This is the one specific ability you need if you want to rise to the top
Beware the shadow ruler — how to resist the tyrant within
You can listen to this piece on TikTok (Part I, Part II), Instagram (Part I, Part II) and YouTube (Part I, Part II).
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In our fifth instalment on archetypes, we’ll explore the Sovereign’s journey and the psychology of archetypal power (spoiler: it's probably not what you're imagining). The Sovereign is my gender-neutral name for the more traditional King archetype, which is the fourth in a series of six journeys that map onto the archetypal human life.
In these journeys, the character transforms from one archetype to the next. The Sovereign’s journey that we're exploring today, therefore, is not about becoming the Sovereign but about arcing out of the Sovereign and into the Seer.
The Sovereign's journey
The Sovereign's journey is an awakening that takes place in the symbolic setting of the Empire. In real life, whether the head of a family, the CEO of a business, or the captain of a sports team, anyone inhabiting this archetype will be the boss. And they are a good one, too – mature, powerful, compassionate and understanding, the Sovereign represents someone at the apex of their life or current journey.
In terms of the bigger picture of the life story, the Sovereign is at the midpoint, which in traditional story structure represents a big turning point or a moment of truth: the protagonist opens their eyes to what their story is really about and who the antagonist really is.
The problem, of course, of reaching the apex of anything is that from that point forward, the only way is down. While the arcs before this one have all been about the claiming, owning and expanding of power and responsibility, the Sovereign now finds themselves looking at a necessary act of relinquishing these things.
If you've been following this series, you might have noticed that sacrifice plays a role in every arc:
The Tenderfoot had to sacrifice the familiarity of their childhood home in order to claim autonomy as an individual.
The Warrior had to sacrifice the egotistic desire for glory and independence for the reward of reintegration with the community.
The Luminary had to sacrifice the doting dependence of those they loved in order to step up as an empowering leader.
And now, as that empowering leader, the Sovereign finds themselves reckoning with the crushing realisation that the best thing they can do for their Kingdom is step down and hand the crown to their successor.
Think: William Wallace in Braveheart…
Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe…
or Theodin in The Return of the King (when he passes leadership to Aragorn).
The Sovereign's journey
Journey: an Awakening
Symbolic setting: the Empire
A transition from the Regal World to the Preternatural World
Theme: the sacrifice of a king for the kingdom, requiring the selfless act of offering oneself as propitiation against a great threat; relinquishing of one's power, status and influence; accepting the natural cycle of life
Of course, no one stays at the top forever but no matter how natural and necessary this is, it will be hard. And just as the Luminary needed an external threat to catalyse their change, the Sovereign also needs an outside problem to get this going. Which brings us to the Sovereign's first archetypal antagonist: a cataclysm.
Now, up until this point, our well-trusted, competent ruler has proven themselves to be capable of defending the kingdom against all manner of enemies but this one is different. A threat so enormous that the Sovereign's usual defences just won't make a dent in it – think Sauron's vast army of orcs and nazgûl in Lord of the Rings.
The Sovereign's antagonists
1. The Cataclysm
Even though others around them might not be able to grasp this (yet), the Sovereign soon comes to the conclusion that this enemy cannot be defeated. Rather, the ruler’s self-sacrifice is the only way to protect the realm.
In real life, the cataclysm represents either a state of systemic unease or a problem that is too big or different for the current way of doing things – and therefore requires some kind of restructuring. Psychologically, it could be as simple as the need for change and growth, as things become stale when they stay the same for too long.
So this story is about the inevitable situation in which we’ll need to let go of our hard-earned power, status or influence for the greater good (and to keep things moving) – instead of desperately clinging to a role or a relationship because we can't bear the prospect of change.
The midpoint journey relates to the (symbolic) death that necessarily comes before rebirth. It’s about going from the known to the unknown, from organised to wild, from established to brand-new.
That, of course, is hard to take and the Sovereign will almost certainly succumb to their desire to prove themselves still worthy by trying to defeat the Cataclysm using the old methods that, deep down, they know will fail. And when they do, the second of the Sovereign's archetypal antagonists will make themselves known.
2. The Rebels
The Rebels pose a threat from within the walls of the Kingdom. Vocal in their displeasure following the Sovereign's failed gambit, they attempt to sow the seed of doubt and dissension throughout the court and, ultimately, try to usurp the Sovereign.
Psychologically, you'll probably know the Rebels as the inner voices of self-doubt and shame that say "See! You never deserved this in the first place" or "Now everyone will see that you've always been a failure waiting to happen."
The Rebels, in other words, just heap on an extra layer of internal pressure for this ultimate test of rising above the core desires of the ego: Can we gracefully let go of our power when we need to? Are we able to sacrifice a former version of ourselves, one that enjoyed status, respect or influence, for the greater good? I can think of times when I've had to do this (albeit on a much, much smaller scale) and I don't think I've done it gracefully once.
The rewards of the Sovereign's journey
The good news is that all is not lost for the Sovereign. This journey symbolises the internal process of failure, death and rebirth, which we must go through every time we make any significant psychological transition. Old attitudes and perspectives must be laid to rest if we are to make way for updated and improved ones. This is the process of spiritual or psychological growth.
The rewards of the Sovereign's journey
Rewards/virtues: wisdom and an evolved understanding of the meaning of life
The rewards of this journey, then, are wisdom, prudence and a renewed understanding of life's meaning. The Sovereign is arcing out of the second act of life and into the Elder’s third act – one of insight and transcendence. This means that the Sovereign will ultimately come to know the Cataclysm not as an enemy but a teacher, and the transition, as a gift: the Sovereign is becoming the Seer.
The Sovereign's Lie vs. Truth
Fairly obviously, the main conflict on this journey is one of Strength vs. Surrender.
The Sovereign's lie: Objective power, control and influence are at the pinnacle of human achievement
The Sovereign's truth: Spiritual strength requires me to relinquish my former power
Have you had to make a self-sacrifice of this kind in your life yet? Have you had to let go of some kind of power in order to gain wisdom? Is there a situation in your life where you suspect you may need to make this kind of transition in the future? And have you seen others struggle with this challenge?
The Sovereign's shadow archetypes
If we fail the test of this arc, then we’ll invite the Sovereign's shadow sides forward, the Puppet and the Tyrant. You may have noticed that the real baddy in any one of these journeys (regardless of who or what the specified antagonist might be) is stagnation. Anything that prevents our protagonist from levelling up to the next challenge and arcing out of their current archetype will force them into a shadow role.
In real life, most of us would agree that it's usually best to choose the path of change and evolution over the path of dormancy and inertia (at least in the long term). This is because long periods of stagnation can make us feel powerless. It can also either leave us with unmet needs we just don't believe we can satisfy (on the passive end of the spectrum) or force us to resort to suboptimal, destructive or manipulative methods of getting our needs met (on the aggressive end of the spectrum).
1. The Puppet – a passive refusal to be a true servant-leader
This is a leader who is not powerful in and of themselves; they just wield power. They may have inherited their position of authority before really earning it. Or they may have earned it but now find themselves too frozen by fear or insecurity to embody their authority fully because they struggle to believe in themselves as leaders. In these cases, the Puppet is essentially imposter syndrome personified.
The Puppet archetype leaves a leader not only ineffective but also manipulable by anyone who might wish to use them to fulfil their bad intentions.
For examples of Puppet Sovereigns, think:
Joffrey and Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones…
Or King Theodin in The Two Towers, who is possessed by the evil of Sauron and therefore literally controlled like a puppet. This is also the perfect metaphor for dangerous stagnation – Theoden is basically rotting.
2. The Tyrant – an aggressive refusal to be a true servant-leader
Perhaps worse than the Puppet, a stagnating ruler could go the way of the Tyrant. Simply unwilling to relinquish their power and status, the Tyrant is a selfish ruler who uses their subjects as tools to meet their own needs.
Think: Michael Corleone in The Godfather…
Scar in The Lion King…
Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
The Tyrant's refusal to self-sacrifice will also be born of fear – the fear to let go of what was and the fear of what will be on the other side. Remember that the Sovereign arc is about passing over the apex of life's midpoint and therefore finding ourselves staring down the road towards death.
The Sovereign is ripe for a midlife crisis – and the Tyrant's refusal to let go can be seen as a fearful, if understandable, attempt to reject one's own mortality. Psychologically, it's not necessarily a literal death that the Tyrant is trying to ward off but a metaphorical one, and to fall prey to this shadow archetype is to lose ourselves to the fear of change.
To avoid the Sovereign's shadow, then, is to befriend change, even – in fact especially – when it requires great sacrifice. It's hard to see it before the fact but on the other side of any psychological death lies rebirth. The ONLY way to come off worse after the Sovereign's journey is to refuse to let go.
So, my question for you is this: Are you holding on to something you need to let go of?
What is the material or at least temporal, worldly thing that you're most afraid to relinquish in life? Is it money? Respect, adulation? How about achievement or success?
Because you may not need to do this right now but in order to cross the threshold and become a great, wise Seer, it’s almost certainly that which you must be willing to give up.
Thank you for reading!
We’re Hazel (ex boxer, therapist and author) and Ellie (ex psychology science writer). We left our jobs to build an interactive narrative app for self-awareness and emotion regulation (Betwixt), which you can try on Android here and on iOS here.
I appreciate this series. It's a thoughtful way of acknowledging change.
Really enjoying this series. Thank you!