The Universal Blueprint | The “Great Mother” Archetype Simplified
#intothewildwithrufus
Quite recently, during our forest outing in Karnataka, we were treated to a rare and beautiful sighting of a Mother Gaur and her calf.
And yes! we had to be as quiet as could be, to ensure that we saw the tender moments between the mother gaur and her calf!
What surprised us the most was the colour tone of the calf! π
And as we we were all watching, completely hooked, charmed and captivated, we were able to see the deeply touching display of affection between mother and her calf!
The adult Mother Gaur gently lowered her massive head, and began to gently nuzzle the calf! Such a profound display of tenderness and care for her young one!
As is always the case, wildlife sightings are always fleeting, you see! and yes! It was time for the pair to move on. In perfect unison, they turned away from us and began to amble deeper into the thick Karnataka wild!
For us, literary beings, this scene has a lot of enriching literary takeaways, ain’t it? π
So yes! Let’s view this lovely scene through the lens of Carl Jung’s analytical psychology to transition for a moment, from the literal meaning, to the literary meaning – that the scene entails, replete with such profound mythological resonance!
Well, Jung emphasises that the Great Mother is a “transpersonal” symbol - rarely just the personal mother - and represents the deepest levels of the unconscious.
And this Great Mother archetype is bipolar. The “Good Mother” represents nurture, care, and fertility (e.g., Demeter, Mother Nature, the Virgin Mary), while the “Terrible Mother” represents the engulfing or destructive aspect - anything that secretes, poisons, or traps (e.g., Medusa, Baba Yaga). She is symbolised by the womb, the earth, the cave, the tree, the moon, and the sea.
So what are archetypes?
Well, to put it in simple words, archetypes are ancient blueprints of sorts!
They are inherited, not learned. For example, we not only inherit physical traits from our evolutionary ancestors, but also inherit their mental frameworks! And they have existed for as long as human consciousness has existed.
They are universal in their nature, and that’s why the exact same “ancient” patterns show up in Greek myths, ancient Indian epics, and modern blockbuster movies, all across the world.
Moreover, a blueprint is not a physical house; it is just the design for a house.
At the same time, the blueprint dictates the foundation and the walls, but the builder chooses the paint colours, the bricks, and the furniture. The individual’s personal experiences and their specific culture act as the “builder.” In short, they take the universal blueprint (like the “Hero” or the “Great Mother”) and give it a unique, recognisable form!
Because the Universal Blueprint or the Ancient Blueprint of the Great Mother is stamped into our collective unconscious, authors make use of this blueprint constantly to ‘build’ their unique stories. And what’s more - we are able to instantly recognise, connect and emphathise with these characters because they tap into that shared human instinct!
Let’s take the example of the character of Raksha in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Raksha whose name literally means “protection”) is the mother wolf who adopts the human baby, Mowgli. When the man-eating tiger Shere Khan demands the baby, Raksha transforms into a fierce protector, willing to fight to the death for a child that isn’t even biologically hers. She perfectly embodies the animalistic, fierce sanctuary of the Great Mother.
Just like Raksha in the jungles of Seoni, the Mother Gaur in the deep wild forest is living out this timeless, ageless, ancient blueprint of the Great Mother!
In fact, the Mother Gaur left us with much more than just a great wildlife sighting!
She was to us all, a cute personification of a Myth in Motion!!! π
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