The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Philosophy, Jungian Psychology, Human Design, Archetypes
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
If you have been following along this series on “Why Human Design”, you will note that at this point, we have covered a broad and vast array of angles: what energy moves around the body, how the actualization of human consciousness has spanned millennia of humanity and how archetypes have survived alongside nearly as long, and a deep dive into the history of the quantum physics that may truly support the experiential claims of the majority of humans.
But there is one essential thread that pulls together all of these prior topics, and that is how we individualize our lived experience into our personal story.
Imagine, if you will, three people are sitting around a table together, having tea. Suddenly, there is an earthquake that shakes the room that they are sitting in together, lasting 5 seconds. They all exclaim over the event, clean up any mess that may have resulted from the quake, and eventually calm back down once they each add a shot of whiskey to their tea and continue snacking on some cookies, but they ended up having an argument. Why?
While these three people all experienced the same event while sitting in the same room, they will EACH describe the event in an exceedingly different way! Perhaps one of the people at the table only recently moved to town and had never previously experienced an earthquake before, thus having a new perspective. Therefore, Person One was riddled with questions, attempting to piece together their understanding and stress level at the event, while psychologically forming a new neural pathway of remembrance. Perhaps another one of the people grew up in the area and had a ton of experiences with earthquakes but never one that was truly impactful, so Person Two shrugs the entire event off as being “not that big of a deal”, and attempts to empower Person One with the same belief. However, Person Three previously had a harrowing experience with an earthquake and was therefore visibly upset and insisting on telling ever-more terrifying memories of their past experiences, unable to heal and very angry at Person Two for being so cavalier while insisting Person One should be as afraid as they felt. The resultant argument, therefore, is the actual story of how individuation and personal narratives begin to intersect.
Even though these people were all in the same room at the same time they had vastly different experiences - moreover, as a parable, each of these individuals could be described as an Archetype. Person One the Innocent, Person Two the Indifferent and Person Three the Victim. In Jungian Psychology, this would be a starting point for the Individuation Process: how each of these individuals may begin to explore their own awareness of themselves in the face of a specific event. In this particular scenario, both the earthquake AND the argument are the moments of self-actualization into those archetypes, as they each unconsciously brought their own memories into the room that shaped their interpretation of the same event, and then allowed their emotions and beliefs to wield their development of the argument itself. Lastly, as each will walk away from this experience, the question is this: what is the story that they will tell of the event?
As humans, we often tell stories of triumph, of struggle, of pain and suffering, of overcoming odds. We tell stories of love and heartbreak, of horrors and humiliation, of the hubris and the wisdom of humanity as a whole. From an archetypal perspective, we may term our own, personal narratives as one of the Hero, the Martyr, the Villain, the Mercenary, the Sage. From a D&D perspective, character creation includes building a “backstory”, or “origin story”, often characterized by a background description such as “Charlatan”, “Hermit”, “Wayfarer”, “Acolyte” or “Soldier”. What’s interesting is that there are layers of abilities, feats, skill proficiencies, and even equipment that may be required to include that round out that backstory as such a way as to enable your rolled characters’ personality and method of play-acting that further develops your character in the setting where you play.
The irony is that your actual life is not much different than a fantasy one! Archetypes are, therefore, merely a way in which we categorize humans for the purposes of telling relatable stories: a common collection of behaviors, good or bad, depending on the lens through which we define the behaviors. In this way, we have the ability to craft descriptions that consider cowardice versus courage, victimhood versus empowerment, and villain versus hero depictions.
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, also known as “Q” in English literary circles, was the first scholar to suggest that the human experience could be whittled down into seven, basic plot lines for all story-telling; however, Christopher Booker named them and gave them descriptions in his book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. These are as follows:
Overcoming the Monster: The hero must destroy an evil that threatens their home.
Rags to Riches: The hero overcomes overwhelming obstacles to obtain wealth, love, and happiness.
The Quest: The hero seeks an object which they must claim, often accompanied by companions.
Voyage and Return: A protagonist leaves their home and faces trials and dangers to come back changed and experienced.
Comedy: Comedy is used here in the traditional sense, meaning that the story ends with a marriage or union.
Tragedy: The story of the antihero. The main character is also the villain, and the plot concludes with their ultimate downfall.
Rebirth: Rather than completing the arch of the antihero, the protagonist is able to avoid disaster by mending their ways.
Now, while this stance is quite debatable in many literary circles, the thought that I’d like for all of you to truly consider is this: What story are you telling about your life?
We don't just tell these stories about ourselves - we tell them about entire generations. Take the recent archetypal categorizations of each Generation: The Silent Generation versus the Boomers versus Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and now Alpha (or Beta, depending on how you count the last 100 years of “people-ing”). Each Generation simply CANNOT relate to the prior! What did they know? They only had …. Or they lacked …. Or they walked uphill both ways in the snow for… or they’re entitled to…
Notice that none of these are neutral descriptions - they're plot assignments. Villain, victim, hero, depending on who's doing the telling. If we do it to entire generations without a second thought, imagine how unexamined the story we're telling about ourselves might be.
But something else is lost in all of this storytelling: the recognition that we are the ones telling it. Before you can change your story, you first have to catch yourself mid-narration - to notice which archetype you've cast yourself as, and which conditioned pattern wrote the casting.
That recognition is where individuation actually starts. Studying Human Design, or really the development of consciousness, means looking back at your own memory closely enough to see yourself as a spiritual entity having a human experience in this particular time and place - and once you can see it, you can question it. That's the belief underneath all of this: that change is always possible. That there are an infinite number of ways to alter the trajectory of your personal narrative and craft a better future story of who you ultimately grow into and become.
