The term paradigm shift was first proposed by the philosopher and physicist Thomas Kuhn in 1962. Kuhn used the term to describe how progress occurs during a period of crisis that is resolved by a revolutionary change during which an old paradigm or pattern becomes replaced by a newer, better one. This new theory shifted the philosophy of science and changed the way scientists think about their work.

However, the influence of this construct extended far beyond the halls of science, as the idea of paradigm shifts seeped out of the laboratory and into popular culture. What began as a theory of how revolutions occur in the field of science has, for the past fifty years, been applied to everything from social movements and business plans, to education, sports, ecology and beyond. By now, paradigm shift might be the most used and most abused term when it comes to issues of systemic change and ideas of progress.

During this current time of cascading crises the now familiar notion of paradigm shift is being used to suggest that we may be approaching the point of human extinction. One line of radical thinking argues that humans are simply animals and animal species often go extinct. This argument attacks the belief that humans are special and will continue to live forever as a dominant species as being “a deluded human-centric form of existential narcissism.”

In this view, science and reason have, over time, cut humanity down to size, removing humankind from any sense of centrality in the world. This and similar ideas are typically presented under the banner of science and reason and of course progress. This and similar ideas are typically presented under the banner of science, reason and of course progress as life on earth will prosper once humanity has expired.

What has typically been overlooked in the rush to embrace the hordes of new paradigms is that Kuhn’s original inspiration came from the studies of sudden growth spurts in children by the psychologist Jean Piaget. What started as an insight into patterns of transformation that occur in nature, including human nature, has ironically come all the way around to being used to dismiss the meaning and value of humanity.

There is no doubt that we are living through a time of great transformation on earth. Yet, it may be the simplified sense of a paradigm shift that has reached the end of its usefulness. Paradigm comes from Greek roots meaning a “pattern or model” and paradigm shift has come to mean replacing an old model with a newer and therefore better one. There is another old Greek word that can be used to refer to changes in human understanding and comprehensive shifts in our worldviews.

Archetype is the term chosen by the psychologist Carl Jung to describe patterns and themes that derive from the collective unconscious and have universal meanings in all cultures. Like paradigm, archetype refers to patterns and models. However, arche means “ancient and original,” so that archetypes are the original patterns from which all subsequent models derive. Whereas the sense of a paradigm shift would simply replace the old with the new, the deeper sense of an archetype shows how the new idea or vision arises from ancient and enduring roots of being.

When seen as the original patterns of life, archetypes are both ancient and immediate, both universal and continuous and therefore can be understood as autonomous sources of renewal at both the levels of individual life and the ongoing creation of life on earth. Seen that way, the new paradigm can be the old archetype stirred up from the original depths of creation and now come round again, refashioned for the current time; just as the world renews itself continuously from its mysterious origins.

There are many archetypes or original patterns, just as there are many forms of life on earth. A key archetype to understand when transformation is needed at all levels of nature and culture is the archetype of creation and creativity. In the old, imaginative sense of the world, creation is not simply something that happened long ago leaving us living in its aftermath. Rather creation, like procreation, is continuous and archetypally speaking, we are living in the midst of creation.

We are also living in the midst of collapse. The climate crisis tells us that, with the collapse of ecosystems; the pandemic tells us that with the collapse of public health systems and the rattling of all the institutions of culture echoes the same troubling message. The deluge of crises currently affecting both nature and culture call for a true metamorphosis that transforms our fundamental relationships to the earth, to the heart of nature, and to our own understanding of humanity.

We cannot solve the global problems we face by using the same ideologies and belief systems that have helped create the current crises. In reducing the world to what we can measure and count we lose all that is immeasurable and transformative about life. The situation seems “hopeless” when viewed from within the narrow logic of a collapsing world view.

The danger is not only that natural systems break down and species disappear; but also that long before we reach total disaster the human spirit and soul become unable to function meaningfully. We are in the midst of an initiatory ordeal that requires not simply that we shift our attitudes, but that we truly transform our way of seeing and being in the world.

These are creation times again and mythic imagination can open greater capacities for creativity in all fields of endeavor while helping to close the gaps between nature and culture. What we learn from mythic imagination and archetypal psychology is how the external crisis provides the context in which the core values of humanity become redeemed rather than lost.

Carl Jung introduced the idea of archetypal forms and forces at a time when the crises of the modern world were becoming more evident. He thought that if enough people became aware of this archetypal dynamic of collapse and renewal, they would begin to understand that inside the archetype, there is the intention to continue with creation, that collapse could be part of renewal. If people understood the underlying capacity of life to renew and recreate, they could help shape the fate of the world.

By virtue of having a soul, we are each inheritors of archetypal capacities, including the ability to contribute to creation ongoing. It may be time to tap back into the endless potentials of life’s origins in order to truly change things going forward.