Archetypes in the Tarot: Hero
Tags archetypes, hero
Carl Jung described a model for understanding why humans think along certain patterns; the Collective Unconscious, he held, contains a number of patterns according to which humans organize their understanding of the world. The Collective Unconscious is populated with characters who stand in many people's lives and in story as symbols of various aspects of the human experience. These characters are called archetypes.
Among the archetypes proposed by Carl Jung is the Hero. The hero's job is to vanquish the monster, find the [treasure/ring/maiden] and come out victorious. He represents the qualities we admire and revere in ourselves and those around us. In a way, his triumph over evil is a triumph of the conscious over the unconscious.