One book penned by Matthew Fox in the late 1990s was subtitled: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society. While the endgame is unchanged, it is telling that Matthew today deems it especially important to talk about recognizing evil, as shown by the subtitle of his most recent book, Trump & the MAGA Movement as Antichrist: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time.
In the 1990s, Matthew wrote: Perhaps the reality of our time was best summarized in a sentence by J. Robert Oppenheimer, when the first atomic blast was successfully detonated in the New Mexico desert: “Now we know evil,” he said. I wonder how many people involved today in the military-industrial complex, or in the prison system, or in ICE, still have this knowledge. It seems to me that we have devolved, rather than evolved. Thus it becomes necessary to relearn how to recognize evil.
In particular, Matthew talks about recognizing the archetype of evil. It should not be taken for granted that evil is an archetype or rather an archetypal force that activates specific archetypal figures such as the Antichrist. Choosing to use such terms is saying a lot in and of itself.
C.G. Jung took the preexisting word “archetype” to indicate certain entities made of ideas, behavioral patterns, and psychic energy which are located in the collective unconscious of humanity. It is a common place today that ideas completely unknown to the subject are nonetheless present in him/her and thus influence his/her behavior. Freud called this phenomenon the unconscious; Jungians call it the personal unconscious, in distinction from the collective unconscious of humanity, which is just as operative in individuals as their personal one.
I suppose that the study of history and religions together predisposes one to believe in the existence of the collective unconscious and its archetypes. The perception that humanity is one — a tenet of all major religions — and the observation of how historical shifts often seem irrational, and yet they also seem led by some invisible forces, help one becoming a full-fledged Jungian.
For Jungians, archetypes are real forces which take hold of the human psyche. They can be very dangerous, therefore. Being completely detached from them would mean being completely rational, which is impossible. Recognizing the presence of an archetype in one’s behavior is the only way to manage its influence.
One could find oneself to be led in life by the archetype of the mother, for example, which doesn’t seem too bad, except that it might prevent a person from developing other aspects of her personality, besides also having the shadowy aspect of the controlling and even the devouring mother.
The Christ/Antichrist archetype is not dissimilar: it defines a personality with messianic qualities, a great leader with a huge appeal, but such archetype is embodied on the good side by people like Jesus and on the dark side by people like Trump. You cannot find a starker opposition in life than between those two, of course. However, they are confused by the MAGA people precisely because they are the same in a sense, just like the good mother and the devouring mother are both “the mother.”
Socially speaking, archetypes can take hold of groups of people or even masses. When we talk of mass hysteria or how unexpectedly a certain society was led very fast to develop in either good or bad ways, we are talking about the activity of archetypes.
Recognizing the presence and the power of any archetype is essential to keep its power in check. Thus naming MAGA as Antichrist and helping as many people as possible to see it as such is the only way to help the world waking up. There is no other way.
Banner Image: Archetypes: ” The most accurate reflection is in the center mirror. Because under the shells of personality there is a Nothing and Something of the spirit, unknowable as the depth of the cosmos.” Photo by Dimmis Vart on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
Recognizing how hard it is to show to somebody how they are prey of an archetype — as they keep saying that they simply believe in certain ideas that look rational to them — are you developing any strategies in this very important line of spiritual work?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
TRUMP AND THE MAGA MOVEMENT AS ANTICHRIST: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
The Beloved Will Guide You: St. John of the Cross and the Triple Dark Night of Our Times (available for pre-order)
Natural Grace: Dialogues on creation, darkness, and the soul in spirituality and science
Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
4 thoughts on “Evil as an Archetype”
Thank you, Gianluigi. Jung warned that what we refuse to make conscious comes to us as fate, and you ask what strategies we are developing. Mine begins within. I have come to know these archetypes in myself. I have seen the potential for cruelty and evil right beside my earnest and loving heart. Even with that awareness, and with the help of the forces we call angels, I can still fall prey when unrecognized parts of me fall for another belief.
So when I meet the archetype in others, I can empathize with their conditioning. I know how hard it is to break my own patterns. How can I fault anyone for still struggling with theirs?
The version of them I perceive is filtered through that same archetype in me. In a universe of pure potentiality, I carry that potential too. Seeing them mirrored in my own awareness, I can hold space for these energies to find their reconciliation. Naming evil with my own shadow in view keeps it from becoming scapegoating.
So I try to meet the conflict not with coercion but with presence, and to be what I want to see in the world, not one more source of friction.
Oppenheimer said, “Now we know evil.” Our task is to know it again, both outside and within.
If I am not mistaken, I believe that, after the first nuclear test, the closest thing Oppenheimer said to “Now we know evil,” was a quote from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Later he also repeated on a few occasions and even wrote something similar: “In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.” See: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/h3eAK6KDmNI
and https://www.helena.org/magazine/a-generation-of-oppenheimers/
I fully agree that it is essential to recognize that archetypes are to the psyche what dormant viruses (like the varicella-zoster virus that triggers shingles years later) are to the body. One can indeed catch evil like one catches flu if the environment allows the archetype to awake into a type. What we call “radicalization” is a prime example.
In the same vein, the following quote is attributed to the French poet and diplomat Paul Claudel: “Children should not receive religion, they should catch it from people around them.”
Well done! You made a murky topic clear.
Several years ago my husband and I, and our two kids, cut off communication with his parents over their MAGA beliefs and support of Trump. After years and years of attempts to reach them, to be heard, to be seen, it was clear there was no progress to be made. They were under a spell. Or maybe the influence of a very strong archetype.
I have since forgiven them completely, and we exchanged one letter each, but we still don’t talk, and likely never will as they are quite old now and live far away.
The main strategy that I’ve developed to push back against these forces is to consciously transform energy from dark to light. I will find a comfortable spot, close my eyes, and channel grace and light into all the dark places, and literally transform the darkness into light. I’ll sit like this for hours sometimes, sending love and light to individuals and all of humanity, with no more intention than hoping they will feel loved and held, and have a little less darkness to carry around. It’s like I’m a tree that metabolizes evil/darkness, and turns it into pure love/light.
I have faith that this helps but I can offer no proof.
Another tactic I use is forgiveness. It’s tough, but forgiving those who embrace Trump and MAGA is an important step in setting things right. We need to meet these evil forces with love and light – not more of our own darkness. The only thing that makes darkness subside is light.