Exploring The Healer Archetype

In this article, we’ll look at the Healer archetype.

I’ve talked about archetypes in many other articles, but to reiterate: an archetype is a kind of character template or pattern that tends to appear in human life and human culture. According to Jung, the archetypes themselves are apersonal and exist in the collective unconscious. We can’t see them, only their effects.

It’s not that any of us are a Healer and a Healer alone: instead, we embody the Healer archetype to one extent or another. The archetype itself is merely an idealisation, a kind of standard that we can strive towards and embody.

This is now an archetype because of the long history of healing, which goes all the way back to time immemorial. Shamans, witches, midwives and priests have all been involved in this process. Jesus (whether you consider him an archetype or a historical figure) is/was a wonderful embodiment of the Healer archetype.

This long history has seared it into our psyche, creating the Healer archetype. In many ways, the human condition is defined by brokenness and the need for healing, meaning this archetype is highly valued.

In fact, there are many Healer archetypes, such as the Wounded Healer, the Caregiver, and the Nurse. We’ll focus on the Healer itself.

Key Traits of the Healer Archetype – 1: Heal

Unsurprisingly, the Healer heals. They takes an ill state in either an animal, a human, a group of people, or a society, and turn it into a healthy one. This sounds obvious, but it’s fundamental. They’re concerned with creating wellbeing and joy wherever there is suffering and brokenness.

This is important: there is a clear beginning and end, a clear result that is achieved. The Healer archetype is a results maker, not just an armchair philosopher or idealist. It’s grounded in the real problems of the world and seeks to resolve them.

In this sense, the Healer archetype comes in many forms: psychologists, therapists, doctors, yoga instructors, meditation teachers, spiritual masters, supportive friends, experts in various domains, vets, masseurs, personal trainers, and more.

If you look for the healing capacity, you might just find it in unexpected places. Healing is not necessarily a hands-on, physical activity. For example, philosophers, scientists and diplomats all heal through their specialised knowledge and strategies.

Key Trait 2: Empathy

The Healer fundamentally must be empathetic if the healed person is to feel cared for. The Healer archetype welcomes in, listens, reassures, and then decides on a course of action. It genuinely wants to help and often feels their work as a transcendent calling.

It’s not out to heal others for its own gain, unlike many Big Pharma companies and health professionals. It’s a vehicle or conduit for the healing process, not a leech feeding on that process. Whenever we are selfish, we inevitably lack empathy, and so fundamentally violate the Healer archetype.

Without empathy and a genuine desire to help, we can fall into the many shadow expressions of the Healer archetype. We can become charlatans, get high on approval and status, become addicted to the material rewards of our healing, and try to heal when it’s not wanted.

I think that modern medicine fails in this key trait of empathy. Patients are seen as collections of meat and bone, governed by neural firings, not as complicated beings with fascinating inner worlds. We treat the external without learning about the internal, without seeing people as they are and valuing them as such. This is a violation of the Healer archetype.

Key Trait 3: Intuitive

The Healer archetype is also intuitive, a capacity it develops by gaining knowledge and skills in a particular modality, then reaching a state of post-knowledge, of seeing the whole rather than the parts, and knowing or sensing how to heal.

In all fields, our knowledge eventually accumulates and crossmulitplies to such an extent that we develop an intuitive feel for that domain.

A firefighter comes to sense and feel how a fire will behave, in a way that he cannot explain. A chess player can apprehend the direction and unfolding of a chess game many moves in advance. A tennis player eventually learns to read serves without consciously doing so.

The Healer archetype has massive amounts of knowledge, so much so that solutions come naturally and automatically, with an air of simplicity. Thus it’s able to break the boundaries of current achievement or discovery and offer new healing methods.

It seems to know what the best course of action is, without needing to seek guarantee or verification in advance. To others, their skills seem to verge on magic.

Do You Embody the Healer Archetype?

I encourage you to look at these three traits (healing, empathy and intuition) and see if you embody them in your life, whether in work, family or friendships. To the extent that you do, you’re embodying the Healer archetype.

It might not be part of your professional life, though I encourage you to look closely. As I said, the Healer archetype isn’t just for the person who administers medicine and plasters people up. Anyone who converts pain and brokenness into wellness and wholeness is a healer.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of archetypes: discover more of them in my archetypes series.