Description

The Hunter Archetype relates to the Separation phase of Alchemy.

The Hunter must attune to their own wild nature in order to sync up with the wild nature of what they are hunting. It is a conscious shift between the rational and the animal, the moral and the primal. And even more fascinating is that one must attune to this wild nature in order to kill part of it as part of the Hunter’s growth and survival…

Alchemical Separation is all about refinement; sifting and sorting out the elements that are no longer aligned with our original essence, our truth. This process, much like shadow integration, is akin to tracking an animal in the woods… One first has to understand the shadow at hand, to get on it’s level and feel into it’s desires, it’s needs, it’s protective mechanisms, and then follow that attunement with discernment. Only then will the hunter’s instincts point them in the direction that leads to completing the cycle.

Joseph Campbell writes, “the basic hunting myth is of a kind of covenant between the animal world and the human world.” This kind of binding agreement is something that we all must consciously engage in when we find ourselves in conflict with the parts of ourselves that are running opposite of our highest fulfillment, truth and potential.

The pact between the conscious and unconscious within man is what allows us to explore the inner depths, and begin distinguishing what parts are allowed to stay, and what parts need to be removed. Without this agreement, we would get lost in the woods every time, too confused to distinguish Self from Other, and too turned around to recognize that our lives depend on this willful separation.

The ancients used the art of the “double” in cave paintings dating back to the Ice Age. One can definitively deduce that the artists of these cave paintings were deeply attuned to the animals themselves, having an intimate bond or relationship with them. They observed and reproduced the animal’s nature with the attention to detail that only one who recognizes this same nature within themselves is able to accomplish.

This is the art of the double. But what is significant about this practice? There is such a strong tie between a being and it’s image… What happens to the image, happens to the being, through what is known as Sympathetic magick.

This visual talisman is intended to invoke the archetype of the Hunter, promoting the ability to distinguish the Self and all of it’s parts from the Other, and by doing so, assessing what parts are contributing to one’s growth and individuation process, and what is hindering it. It is also a call to attune to one’s Wild nature through a creative lens.