We continue today, thousands of years on, to use Greco-Roman gods as metaphors for different perspectives on life, different patterns of behavior, different constellations of beliefs values, needs, instincts and habits.
When Jung developed his archetypal theory, he continued in this tradition, finding the the gods in personal and collective behavior.
James Hillman related these and other archetypes to great myths across many cultures, but it is those of us whose roots lie in European history that tend to go back time and again to the Greco-Roman gods for our metaphors and images.
Contemporary archetypal psychologists continue to use the same language and share this same perspective and we have (over the last few years) covered off on sixteen of the gods as they become evident in organizational cultures.
Our colleague and friend Bernie Neville has written an intriguing essay on how the current positions, strategies, hopes, fears and explanations we see and hear about Covid-19 are, yet again, the god images give a distinct and observable shape to our understanding of the virus, its impacts and our response to them.
Read and enjoy Bernie’s expose of The Gods in a Time of Corona and how they continue to explain our understandings.
If this field of understanding interests you then you can explore more in our book Olympus Inc. – Intervening for Cultural Change.
Tim Dalmau
October 2020
