Archetypes occur when we give names and personality to phenomena in human life. Archetypes transcend cultures and religions. Carolyn Myss describes archetypes in depth in her books. She writes:

“For [Carl] Jung, archetypes comprised psychological patterns derived from historical roles in life, such as the Mother, Child, Trickster, and Servant, as well as universal events or situations, including Initiation or Death and Rebirth. Along with our individual personal unconscious, which is unique to each of us, Jung asserted, 'there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature that is identical in all individuals.' This collective unconscious, he believed, was inherited rather than developed, and was composed mainly of archetypes.”
— from Carolyn Myss’s website
Some of the characters on the Gohonzon (Great Mandala) are archetypes that represent human conditions in their enlightened forms.

Click on the names of beings (below) for explanations of who they are and visual images of them.