The Hades archetype: an in-depth look

Exceprts from "Gods in Everyman" Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

Hades as the Ploughton- The Archetype of The Rich One

A different type of reclusive Hades may have sampled the outer world, and know that he

prefers the subjectivity and richness of his interior world - the Plouton or “riches” aspect

of Hades. In our extraverted culture, which emphasizes productivity, people are not

encouraged to spend time alone “doing nothing”.  Thus the introverted recluse is judged

negatively, or considered peculiar for spending so much time alone.

Hades the reclusive Ploughton is, however, a “missing” part in many people, who do not

value opportunities to be introverted in they way that this archetype can be.  Introverts

can live an interior life in touch with their own subjective reactions to outer experience. 

A type of introversion (introverted sensation, in Jung’s psychological topology) may be

experienced as inner dialogues, visions, or bodily sensations.

To have Hades as part of ones psychological nature can be very enriching. Hades the

recluse is a source of creativity that can be expressed through the arts, often in visual

arts. However, without access to Zeus’ view of objective reality, and Poseidon’s

emotional responsiveness, which are needed to balance and make sense of Hades’

subjective perceptions, the person runs a danger of emotional isolation and withdrawal

into a world of one’s own.

Hades the Man

The theme for Hades is how to adapt: Can he stay true to himself and also fit into the

outer world? His innate subjective predispotion is not encouraged; on the contrary, he is

measured against a personality standard that is the very opposite of who he is. He usually

grows up in a culture that is foreign to him, that requires him to grow beyond the

confines of this archetype if he is to find a place in it.

Early Years

The introverted child such as Hades does not usually make a strong impression. The

invisibility for which Hades was noted sets in early. Because he does not have either a

strong will or a get-into-an-uproar personality like his brothers, as far as others are

concerned, he often seems to react unexpectedly, especially to new people and new

situations. How something or someone appears to others isn’t what he is reacting to; how

it subjectively affects him is responsible for how he reacts.

Even if he does nothing out of the ordinary he prefers to hold back and take in

experience rather than reach out for it. So he will appear shy as a little child and serious

and withdrawn as he gets older.

There is something autistic about the Hades personality that shows early. When he is

distressed, the sensations he perceives or the impressions he experiences may be purely

subjective, so that others don’t fathom what is going on

So the Hades boy may thus feel unwelcome in the world as he is and find that his interior

world is, in contrast, a refuge. The Hades boy enjoys his own company, anyway and wants

to spend time by himself - or perhaps with an imaginary friends. From nursery school

onward he is intruded on by others needs for him to be more social, and he probably

continues to thwart the nurturing needs that his mother may have for him to be

dependant on and responsive to her.

Adolescence and Early Adulthood

A Hades adolescent follows a very different drummer and runs into trouble when he tries

to conform to the beat of adolescent conformity. He doesn’t know how others just seem

to know what the fads are, doesn’t get caught in having the “right” clothes and would

just as soon miss most of the “right” parties even if he were invited. If he has developed

an extraverted side to himself that is “good enough” to let him get by, and has the inner

security to be himself, he knows by now that he is a distinct individual and has tested the

conversational waters enough to conclude that he prefers his own company to most

people.  By now he may have one or two friends, which is as many as he wants.

For him to get into college or into a career requires development of other archetypes.

Education promotes Apollo’s rational thinking and objective perceptions and teaches

writing and speaking, which are Hermes qualities. Both gods help him to be more

extraverted.  He runs danger of doing this too well and tries to be what others expect of

him- a risk of entering a work world in which he can be competent, but that has no depth

of meaning for him.

Work

The key that can connect inner and outer worlds for him is to have an interest that grows

out of his inner experiences develop into an occupation. This provides him an in-the-

world identity and means making a living through doing something that has meaning for

him.

This archetype is unempowering, in that ambition, communication and persona are all

lacking. Unless he develops other archetypes, he could “drop by the wayside” in his high

school years and anytime thereafter. He may not be hired for anything other than

unskilled work at marginal pay. Whatever he does do, he often does quite seriously. He

often stays at a repetitious job that offers no challenge because his “real” life is the

interior one.

If a Hades man has a well-developed Hermes (the archetypal communicator- who can

move between worlds and carry information between them- and the conductor of souls to

the underworld) then he may bring the depth level to which he has aces up to the world.

These two archetypes function together in film making, depth psychology, and other

fields. Here he may find that he has special gifts to do deeply meaningful work that he

loves to do for its own sake.

Relationships

Yet like Dante, who saw Beatrice once and was then inspired by his inner relationship with

her to write The Divine Comedy, Hades men can be deeply affected by their subjective

inner experience of a woman whom they hardly know. A Hades man is also capable of

having a deep soulmate connection with a woman, who can share the riches of the inner

world.

The reclusive and secretive Hades does not know how to enjoy the camaraderie of other

men. He feels apart and makes his way in a world pretty much as a loner. Other men let

him be. Something about him keeps him from being picked on - or included. Being one of

the boys doesn’t matter to him, which gives them no shunning power, and something bout

his inner orientation conveys strength. He is “different” but not in a way that invited

being a victim. The few friends that he might have in his life will have to enter his realm,

perhaps drawn into discussion about his perception.

If he finds a woman to love him, he will get married. Like Zeus and Poseidon, Hades men

also want to establish households, and have stability and order. Marriage is crucial in

determining the course of his life. Without marriage, he will stay a loner, and an outsider,

maybe a recluse. With a wife and children he becomes part of a family and community

through them. His wife mediates between her introverted husband, who is often

inaccessible to others, and other people. Often she interprets to his children as well.

If he has the support of a family a community and works, then most likely he is the stable,

patriarchal head of a family. If he developed an intellectual life, he may be an

academician, absorbed in an interest that allows for a rich interior life. If he has

developed an expressive ability in the arts or literature, his work is highly subjective.

If he has developed and lived out several other archetypes through his significant,

enduring relationships and work, he may have entered both the emotional realm and the

realm of the mind and will as well as the interior realm. Without Hades as a primary or

major archetype, a man may not naturally develop a familiarity with this realm. Many men

do not, especially those who find the outer–world tasks of the first half of life easy. Thus

the Hades man who has had to adapt to outer life is at midlife more often fully integrated

in these three spheres than most men.

Psychological Difficulties: The Invisible Man

Often, like the god who hardly ever left his realm, and had a cap of invisibility when he

did, a Hades man is unseen because he avoids people or, if he’s present, he doesn’t show

himself. Because, he’s not interested in whatever is going on in the world anyway, so he’s

not up on sports, current fads, political news, the chit-chat of a cocktail party and the

backyard barbeque. And his reactions are subjective, anyway, which strikes others as

peculiar, so he’s learned to be quiet and invisible rather than inappropriate.

The Loner Personality: A Schizoid Person

The Hades man has a predisposition to be alone. If  circumstance and people confirm his

tendency to mistrust others and feel inadequate in a competitive world, he will withdraw

into himself. He keeps to himself what he perceives and how he reacts. Others let him be

reclusive, since his nonverbal and often verbal message is “Leave me alone.” As a loner,

he can live in a closed-off inner world, leading a schizoid existence based on a stable but

constricted psychological disorder

Inferiority complex

If we use Jung’s descriptions of psychological types and accept his observations that the

“inferior” function is usually devalued and the opposite of the most conscious, utilized

“superior” function, Hades represents the inferior function in the Western, patriarchal

industrial world. What is valued are hard facts or objective reality and logical thinking;

what is rewarded is the ability to get to the top, to successfully compete for status,

power, affluence. So Hades is likely to suffer from feelings of inferiority, low self-

esteem, and lack of confidence, because he is not up to “the standard” of what a man

should be like.

Inferior performance in this culture is also a source of low self-esteem. It is hard to

compete in a foreign culture, and this situation is equivalent. The dominant extraverted,

competitive culture is foreign to the Hades man. Yet it is possible to compensate, to

develop a  second language, adapt well to a different culture, and even excel. Still, he

often has an underlying feeling of inferiority, a continual monitoring of himself, and a

feeling of somehow being a fake when success comes.

Difficulties For Others

The difficulty Hades creates for others by being himself is that he lives in his interior

realm, and the rest of the world usually lives elsewhere. The direction of his psychic

energy or libido is inward. And his significant others want some of that energy to flow

outward into their relationship or into the world. At the very least, they want Hades to

communicate about what is going on down there. Loving someone with a reclusive nature

is especially hard for extraverts, who may take their exclusion personally and think that

they have done something wrong when an introverted partner or child withdraws. That

very tension and the tendency for opposites to attract can draw Hades out- or can make

the other person more introverted or lonely.

Ways to Grow

A Hades man will be an isolated person unless he develops other aspects of himself. He

needs to develop a persona to be approachable and visible, and to find the means to

express his inner experience.

A persona is the face we wear into the world. The Latin word person meant “mask”, and

referred to the masks that were worn on stage, which made the role the actor was to play

immediately recognizable. A persona is how we present ourselves, the initial impression

we make. A Hades man who lives more in his inner world than in the outer world must

consciously craft himself an appropriate persona, putting some thought into how he

presents himself. Since the small talk that allows strangers to be at ease with each other

does not come naturally to him, he’ll need to put some thought into what he says and

how he wants to come across. A well-functioning persona - like the clothes we wear -

needs to be appropriate to the situation, as well as reflect the person. Hades needs to

make an effort to be both visible and approachable, in other words.

Finding Persephone

A Hades man will do well to find a receptive woman who can mediate for him with the

world. A Hades man will gradually open up and share his perceptions and richness of his

inner life, but he must first be accessible. “Persephone” does this for him, either as a real

woman, or as his anima - which Jung describes as the unconscious feminine aspect of a

man through which he expresses gentleness, emotionality, and sentiment. This

expressiveness softens his more forbidding aspects and makes him more approachable.

Activating Hermes

Hermes was the only god that freely entered and left Hades’ realm. As Messenger god and

psychopomp (which means guide of souls), Hermes delivered messages, guided souls to

Hades, and came for Persephone. He was noted for the suddenness of his appearance-

which is how an intuitive insight arrives on the scene- as well as for the quickness of his

mind and his facility with words. When Hades and Hermes are present together, Hermes is

the means through which the images or shades in the underworld of Hades are understood

and then communicated to others.  This is what C.G. Jung did when he described the

archetypes of the collective unconscious.  If through reading Jung and other analytical

(Jungian) psychologists or poets such as T.S. Eliot, a Hades man finds the vocabulary to

convey the riches of his inner experience, then his own Hermes has been activated.

Drawing on other gods - Going out into the world.

The man who is predominantly and innately an introverted Hades usually has ample

opportunity to develop other archetypes, which is the way he grows. All the years of

compulsory education draw on Apollo qualities. Living in linear time, meeting schedules,

thinking scientifically, rationally explaining cause and effect help develop this archetype.

Putting ideas into words is also a part of school that develops Hermes. And if he is loved

or loves anyone, then the realm of emotions also becomes a place in which he grows.

A Hades man who recognizes himself in these pages and realizes that his family was so

dysfunctional that he withdrew too much into himself, can grow psychologically beyond

Hades as an adult. It begins with a decision and a commitment to do so. Then it takes

courage, to venture out of the world of his own in which he found safety and isolation.

If he realizes that he is spending too much time in his inner world, he might structure his

time to focus more on the outer world; he could take courses that will teach him what he

feels he does not know, or take up a skill and concentrate on it.

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