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{{short description|Jungian archetypes of the collective unconscious}}

In [[Philosophy:Analytical psychology|Jungian psychology]], the '''Wise Old Woman and the Wise Old Man''' are archetypes of the collective unconscious.

The Wise Old Woman, or helpful old woman, "is a well-known symbol in myths and fairy tales for the wisdom of the eternal female nature."<ref>Jacobi, Jolande. [1964] 1978. "Symbols in an Individual Analysis." In ''Man and his Symbols'', edited by C. G. Jung. London. pp. 331, 335</ref> The Wise Old Man, "or some other very powerful aspect of eternal masculinity" is her male counterpart.<ref>Hannah, Barbara. 1988. ''Striving Towards Wholeness''. Boston. p. 291.</ref>

==Individuation==
In [[Biography:Carl Jung|Carl Jung]]'s thought, the [[Philosophy:Individuation|individuation]] process was marked by a sequence of archetypes, each acquiring predominance at successive stages, and so reflecting what he termed an ascending psychic scale or "hierarchy of the unconscious".<ref name=":0">Jung, C. G. 1953. ''Two Essays on Analytical Psychology''. London.</ref>{{Rp|226}} Thus, beginning with the intermediate position of "anima or animus...just as the latter have a higher position in the hierarchy than the [[Philosophy:Shadow (psychology)|shadow]], so wholeness lays claim to a position and a value superior,"<ref>C. G. Jung, ''Aion'' (London 1959) p. 31</ref> still. The Wise Old Woman and Man, as what he termed '''''Mana''''' or ''supraordinate'' personalities, stood for that wholeness of the self: "the ''mother'' ("Primordial Mother" and "Earth Mother") as a supraordinary personality...as the 'self'."<ref>Jung, C. G. [1969] 1996. ''The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious''. London. pp. 183, 187</ref>

As Marie-Louise von Franz put it:<ref>von Franz, Marie-Louise. "The Process of Individuation." In ''Symbols'', edited by C. G. Jung. p. 207–08.</ref>
{{quote|If an individual has wrestled seriously and long enough with the anima (or animus) problem, so that he, or she, is no longer partially identified with it, the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form representing the Self, the innermost nucleus of the personality. In the dreams of a woman this centre is usually personified as a superior female figure – a priestess, sorceress, earth mother, or goddess of nature or love. In the case of a man, it manifests itself as a masculine initiator and guardian (an Indian ''[[Biography:Guru|guru]]''), a wise old man, a spirit of nature and so forth.}}
The masculine initiator was described by Jung as "a figure of the same sex corresponding to the father-imago...the mana-personality [a]s a dominant of the collective unconscious, the recognized archetype of the mighty man in the form of hero, chief, magician, medicine-man, saint, the ruler of men and spirits."<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|226–7}} Similarly, "the wise Old Woman figure represented by [[Religion:Hecate|Hecate]] or the [[Unsolved:Crone|Crone]]...the Great Mother"<ref>Claire Douglas, ''The Old Woman's Daughter'' (Texas 2006) p. 42</ref> stood for an aspect of the mother-imago. The archetypes of the collective unconscious can thus be seen as inner representations of the same-sex parent—as an "imago built up from parental influences plus the specific reactions of the child."<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|184–5}} Consequently, for the Jungian, "the making conscious of those contents which constitute the archetype of the mana personality signifies therefore "for the man the second and true liberation from the father, for the woman that from the mother, and therewith the first perception of their own unique individuality'."<ref>Jung, as quoted in Jacobi, Jolande. 1946. ''The Psychology of C. G. Jung: An Introduction''. London. p. 116.</ref>

==Mana attributes: positive and negative==
In Jung's view, "all archetypes spontaneously develop favourable and unfavourable, light and dark, good and bad effects."<ref name=":1">Jung, C. G. 1969. ''Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self''. London.</ref>{{Rp|267}} Thus "the 'good Wise Man' must here be contrasted with a correspondingly dark, chthonic figure,"<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|229}} and in the same way, the priestess or sibyl has her counterpart in the figure of "the witch...called by Jung the 'terrible mother'."<ref>[[Biography:Northrop Frye|Frye, Northrop]]. 1971. ''Anatomy of Criticism''. Princeton. p. 196.</ref> Taken together, male and female, "The hunter or old magician and the witch correspond to the negative parental images in the magic world of the unconscious."<ref name=":2">Jung, ''Archetypes''</ref>{{Rp|235}}

However, judgement of such collective archetypes must not be hasty: "Just as all archetypes have a positive, favourable, bright side that points upwards, so also they have one that points downwards, partly negative and unfavourable, partly chthonic"—so that, for example, "the sky-woman is the positive, the bear the negative aspect of the 'supraordinate personality', which extends the conscious human being upwards into the celestial and downwards into the animal regions."<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|195, 226}} Yet both aspects, celestial and chthonic, were of equal value for Jung, as he sought for what he termed a ''coniunctio oppositorum'', a union of opposites.  "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light," he argued, "but by making the darkness conscious."<ref>C. G. Jung, ''Alchemical Studies'' (London 1978) p. 265-6</ref> Similarly, with respect to the goal of the individuation process itself, "as a totality, the self is a coincidentia oppositorum; it is therefore bright and dark and yet neither."<ref>Jung, C. G. 1963. ''Mysterium Coniunctionis''. London. p. 108n.</ref> At this stage of development one possesses discernment or some other [[Philosophy:Virtue|virtue]].

Coming to terms with the Mana figures of the collective unconscious—with the parental imagos—thus meant overcoming a psychic [[Philosophy:Splitting (psychology)|splitting]], so as to make possible an acceptance of "the Twisted side of the Great Mother"; an acceptance of the way "the father contains both Kings at once...the Twisted King and the Whole King."<ref>Bly, Robert. 1991. ''Iron John''. Dorset. p. 113, 115.</ref>

==See also==
*Archetypal psychology

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Jung}}

[[Category:Folklore]]

{{Sourceattribution|Wise Old Man and Wise Old Woman}}