Paola Farrell's Archetypes Readings

Archetype Deck Readings with Paola Farrell

The Archetype Deck offers a different kind of reading. It is not a fortune-telling deck in the usual sense, and its main purpose is not to predict external events. Instead, it identifies the deep symbolic forces active within a person, relationship, situation or life phase.

Kim Krans’ Archetypes Deck grew out of her encounter with depth psychology, myth, image, creativity, shadow work and inner transformation. In the guidebook, she explains that the deck emerged after she began studying within a Jungian approach to creativity, where archetype, dream, image, theatre, alchemy and myth became central ideas. She places the deck within a lineage shaped by C. G. Jung’s concept of archetypes as primordial images within the psyche, alongside the influence of writers and teachers such as Robert Bly, James Hillman and Michael Meade, whose work brought myth, soul, image and depth psychology into modern spiritual and creative practice.

The deck defines an archetype as the “original of its kind,” “the first image,” an “inherited emerging pattern,” and an “initial and eternal energy.” The 78 cards explore the roles, instincts, wounds, strengths and unconscious scripts that shape human behaviour. These patterns appear in dreams, stories, relationships, spiritual crises, and recurring life situations, revealing the symbolic forces behind love, fear, creativity, secrecy, conflict, healing, and transformation.

An Archetypes reading helps uncover which of these forces is active and what deeper story may be shaping the situation. It can reveal the role someone is unconsciously playing, the role another person occupies in their life, the pattern that keeps repeating, the shadow material asking for attention, the inner resource that needs to awaken, the stage of transformation currently unfolding, and the emerging symbolic lesson.

This makes the reading especially valuable for personal growth, spiritual questions, creative blocks, identity issues, recurring relationship patterns and major transitions. It is useful when a situation feels intense or strangely familiar, as if life has changed the costumes but kept the same script. The Archetype Deck looks beneath events and emotions to reveal the mythic pattern shaping the experience.