The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By Paperback – July 8, 1998

In her widely-acclaimed book, The Hero Within, Carol Pearson reminds the reader of the ways in which we can be heroic in our daily lives. She does this by identifying the archetypal stages of development that we all go through, and illuminates the tasks that must be mastered in order to successfully move on to the next stage. She offers a clear description of each of these stages: Innocent, Orphan, Wanderer, Warrior, Martyr, and Magician, and provides great insight into the ways that we can all meet the challenge of fulfilling their requirements with skill and courage. In successfully meeting these challenges we develop inner strengths and virtues that last a lifetime. I have personally benefited greatly from reading this book and other books by Carol Pearson and I highly recommend it! - Linda Bloom Co-Author of 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married, Secrets of Great Relationships, and Happily Ever After... and 39 Myths about Love.

This book in essence for me was a life changer. Friends of mine recommended the book to me. I was somewhat skeptical of the concepts when one of them kept repeating "we're magicians, we're magicians!" I said to myself "witchcraft?!" oh nah this book is not for me. I stand corrected, this book is for EVERYONE! I could not stop myself from turning the next page. Each page revealed another secret behind the human psyche and all the potential we possess if we listen to our archetypes and the experiences that we face throughout our lives. I can understand myself and others with a clearer conscience because of this book. The author is witty, thoughtful, and filled with so much wisdom. Excellent read. This book will reside amongst my favorite reads!

The so-called Archetypes are no more. As the poets might put it, they've long since fled, leaving a vacuum in the psyche that nothing can fill.What is left isn't to be considered an Arche-Type at all, not a primal, original influence.What's left is a husk or zombie. We've been so outer-directed and anti-psychological for so long, it's a case of Elvis has long left the building.This book is addressed, therefore, to no one in particular. Certainly no one in the US. No one has ever done any Shadow Work, and no one intends to. Too busy shopping, brawling and voting for the new boss-man offering chains of gold.Big Pharma knows this all too well, and supplies the Happy Pills for those wishing to simply anesthetize hurt and anger. No Shadow Work involved. No Shadow Work in sight. We're not only in an anti-psychological age, we are in a non-psychological age. We have the word, and little else.Socialism spreads its poison, and the world objects to any kind of heroism except that of the Mob. The individual is nixed and his ways null and void. There is no psychology of the Individual, only of the Crowd. We have the Will to Negation, not the Will to Meaning directed by any wholesome Jungian archetypes.Now that the Shadow and the rest of the archetypes have been uninstalled and simulated by the artificial society - purchasable in the toddlers section of Toys R Us - we have our satori. No inner distress at all from being Selves. The ego is cut free to be one with the cosmos, to inflate itself to epic proportions and dictate what's right for the world. Hence the rise of Socialism in America. Hence the political histrionics of the "Emancipated." Yawn.Now that the psyche itself has been voided, we can now merrily get on with disingenuous chit-chat ABOUT psychological themes."I tried that having a psyche thing, and didn't like it." And now that the corpse is dead and buried, we can cover the crime by TALKING about it. We can throw up Carol Pearson, Debbie Ford, Caroline Myss, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra and Oprah to pontificate on it from morning till night.And we'll go for it. self-deception being the rule and order of the day. We must maintain the window-dressing. Hail Dr. Phil.It all falls down once we remember - the word is definitely NOT the thing.As Jung himself predicted, what we've got is absurdity from those who'll do anything to avoid facing their souls. Religion once offered the means of doing this, and now we've got psychiatry and neo-Jungians who've completely missed the plot, acting as apologists for the necrophilous society rather than as its severest critics.Sadly, although this book is worth reading, it's endless politically-correct anecdotes reveal the author to be herself deeply neurotic. She's obviously the victim of negative Shadow and Animus projections, or in her own profiling model, she's possessed by Orphan and Altruist archetypes (parodies of them that is).The genuine archetypes have long fled the scene. But as Nietzsche said, we're left worshiping the serpents in the ruins and ashes of the cathedrals and temples that once stood high and strong.*** *** ***

This book breaks down people’s perspective that are attached with an archetype. It breaks out from minute details to look at people’s strengths and weaknesses as a whole. These are not viewed as judgement but as areas for growth or developing strength. It’s a treasure of clarity and simplicity.

This book I read in a day and re-read 2 days later. I told my sisters and friends about it. Sometimes things need to be put in simple terms even for us adults, to better understand who we are, what stages we are in, how to move out of in and out of these archetype stages to be better human beings. Not just for ourselves, but for the people we love. Get this book!

Make sure you do not let you mind wide open and let anything into you mind. Judge what you accept and read because you do not know if someone is trying to persuade you in some manner, whether they do it accidentally or purposefully. Carol is a far leftist and it is apparent in many sentences which she gives within the first chapter and introduction. Here are some examplesPage 30 " This can be particularly annoying if you are a woman or a man of color and the boss is male and white. It will feel like racism or sexism (which to a lesser or greater degree it is)."Page 11 "Women and people of color are often actively discouraged from seeing themselves in a heroic light." There is no evidence for that but being a far-leftist Carol does not care.Page 8 "why woman and racial minorities must work so hard to rid themselves of internalized sexist and racist attitudes"Now I've already highlighted some things but if the rest of the book is like the beginning, and she drags on a lot, I will probably stop reading and suggest a different book.

I recommend this for anyone who is in their late teens through 20's. There is this struggle that we all go through and this is a great way to put that struggle into words. I gained so much insight from this book that I recommend this to anyone that will listen.