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The Soul's Twins: Emancipate Your Feminine and Masculine Archetypes
Humanity today is plagued by a loss of meaning and alienation from self and others. The result is unprecedented levels of divorce, depression, anxiety, addictions, suicide, and crime. Because societal institutions have failed to resolve these and other everyday problems, it is now the task of each individual to heal and unite their divided self: body and spirit, conscious and unconscious, feminine and masculine. Drawing on Jungian psychology and wisdom traditions from world religions, Dr. Raffa offers a self-guided journey to heightened self-awareness and compassion for oneself and others. A self-assessment tool called the Partnership Profile gives readers a personalized status report on their inner forces, including the maturity of four feminine archetypes, four masculine archetypes, and a newly emerging archetype of egalitarian partnership. This awareness, combined with suggested practices, empowers readers to address their imbalances and create the lives for which they yearn.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published November 17, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 22, 2021
Eight years ago, in 2012 (a year that the Mayan calendar made many of us pay close attention to, as we did again with 2020), I read a book that I predicted would become a treasured friend that I would return to time and time again.
That book was Healing the Sacred Divide (subtitled “Making Peace with Ourselves, Each Other, and the World”), also by this author.
That prediction proved to be true.
I am going to make the same prediction for this one.
With the same alchemical mix of stunning visuals by a variety of artists, inspirational quotes, a deep exploration of myths, inspirational biographies, and complex concepts made understandable through the deft use of language and a teacher’s touch for explanation, Raffa has given motivated readers an opportunity to work with four pairs of Archetypes at work in our souls, split into Lunar and Solar energies: Mother and Father, Queen and Warrior, Mediatrix and Sage, and Beloved and Lover.
Honestly, there is no time better time to engage with this important, essential work.
Akin to the exploratory work in religion, myth, folklore, the collective unconscious, and philosophy undertaken by such brilliant pioneers as Carl Jung, Caroline Myss, Robert Bly, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell, Raffa takes us on a journey to integrate our masculine and feminine energies—engaging the sacred marriage (hieros gamos) in the cooperation of inner opposites and forsaking the tendency to suppress the undesirable energies, called quite aptly, The Shadow.
Further, Raffa explores and applies the Law of Three to help us undo the human tendency toward seeing only Pairs and Opposites without taking the necessary step of Integration, which she calls creating “Third-Force Archetypes.” When we learn to engage these solar/lunar energies in conversation with each other, seeming Contraries can work together to produce something new. This is true Alchemy. It is Synergy, Authenticity, and Grace. It is the sacred marriage of Logos and Mythos. It is the blessed work of Story.
I believe in this idea so deeply that it has been a core component of my work as an actor, director, teacher, writer, and storyteller for more than three decades. Raffa’s work has informed my own along the way and continues to do so now.
This is not a passive read. Not if you want to mine its purest gold. Chapter Two contains the “Partnership Profile,” comprising two parts: “Archetypes” (20 questions) and “Life Satisfaction” (12 questions). Collating the answers to the questions yields scores for each part that will illuminate the degree to which each of the lunar and solar archetypes are at work in your soul and in your life.
As a 52-year-old spiritual seeker communing with archetypes, meditation, journaling, spiritual storytelling, and investigation of the unknown each and every day, I’ve moved solidly into the Lunar cycle, where the feminine archetypes predominate. This was not always the case. In my 20s through my 40s I was very much a young Solar lion, on a serious social justice and spiritual warrior mission.
What the “Partnership Profile” taught me was just how much a few big setbacks in my mid-40s diminished my Solar aspects, which had retreated into defeat deep within the cave of my subconscious. I’d become less inclined to speak out and often talked with close comrades about how my “tail was squarely between my legs.”
Once our connections are made, Raffa takes us through each of the eight archetypes in detail, with both mythological and historical examples. I learned a great deal about gods and goddesses, artists, visionaries, politicians, religious figures, and others in addition to how they function in a soul-and-spirit context.
Each Archetype has sections on the Shadow, Manifestation, and its Story.
Raffa then returns to the Third-Force Archetypes mentioned earlier. Mother and Father become the Sovereign, the Queen and Warrior become the Innovator, and so on. But they must be conscious joinings. The Partnership Profile aids us in getting there.
Third-Force Archetypes also lead to the Couple, with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee held up as shining examples. Having been fortunate to have spent 23 years with my twin flame and soulmate, Tonya, doing our work in partnership in our own unique ways, I deeply appreciate the value of this dimension of archetypal work.
As I watched the inauguration of President Biden today, I knew in my heart that he and Vice President Kamala Harris are a Couple that will work in tandem to bring considerable alchemical healing to the Wounded Child that is the United States of America.
The explorations undertaken while engaging with The Soul’s Twins have bred both a new Awareness and the ability to bring my Lunar and Solar aspects into better balance. This truly is a time of great promise and inevitable shifts in how we perceive our leaders, our communities, and ourselves and I am grateful to have Jean Raffa guiding me down the good red road.
Working with The Soul’s Twins and all it has to offer is an opportunity to be your very best and to contribute to this time of hopeful and necessary change.
That book was Healing the Sacred Divide (subtitled “Making Peace with Ourselves, Each Other, and the World”), also by this author.
That prediction proved to be true.
I am going to make the same prediction for this one.
With the same alchemical mix of stunning visuals by a variety of artists, inspirational quotes, a deep exploration of myths, inspirational biographies, and complex concepts made understandable through the deft use of language and a teacher’s touch for explanation, Raffa has given motivated readers an opportunity to work with four pairs of Archetypes at work in our souls, split into Lunar and Solar energies: Mother and Father, Queen and Warrior, Mediatrix and Sage, and Beloved and Lover.
Honestly, there is no time better time to engage with this important, essential work.
Akin to the exploratory work in religion, myth, folklore, the collective unconscious, and philosophy undertaken by such brilliant pioneers as Carl Jung, Caroline Myss, Robert Bly, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell, Raffa takes us on a journey to integrate our masculine and feminine energies—engaging the sacred marriage (hieros gamos) in the cooperation of inner opposites and forsaking the tendency to suppress the undesirable energies, called quite aptly, The Shadow.
Further, Raffa explores and applies the Law of Three to help us undo the human tendency toward seeing only Pairs and Opposites without taking the necessary step of Integration, which she calls creating “Third-Force Archetypes.” When we learn to engage these solar/lunar energies in conversation with each other, seeming Contraries can work together to produce something new. This is true Alchemy. It is Synergy, Authenticity, and Grace. It is the sacred marriage of Logos and Mythos. It is the blessed work of Story.
I believe in this idea so deeply that it has been a core component of my work as an actor, director, teacher, writer, and storyteller for more than three decades. Raffa’s work has informed my own along the way and continues to do so now.
This is not a passive read. Not if you want to mine its purest gold. Chapter Two contains the “Partnership Profile,” comprising two parts: “Archetypes” (20 questions) and “Life Satisfaction” (12 questions). Collating the answers to the questions yields scores for each part that will illuminate the degree to which each of the lunar and solar archetypes are at work in your soul and in your life.
As a 52-year-old spiritual seeker communing with archetypes, meditation, journaling, spiritual storytelling, and investigation of the unknown each and every day, I’ve moved solidly into the Lunar cycle, where the feminine archetypes predominate. This was not always the case. In my 20s through my 40s I was very much a young Solar lion, on a serious social justice and spiritual warrior mission.
What the “Partnership Profile” taught me was just how much a few big setbacks in my mid-40s diminished my Solar aspects, which had retreated into defeat deep within the cave of my subconscious. I’d become less inclined to speak out and often talked with close comrades about how my “tail was squarely between my legs.”
Once our connections are made, Raffa takes us through each of the eight archetypes in detail, with both mythological and historical examples. I learned a great deal about gods and goddesses, artists, visionaries, politicians, religious figures, and others in addition to how they function in a soul-and-spirit context.
Each Archetype has sections on the Shadow, Manifestation, and its Story.
Raffa then returns to the Third-Force Archetypes mentioned earlier. Mother and Father become the Sovereign, the Queen and Warrior become the Innovator, and so on. But they must be conscious joinings. The Partnership Profile aids us in getting there.
Third-Force Archetypes also lead to the Couple, with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee held up as shining examples. Having been fortunate to have spent 23 years with my twin flame and soulmate, Tonya, doing our work in partnership in our own unique ways, I deeply appreciate the value of this dimension of archetypal work.
As I watched the inauguration of President Biden today, I knew in my heart that he and Vice President Kamala Harris are a Couple that will work in tandem to bring considerable alchemical healing to the Wounded Child that is the United States of America.
The explorations undertaken while engaging with The Soul’s Twins have bred both a new Awareness and the ability to bring my Lunar and Solar aspects into better balance. This truly is a time of great promise and inevitable shifts in how we perceive our leaders, our communities, and ourselves and I am grateful to have Jean Raffa guiding me down the good red road.
Working with The Soul’s Twins and all it has to offer is an opportunity to be your very best and to contribute to this time of hopeful and necessary change.
December 22, 2020
A timely theme, presented with deep caring for our fragile societies.
‘The Soul’s Twin’s,’ by Jean Raffa is a labour of love, written with exquisite reason, sounding like a clear bell, about archetypes, inspired by C G Jung’s ideas. Within a crisp structure, the book focusses on four lunar feminine and four solar masculine principles working in all of us, irrespective of gender.
To begin with there is a well-designed partnership profile. Taking the profile test shows how solar and lunar energies proportionally operate in one’s life, and offers a personally meaningful way into the material that follows. Even those unfamiliar with the concept of archetypes can easily recognize the four feminine and their contrasting masculine energies, and how each, including their shadow aspects, are expressed in individuals and the collective.
Jean Raffa sums up how these expressions oscillate and clash through divisive cultural stereotypes, where people can be cruelly caught in frames that distort their truly felt sense of self. Recent decades have shown that no person fits the normative definition of the qualities assigned to men or women. Jean gives examples from myth, history and people in our contemporary society, where men embody nurturing tendencies and woman excel with combating qualities. Since the pattern of inner conflicts mirror the outer ones, the understanding of one’s own self goes a long way towards a well-functioning relationship.
The four lunar/solar pairs explored are mother/father, queen/warrior, mediatrix/sage and beloved/lover. Greater awareness of their expressions, and also their unexpressed aspects – the disowned gifts and dreams that were abandoned, and the futile resistance to one’s inner urge – can open space for a unifying archetype of partnership. Jean calls it ‘The Couple,’ a personalised version of Jung’s concept of the Self, which holds our human potential.
It’s a timely theme, presented with deep caring for our fragile social structures, reminding us that it is possible to have a marriage with one’s other, inner half, of learning to be in the lunar sphere, and act from a solar energy, of realising the wholeness beneath polarities necessary for life, and of enduring the creative tension without falling into the abyss of divisions. We are tossed into the wild sea of humanity at constant war with itself. What truly sustains us, are relationships across divides, based on love. And love is the all of it.
To contemplate the emotional energies that drive our lives develops greater tolerance and support for each other, which is imperative in our time. To this effect the book offers inspiration, insight and guidance, as well as poignant quotes and questions.
For readers keen to discover Jean Raffa’s sources, there are end notes and an extensive bibliography to follow up.
I read this book slowly over a period of three weeks, each night before sleep. My dreams were influenced by the consistent structure and tone of the book, which surprised. I tend towards rebellion, ambivalence, and am wary of too much order, basically everything that constrains my imagination. Here the clear arrangement was helpful in that it brought clarity to my dreams, maybe because I listened.
‘The Soul’s Twin’s,’ by Jean Raffa is a labour of love, written with exquisite reason, sounding like a clear bell, about archetypes, inspired by C G Jung’s ideas. Within a crisp structure, the book focusses on four lunar feminine and four solar masculine principles working in all of us, irrespective of gender.
To begin with there is a well-designed partnership profile. Taking the profile test shows how solar and lunar energies proportionally operate in one’s life, and offers a personally meaningful way into the material that follows. Even those unfamiliar with the concept of archetypes can easily recognize the four feminine and their contrasting masculine energies, and how each, including their shadow aspects, are expressed in individuals and the collective.
Jean Raffa sums up how these expressions oscillate and clash through divisive cultural stereotypes, where people can be cruelly caught in frames that distort their truly felt sense of self. Recent decades have shown that no person fits the normative definition of the qualities assigned to men or women. Jean gives examples from myth, history and people in our contemporary society, where men embody nurturing tendencies and woman excel with combating qualities. Since the pattern of inner conflicts mirror the outer ones, the understanding of one’s own self goes a long way towards a well-functioning relationship.
The four lunar/solar pairs explored are mother/father, queen/warrior, mediatrix/sage and beloved/lover. Greater awareness of their expressions, and also their unexpressed aspects – the disowned gifts and dreams that were abandoned, and the futile resistance to one’s inner urge – can open space for a unifying archetype of partnership. Jean calls it ‘The Couple,’ a personalised version of Jung’s concept of the Self, which holds our human potential.
It’s a timely theme, presented with deep caring for our fragile social structures, reminding us that it is possible to have a marriage with one’s other, inner half, of learning to be in the lunar sphere, and act from a solar energy, of realising the wholeness beneath polarities necessary for life, and of enduring the creative tension without falling into the abyss of divisions. We are tossed into the wild sea of humanity at constant war with itself. What truly sustains us, are relationships across divides, based on love. And love is the all of it.
To contemplate the emotional energies that drive our lives develops greater tolerance and support for each other, which is imperative in our time. To this effect the book offers inspiration, insight and guidance, as well as poignant quotes and questions.
For readers keen to discover Jean Raffa’s sources, there are end notes and an extensive bibliography to follow up.
I read this book slowly over a period of three weeks, each night before sleep. My dreams were influenced by the consistent structure and tone of the book, which surprised. I tend towards rebellion, ambivalence, and am wary of too much order, basically everything that constrains my imagination. Here the clear arrangement was helpful in that it brought clarity to my dreams, maybe because I listened.
January 4, 2021
I read and reviewed The Soul’s Twins for Iphelia.com’s Editor’s Bookshelf series back in November and am woefully behind in sharing an excerpt on Amazon and Goodreads, so here we go...
The Soul’s Twins is incredibly well organized. The editor in me loved that it unfolded logically (and with a twist at the end). Each archetype-specific chapter includes
‣ A brief introduction of the archetype
‣ A series of narratives that explicate the archetype
‣ A section on the shadow side of the archetype
‣ A list of historical, mythical, and religious figures from around the world and across traditions who’ve manifested the archetype (this will be of particular interest for readers who want to go deeper/do more research)
‣ A summary that relates the archetype back to the reader’s own life experience
This structure invited me to focus and learn without feeling overwhelmed. Jean’s writing is rich but digestible. At no point did I feel excluded because of a lack of knowledge about a given myth, figure, or concept. I enjoyed being challenged to think about my masculine and feminine sides in what can be described as a peaceful, private setting. The language in The Soul’s Twins felt very inclusive.
I must note that initially, I wasn’t excited about The Partnership Profile in chapter two. It struck me as a self-help or magazine-style “quiz” (despite my attraction to Myers-Briggs typology). I can say that despite my tendency to push back against things that look like assignments and the part of myself that’s deeply suspicious of self-help books, The Soul’s Twins and The Partnership Profile surprised me in many ways. I kept my Partnership Profile results at hand as I read and found myself reaching for them frequently as I was introduced to Mother, Father, Queen, Warrior, Mediatrix, Sage, Beloved, and Lover, the archetypes (or twins) Jean explores in the book. They personalized the reading experience such that it felt like I was learning more about myself than an expert’s philosophy or ideology, which was a welcome divergence from many other books I’ve read for review.
The Soul’s Twins is incredibly well organized. The editor in me loved that it unfolded logically (and with a twist at the end). Each archetype-specific chapter includes
‣ A brief introduction of the archetype
‣ A series of narratives that explicate the archetype
‣ A section on the shadow side of the archetype
‣ A list of historical, mythical, and religious figures from around the world and across traditions who’ve manifested the archetype (this will be of particular interest for readers who want to go deeper/do more research)
‣ A summary that relates the archetype back to the reader’s own life experience
This structure invited me to focus and learn without feeling overwhelmed. Jean’s writing is rich but digestible. At no point did I feel excluded because of a lack of knowledge about a given myth, figure, or concept. I enjoyed being challenged to think about my masculine and feminine sides in what can be described as a peaceful, private setting. The language in The Soul’s Twins felt very inclusive.
I must note that initially, I wasn’t excited about The Partnership Profile in chapter two. It struck me as a self-help or magazine-style “quiz” (despite my attraction to Myers-Briggs typology). I can say that despite my tendency to push back against things that look like assignments and the part of myself that’s deeply suspicious of self-help books, The Soul’s Twins and The Partnership Profile surprised me in many ways. I kept my Partnership Profile results at hand as I read and found myself reaching for them frequently as I was introduced to Mother, Father, Queen, Warrior, Mediatrix, Sage, Beloved, and Lover, the archetypes (or twins) Jean explores in the book. They personalized the reading experience such that it felt like I was learning more about myself than an expert’s philosophy or ideology, which was a welcome divergence from many other books I’ve read for review.
December 19, 2020
Jean Raffa's latest book, The Soul's Twins, grabbed my attention from the first chapter in two distinct places. The first was when she began discussing archetypes' manifestations in religion, myth, fairy tales, legends, and human behavior. I knew a little bit about the collective unconscious. Still, Raffa's book laid it all out in terms I could finally understand clearly, in ways where other books had failed. I was intrigued by Raffa's description of the relationship of our conscious Self and the murky and hidden unconscious where one's true potential resides, just waiting to be tapped for integration into consciousness. I felt a deep connection to the collective unconscious, the source of all life, that each of us has access to. From there, I found the book an enthralling read. I carefully devoured the book from cover to cover. Through Raffa's careful introduction to each archetype, both masculine and feminine sides, I saw my soul's twins and how this duality operates to bring wholeness. I have already gifted this book to a psychologist friend of mine, knowing she would be as fascinated and appreciative of it as I was. Buy this book! Raffa's words will inspire you to take a journey toward inner healing and overall integration of mind, body, and soul.
January 23, 2021
As always, Jean Raffa, experienced author and Jungian analyst, opens a door for us into the complex and sometimes baffling world of Jungian psychology. Now in her latest book, The Soul’s Twins, Raffa has taken on the challenge of elucidating masculine and feminine archetypes and bringing them into a partnership of wholeness as a culmination of the Soul’s journey.
In accessible prose style, Raffa delineates eight archetypes: four feminine and four masculine. Her clear language makes the complexities of the archetypes and their related interactions and relationships understandable to the modern layperson. Not simply understandable, but uniquely practical for any individual exploring them, delving into their role in one’s personal journey. In addition, she offers a simple test to assess where a given individual may be at the moment in the “twinship” of masculine and feminine archetypes.
Not only is Raffa’s language straightforward for the modern reader, her stories and examples of the various archetypes—blending mythology, religion, history, literature, and psychology—are easily relatable. From Demeter, Mother goddess to Mary, both Mother and Virgin; from King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Raffa leads us unerringly through related complexities of the unconscious and the roles such archetypes play in our own lives.
As Raffa steers us forward, through an enjoyable read, we find ourselves finally in the realm of twinship: that goal of the journey wherein the sets of the archetypes come together in union to function in wholeness. In her newest book, Jean Raffa, as always the consummate guide, gives us the cues by which to bring disparate forces within our unconscious into light and into unity.
In accessible prose style, Raffa delineates eight archetypes: four feminine and four masculine. Her clear language makes the complexities of the archetypes and their related interactions and relationships understandable to the modern layperson. Not simply understandable, but uniquely practical for any individual exploring them, delving into their role in one’s personal journey. In addition, she offers a simple test to assess where a given individual may be at the moment in the “twinship” of masculine and feminine archetypes.
Not only is Raffa’s language straightforward for the modern reader, her stories and examples of the various archetypes—blending mythology, religion, history, literature, and psychology—are easily relatable. From Demeter, Mother goddess to Mary, both Mother and Virgin; from King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Raffa leads us unerringly through related complexities of the unconscious and the roles such archetypes play in our own lives.
As Raffa steers us forward, through an enjoyable read, we find ourselves finally in the realm of twinship: that goal of the journey wherein the sets of the archetypes come together in union to function in wholeness. In her newest book, Jean Raffa, as always the consummate guide, gives us the cues by which to bring disparate forces within our unconscious into light and into unity.
November 9, 2022
This was a beautifully written book and my first attempt into reading about archetypes.
I will be the first to admit that my understanding of its entirety did not come easy- to read or to hear, but to her credit, I never felt as if I should stop reading, on the contrary, I felt compelled to continue.
I especially enjoyed all the Greek mythology references as well as the lists of known people in each archetype.
The physical book was put together with top quality paper stock and the art work chosen was exceptional. Personally, I would’ve like a slightly larger font, but that’s just my bedtime-reading eyes talking.
I may refer to this book again from time to time and look forward to reading other books by Dr. Raffa. Her writing style is very conversational and a joy to read.
I will be the first to admit that my understanding of its entirety did not come easy- to read or to hear, but to her credit, I never felt as if I should stop reading, on the contrary, I felt compelled to continue.
I especially enjoyed all the Greek mythology references as well as the lists of known people in each archetype.
The physical book was put together with top quality paper stock and the art work chosen was exceptional. Personally, I would’ve like a slightly larger font, but that’s just my bedtime-reading eyes talking.
I may refer to this book again from time to time and look forward to reading other books by Dr. Raffa. Her writing style is very conversational and a joy to read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews