

These same archetypal Lies/Truths are also inherent within the related negative shadow archetypes. The difference, of course, is that these negative archetypes resist the Truth. Through fear of change or desire for control, they cling to a broken version of reality. Depending on the specific type of Negative-Change Arc they are undergoing (Disillusionment, Corruption, Fall), they will encounter various opportunities to acknowledge and accept the Truth. In a legitimate Negative-Change Arc, they will fail to do so—and the metaphorical Kingdom will always suffer as a result.

How the Negative Archetypes Relate to the Positive Arcs

Within all types of archetypal stories—whether they feature protagonists with Positive or Negative Arcs—we always have the opportunity for a full cast. Just as the negative polarities are inherently present to some degree within the struggling protagonist of a Positive-Change Arc, so too is the positive archetype within the struggles of a protagonist in a Negative-Change Arc.

More than that though, we have the opportunity to externalize these struggles into the supporting cast. We can see this clearly—and have already touched on it in earlier posts—in the fact that the Hero’s Journey prominently features more advanced archetypal characters in supporting roles—-most notably the King and the Mage/Mentor.

Likewise, negative archetypes frequently show up in villain roles. I haven’t observed a hard-and-fast pattern, but it resonates that one of the powerful uses of negative archetypes within a positive-archetype story is that of presenting the protagonist with a version (usually aggressive) of the subsequent archetype. For example, a Queen almost always has to confront and overcome a Tyrant (the aggressive version of the subsequent arc of King).

Not only does this approach provide opportunities for a solid plot-theme connection, it also offers the always-brilliant chance to symbolically represent the antagonist as a shadow version of the protagonist’s potential self. As such, the antagonist can offer both temptation to the growing protagonist of the power she might wield, as well as a caution of what kind of monster she might turn into should she succumb to that temptation.

Same goes for the characters in a Negative-Change Arc story: if the protagonist is representing a negative archetype such as the Sorceress, then the rest of the cast can be used to represent supporting archetypes that deepen the thematic and symbolic narrative.

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As you can already see—and as is always the case with negative character arcs—there are many possible variations that can arise when a character falls away from the health of the positive archetypes and into the unhealth of the negative archetypes.

This means there are many possible narratives for representing them in the protagonist of a Negative-Change Arc. As such, I won’t be offering a “mythic beat sheet” for each of the negative archetypes in the same way I have done for the positive archetypes.

Over the course of the next six posts, we will be diving a little more deeply into the partnership of each passive/aggressive polarity and talking about how you can recreate these important archetypes within your own stories.

Stay Tuned: Next week, we will study the shadow archetypes of the Maiden.

Related Posts:

Story Theory and the Quest for MeaningAn Introduction to Archetypal StoriesArchetypal Character Arcs: A New SeriesThe Maiden ArcThe Hero ArcThe Queen ArcThe King ArcThe Crone ArcThe Mage ArcWordplayers, tell me your opinions! Are you more drawn to writing about Positive or Negative Arcs? Tell me in the comments!

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