The Archetype of War

War is an archetype that is imprinted in the collective consciousness, a primordial image that is part of the human psyche. James Hillman, author of "The Terrible Love of War" speaks to the reality of war in our psyches. He states: " War belongs to our souls as an archetypal truth. Our natural state is one of war. We are lived by forces we pretend to understand but in fact do not. Our attitudes and observations are informed by archetypal patterns. War is a mythic theme in our archetypal imagination. It abides through time--timelessly. To understand war we have to recognize that war is a mythical happening; those in the midst of it are removed to a mythical state of being; their return from it seems rationally inexplicable. The love of war tells of a love of the gods - the gods of war. No other account of war, (political, historical, sociological, psychoanalytical), other than mythical can penetrate to the depths of inhuman cruelty, horror, and tragedy and to the heights of mystical transhuman sublimity. On September 20th, 2005 Deepak Chopra and James Hillman are going to engage in a dialogue entitled War and Peace at Emory University in Atlanta.