How Life Mirrors Art: An Introduction to the Six Major Archetypes of Life and How We Can Use Them In Storytelling!

My fellow storytellers! I have exciting news. There is more to life than the hero’s journey! How many times have we heard of the oversold hero’s journey? Someone sets off on a quest that shakes up their life, they must go on this quest to learn things and ultimately win against the bad guys before going home. But what happens before that? Or after? No one had given me satisfying answers until I stumbled upon K.M. Weiland’s book “Writing Archetypal Character Arcs: The Hero’s Journey and Beyond” and I’m going to do my best to retell the good news.

Six Major Archetypes

• The Maiden

• The Hero

• The Queen

• The King

• The Crone

• The Mage

Before I go into these newfound archetypes, I implore you to pick up a copy of this book and sink your teeth into this topic beyond this article. I firmly believe there is merit in writing stories outside the tired hero’s journey, but I’m getting ahead of myself. What are these new archetypes and how are they going to help up become elevated storytellers?

How Does Life Mirror Art?

We often take the stories we are fed for granted. With most characters having supernatural powers and unworldly problems, it’s sometimes hard to feel like life has any connection to art at all. But woven into every story is the truth of life. With that spark of life, the viewer would have no reason to watch it. And most human life follows the same tired ol’ tale:

Most humans are born, survive childhood, and then survive adolescence. They fight to establish their independence and eventually obtain it (or don’t). Then they are pushed into adulthood and must fight to survive in the harsh world of reality. They either come home as a hero or a failure. They get married (or don’t) They have children (or don’t). If they have kids, they learn to let them grow independently and take care of their own stuff for a change. You lead a good life and ensure that everyone who eats at your table is fed. You pass on your knowledge to the younger generations as you fight the good fight one last time before quietly fading into the background. This is how we see life, and, for the most part, we live it. And this, fellow storytellers, is what the six major archetypes are all about. Let’s break it down.

Six Major Archetypes

The major archetypes are broken into thirty-year cycles that make up our lives:

• Individuation

• Maturity

• Elder

These archetypes can be applied to any gender at any age. A young character can experience the feelings of The Crone just as much as a middle-aged character can have a Maiden arch. It is all about the type of story you want to tell. As you go through these concepts, think about where you are in life and which archetype you resonate with in the present. You may learn more about yourself than you thought you would today.

The Individuation Years: The First 30 Years

• The Maiden: A young adolescent who must establish their place in the community they have grown up in.

• The Hero: A young adolescent who leaves home on an epic quest to defeat a conflict, learn about themselves, and live happily ever after.

The Maturity Years: The Second 30 Years

• The Queen: The individual years after 'happily ever after' who is faced with a crisis and must learn to allow their kids to help them fix the problem, eventually allowing the character to grow into a leader.

• The King: The leader who faces adversity with overconfidence and must have their life tested to the brink of death, allowing them to see the value in their leadership and ultimately self-sacrifice themselves for the overall good.

The Elder Years: The Final 30+ Years

• The Crone: The character must learn how to pass on the legacy to another so the Hero can protect the kingdom while the Crone focuses on the true evil and learns the true meaning of death.

• The Mage: The character is in the final stages of life and has accepted the role that death will play in their life, getting the chance to have a hand in one final battle with the youth before willingly transcending to the great beyond.

Within each of these six major archetypes, there are positive, negative, and flat arcs that fill in some of the gaps we face in life, such as the Child archetype that appears before the Maiden archetype. I look forward to continuing the conversation on archetypes in future articles so I can break down each archetype by beats and highlight their corresponding sub-arcs. For now, ask yourself a few of these questions and see where they take you:

• What are some stories that you already know that would fit into a different arc besides the Hero’s journey?

• Which arc do you resonate with the most on a personal level? Why?

• Is there a story you are writing now that can benefit from these new arcs?

• How likely are you to look deeper into this topic? Why or why not?

There is no end to how we can approach our collection of archetypes from zodiac signs to personality types to the very stages of life itself. There is merit in remembering that art will always hold a mirror up to life and it is up to us lifeforms to make art about it. That’s what makes being a storyteller so awesome! Until next time.

About the Author

Crystal Cabrae is a storyteller who writes dystopian, romantic, and adventurous worlds for animation and fantastical fiction. Born as Angelica Cabrera, she is a proud graduate of Full Sail University, AMDA NYC, and New World School of the Arts. Her six years of acting training in New York and Miami gives her a unique perspective when approaching her characters. Crystal has a passion for sharing how to create stories with the world and inspiring the storyteller that lives within all of us. While she tries to keep up with her social media accounts, the best way to get to know her is over a cup of tea or a good plate of food.