Warrior, Magician, Lover, King: A Guide To The Male Archetypes Updated For The 21st Century: A guide to men's archetypes, emotions, and the development of the mature masculine in the world today.

by Rod Boothroyd

This exciting new book describes the male archetypes of Warrior, Magician, Lover and King in a way designed for a 21st century audience. The author explains the characteristics of each archetype in its balanced form, as well as the inflated and deflated forms which can result from the emotional wounding we experience during childhood. If you've ever had difficulty understanding why you behave in the way you do, this book will provide you with clear answers. The book will also be a revelation for you if you feel like you have less control over your thoughts, feelings and emotions than you would like. The author starts by explaining the nature of the archetypes, what they are, and how they would develop in an ideal upbringing. Of course, none of us have a totally ideal upbringing; we're all emotionally wounded to some degree. These wounds continue to play out in our adult relationships, often in a way which seems like a complete mystery. The author explains how our personalities develop as we grow up and pass through childhood. He shows how we are affected, for better or worse, by the behavior of the people around us during childhood. He also explains the consequences of more profound childhood problems such as lack of love, praise or affection, and more severe neglect. All of this adds up to a route map which will help you understand exactly why you sometimes find life challenging and difficult as an adult.Of course, this is only part of the story - but it is an essential one, because before any emotional healing or personal development work can take place, we have to understand what went wrong in the first place. The author shows us how, as adults, we have many options open to us which we can use to restore our natural personality to its full magnificence. This kind of emotional healing work requires some courage, but the author shows us where we can find the people and places who can safely guide us as we take "the road less traveled": the path we need to follow to become who we were always meant to be, before the world got in the way. A modern book, a book for the 21st century, this is a work that will inspire, excite and inform, as well as provide you with many of the answers you seek. Even if you don't want to embark on a journey of self-development with the help of professional facilitators, you'll find the book invaluable as you discover each archetype can express itself in its finest form, fully balanced and emotionally whole once more. Although this is billed as a book for men, most of what is written here is really relevant for women as well - because women too have the same basic archetypes as men.This book comes highly recommended as a practical, down to earth, and instantly usable manual for good emotional health. It is a book designed both for our times and for our current challenges.

Genres: Psychology, Personal Development, Philosophy, Self Help, Nonfiction

214 pages, Paperback

Published October 8, 2018

Reviews

[John B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Born not of theory alone, but also from the author's experience of working with men, this book clearly explains the concepts of the shadow, archetypes and emotional healing which have become so popular today. Above all it is a practical guide to male psychology and personal growth for men.

These archetypal ideas and concepts were originally introduced to a "popular" audience by the late Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette way back in 1992 in their book "King Warrior Magician Lover - Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine". Unfortunately, as anyone who has read that book will know, the language Moore and Gillette used was pitched at a high intellectual level - that of the so-called "brainiac" school of the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, of which Robert Moore was a respected member. But even though the book wasn't an easy read, it remained the main guide to male archetypal psychology for 20+ years - until authors with an ability to explain these ideas in more accessible writing came along. Among these were Robert Bly, James Hillman, Michael Meade and Robert Johnson. And now Rod Boothroyd has followed in their footsteps with his book "Warrior Magician Lover King: A Guide to the Male Archetypes Updated for the 21st Century".

This book is comprehensive, adpated to a modern readership, populist but not condescending in its intellectual quality, and most of all relevant to men in today's society. The skill which Mr Boothroyd displays most highly is that of rendering complex ideas in language that makes sense: the kind of language that makes one think "Oh yes - of course - that's how it is!"

So as a guide for self-understanding, it is excellent. As a pathway to personal growth, it is practical, supportive, and revelatory: it explains why we are the way we are, often in a startlingly clear way - there will be many "aha" moments for any reader of this work. And beyond that, the author suggests what can be done about the areas in which we have improvements to make to become "who we were always meant to be".

I highly recommend this book: not only is it compelling to read, but it also draws the reader into a clear understanding of their inner world. The author's compassion is obvious throughout and his suggestions for change offer a practical way forward for those of us who have any aspirations to become the best man we can be. (And it is extremely relevant for women too - both in helping women to understand men better, but also in implicitly showing them how to apply the archetypal concepts to their own emotional world.)
Warrior, Magician, Lover, King: A Guide to The Male Archetypes Updated for the 21st Century

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone needs to read this book. Young old man woman, everyone. Until you are aware of shadows, and how they might affect your subconscious actions, you have no way to address them and grow into your proper king or queen.

[Pablo María Fernández · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found out about this book in a comment section of a blog post. Written four years ago, its name caught my attention because I used to be a magician in my teens, and I’m interested in the concept of archetypes (read some books on Mayer-Briggs test -the corporate and pop version of Jung’s “Types”- and Jeff McBride’s magician’s archetypes). Classifying people in ten, twelve, sixteen groups helps us organize human’s heterogeneous personalities in a simple way (with the risk of oversimplifying, of course). Most of us love to have a tag that explains who they and we are (some people shout their Myer-Briggs acronym as part of their identity. "I'm an ENFJ" is their presentation letter).

I gave it a quick read (a couple of hours) and found some interesting paragraphs. Despite the fact that in some parts it seems like a pamphlet for the author workshops, one-to-one sessions and the other services he offers, there are some gems here. The language is easy-to-read (for non-native speakers like me) and provides some tips as you might expect from this self-help type of book. But unlike others is not just a magic recipe or common-sense knowledge wrapped with complicated wording but many times it goes deeper. The author quotes Jung, Freud and more contemporary authors to back up its point of view and also presents testimonies to make it more tangible and not just concepts and theory.

In summary, it’s a good revisit to a self-help classic (which I didn’t read) with a 21st. century approach. I recommend reading just the sections that apply to you or to the person you are trying to help (or deal with!)

[Pontus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a conversational tone and it contains more practical advice more so than theory. It could be read as an introduction to the source material which I decided to purchase as well as I was more interested to learn about the concepts and their origins. If you're curious about archetypal theory this may not be entirely what you are looking for but if you instead want to develop the personal relationship with yourself and others this could be something. A bit tedious to read but valuable nonetheless.

[Marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, good introduction to the shadow and nice explanation. Certainly helped in getting better undestanding of my self