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Archetypal Psychology and the Inner Landscape

Mixed-media collage of a woman walking a golden path through a sacred landscape of standing stones and ancient symbols. Her layered patchwork dress and the textured paper surface evoke rich materiality. Above her, a translucent female face watches gently, blending into a background of earthy golds and muted blues. Surrounding symbols - spirals, ankhs, alchemical glyphs - enhance the sense of a mythic inner journey guided by soul.


Gaining A Deeper Way of Understanding Who We Are

Have you ever felt like there are patterns within you – recurring themes, images, or roles – that keep showing up throughout your life, even if you can’t always name them?

Archetypal psychology invites us to see these inner patterns not as flaws or quirks to fix, but as deeply meaningful expressions of soul. At its heart, this approach asks a profound question: What if your inner life has a symbolic shape? And what if that shape isn’t random – but is trying to tell you something essential about who you are?

In this post, we’ll explore how archetypal psychology offers a soulful lens for understanding your inner landscape – and how it connects to the idea of walking a purposeful path.

Prefer to watch or listen? This short video brings the ideas in this post to life.

Seeing with Soul Eyes

Much of modern psychology focuses on problem-solving. Archetypal psychology, first named by James Hillman, turns that on its head. It doesn’t ask, “How do we fix the self?” but instead, “How do we listen to the soul’s imagery?”

This approach draws on the legacy of Carl Jung, who believed we are shaped not just by family and society, but by archetypes – universal symbolic patterns that live in the collective unconscious. The Lover, the Warrior, the Sage, the Trickster- these are not just characters in stories. They’re active within us, colouring how we see the world and how we live our lives.

But Hillman took it further. He said we should stay close to image. To metaphor. To the poetry of the psyche. Rather than reducing our experiences to neat categories, we’re invited to let them remain rich, ambiguous, and mysterious. Because that’s how the soul speaks.

Archetypes as Soul Invitations

In response to the world we find ourselves in today, I’ve developed a series of Alternative Archetypes – soulful companions for those walking the path to purpose. These aren’t fixed roles you must grow into. They’re invitations. Mirrors. Patterns that help illuminate your unique way of moving through the world.

You might resonate with The Seeker, always drawn toward what lies beyond the horizon. Or The Truthteller, compelled to speak what others are afraid to say. You might feel a pull toward The Gardener – tending life quietly, persistently, in your corner of the world.

Not all of these archetypes have been made public yet. But even if you’ve only seen a few, you might already sense the power in having names for the deep inner energies that shape you.

These archetypes aren’t prescriptions. They’re descriptive: they help give language to the forces that already live within you.

The Inner Landscape as Mythic Terrain

One of the most powerful ideas in archetypal psychology is that your inner life is a landscape. Not a blank slate to be organized – but a wild, symbolic place to be explored.

In this terrain, you might meet:

  • The Wilderness Dweller, who thrives on solitude and insight.
  • The Spinster, who chooses sovereignty and soul over societal norms.
  • The Visionary, who dreams a new world into being.

These are just some of the soul figures who may walk alongside you. And the terrain itself is shaped by your longings, wounds, patterns, and gifts.

When we begin to map this inner terrain, we stop asking “What’s wrong with me?” and begin asking “What story am I in?” or “Which archetype is stirring now?”

Why It Matters

Understanding your life through the lens of archetypes changes everything. It brings a deeper layer of meaning to your experiences. It helps you see the cyclical nature of growth – not as linear progress, but as a spiral path. And it allows you to meet yourself with more curiosity, compassion, and creativity.

You are not a machine to be optimized. You are a soul with a symbolic life.

An Invitation

If you’re curious, here are a few simple ways to begin exploring your own inner landscape:

  • Notice recurring themes in your life story. Is there a role you’ve always found yourself in?
  • Track your dreams or daydreams. What kinds of figures show up? What symbols?
  • Choose an archetype from the ones that have been shared so far and reflect: How does this energy live in me? How might it be guiding me right now?

The soul doesn’t usually speak in bullet points or deadlines. It speaks in images, patterns, and longings. Archetypal psychology helps us translate those whispers into meaning.

And in that meaning, we often find our next step.

🌿 Explore the Alternative Archetypes
If this idea resonates with you, I invite you to visit the – a growing collection of symbolic guides designed to help you connect with your inner landscape. Each archetype offers a unique lens on purpose, depth, and soulful living. New archetypes are being added regularly, so feel free to return and explore what’s unfolding.

Because your soul has many faces. And each one may hold a key to who you’re becoming.

Explore the Alternative Archetypes
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The Art of the Interesting

A close-up of hands creating a detailed nature journal filled with botanical sketches and handwritten notes. The open notebook shows labelled drawings of leaves and wildflowers, while real plant specimens are arranged on a wooden table nearby. The person wears a warm, rust-coloured sweater, and the scene is lit by soft natural light, evoking focus, care, and a deep curiosity about the natural world.

What makes life interesting – and why does it matter? In The Art of the Interesting, philosopher Lorraine Besser explores this overlooked but vital question, suggesting that cultivating “interestingness” is not just pleasurable, but meaningful. Drawing on psychology, aesthetics, and moral philosophy, Besser argues that developing our capacity for curiosity, depth, and engagement enriches both personal wellbeing and our relationships with others. In a culture preoccupied with productivity and performance, her invitation is a refreshing one: to live reflectively, creatively, and with greater emotional awareness. While the tone leans philosophical, the ideas are rich and rewarding for anyone drawn to soulful living and inner growth. In the full review, I offer a reflective review of Besser’s thought-provoking book – and explore how it aligns with a deeper search for purpose, imagination, and a life that feels truly alive.

Read the full review

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The Soul Guide

Impressionistic oil painting of a glowing, ethereal figure gently reaching out to a smaller, more defined human figure. The scene is bathed in golden and soft green tones, creating a dreamlike atmosphere that suggests a connection between soul and self, or inner guide and seeker.

A Companion on the Inner Journey

Have you ever felt there’s a deeper presence within you- something wiser, quieter, more enduring than your everyday self?

In the mythic imagination, this presence is sometimes called the soul guide. You might know it as your intuition, inner knowing, or even a daimon, to borrow the ancient Greek word for the personal spirit that accompanies each of us. It’s not loud or commanding. It doesn’t push or demand. But if you listen closely, it whispers a path.

In this second article in the Soulful Path series, I want to explore the idea of this inner guide – not as a fixed entity, but as a companion who evolves alongside us, helping us to live in greater alignment with who we really are.

Prefer to watch rather than read? Check out the video below.

What Is the Soul Guide?

The soul guide is not a guru or external authority. It’s an inner archetype – a symbol of the part of you that seeks wholeness, wisdom, and authenticity. In many traditions, this guide has appeared in different forms: a spirit animal, an ancestral presence, a wise elder, or even a future version of yourself calling you forward.

Psychologist James Hillman described the daimon as the unique pattern that shapes a person’s calling. It’s the inner thread that weaves meaning through our life, even when we can’t see it clearly.

In coaching, I sometimes notice when someone begins to shift from searching outside themselves to listening inward. They move from “What should I do?” to “What is life asking of me?” That’s the moment when the soul guide begins to stir.

Meeting the Guide

We don’t usually “meet” the soul guide in dramatic moments. More often, it’s in the pauses – the quiet walks, the journals filled with questions, the dreams we almost forget. It might speak in images, metaphors, or persistent longings. It shows up when something inside says, This matters. This feels true.

Why It Matters

In a noisy world full of expert advice and five-step plans, it can feel radical to say: You already have a guide. But this is at the heart of a soulful approach to life purpose. The soul guide doesn’t hand us a masterplan. Instead, it asks us to walk with presence, to live the questions, and to honour what is most alive in us.

When we learn to listen, we stop chasing clarity and start cultivating connection. We begin to trust that there’s a deeper intelligence in the unfolding of our lives.

And we realise: we were never walking alone.

Archetypes as the Language of the Soul

The soul guide doesn’t always speak in words. Often, it speaks in images, longings, and symbolic patterns– what we might call archetypes.

I’ve developed a set of Alternative Archetypes to reflect the kinds of deep, soulful roles that often emerge on the path to purpose. These aren’t fixed labels or boxes – they’re invitations. They represent the many ways the soul guide might show up in your life: as the Mentor, the Seeker, the Artist, or the Wounded Healer.

You might think of the soul guide as an inner companion – and the archetypes as the many faces it wears to help you hear its call.

When one of these archetypes resonates deeply with you, it may be your soul’s way of saying: Pay attention. There’s something here for you.

Read the first article in this series
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Refining the Rhythm: A Quick Update

You may have noticed that I’ve been sharing both blog posts and videos about the Alternative Archetypes, often a few weeks apart. To keep things clearer and more enjoyable for you, I’m pausing new blog posts for a few weeks while the videos catch up.

Once we’re aligned, I’ll move to a simpler rhythm: one post a week on a Wednesday that includes both the written reflections and the video together in one place. This way, each archetype gets the full space it deserves – and your reading and viewing experience becomes more seamless.

Thank you for being here and walking this path with me. The pause is just a breath in… and we’ll continue exploring the archetypes- together – in a clearer, deeper way very soon.

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Living between Worlds

A man stands at a fork in a dirt path during golden hour, facing away from the camera. To the left, the path winds through a sunlit rural landscape with a lone tree under a glowing sun. To the right, the path leads toward a distant modern city skyline under a cooler, clouded sky. The image symbolizes a choice between nature and urban life, or tradition and modernity.

In Living Between Worlds, James Hollis invites us into the soulful terrain of transition – where old maps no longer guide us and new ones have yet to appear. Drawing on Jungian depth psychology, myth, and lived experience, he explores how uncertainty can become a path to inner authority and meaning. This is a book for those navigating life’s in-between spaces, seeking not easy answers but a deeper, more authentic way of being.

Read the full review here

This book is one of the reviews from the Archetypes, Soul and Depth Psychology theme – click here for more reviews on this theme.

Click here for all book reviews
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A Soulful Path

A person stands at the beginning of a winding path that stretches into soft green hills under a pale sky, with the sun glowing gently above—evoking a sense of contemplation, journey, and soulful purpose.

Reclaiming the Language of Depth in a Surface-Driven World

What if the path to purpose wasn’t something to chase, but something to remember?
Not a to-do list or a job title, but a deep homecoming to the self beneath the surface?

So many people arrive at the threshold of life purpose coaching hoping to find direction. And that’s understandable. But what I’ve found is that what we’re really searching for is not a new map – but a new relationship with the terrain of our inner world.

In this series, I want to take a step back and explore the deeper foundations that quietly underpin a more soulful path to self-discovery: soul, archetypes, mythopoetic imagination, and the idea of a soul guide. These concepts speak to those of us who sense that the dominant narratives about success and meaning don’t quite mirror to the full truth of our lives.

Prefer to watch rather than read? Check out the video below

Why Soul? Why Now?

The word soul has fallen out of favour in some circles. It can seem nebulous or overly poetic in a world that prizes productivity and clarity. But soul points us toward something essential. Something slow, rooted, and quietly knowing. It reminds us that we are more than roles, routines, or even personalities – we are stories unfolding, mysteries living themselves through time.

To speak of soul is to honour the part of us that longs for beauty, truth, and belonging. It’s the part that aches when life feels out of alignment, and sighs with relief when something finally clicks – this is who I am. This is what matters.

A Language for the Inner World

In the posts that follow, I’ll explore:

  • The soul guide as a symbolic companion – an inner archetype that helps us navigate our own mythic terrain.
  • Archetypal psychology, drawing on thinkers like Carl Jung and James Hillman, and how it offers a map for understanding the patterns that shape us.
  • Mythopoetic imagination – the art of seeing our lives as rich, evolving stories rather than problems to solve.
  • And how all of this connects to soulful living and meaningful life design.

This isn’t about abstract theory. It’s about reclaiming a deeper way of seeing ourselves—one that embraces mystery, listens inward, and dares to ask different questions. Who am I really, beneath the masks? What is life asking of me now? What hidden thread has been quietly weaving through my experiences all along?

Walking Together

If you’ve ever felt like modern life asks you to move too fast, skim the surface, or fit yourself into a mould that doesn’t quite fit- this series is for you. My hope is to offer not answers, but invitations. To help you reconnect with your own inner knowing. To walk a little more slowly. To listen a little more deeply.

Because the soul doesn’t shout.
But it is always whispering.

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Finding A Nature-Based Path to Soulful Living

A woman sits quietly by a small campfire in a desert landscape at sunset, surrounded by tall cacti and distant mountains. She wears rugged outdoor clothing and a backpack, gazing thoughtfully into the flames. A bird soars overhead in the golden sky, evoking a sense of solitude, reflection, and deep connection to nature.

Our latest book review, Wild Mind by Bill Plotkin offers a radical reimagining of the psyche – one that honours our innate wholeness and our deep connection to nature. Combining depth psychology, myth, and wilderness wisdom, Plotkin invites readers into a soulful journey of integration and growth. For anyone seeking to live more fully and authentically, this book is both a guide and a gateway to the wild within.

Full review
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It’s Time: The Soulful Path to Life Purpose is Now Open

Abstract symbolic artwork featuring flowing spirals, circular patterns, and organic forms in earthy tones of gold, blue, and bronze. At the centre, a shell-like spiral evokes a journey inward, surrounded by radiant orbs, botanical motifs, and a sense of movement and harmony—symbolizing the unfolding, interconnected path of soulful life purpose.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored some of the deeper questions that surround life purpose:

  • What does it really look like to live with purpose in an authentic, grounded way?
  • Why our purpose is more than a job title – and how it’s woven through how we live, love, and show up.
  • How self-knowledge forms the foundation for meaningful change.
  • What the Spiral Path approach offers – a gentler, more reflective route to clarity.
  • Why this approach is different from conventional life coaching.
  • And how six key domains shape a life that feels whole, balanced, and aligned.

Each of these posts has offered a glimpse into a more soulful way of understanding life purpose – one that honours complexity, inner wisdom, and the quiet unfolding of your unique path.

Now, the journey begins.

Today, I’m delighted to officially open the doors to the Soulful Path to Life Purpose programme.

This self-paced online course is designed for thoughtful, reflective people who are ready to explore who they truly are and how they want to live. Whether you’re at a crossroads, seeking deeper clarity, or simply curious about what’s next, this programme offers a gentle but powerful process to help you reconnect with yourself and design a life that reflects your values, gifts, and aspirations.

This isn’t about hustle. It’s not about finding the perfect career.

It’s about coming home to yourself.

Through a carefully curated sequence of reflections, exercises, and insights, you’ll explore:

  • The patterns and influences that have shaped your life
  • Your personality, strengths, values, and passions
  • How to craft a vision for your best self and aspirational goals
  • What meaningful contribution looks like for you – both now and in the future

And if you’re someone who wants to go further, you’ll have the option to begin crafting your own Soulful Project – a tangible expression of your purpose in action.

A Flexible, Self-Guided Journey – With Optional Support

The Soulful Path to Life Purpose is a fully online, self-guided programme – designed to fit around your life, your pace, and your process. You can move through the materials in your own time, reflecting deeply as you go.

And if you’d like more personal support, you have the option to add one-to-one coaching sessions at key points in your journey. These sessions offer a space for deeper exploration, personalised guidance, and encouragement as you bring your purpose to life.

Ready to Begin?

You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need a willingness to explore, to listen inwardly, and to trust that your life holds more meaning than you’ve perhaps been told.

The Soulful Path to Life Purpose is open now.

Find out more ….

If you’ve been nodding along with these posts, if something deep inside you feels called to take the next step—this is your invitation.

Let’s begin the journey.