Mythology, primary archetypes and idealism: Do myths provide a window into the transpersonal dimension?

Abstract

This article explores recurring archetypal patterns across four spiritual, mythological, and esoteric systems: the Chinese I Ching, the European Tarot, Jewish Kabbalah, and the Heliopolitan pantheon of Ancient Egypt. Through a comparative symbolic analysis, it considers whether these traditions encode a recurrent structure of eight primary archetypal principles organised around a ninth unifying centre. The article situates this inquiry within transpersonal psychology, Jungian and post-Jungian understandings of archetype, and contemporary debates concerning idealism and panpsychism. It argues that these cross-cultural correspondences may be interpreted either as shared symbolic structures of the psyche or, more speculatively, as indications of a coherent transpersonal dimension. The analysis is presented as heuristic rather than definitive, inviting further inquiry into the relationship between mythology, consciousness, and archetypal patterning.