We are made up of so many different parts! It can be a true challenge to figure out which parts are authentically us and which are on lease from important others. But in the end, ALL parts of us are authentic parts of us. Even the borrowed parts.

The archetype of the Goblin represents the parts of us that we most ashamed of. The Goblin is the dark counter point to the Fool. While the Fool frolics in delight of the freedom his lack of status bestows upon on him, the Goblin schemes in the shadows, aware of his lack of status and desperate for a way to rise in power.

Gollum from Lord of the Rings is a great example of this archetype. He has no status or real physical power prior to the ring. Yet there is a part of him, the Goblin archetype, that is activated upon coming contact with the One Ring. So despite his rise in status upon becoming the all powerful ruler of the One Ring, he stays in the shadows. He does not seek to rule over others. He just hungers for power. He represents the part of the wounded psyche that is desperate to be recognized as powerful and thus worthy of love.

The truth is with great power comes great responsibility. True power is selfless and immaterial in nature. It is the soft power of the feminine, of beingness The yielding power of the Tao.

The power of men like Putin, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is not true power, but its distortion--tyrannical power.

Tyrannical power is characterized by the desire for control and dominion over others, in addition to being overly concerned with appearing special and superior to others. Such power is sought through material and shadowy means such as manipulating the media, murdering ones political enemies, or amassing a grotesque amount of wealth etc.

My proposition is that in order to grow as a society we need to acknowledge and accept the root cause of tyrannical power.

In popular culture we can detect the rise of the collective's awareness of tyrannical power through the archetype of the Dragon which first splashed into popular public awareness with the Game of Thrones series in 2011. The Dragon archetype is especially salient to the year 2024 as it is the Year of the Dragon in Chinese astrology. On it's light side the Dragon is a divine symbol of our creativity. The Dragon is the embodiment of the element of fire.

Fire is symbolic of the creative impulse or the divine impulse and thus is one of the most important symbols of power. Myths about fire mostly revolve around the theft of fire by some trickster be it the crow in North America, the hero Maui in Polynesia or the infamous Prometheus in Greece. The Dragon is an energy related to the solar plexus chakra and thus our power to manifest and be courageous. Think of the intial wow we felt at Elon Musk and his desire to colonize Mars. There was something heroic about the very idea that one man could accomplish so much.

In contrast, the Dragon's shadow is greedy and hoards its wealth. The Dragon is only interested in laying on his gold coins because is only interested in the appearance of looking powerful. The Shadow Dragon energy is about intimidation and blackmailing. It is about doing whatever it takes by whatever means necessary to get to the top. Around the same period of time 'Game of Thrones' premiered, the show 'House of Cards' about aspiring politician Frank Underwood came on air. Frank is a great example of the Dragon Archetype, not afraid to murder or bribe to get his way.

The Dragon energy is a great representation of the United States or Russia and their hoard of nuclear weapons. The missiles are really only for intimidation or blackmailing purposes as use of nuclear weapons would be a certain mutually

How to Integrate Grandiosity

When we have grown up in families that are over saturated with the archetypes of grandiosity like the King and the Queen,or countries that are over-saturated with archetypes of power like the United States or Russia, it inevitably leaves a mark on our psyches. Simply put, such grandiosity is a psychological compensation for pervasive feelings of worthlessness and a very fragile sense of self.

In a grandiose family or country, our grimy, ugly primitive parts of ourselves--the Id, the shadow--are threatening. It is our ugliness, not our beauty, that threatens the status quo.

Thus the Goblin (Id/Shadow) is the necessary archetypal balance to the oppressive perfection of The King/Queen (Superego). What is missing and much needed is a mitigating force to balance the extremes. Hence, a development of ego strength is quite necessary to psychological health, contrary to what new age spirituality would have you believe.

We must hold in balance the dark earthy negatives aspects of ourselves with the light solar positive aspects of ourselves. We must aspire to hold to the center as the Buddha taught.

There is a portion of the ego that wholly unhelpful and gets in the way of experiencing the wholeness of our true selves. This is the "ego" that spiritual teachers speak of--distinctly different than the psychological ego. Eckhart Tolle refers to the unhelpful part of the ego as the pain body. Carl Jung called it neurosis. Both perspectives are valid and have their uses and limitations. Spirituality, more in line with the creative feminine principle, is concerned with the whole while psychology, more in line with the linear scientific masculine principle concerns itself with particulars. Depth/Jungian psychology would be the place in the Venn diagram where spirituality and psychology overlap.