“The Innocent” Archetype
Purposes of this paper
Presented as a ministry to help readers amplify their own divine light of “innocence” and appreciate that in others. If you have a lot of these qualities and characteristics but seem to lack some of them, perhaps this description could serve as a guide to expanding your self more.
We all have access to this and to every other archetype as an aspect of ourselves. The more the description below matches you or someone, the closer you or they are to the “pure” version of this archetype—having more of it than usual. Each individual person will have various degrees of various qualities and characteristics; the description below is of the pure Archetype itself.
The value of relatively purely embodied Archetypes is that they tend to evoke their own qualities in others. We each have the potential of the particular qualities of any archetype, and being around a purer vibration of those qualities gives us some inner permission to be more that way ourselves. (It seems to be part of the cosmic delight of The One in experiencing being The Many.)
Context of this paper, Level of certainty
Everything I say here is my own impressions and best hypotheses. I also am drawing from a period of radical immersion in my own Innocent archetype. It is not my main archetype but was predominant for a period of time. I hold everything here as likely but not certain. Please read every sentence as if it included: In my view……,” or “As best I know….,” or “It seems likely that…..” If you think I’ve left out something essential, or included something not essential, please comment below or contact me.
None of this is taken from any other descriptions of this archetype. Also, I am not in this paper locating this particular archetype within any of the available frameworks of archetypes. It might fit in a system with other archetypes like Magician, Teacher, Scholar, Scribe, Observer, Adventurer, Sorcerer, Storyteller, Artist, Builder, Warrior, Lover, etc.
Qualities the Innocent Has (and some possible downsides of those)
Adventurous
Appreciative
Authentic
Benevolent
Internally consistent
Cultural outsider
Curious
Direct
Disclosing
Expansive
Exploratory
Forgiving
Give benefit of doubt without even realizing the doubt
Honest
Integrity
Internally simple ----- oversimplifying things
Open
Optimistic
Patient
See clearly what is, cut through fog
Spontaneous, happy with situations where emergence is valued
Straightforward ----- can be experienced as attacking
Trusting ----- naïve, gullible, can be manipulated
Truthful ---- tactless, blunt
Vulnerable, emotionally open ---- intimate
Qualities The Innocent Doesn’t Have
See the section below on someone who is the opposite, for exceptions to “an Innocent doesn’t have these qualities.”
At war with themselves
Bitterness
Blame (self or others)
Complexifying
Convolutions
Criticizing, Deprecating, Condemning (self or others)
Deceit, deceptive
Different personas with different people or situations
Double-standards
Faking
Fear
Game-playing
Guarded, defensive
Guile
Guilt
Hidden Agendas
Holding grudges, seeking revenge or retaliation
Hostile humor, sarcasm
Hypocrisy
Inhibited
Internally divided and inconsistent
Jockeying for status
Lying
Manipulation
Obfuscating
Regrets
Resentment
Sabotaging (self or others) Second-guessing of self or others
Seduction techniques
Shading the truth
Shame
“Snow jobs”
Sophistication
Sterotyping, prejudice
Strategizing
Telling partial truths
Whitewashing or Blackwashing
How others respond to an Innocent
Positive Responses
Wishing life could seem that simple for me; it would be a relief
Wishing I could be that vulnerable which leads to intimacy
I can feel encouraged to be that open and self-disclosing
People who are “ready” to own and embody more of their own Innocence find Innocents restful to be around, and refreshing; such people can relax out of their usual complex inner life and constant guardedness.
Others would see them as having a lot of integrity (except for not keeping secrets) because they tend to mean what they say, say what they mean, and be consistent over time. They are “authentic.” Some folks experience that as delightful uniqueness, “one-of-a-kind.”
Negative Responses
That much sudden intimacy is threatening.
My hidden agenda is threatened by open disclosure.
My secrets are not safe; if disclosed, I would feel betrayed by the Innocent.
People not ready to embrace more of their own Innocence potential find Innocents annoying, dangerous, childish, or inferior. The danger comes as suspicion about “what game is she playing by appearing so simple and honest?” It can also come via fear of being in resonance—subconsciously triggered into being more honest and vulnerable, thus falling into harm.
People can feel bluntness and straightforwardness not as benevolent but as attacking.
General Observations and Reflections
(Some of the qualities listed above are repeated here and some new ones are mentioned.)
Innocents are guileless: they don’t lie, deceive, fake, manipulate, or strategize, and they don’t comprehend that anyone would do that, so they can be naïve or gullible “victims” of deceit or manipulation sometimes.
They are honest and truthful, even when that can be experienced by others as tactless, because they don’t comprehend why anyone wouldn’t want to be in the truth about everything. They cannot be counted on to keep any secrets. They tend to blurt out the truth as they know it, and that can lead some others to regard them as dangerous to purposes based on less than full truth. They are somewhat similar to the Fair Witness social role described in Robert Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land: objectively telling the literal truth as they see it in that moment, though Innocents aren’t necessarily objective.
They tend to be optimistic, so while usually they see things as they are, and call them as they see them, they can be somewhat blind to darker aspects of human nature. They see the best in others and can cling to a non-working relationship because they see the “potential” in the other person and the relationship.
From an outside perspective we might say they unreservedly give everyone “the benefit of the doubt” but The Innocent wouldn’t phrase it that way, because they don’t have “the doubt.” You can see how this makes them vulnerable. They simply don’t comprehend the darker, convoluted, complex aspects of the human psyche, so they tend to not even see those. In some sense that amounts to self-delusion as distinguished from their usual ability to cut through fog and see things clearly as they are.
However, because they are so rooted in truth, authenticity, benevolence, and optimism, Innocents tend to be quite resilient; that is fostered also by being more in the moment than in the past or future. Their resilience can involve a certain distancing from unpleasant happenings, which might not be fully “real” to them. However, it can also be that an Innocent can look “bad things” right in the face and not flinch.
Because of what we might also call their “generosity of spirit,” they tend to be patient, benevolent, and trusting. That makes them good teachers, coaches, and mentors, among other things. Their generosity also tends to make them “give away the farm” when they own, for example, intellectual property, so don’t expect an Innocent to be good at marketing maneuvers.
The authenticity of an Innocent is thorough. They don’t have “personas.” The Innocent is a WYSIWYG person: what you see is what you get, as them, even if they are a public figure. They are the ones people say are “approachable” and “the same in person as she is on stage.” This WYSIWYG quality is an important resonance The Innocent has with children, animals, and Nature, and why an Innocent often finds comfort and rest with children, animals, and Nature. Innocents often feel “not really grown-up” because of their similarities with the qualities of children which you can see throughout this paper.
Innocents are aware of their mistakes, failures, and goofs, but shame and guilt are foreign to their nature. They aren’t in denial of these events (that would be too complex.) They just don’t “go there” into those feelings and self-images. Thus they are also relatively immune to fear. Fear is at root a perception of self as powerless to prevent harm or deal with harm. This perception is in turn at root a form of feeling defective. The Innocent doesn’t feel self as defective, so they don’t easily anticipate harm and don’t generally feel powerless; such situations as failures or mistakes are felt as learning opportunities, creation opportunities.
The Innocent expects the universe to be benevolent, because they themselves are benevolent. The “subjectivist fallacy” (see below) works in their favor, in that way.
They are internally simple, and see things as relatively simple. This means they are not internally divided, not internally inconsistent, not at war with themselves, not self-blaming or self-critical, not self-deprecating or self-condemning.
Combined with the positive force of their innate optimism this also means they will tackle “impossible” projects because they are not hindered or hampered by self-doubt. They tend to be expansive, open, curious, and adventurous, willing to explore “where angels fear to tread.” They also tend to be playful and prone to awe and wonder. They like playing, experimenting, in a co-creative “sandbox” context with others who can dance with their bluntness and being in the moment, or alone. They don’t much like rules and layers of restrictions over their impulses and urges. They do best with super-simple rules which are sensible and of obvious benefit to everyone concerned.
Because they see truth and are internally simple, they live in a kind of “lucky” benevolent flow of synchronicities; they aren’t self-sabotaging or inhibited. For the same reasons, they tend to ask embarrassing questions and talk blithely and directly about “the elephant in the room” that everyone else has been tiptoeing around and would perhaps prefer to continue pretending is invisible. Similarly, they will challenge a status quo without realizing the possible responses of others. It’s The Innocent in children that leads them to ask the stranger amputee (while the parent flames with embarrassment) “Where is your arm? Why is it gone?”
Their authenticity takes them out of the mainstream of their culture; they don’t buy into status symbols, for example, and a lot of popular culture makes no sense to them, because they can see the whole truth of the matter, all the aspects of “what is.”
It takes a self-development effort for an Innocent to be able to take the perspective of someone else because their tendency is to see life as simple and everyone else as similar to themselves. The fundamentality of their innocence does tend to protect them from getting empathically sucked into those other perspectives, though; they don’t tend to take on those perspectives empathically, even when they become able to grant that others’ perspectives are fully real to those others. The Innocent can come to understand those perspectives, but from the outside.
So in some sense, The Innocent is somewhat narcissistic or prone to “the subjectivist fallacy:” they project their own inner characteristics onto others. Appreciation and gratitude come naturally to an Innocent because they see the truth of how people are helpful and good to one another, more readily than they see hurtful or harmful behavior, but they can see that and often fearlessly, without caution, call it out, in non-judgmental ways.
What about people who are the opposite?
If you see someone who displays the opposite of many of the Innocent qualities, then from a soul-perspective, we could see that person as being and exploring the Innocent archetype and learning more about what it is from experiencing/being its opposite. One knows something thoroughly only when one knows its opposite as well.
Let’s improve this description
If you feel most of this description applies to you but that some qualities and characteristics of The Innocent are mis-represented, missing, or being judged, by all means get in touch and let’s improve this description!
Examples
Example in film: The female lead character Kate in “The Tall Guy” with Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tall_Guy
Examples in literature: Most of the heroes and heroines in Georgette Heyer’s Regency romance novels. I haven’t read it, but I think Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot is about an Innocent (who does not fare well in the world because of what he evokes in/from others.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Myshkin
Please contribute more examples, or any comments, below, or by contacting me at amplifydivinelightinallchurch @ gmail .com.
By Rev. Alia Zara Aurami, Ph.D.
Head Minister, "Amplifying Divine Light in All" Church
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