Angels and Archetypes: The Same or Different?

What's the Connection Between Celestial Order and Humans?

Dec 20, 2008

The archetype provides the arch or bridge over which the heavenly Archangels of the celestial realm enter the realm of individual psyche as conceived by Carl Jung.

Is there a connection between angels and archetypes? Does Jung's concept of archetype have a seat at the table among the angels and archangels of the world’s great religions? Looking historically at their presence in the monotheistic systems of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, all of which share the same or similar Celestial Hierarchy, there are striking parallels.

The Nine Angelic Orders

The Celestial Hierarchy is comprised of nine angelic orders arranged in three separate but intersecting triads. These triads contain the various heavenly entities that radiate outward from the Divine Core, or God. In their given order from the Divine Core, they consist of the following:

The Upper Triad: These are seated closest to the Divine Core and so presumed the most pure and holy.

The Middle Triad: This triad serves as a transformer of the divine energy into a form more amenable to humans.

The Lower Triad: This outer triad is that which harbors the great Angels and Archangels whose sole job it is to convey illumination from the Divine Core, or God, to mortal humans.

The Most Important of These:

The most important of these is the lowest triad because it harbors the great messengers whose very names carry a powerful resonance:

Of all the entities of the celestial sphere, the Archangels are most closely aligned to the archetypal core of the individual psyche.

Jung's Archetype

Here is where the individual archetype intersects with the angelic sphere. To understand how, it should be noted that Jung's idea of individual psyche which houses the archetype, is trans-personal in nature. In other words, it goes far beyond the more localized thoughts, feelings and behavior of family and circumstances such as Freud trucked in. Jung's psyche has a broader reach.

Also, like the Celestial Hierarchy, Jung's definition of the psyche consists of four distinct functions wrapped around a central core or archetype. The parts of the psyche fall in this order:

Like the great Archangel messengers, this archetypal core acts as a messenger field, much like a gravitational field, between the celestial hierarchy and the individual psyche.

Traversing Realms

The core or archetype, in a way similar in nature to the Divine Core in the Celestial Hierarchy, has the strongest pull and is often the least understood. These two realms, the celestial and the human, are in sync with each other through their mutual archetypal energies. When they are brought together they form an interface or bridge over which the energies cross from one realm to the other. How does this co-mingling occur?

The Secret of the Arch

The words themselves reveal the secret: Archetype meets Archangel. The word Arch, in its oldest definition from the Oxford English Dictionary means bridge. Moreover, a bridge that also serves as an arch brings together two separate bodies at their highest point. The archetype within the human realm meets the divine in its angelic realm. In this way, the divine reaches into the human as the human stretches towards the divine.

In conclusion, the Celestial Hierarchy aligns with the individual psyche creating a newly combined hierarchy of human and divine.

For more about Carl Jung, archetypes and objective psyche please see my other Suite articles such as What is the Archetype in Jungian Psychology (see above for link) and Plato and Carl Jung: Two Philosophers

Sources:

Godwin, M. (1990). Angels, An Endangered Species. New York: Simon and Schuster.

The copyright of the article Angels and Archetypes: The Same or Different? in Metaphysics is owned by Megge Hill Fitz-Randolph. Permission to republish Angels and Archetypes: The Same or Different? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.