THE ANTI-HERO'S JOURNEY | Villain Archetype: INTEGRATING your SHADOW

I'm sure by now you've probably heard about the hero's journey popularized by Joseph Campbell and if you haven't go check out my video on the hero's journey and we'll meet you back here but what many people don't often talk about is the anti hero's journey have you ever wondered what purpose the villain plays and storytelling or even more importantly in our own lives why at times we empathize with certain villains he had completely despised another now in the short documentary we will be exploring the crucial role that villains play in the human narrative and how to better understand our own dark side this is the anti hero's journey before we begin let us quickly flip the coin and focus on the hero's journey for a moment in a nutshell the hero's purpose in mythology is to sacrifice themselves for the greater good this often means fighting evil protecting the innocent and basically becoming an adult right separating from the mother leaving your ordinary world going to the special world and bring back the elixir of knowledge to your homies gone full circle and developing your character arc some of the more developed hero traits include nobility courage humility and higher nature dominance some examples of popular heroes in our modern culture includes Spider Man Iron Man Superman Batman ant-man radioactive Man Goku and while the hero's journey usually consists of separation initiation integration and rebirth the villains journey consists of attachment regression alienation and death some of my personal favorite villains include Thanos Joker Voldemort Loki and Vegeta these are the rejected anti-heroes that usually represent the main hero's adversary the villain represents the personified shadow that the hero has rejected within themselves and a huge mistake that we make is that we completely deny these traits within ourselves which ends up biting us in the ass in the long run even if you're completely disgusted by someone's actions it's important to acknowledge them as a human being and recognize those traits within yourself and think about it if you were born in someone else's shoes how do you know that your life wouldn't unfold itself the exact same way that theirs did you never know so you might as well try to understand their situation shaming and blaming individuals only fuels the fire and causes the shadow to backlash even more like a demon baby screaming to be heard this doesn't mean that we should accept evil by any means but it's exactly how evil people take advantage and prey on good natured people you cannot afford to be naive about this aspect of humanity this is how people get seriously hurt and killed in the long run so let me make it clear that evil is very real there is no joke about it if left unchecked monsters can grow and terrorize humanity which just happened over and over again in history like your Hitler's your Stalin's and your kangas cons and this is exactly why we need to understand this repressed part of the collective unconscious something that we all share showing nothing but hate and lacking that empathy will only feed the monster within us so I think it's important to learn about the villain archetype and see what this says about humanity so these are common values that many famous villains lean towards in many cases represent the extreme negative side of polarity and this is why villains generally speaking lean more towards the route of anti-god anti-nature and anti-life they go more towards the shadow side they give in to their impulses they're using their lower carnal nature rather than their higher nature [Music] and yeah it's true some villains do have a good point and they might even have good intentions like fan arse wanting to kill half the population for ultimately reducing suffering but whenever you try to play God and impose your will at the expense of others it never ends up going well for you villains aren't always evil per se just opposite they conflict and oppose the main hero's values and even though there are literal external villains in the world there is always an internal villain that can manifest itself in the form of fear greed power this often projects itself onto the world which attracts certain characters into your life and it does it so that you can hopefully integrate that aspect of yourself and finally be a peace and then you will no longer attract those people in your life it's about tying loose ends and healing the unconscious part of yourself that you've repressed even though there are many different types of villains out there I would like to share just a couple with you guys types of villains include the tyrant the diabolical schemer dark trickster archetype that is just pure chaos and does whatever at once just because hahaha there's the evil genius / mad scientist there's the fanatic which is a bad guy that genuinely believes that he's a good guy doing the best for Humanity and there's the scariest type of villain which is the devil it's basically pure evil personified so as you can see there are many different shades of what makes a villain a villain not all villains are evil per se however it is very common for villains to turn into monsters eventually and yes sure some villains can end up turning good but it really depends on the type of villain if we're talking about the personification of evil like the Joker for example who has said himself that he's an antidote of chaos he knows what he's doing is but he wants to spread suffering just for the sake of spreading suffering he wants to prove to humanity that we're really evil deep down and were just one bad day away from it and some common factors which can cause some villains to turn into monsters includes isolation and rejection victims of abuse a poor philosophical foundation giving in to their impulses and going the unconscious dark route and if you really want to learn more about how a villain is created go watch Joker with Bucky and Phoenix this is a brilliant character study of a man slowly descending into madness and becoming one of the most iconic villains in modern culture and one of the key features of what makes a villain a villain is that unlike the hero who sacrifices themselves for the greater good villain sacrifices others for their own needs and desires what is the purpose of the villain or is it really just to spread havoc and evil into the world there are a few reasons why villains play such a vital role in storytelling number one to challenge and help bring out that goodness within the hero bringing them transformation and knowledge which helps them integrate their dark side number two they challenge our beliefs and morals buildings can speak very harsh truths that most people don't even want to consider for a second as it can bring up very painful emotions and realizations about the world I try to show the schemers how pathetic there are attempts to control things really are it can be really difficult acknowledging certain horrific aspects of reality that could shatter your world in a million pieces and sometimes they can get so bad that it's like in the matrix when people get unplugged prematurely if they die because they just weren't ready and another purpose of the villain and it may not be an overly compelling reason but it creates a more entertaining story at least in creative media however in real life it's not always cool I mean yeah sure villains like low-key and Thanos may be charismatic and even relatable in some ways but when you translate that into the real world we've got evil people killing raping and controlling the world behind the scenes it's a lot more serious villains should never get a pass for their actions just because we acknowledge and empathize with the evil side of our psyche in extreme situations of course we should always fight evil but if it's out of a place of reactivity hate and ignorance and a [ __ ] you attitude then it'd be like cutting off a head of a Hydra just for three more to appear you got a door from a more understanding loving place and that brings me to a very important point and that is to never attack the character but the action and the force behind it in other words never blame evil people for what they do but try to understand evil itself try to understand the underlying causes of these actions that manifest in the world then to be fair not everyone has to necessarily integrate evil in its entirety however it can be wise to at least understand it and try to have compassion to even those that appear to be pure evil this will greatly help you integrate your darkside and eventually help you transcend the whole hero's journey model understanding your shadow counterpart which are depicted as villains in mythology will help you progress through your own character arc and you will be wiser for it knowing your villain really helps you see the blind spots the chinks in your armor so to speak unfortunately evil does exist but if we're actively quote-unquote fighting it without honestly looking at ourselves first we will only feed the vicious cycle of good versus evil for eternity and it will be self-inflicted our various strengths invites challenge challenge incites conflict conflict breathes catastrophe in every hero story arc there always comes a time when you realize that your quote unquote good intentions was only creating stronger monsters right it's like almost nature counterbalancing itself with an antibody the very concept of a hero will always imply a villain not only in the real world but it also manifests within the human psyche itself as the shadow however just like evolution you cannot skip a stage with that severe consequences the hero's journey represents a psychological narrative of human development but just like any cycle of development it can only take you so far until you were required to move into the next level a more wiser magician mentor leaning archetype the anti hero or villain within your own mind is the final frontier of the hero's journey most will never complete it and many don't even start the hero's journey to begin with they never really answer that call to adventure integrating your dark side is an excruciatingly ly painful journey if you face it unprepared honor and respect the stage you are at and try to enjoy the process all the way through cultivate your heroic traits like courage purpose nobility and more importantly sacrificing yourself for the greater good and this all requires walking the hero's path and doing what you have to do learning what you need to learn and moving on when you have to move on life is always going to present challenges specifically tailored to your individual needs the more you grow as a human the more life will turn up the difficulty according to your state of consciousness sort of like a video game when you gain experience and skill points the enemies start to become stronger until you reach a boss battle and then when you defeat that boss you level up and move on to the next stage to fight even stronger buses until you're finally ready to face the endgame boss and in life adversity may manifest itself as negative thoughts impulses resistance which can later progress into a life crisis sickness mental problems family death etc but eventually you realize that the villain that you've been fighting your whole life has been youth you realize that you've been repressing and even provoking your shadow in unconscious ways especially by blaming everyone else and when you realize that this has been the root cause of most of your suffering you claim your power back and are able to integrate your shadow until it comes back more developed but at this stage you'll learn to be more loving towards yourself even the ugly parts you've rejected good and evil are two sides of the same coin as it states in the Cobell Yin opposites are identical by nature but different in degrees pairs of opposites exists everywhere and by understanding this principle one may transmute any negative emotional state into its counterpart so don't lose hope the tendency of nature goes towards the dominant activity of the positive pole towards life knowledge light and expansion this is why darkness cannot touch light in the same way light can dominate darkness but if we swing the pendulum with too much force even if it's towards the positive end of polarity the pendulum will eventually swing backwards just like the shadow when you deny it the key is being aware of both sides of polarity and reconciling the opposites this will expand your tool belt and help you walk a more harmonized path making your wise a vigilant person that possesses the power of mental transmutation transforming evil into good fear into courage unconsciousness into consciousness shadow into light and this all starts with knowing thyself so you've got to ask yourself will you choose knowledge or ignorance the choice is yours thanks for watching guys hope you got some value out of this and learnt a little bit more about the anti hero's journey I think this is a very important topic that many people shy away from especially wouldn't it has anything to do with integrating your dark side and I get why we shy away from this but at the same time we've got to think about the collective here and the damage we are doing by just denying and ignoring certain aspects of reality that makes us feel uncomfortable and this is actually a really interesting year for me to upload this video you know 2020 hopefully when you watch this video from 5 years in the future you're gonna look back and be like wool some crazy [ __ ] went down and yeah I think I think well it already is my country is literally on fire right now I can smell the bush fires from my window and it was unknown endangered but you know it's just funny looking back on this channel and seeing how my very first proper video was about the hero's journey and I know that I've been super slack on this channel not really uploading but all my time and resources have been in going into my main channel you're my time but I do want to make more videos on this channel so if you enjoyed this video got any value out of it and wish to see more like this then feel free to check out our patreon you can join out in a circle by our exclusive patron server and join a group of like-minded individuals who want to help each other with self-development growth integration shadow work and all this kind of stuff even if it's 5 or 10 bucks a month every little bit helps as time goes on I want to continue making more videos on this topic of integrating your dark side as it's it's Bank in this video less than 15 minutes was really really challenging so there's so many different avenues you can go down and man you can make a video on like each sub archetype or even each villain right and their story and how it relates to humanity in real life and men's anyways I'm gonna I'm gonna stop rambling now that long story short there is a lot of content that I could make on this topic of shadow integration so if you did enjoy this and would like see more comment below share it with a friend supports a patron or PayPal or merch whatever you got to do it's all good love you guys catch in the next video peace

Channel: RAW Spirituality

Views: 10,021

Rating: 4.948276 out of 5

Keywords: raw spirituality, rawspirituality, the hero's journey, hero journey, anti hero, villain, the villain's journey, joseph campbell, integrating your dark side, understanding your darkside, shadow work, vegeta villain, the heroes journey, hero archetype, villain archetype, evil, understanding evil, good vs evil, polarity, knowledge

Id: O1iaY3IjzQA

Length: 17min 15sec (1035 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 10 2020