King, Warrior, Magician, Lover Rediscovering the
Archetypes of the Mature Masculine
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J(JNG
WARRIOR
MAGICIAN
LOVER
/?(•discovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine
Robert Moore and IJouglas Gillette
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To che poet Robert Bly, who has provided the impetus
for a revaluing of the masculine experience.
Four Mighty Ones are in every Man; a Perfect Unity
Cannot Exist but from the Universal Bro[herhood of Eden,
The Universal Man, to Whom be Glory Evermore. Amen.
-William Blake. The Four Zoas
Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction XV
Part I: From Boy Psychology to Man Psychology
I. The Crisis in Masculine Ritual Process 3
2. Masculine Potentials 9
3. Boy Psychology I3
4. Man Psychology 43
Part ll: Decoding the Male Psyche-
The Four Archetypes of the Mature Masculine 47
5. The King 49
6. The Warrior 75
7. The Magician 97
8. The Lover 119
Conclusion: Accessing the Archetypal
Powers of the Mature Masculine 143
Selected Readings 157
Preface
The archetypes of King, Warrior, Magician. and Lover have been
increasingly in focus in men's gatherings and publications in the United
States and abroad. Indeed. many people assume that. these patterns
have traditionally been understood to be the building blocks of the
mature masculine. In fact, the psychological research tl1at Jed to the
naming of these archetypes as the four fundJnH.·ntal configurations
which, in dynamic relationship, conslitutc the deep structures of the
mature male psyche was first presenred in a serit'.~ of lectures at the
C. G. Jung Institure of Chicago and first published in a series of best-
sdling audiotapes now widely influential in the men's movement. It is
our belief that the psychological tlndings outlined in these lectures con-
stitute a major and potentially revolutionary breakthrough in decoding
the fundamental deep structures of the human sdf', botl1 masculine
and feminine. This decoding of what Carl .lung called the "double
quaternio" builds on Jung's understanding of the archetypal Self. but
extends our grasp of inner geography beyond .Jung's work by clearly
delineating not only the psychological contents and potentials imaged
in the "four quarters," but also the two fundamental dialectical opposi-
tions built into the dynamics of the deep self: King (or Quccn)/Magician
and Lover/Warrior.
King, Wanior, Magician, Lover is an exploratOry survey of t.he implica-
tions of this research for understanding the masculine psyche. It is the
t1rst of a forthcoming five-volume series on masculine psychology
based on this paradigm. Subsequem volumes are planned that will
xi
xii Preface
t'lahomlt' lht• widl'r implkiltom of tllis tllroretical model for human
p~yrllology .111d splriltJ.IIily. TIIOSt' with lt't'hnical professional interests
or wlto find 1he1r nnio~ily slillllllall'd .:1nd want to know more should
constalltllt' lht ol' rt'S\IIIJn·~ provilkd ill the back of the book.
Our pliJIIO'-t' in wrllln~ot thb hook. llowcver. has been to offer men a
silllpllf'il'd .md rl'.Jdt~hk outllrw of' an "operator's manual for the male
psydw." l{t•,\dttiH thh hook should hdp you understand your strengths
,lJld wt•,Jknt•s:.t''> .1~ .tnt.lll .u1d pmvidt· you with a map to the territories
of lll·l~l'IIIIIH' .,t'lfhood whkh you ~till need to explore.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Robert Bly for his cnmuraHcmem. Graciela
Infante for her careful reading of the manuscript, Margaret Shanahan
and Graciela Infante for their many helpfi.Jl suggestions. Patrick Nugent
lbr his absolutely accurate transcription of Robcn Moore's lecture
tapes, and the editorial and production staff of HarperS.:mFrancisco. In
addition, we wish to offer special appreciation to the many men who
have reflected on their personal experience in terms of this new
approach to masculine psychology and have helped us to refine and
deepen our understanding.
Introduction
During Bill Moyers's recent interview with the poet Roben Bly, "A
Gathering of Men," a young man asked the question, "Where are the
initiated men of power today?" We have wrillrn this bonk in order to
answer this question, which is on the mind~ of both men and women.
In the late twentieth century, we face a crisis in masculine identity of
vast proportions. Increasingly, observers of the contemporary scene-
sociologists. anthropologists. and depth psychologists-are discovering
the devastating dimensions of this phenomenon. which alkcts each of
us personally as much as it affects our society as a whole. Why is there
so much gender confusion today, at least in the United States and West-
em Europe? It seems increasingly difficult to poim to anything like
either a masculine or a feminine essence.
We can look at family systems and see the breakdown of the tradi-
tional family. More and more families display the sorry fact of the dis-
appearing father, which disappearance. through either emotional or
physical abandonment, or both. wreaks psychological devastation on
the children of both sexes. The weak or absent father cripples both his
daughters' and his sons' ability to achieve their own gender identity
and to relate in an intimate and positive way with members both of
their own sex and the opposite sex.
But it is our belief and experience that we can't just point in any
simple way to the disintegration of modern fi:nnily systems, important
as this is. to explain the crisis in masculinity. We have to look at two
other factors that underlie this very disintegration.
XV
XVI Introduction
First. we need to take very seriously the disappearance of ritual pro-
cesses lor initiating boys into manhood. In traditional societies there are
standard definitions of what makes up what we call Boy psychology
and Man psychology. This can be seen clearly in the tribal societies that
have come under the careful scrutiny of such noted anthropologists as
Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner. There are carefully constructed
rituab I(Jr helping the boys of the tribe make the transition to manhood.
Over the ccmuries of civilization in the West, almost all these ritual pro·
cesscs have been abandoned or have been diverted into narrower and
less energized channels-into phenomena we can call pseudo-initiations.
We can point to the historical background for the decline of ritual
initiation. The Protestan\ Reformation and the Enlightenment were
strong movements that shared the theme of the discrediting of ritual
process. And once ritual as a sacred and transforming process has been
discrl'dited, what we are left with is what Victor Turner has called
''meR' ceremonial," which does not have the power necessary to
arhievl' ~enuine transl(mnation of consciousness. By disconnecting
from ritual we have done away with the processes by ·which both men
and women acllievcd their gender identity in a deep, mature, and life·
enh,111dng way.
What happens to J socit'IY if the ritual processes by which these
identitit's art' l(ll'lllt'd become discredited? In the case of men, there are
many who eitlll'J' had no initiation into manhood or who had pseudo-
initintlons that faill'd to evoke the needed transition into adulthood. We
get I. he dominance of Boy psychology. Boy psychology is everywhere
around us, and its marks are easy to sec. Among them are abusive and
violcm aclin~·OUI behaviors against others, both men and women; pas-
sivity and weakness, the inability to act effectively and creatively in
one's own lilc and to engender life and creativity in others (both men
and woml'll); and, ol'len, an oscillation between the two-abuse/weak-
ness, abusl'lwt•akncss.
Along with the breakdown of meaningful ritual process for mas·
culinc initiation, a second factor seems to be contributing to the disso-
lution of mature masculine identity. This factor, shown to us by one
strain of feminist critique, is called patriarchy. Patriarchy is the social
and cultural organization that has ruled our Western world. and much
Introduction xvu
of the rest of the globe, from at least the second millennium B.C. E. to
the present. Feminists have seen how male dominance in patriarchy
has been oppressive and abusive of the feminine-of both the so-
called feminine characteristics and virtues and actual women them-
selves. In their radical critique of patriarchy, some feminists conclude
that masculinity in its roots is essentially abusive, and that connection
with "eros"-with love, relatedness, and gentleness-comes only from
the feminine side of the human equation.
As useful as some of these insights have been to the cause of both
feminine and masculine liberation from patriarchal stereotypes, we
believe there are serious problems with this perspective. In our view.
patriarchy is not the expression of deep and rooted masculini.ty. for
truly deep and rooted masculinity is not abusive. Patriarchy is the
expression of the immature masculine. It is the expression of Boy psy-
chology, and, in part, the shadow-or crazy-side of masculinity. It
expresses the stunted masculine. fixated at immature levels.
Patriarchy, in our view, is an attack on masculinity in its fullness as
well as femininity in its fullness. Those caught up in the structures and
dynamics of patriarchy seek to dominate not only women but men as
well. Patriarchy is based on fear-the boy's fear. the immature mascu·
line's fear-of women. to be sure, but also lear of men. Boys fear
women. They also fear real men.
The patriarchal male does not welcome the full masculine develop-
ment of his sons or his male subordinates any more than he welcomes
the full development of his daughters, or his female employees. This is
the story of the superior at the office who can't stand it that we are as
good as we are. How often we are envied. hated, and auacked in direct
and passive-aggressive ways even as we seek to unlcJld who we really
are in all our beauty, maturity, creativity, and generativity! The more
beautiful, competent, and creative we become, the more we seem to
invite the hostility of our superiors, or even of our peers. What we are
really being attacked by is the immaturity in human beings who are
terrified of our advances on the road toward masculine or feminine
fullness of being.
Patriarchy expresses what we are calling Boy psychology. It is not
an expression of mature masculine potentials in their essence, in the
