This archetypal circle, when imagined as moving in a counterclockwise direction, is a metaphor for how the creative process uses every aspect of typology.
Note how the process both begins and ends with ST. ST is often maligned in modern typology, and therefore might not be what first comes to mind when thinking about creativity. Yet here it is the cornerstone.
Here are the questions each of the four quadrants asks, according to Mary McCaulley, the psychologist who helped Isabel Myers bring MBTI to fruition:
ST asks “what is it?”
SF asks “what matters?”
NF asks “what might be?”
NT asks “how might it all fit?”
ST kicks off the process. SF is the incubator, followed by the breakthrough in the NF dimension of the soul. Then the NT magician brings the vision to fruition, and hands it back to ST for the practical application.
All four of these quadrants can be at work within one person. Jungian analyst John Giannini said “We must all have our own inner archetypal ideal as King or Queen, our own inner Magician as mentor, our own inner Warrior as a stimulus to achievement, and our own inner Lover as a teacher of intimacy.”
The quadrant opposite your type will be the most challenging. For example, NT will have the most difficulty with SF.
Sometimes the creative process will involve multiple people or a partnership, and can help keep us from remaining mired and spinning our wheels in our quadrant. Awareness of which of the four quadrants the other people fall in will make the process flow more smoothly.
Giannini said dream work also proceeds in this circular direction: “Life poses a question, we sleep on it, then the answer emerges as a spontaneous and emotionally filled ream image in the NF quadrant. In waking life, we are then challenged to integrate the dream into a large NT vision.”
As I said in a previous post, typology these days emphasizes a linear view of the cognitive functions. But for Jung they were a circle. We can’t be rigid in how we view the creative potential of the Soul, yet, as Giannini said, “its counterclockwise direction seems to be a necessary containing requisite.”
Source: Compass of the Soul: an archetypal guide to a fuller life by John L. Giannini, chapter 6.
