When Dad entered the room, the whole world made sense.
The
King is the integration and recapitulation of the other three: Warrior,
Sage, and Lover. He holds them all together in a grand display of
balance and wholeness. He is the master of all power, so much so that
he can risk looking powerless.
For
the King archetype we have grand examples like Louis IX of France, King
Edward of England, Stephen of Hungary, Martin Luther King, Nelson
Mandela. These men did not avoid power but owned it, integrated it, and
used it for the common good.
Unfortunately, we know that they are the
exception in history, and of course, most Kings are not heads of state
at all. We created a sacred rite for the consecration of Kings to tell
them they must be holy, but we must admit that it seldom worked. Most
of them seem to have handled power and mercy very poorly, being either
dark kings or warriors.
It
took King David a while to become a King, but he is the symbolic whole
man of Judaism, just as Jesus is the King of Kings and a whole man for
Christians. Such Kingship might be rare, but we must still name it and
present it as the ultimate male goal and the final and full integration
of the sacred.
We
need good leaders. Yet a king is not just a leader, he is not just a
father, he is our contact with the holy and with the universal. The
Kingly part of a man connects heaven and earth, spiritual and material,
divine and human. When you meet a man that seems a bit larger than
life, you know he has some King energy. He is a grand father.
A
young prince needs some models along the way to become a King. If he
meets some good passionate lovers, great wise men, and fully alive
warriors, he will be well prepared to hold together the whole human
realm. He will be a King, even if he is just a King of his limited area
of competence.
You can be King of a cobbler shop, believe it or not,
and people will come to your court, not so much to have you fix their
shoes as to have you fix their souls. And they will not even know that
is why they came.
In
my life so far, I have only met a couple of men that I could truly say
have become Kings. Men who are willing to father, who manage the other
three archetypes in a “Mesmerizing” way and know life is not about
them, but about their spiritual sons and daughters… my new goal in life
is to become a King, will you help me?
