Context<\\/h2>\\n (If you\\u2019ve been reading this series, you can skip this repeating section.)<\\/p>\\n Men\\u2019s mysteries matter.<\\/a> Today, young men are confronted on one hand with reactionary voices who advocate gender roles decades or centuries out of date, and on the other with professional-managerial class \\u201cprogressive\\u201d voice who seem to think the answer to the reactionaries is to eliminate masculinity.<\\/p>\\n The transition to manhood is dangerous. Men are both more likely than women to be murdered and to commit murder. We\\u2019re more likely to be in prison, to be killed on the job, or to commit suicide. We\\u2019re less likely to finish high school or earn college degrees.<\\/p>\\n Boys who fail to make a successful transition to manhood end up at best being a drag on society, and at worst an active threat to people\\u2019s lives. And we will not help them make the transition by denying that manhood even exists.<\\/p>\\n To help young men through the transition, a system of archetypes can be a useful guide. No such system will be complete, of course. What I\\u2019m going to talk about in this series of posts is inspired by the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover<\\/i> by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, and also by Robert Bly\\u2019s work, but it\\u2019s my own thing. Anything smart is probably copied from those others and anything dumb here is probably my own fault.<\\/p>\\n By considering these archetypes I am not claiming that these roles are unavailable to women or nonbinary folks. Nor am I claiming that this is the only way to be a man. I\\u2019m offering some ideas that have helped me come to terms with my own existence as an adult male human being. (And cognizant that that is as a \\u201cwhite\\u201d heterosexual American male, though still believing there\\u2019s enough universality in the way androgens shape our brains for the exercise to be useful). If they don\\u2019t work for you, fine, please tell us your secrets! If you\\u2019re not a man and find that they work for you, great!<\\/p>\\n For each of these archetypes, we\\u2019re going to discuss a balanced version, an excess version, and a shadow version.<\\/p>\\n Visualize us going around a mountain: at the top is the Wild Man and the realm of excess, up where the air is thin. It\\u2019s exhilarating but we can\\u2019t stay there. At the bottom is the shadow realm of fear. The healthy mature man moves around the middle heights of the mountain, in neither shadow not excess, moving between the archetypes as needed. Over this series, we will visit eight points around the mountain: the Magician<\\/a>, the Healer<\\/a>, the Lover<\\/a>, the Preacher<\\/a>, the King, the Captain, the Warrior, and the Trickster.<\\/p>\\n

{"id":4824,"date":"2024-06-20T11:52:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T15:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/?p=4824"},"modified":"2024-06-25T22:59:50","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T02:59:50","slug":"masculine-archetypes-the-king-at-midsummer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thezenpagan\/2024\/06\/masculine-archetypes-the-king-at-midsummer\/","title":{"rendered":"Masculine Archetypes: The King At Midsummer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Over the this turn of the \u201cWheel of the Year\u201d, we are investigating and paying respect to eight archetypes of mature, sacred masculinity. The King At Midsummer is the fifth installment in this series.<\/p>\n

Context<\/h2>\n (If you\u2019ve been reading this series, you can skip this repeating section.)<\/p>\n Men\u2019s mysteries matter.<\/a> Today, young men are confronted on one hand with reactionary voices who advocate gender roles decades or centuries out of date, and on the other with professional-managerial class \u201cprogressive\u201d voice who seem to think the answer to the reactionaries is to eliminate masculinity.<\/p>\n The transition to manhood is dangerous. Men are both more likely than women to be murdered and to commit murder. We\u2019re more likely to be in prison, to be killed on the job, or to commit suicide. We\u2019re less likely to finish high school or earn college degrees.<\/p>\n Boys who fail to make a successful transition to manhood end up at best being a drag on society, and at worst an active threat to people\u2019s lives. And we will not help them make the transition by denying that manhood even exists.<\/p>\n To help young men through the transition, a system of archetypes can be a useful guide. No such system will be complete, of course. What I\u2019m going to talk about in this series of posts is inspired by the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover<\/i> by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, and also by Robert Bly\u2019s work, but it\u2019s my own thing. Anything smart is probably copied from those others and anything dumb here is probably my own fault.<\/p>\n By considering these archetypes I am not claiming that these roles are unavailable to women or nonbinary folks. Nor am I claiming that this is the only way to be a man. I\u2019m offering some ideas that have helped me come to terms with my own existence as an adult male human being. (And cognizant that that is as a \u201cwhite\u201d heterosexual American male, though still believing there\u2019s enough universality in the way androgens shape our brains for the exercise to be useful). If they don\u2019t work for you, fine, please tell us your secrets! If you\u2019re not a man and find that they work for you, great!<\/p>\n For each of these archetypes, we\u2019re going to discuss a balanced version, an excess version, and a shadow version.<\/p>\n Visualize us going around a mountain: at the top is the Wild Man and the realm of excess, up where the air is thin. It\u2019s exhilarating but we can\u2019t stay there. At the bottom is the shadow realm of fear. The healthy mature man moves around the middle heights of the mountain, in neither shadow not excess, moving between the archetypes as needed. Over this series, we will visit eight points around the mountain: the Magician<\/a>, the Healer<\/a>, the Lover<\/a>, the Preacher<\/a>, the King, the Captain, the Warrior, and the Trickster.<\/p>\n

The King<\/h2>\n ** Of the archetypes we\u2019re discussing in this series, the King may be the most problematic for us in modern democratic nations to connect to.<\/p>\n Hell, I\u2019m an anarchist. (In a Thoreauvian<\/a> or Zenarchist<\/a> sense, not in the sense of \u201cblack bloc\u201d ignoramuses smashing windows and throwing rocks or fireworks at people.) I\u2019m against hierarcical power structures. I don\u2019t want to rule anyone and I don\u2019t want any kings ruling over me. I\u2019ve got my issues with the American system of government, but one thing I\u2019m certain the American Revolution did right was dump the divine right of kings and set up a new system without one.<\/p>\n Maybe when we hear \u201cthe king\u201d, we think of Mel Brooks\u2019s portrayal of Louis XVI in History of the World, Part I<\/i>: an immensely privileged man, parasitic on those he rules, smirking as he says \u201cit\u2019s good to be the king\u201d.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not what the archetypal Sacred King is about.<\/p>\n <\/a> Howard Pyle illustration from the 1903 edition of The Story of King Arthur and His Knights<\/em>. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe King Is A Conduit For Blessings<\/h2>\n* The sort of King we are speaking of \u201creigns but does not rule\u201d, as has often been said of the British kings under constitutional monarchy. He does not command, he is not a conqueror. Instead the King is the conduit of blessings for his people. This kingship is all duty and no power, no temporal power at least. The Emperor of Japan, who has been more of a hereditary high priest than a ruler, or the kings of various African peoples, are closer to the core of the thing than the feudal rulers of Europe. The conflation of conquerors with kingship may be a fundamental problem of European culture.<\/p>\n As Lucien Scubla wrote,<\/sup><\/p>\n " The accumulated ethnographic and historical facts show that kingship is not, in principle, political power. It is an onerous ritual duty which results, more often then not, in the killing of the king. To reign does not mean to govern or to give orders, but to guarantee the order of the world and of the society by observing ritual prescriptions. The king is a sacred figure, but for this very reason he is \u2018bound\u2019 by the ritual. Under house arrest and a recluse in his palace, he submits to the same type of restrictions as those who are in a state of impurity\u2026<\/p>\n* \u2026<\/p>\n \u2026The king is not the master of the institution but its captive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kingship is a central theme of Tolkein\u2019s The Lord of the Rings<\/i> \u2014 the third volume is, after all, The Return Of The King<\/i>. Aragorn is first seen as a Warrior, acting to fulfill a mission to escort Frodo and his companions; later in the story he leads a great army as a Captain. But it is not his abilities in battle that cause him to be recognized as the king. It is his ability to heal. As the wise woman Ioreth states, \u201cit is said in old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.\u201d\u2020<\/sup><\/p>\n As literary critic Jane Chance explains, \u201cthe power of a king resides in his ability to heal, to knit together, to bring peace and fruitfulness to the community, and to return or renew that which has been torn or debilitated.\u201c\u2020\u2020<\/sup><\/p>\n So this is not a physical healing \u2014 Aragorn is not setting broken bones or suturing wounds. And it\u2019s not even an individual spiritual healing. Either of those would be the task of the Healer\/Shaman<\/a>.<\/p>\n Instead Aragorn is healing the Black Shadow, the blackness of the soul that the Nazg\u00fbl had cast en masse upon the land. Sauron and his servants have injured the order of the world, and it is this that the King heals.<\/p>\n The king is a conduit for blessings: the Chinese character for \u201cking\u201d, \u738b, is traditionally explained as showing the king as the central pillar connecting heaven, humanity, and earth. He is the man whom others want to be with, just because his company brings joy. Just by association with the King we become healed and empowered and inspired \u2014 \u201cOnly say the word and I shall be healed.\u201d<\/p>\n In our modern culture, celebrity is a distorted reflection of this sort of kingship, so it\u2019s no wonder that we\u2019ve had so many \u201croyal\u201d entertainers, from Elvis the King, to Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Prince \u2014 subverted, perhaps, by Queen. But it is the role of the performer on stage to act as a focus for the energies of the audience, just as the King acts as a focus for the energies of his people.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a> Shrine of Remembrance, Brisbane. Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Kgbo<\/a>, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Next in this series we\u2019ll be discussing the archetype of the Captain. The Captain is the man who leads Warriors (also to be discussed) into battle or other challenge; but the Warriors fight in the name of the King \u2014 \u201cfor King and Country\u201d, as the cliche goes. Or \u201cWe live for the One, we die for the One,\u201d for my fellow Babylon 5<\/i> fans.<\/p>\n The King Stands Alone<\/h2>\n This role as focus for the energies of his people puts a lot of demands on the King. The crown is heavy.<\/p>\n We began our series at the other side of the year discussing the Magician, who works isolated in his tower, out of sight of others. The King\u2019s isolation is different \u2014 he faces outward, he is front and center of his people, while the Magician faces inward. But his isolation is as deep. The King stands at the focus of the parabola of energies, apart from others.<\/p>\n We quoted Scubla above comparing Kingship to house arrest \u2014 a very different picture than Brooks\u2019s satire of French royalty.<\/p>\n The archetypes we\u2019re discussing can blend into one another, and all real people and fictional characters manifest more than one of them, so it is instructive to look at the edges between them. An interesting contrast which illustrates the line between the King and the Captain can be found in the first two interations of the Star Trek<\/i> television series. In the original, Captain Kirk \u2014 an archetypal Captain through and through \u2014 often leads the landing parties as his crew explores strange new worlds. He is with them leading the way and directly giving orders.<\/p>\n *But in The Next Generation<\/i>, Captain Picard remains on the ship like the King in his palace, while his first officer leads the missions and commands in his name. Picard is more isolated and detached. He occupies not just a command role but a social role: the crew organizes \u201cCaptain Picard Day\u201d for the ship\u2019s children. \u201cI\u2019m a role model\u201d, he explains to an admiral.<\/p>\n And not just in the story\u2019s universe \u2014 Brandon T. Snider wrote a YA book What Would Captain Picard Do?<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n Shadow: The Vampire<\/h2>\n Where the King energizes us, the vampire drains our energy. The classic vampire Dracula of course, or for my fellow Adventure Time<\/i> fans, the Lich, who by a mere word can cause our hero to fall<\/a>. In Lord of the Rings<\/i>, the \u201cWitch-king of Angmar\u201d (leader of the Nazgul) casts a spiritual \u201cBlack Shadow\u201d that drains its victims.<\/p>\n By association with the vampire we become disempowered\u2026and yet he has a hold on us. He makes us into beings like him, as Dracula turns his victims into vampires.<\/p>\n Excess: the God-Emperor<\/h2>\n According to Philo<\/a>, when Caligula became Emperor of Rome, \u201call the world, from the rising to the setting sun, all the land in short on this side of the Ocean and beyond the Ocean, at which all the Roman people and all Italy rejoiced, and even all the Asiatic and European nations\u2026.universal prosperity and happiness\u2026reigned every where, and the absence of all grief and fear, and the daily and nightly exhibitions of joy and festivity throughout every house and throughout the whole people, which lasted continually without any interruption during the first seven months of his reign.\u201d<\/p>\n But in a few months, \u201che began to indulge in abundance of strong wine and eating of rich dishes, and in the abundant license of insatiable desires and great insolence, and in the unseasonable use of hot baths, and emetics, and then again in winebibbing and drunkenness, and returning gluttony, and in lust after boys and women, and in everything else which tends to destroy both soul and body.\u201d In time, \u201che no longer chose to remain fettered by the ordinary limits of human nature, but aspired to raise himself above them, and desired to be looked upon as a god.\u201d<\/p>\n Or, again for my fellow Babylon 5<\/i> fans, the Centauri Emperor Cartagia, who plans to sacrifice his entire planet in order to elevate himself to godhood.<\/p>\n Applying the archetype of the God-Emperor to the American presidential race of 2024 is left as an exercise for the reader.<\/p>\n The King at Midsummer<\/h2>\n******* * Some of our Neopagan traditions speak of the Holly King and Oak King, who do battle at the Winter and Summer solstices. At midsummer the Holly King deposes the Oak King, while at midwinter the Oak King deposed the Holly King; and each is reborn for the next seasonal cycle. \u201cThe king is dead, long live the King\u201d; for while the individual king is mortal, the Sacred King represents the order of the world and so must go on.<\/p>\n * So take some time this season, as the world blossoms into it fullness, to consider your relationship with this archetype.<\/p>\n * Evocation of the King<\/h2>\n * I evoke and call forth \nThe Sacred King<\/p>\n * I honor and acknowledge \nMy ability to convey blessings to others \nTo act as a focus of energies \nThe social energies, the cosmic energies<\/p>\n * I will remember that I am a focus for, not the sole source of, \nthese sacred energies<\/p>\n * I will seek to empower others, never to drain them \nI will work to heal my community<\/p>\n * I will manifest the Sacred King \nAnd help all those I meet manifest their own sacred selves<\/p>\n * So mote it be.<\/p>\n * References<\/h2>\n * On-line references are given by links in the text above. In addition:<\/p>\n * ************** Toklien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings, Part Three: The Return of the King. New York: Ballantine Books, 1965. p166<\/p>\n* ** \u2020 Chance, Jane. The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power. New York City: Twyane Publishers, 1992, 104; quoted in Calco, Lauren, \u201cThe Hands of a Healer:\u201d J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Understanding of Kingship, http:\/\/ashbrook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/2006-Calco-Hands-of-a-Healer-PDF.pdf<\/p>\n * \u2020\u2020 Scubla, Lucien. \u201cSacred King, Sacrificial Victim, Surrogate Victim or Frazer, Hocart, Girard.\u201d In The Character of Kingship<\/i>, Declan Quigley ed., New York: Berg, 2005, p. 39-40<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" * *************He does not command, he is not a conqueror. Instead the King is the conduit of blessings for his people. 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