The 4 Stages of Life By Carl G. Jung

Have you ever thought that we as human beings go through different stages in our lives? Maybe we have felt like once we had one priority, and now we have others. Or, maybe we have felt like we wanted to be one thing a few years ago, and now we want to be another.

In fact, we all go through the same stages in life. Wayne Dyer has talked about the four stages of life we all go through. Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychologist, mentioned these four stages.

So, he said there are four archetypes, four stages that every person goes through in their life. Below we offer you the list of the four stages.

Stage #1 – The Athlete Stage

During this stage, we are busy caring about how do we look, how do our bodies look. We may spend so many hours in front of the mirror cherishing our appearance. The thing that is the most meaningful to us is the way we look.

Stage #2 – The Warrior Stage

When we are at this stage, our basic concern is to get up and win the world. We want to be the best, do our best, as well as achieve the best. We want to act like warriors, and do what they do.

During this period our only thought is how to get more than everyone else. We are comparing ourselves with others; we want to beat them all in order to feel better about ourselves. Since we have succeeded more, then we are brave warriors.

Stage #3 – The Statement Stage

When we are in the third stage, we realize that our achievements are not enough. We are not happy. We are not complete. So, we begin to look for ways how to make a difference in the world, how to be useful. Our only thought is how to give.

Everything that we have pursued, possessions, money, power, and so on, will never have the same value as they did before. We do not feel attached to those things because we understand that there is something more in life.

Although we still receive these things, we accept them, and we are thankful, but we are always prepared to give them up. We are now trying to find ways how not to be selfish, and how to help others.

The thing which is on our minds is how to give. We have learned that when one gives, one receives back, so we decide to stop being selfish, self-centered, and egotistic, and we try to ways how to help others in need, how to make this world a better place to live in.

Stage #4 – The Stage of the Spirit

The Swiss psychologist, Jung says that this stage is the last one in our lives. In this stage, we become aware that none of those mentioned above stages defines who we are as people.

We understand now that we are more than our bodies than our belongings than our friends, our nation, and so on. Finally, we realize that we are beautiful creatures, spiritual creatures who have a human experience, we are not humans who have a spiritual experience.

We learn that the world is not our home, we are not what we once thought we were. During this stage, we are capable of seeing ourselves from a different point of view.

Finally, we are ready to get out of our mind, our body, and to understand who we are, to see everything as it is. We start to observe our own lives and realize that we are not what we see, but we are the ones that see.

About 2,500 years ago, a wise man from China, named Lao Tzu, was attempting to teach us how to achieve the fourth stage.

He explained that the greatest virtue of humans is to be able to have without possessing, to do without expecting, to give birth and nourish, to lead without trying to control.

Besides these four stages, we offer you the rest twelve archetypes:

1. Making your dreams come true (Magician)

2. Searching for the truth (Sage)

3. Desire for happiness (Innocent)

4. Wanting revolution (Outlaw)

5. Living in the present time (Jester)

6. You want to make someone yours (Lover)

7. You want to be free (Explorer)

8. You want total power (Ruler)

9. You want to be a nurturer (Caregiver)

10. You want to prove yourself (Hero)

11. You want to belong (Regular Man/Woman)

12. You crave perfection (Creator).

So, people, what do you think about these stages? At which stage you think you belong? Below we offer you a test you can try to find out what is your archetype.