Abstract The clown is a historical character with transcultural and transpersonal significance. The clown’s costume, make-up, and antics can be viewed as expressions from a deep archetypal space. As an archetype, the Clown, as an expression of the Trickster, carries and expresses bipolar energies of silliness/seriousness, play/work, hidden/known, creating/destroying, and order/disorder. Culturally and personally the clown serves many functions. One of his functions is as a carrier of the transcendent function facilitating an Ego-Self axis. key words active imagination, archetype, Clown, Ego-Self axis, the Fool, Freud, humor, Jester, C. G. Jung, King Lear, laughter, play, Self, Shakespeare, tarot, transcendent function, Trickster
The Clown: An Archetypal Self-Journey
