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by
Neil Howe
William Irwin Thompson’s suggestion that modern personas can all be traced back to four tribal archetypes: ...
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Hippocrates believed that a functional person must balance all four temperaments. So too must a functional modern society, immersed in directional time, experience the sequential unfolding of all four archetypes.
The ancient Greeks’ sequence of four temperaments (and their associated seasons) corresponds with the historical order in which generations enter midlife—when a generation asserts maximum power over the direction of society.
The Hero enters midlife in the saecular spring, the Artist in summer (an Awakening), the Prophet in autumn, and the Nomad in the winter (a Crisis). Everything matches—temperaments, archetypes, seasons of the year, and seasons of the saeculum.
What makes this so startling is not only did the Ancients nail the timing, personalities, sequence and expected results, this also demonstrates the power of Gods creation, what has been written in Gensis, and Psalm 90 v 10 which might be attributed to Pre-exilic hebrew events and Moses. This is an awesome demonstration of Gods complete control of the universe, its cycles and outcomes.
Let’s start with the plotline everybody knows. At the beginning is the miraculous humble birth, the sheltered childhood, and the early evidence of superhuman powers. Then comes the rise to fame with a triumphant struggle against the forces of evil. And finally, inevitably, the overweening hubris leading to a fall through betrayal—or through heroic sacrifice—and death. Maybe you recognize this as the saga of Hercules, Orpheus, Jason and the Argonauts, Beowulf, Roland, Superman, or the boys of Iwo Jima. Jung saw this “hero myth” as perhaps the most potent expression of his archetypes, recurring
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Lets add Jesus Christ to this storyline. The story of Jesus is as heroic - more so - than these examples
time passes the details that distinguish between fable and reality tend to fade until what’s left is mostly myth, the raw outline of the archetype itself.
the contrasting stories of Hercules and Orpheus suggest, heroes can be secular or spiritual;
they can be oriented toward the outer world or toward the inner.
The secular hero-king and the spiritual hero-prophet often appear in the same myth. Yet when they do, they are never anywhere close to the same age. Typically, they are two phases of life apart.
Recall all the classic Western pairings of the daring young hero and the wise elder prophet: Gilgamesh and Utnapishtim; Joshua and Moses; the Argonauts and the centaur Cheiron; Aeneas and the Sybil of Cumae; King Arthur and Merlin; Parzival and Gurnemanz.
The reason these young hero myths are so embedded in our civilization is because they explain what happens when the secular world (the domain of kings) is being redefined beyond prior recognition—in other words, during a Crisis era.
these four archetypal myths, we recognize two sets of opposing temperaments, as well as two sets of inverted life cycles. This same archetypal ordering arises repeatedly in different eras and cultures. Why? A culture will not elevate an event (or a story) into myth unless it illustrates enduring human tendencies.
“The commonest axiom of history is that every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers.”
What these archetypal myths illustrate is this: Your generation isn’t like the generation that shaped you, but it has much in common with the generation that shaped the generation that shaped you.
In American history, a generation’s dominance in national leadership typically peaks around the time its first cohorts reach age sixty-five—just as foot soldiers are on average about forty-two years (or two phases of life) younger. The
Most parents thus enter midlife raising a new generation whose collective persona they hope will complement, not mirror, their own. Later on, however, the results of that nurture usually come as a surprise—and often not as a welcome surprise.
A key consequence of these cross-cycle shadow relationships is a recurring pattern of overprotection and underprotection of children.
“value orientations do not change much during a generation’s lifetime. Committed during its early stages, a generation most often carries its value commitments into the grave.” When this rhythm is filled out with the
full range of historical examples, a four-type cycle of generations emerges. They are listed here beginning with the Prophet archetype—the one born in the saecular spring.
Has anybody noticed this four-type cycle before? Yes—many times.
the cycle is strongly suggested by several of the most enduring narratives recounted by priests and poets.
The Book of Exodus is, at root, the story of four generations: first, the prophetic peers of Moses and Aaron, who defy the pharoah and inspire their people; second, the worshippers of the golden calf, “men of little faith” whom God punishes with extra trials and tribulations; third, the dutiful soldier-peers of Joshua, who wage a successful invasion of Canaan; and fourth, a nondescript inheritor generation (“Judges”) who enjoy “land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not” and initiate an era of fragmentation and decline.
In the Iliad and the Odyssey, similarly, the key Greek protagonists embody four generational archetypes:
Classical literature abounds with provocative bits and pieces of generational cycles.
Polybius, who wrote at the time of Rome’s rapid expansion in the second century BCE, was perhaps the only ancient author to offer an explicit theory of political regime change regularly triggered by generational succession. But his idea attracted few immediate followers.
Islamic Renaissance. Ibn Khaldun, as we have seen, spelled it all out: a detailed model of social cohesion and dissolution driven by a four-generation rhythm.
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, just as the European fascination with natural centuries and generations intensified, newer versions of the four-part generational cycle appeared.
Toynbee’s four-stage “Physical Generation Cycle” appeared in 1954.
The late historian and political philosopher Samuel Huntington proposed a recurring four-part “IvI” (Institutions versus Ideals) cycle to describe social change in America history.
takes “four whole and consecutive generations to traverse the complete problem solving sequence.”
“this generational succession might therefore well delineate our wheel of time.” At no other region or era has the cycle of generations propelled this “wheel of time” with more force than in modern America.
modernity’s alter ego appeared in the righteous fire of the Reformation and its attendant heresies, reforms, and persecutions.
Modernity was thus created out of a stunning clash of generational archetypes.
THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN CYCLE While the modern generational cycle can be said to originate—at least in its Western manifestation—in Western Europe during the late 1400s, the origin of the American generational cycle can be specified with greater precision.
The place was the British Isles, home to the society that long dominated the development of English-speaking North America. The date was 1485, when the army of a daring young noble named Henry Tudor defeated and slew King Richard III near the town of Market Bosworth. This
ARCHETYPES IN AMERICAN HISTORY
The eleventh (Awakeners, born 1701−1723) became the first distinctively American generation—the first whose name, birth years, and persona diverge significantly from its British peers.
Prophets
Their principal endowments are in the domain of vision, values, and religion.
Nomads
Their principal endowments are in the domain of liberty, survival, and honor.
Heroes
Their principal endowments are in the domain of community, affluence, and technology.
Artists
Their principal endowments are in the domain of pluralism, expertise, and due process.
A turning is an era with a characteristic social mood, each era reflecting a new shift in how people feel about themselves and behave toward each other.
Like the four seasons of nature, the four turnings of history are equally necessary. Awakenings and Crises are the saecular solstices; Highs and Unravelings are the saecular equinoxes.
When a society moves into an Awakening or Crisis, the new mood announces itself as an unexpected change in social direction.
The Fourth Turning
previously would have been ignored or deferred, but which are now perceived as dire. Clear and present dangers boil off the clutter and complexity of life, leaving behind one simple imperative: The national community must prevail. Initially, the new mood of urgency hardly affects the prevailing distrust and public paralysis of Unraveling-era society.
