The Shadows of the Tyrant and the Weakling King

But, as we know, things don’t always go according to plan. It’s certainly true that most of us have experienced moments of integration, calmness, and centredness – and perhaps we’ve even experienced blessing from a kindly uncle or grandfather, a boss, teacher, a priest, a therapist. But the truth is most of us have very little experience of the King in its fullness.

Which is why this positive energy is sadly lacking in so many male “leaders” – just think of the politicians we see around the world today! Instead, what we experience, in them and in ourselves, is the Shadow King. He can take two forms: the tyrant King or the abdicating King.

The tyrant, one aspect of the wounded and undeveloped King, is not creative. He is destructive. He never knows when it’s time to step aside and give way to others.

He exploits and abuses others, behaving ruthlessly, mercilessly, and without feeling. He pursues what he thinks of as his own self-interest but degrades others as he does so.

He does not respect beauty or innocence or strength or talent or life energy. And he behaves in this way because he lacks structure and he is afraid – terrified, really – of his own hidden weakness and his underlying lack of potency and strength.

In fact it is the Shadow King who makes war on his sons’ and daughters’ joy and strength, who diminishes their abilities and vitality.

Perhaps he fears their freshness, or the newness of their being, or the life force surging through them – whatever, he seeks to kill it. As you may know from your own experience, he does this with verbal assaults, and deprecation of their interests, hopes and talents.

Or he may do it by ignoring them by turning his back on them when they are disappointed, or by registering his lack of interest when they offer something of themselves to him.

And of course his attacks aren’t always verbal or psychological: they may include physical abuse. Any father possessed by his tyrant archetype may exploit his children physically or sexually.

To what extent, I wonder, is the tyrant playing out in your life? And if it is, what are you doing about it from the place of the mature masculine?

For even if the place of the mature masculine within you is a potential energy  rather than a reality, at some level you can still make a choice to step into your inner King.

Any man who is possessed by the tyrant is very sensitive to criticism – and will, at the slightest remark, feel weak and deflated. But he may not show you this. Instead you will experience rage, his rage which covers his sense of worthlessness, vulnerability and weakness.

Behind the tyrant hides the deflated aspect of the King’s shadow – the weakling or abdicating King. And when the weakling cannot identify with King energy, or doesn’t feel it, he believes he is nothing. And then he projects his own inner weakling King upon those who he sees as weak.

And of course the inner weakling lacks centredness and calmness and security within himself. This can lead him into paranoia. He sees threats where they do not exist, he is tormented by fears of disloyalty. And in some ways he does have much to fear, because his oppressive behaviour, including cruelty, are powerful provocations which may lead to a similar response from other people.

Such thoughts and feelings lead to increasing tyranny and dictatorial behaviour, the accumulation of more and more power around an individual.

The Development Of The Tyrant King

It’s so hard for parents who were not blessed themselves to bless their children right. Moore and Gillette point out that to offer a child just the right amount of adoration and affirmation is difficult. Perhaps the parents mollycoddle them, and adore them, producing a “highchair tyrant”.

In fact a parent needs to allow the child down off the “highchair” easily and gradually into the real world, because childhood gods cannot live as mortal humans. If parents adore a boy too much and don’t help the boy’s ego form, then he may never get down from his high chair, and remain inflated with the power of his infantile grandiosity.

That’s one way that the Shadow King is formed – and the other is when the parents abuse the baby or the boy, and attack his grandiosity and gloriousness from the beginning.

In these cases, the grandiosity gets split off and dropped into the boy’s unconscious for safekeeping. Later, in “adulthood”, functioning primarily from the place of the weakling King, his repressed grandiosity may explode to the surface, raw and primitive, unmodulated and very powerful.

Sometimes a man seems very nice and rational, but suddenly, perhaps when promoted at work, or such like, explodes into a different personality, a little Hitler. This is the Shadow King – a man for whom the saying “power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely” is entirely correct. (Here, I again think of some “politicians” in our world today.)

So on the one hand, where a boy was badly treated in childhood and disassociated from his King energy, he can become caught in his own King’s dysfunctional shadow and feel starved of King energy. This is the man who has no ability, no control, no power – or so it seems – to change his life.

On the other hand, a man may come to identify completely with kingly energy – but of an immature kind. He identifies completely with King energy, and has no commitment to others. He is his own priority. The true centre of the system is lost: and grandiosity rules, along with tyrannical kingship.

Projecting The Inner King Outwards

Of course, what we don’t, can’t or won’t experience in ourselves, we may project outwards onto others. And so it’s possible that anyone who has lost contact with his own inner king may seek it out in others.

He might experience himself as impotent, as incapable of acting, as incapable of feeling calm, without the presence and the loving attention of another person who carries his King energy projection. This can happen with children when their parents don’t allow them to develop sufficient independence of will and action and purpose, and the children remain forever bound to their parents. It can happen at work, when we become too dependent upon the power of the boss.

And it can happen on a national scale too. In the 20th and 21st centuries we’ve seen many examples of countries where people saw themselves as powerless and turned all of their King energy over to some kind of Fuhrer, dictator or tyrant. This abdication of one’s own power is just as damaging as the tyranny that it fosters.

Another way in which men can deal with their own lack of King energy is to become “King killers”. This means a man attacks and tries to bring down the people who he sees as Kingly and successful. Maybe it represents an attack on their own inner King energy, which they repress, fearful of expressing it in the world.