Pumpkins and Candy Houses
Introduction
This article, the second in a series on archetypes and leadership, delves into the Great Mother archetype [1]. Drawing on the tales of Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel, it explores how the Great Mother manifests in leadership as two contrasting forces: the nurturing Good Mother and the destructive Devouring Mother [2]. Understanding the influence of these dual aspects of the Great Mother archetype is crucial for cultivating leadership and fostering a resilient and high-performing organisational culture.
As discussed previously, archetypes are universal patterns of behaviour embedded in the collective unconscious, shaping how we perceive and respond to the world. Each archetype possesses a shadow side; for the Great Mother, this shadow expresses itself as the Devouring Mother, whose excessive control and possessiveness can stifle resilience, creativity, and growth. For leaders, recognising and integrating these archetypes' light and dark aspects are essential for career success, particularly balancing stability and transformation.
Leaders build psychological maturity through individuation by integrating these archetypes into their consciousness. This awareness allows them to respond more adeptly to the complexities of leadership. By acknowledging their potential for both nurture and destruction, leaders become better at, for example, navigating the balance between fostering a safe environment where mistakes are tolerated and ensuring their teams remain fully accountable for their performance.
Recently, I came across a social media post that emphasised the importance of being "woke," celebrating the virtues of empathy, compassion, and care in leadership. While these traits are undeniably valuable, I could not help wondering: "What happens when these characteristics are taken too far?". This question led me to reflect on the implications of the shadow side of the Great Mother archetype. When empathy and care become excessive, they limit autonomy and hinder both personal and professional growth.
This delicate balance — the tension between nurturing and control — is one of the critical leadership challenges of our time. The behavioural dynamic embodied in the Great Mother archetype has far-reaching consequences for society and business. Leaders who fail to recognise the Devouring Mother's shadow harm their organisations and the people they manage.
Narrative Structures
Across cultures, stories of the Great Mother and Ruler archetypes highlight the fundamental forces of chaos and order, shaping organisations and leadership behaviours. Myths involving the Great Mother follow a U-shaped narrative arc, reflecting the cyclical nature of creation, destruction, and renewal. A clear example is the Incan renewal myth of Pachamama, the earth goddess who nurtures the land and its people. However, when humans distort the natural balance, Pachamama unleashes earthquakes and droughts to cleanse the land. This descent into chaos is essential for transformation as it clears the way for rebirth — ensuring that life is reoriented towards serving the greater good. In leadership, this mirrors how destruction is necessary to spark innovation and transformation.
Ruler archetype myths, in contrast, follow a more structured path centred on the struggle to establish and maintain order. While the Great Mother embraces chaos to facilitate transformation, the Ruler provides the stability required for long-term success. The Ruler's power is rooted in serving the greater good, building governance, and ensuring the prosperity of the wider society. The Ruler's battle is the imposition of structure on the natural chaos of the world to create lasting systems and cultural legacies that benefit the organisation and society.
These opposing dynamics of the Great Mother and Ruler represent the Yin and Yang of leadership. Successful leaders must balance these forces, drawing on the creativity and renewal of the Great Mother to drive change and innovation while also relying on the governance and structure of the Ruler to ensure stability and sustainability in the long term. When in harmony, these archetypes sustain growth, ensuring that the organisation neither stagnates nor descends into chaos.
Having established the importance of the Great Mother and Ruler archetypes, let us focus on the Great Mother. The tales of Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel illustrate the cultivating and destructive sides of the Great Mother. These familiar fairy tales shape our understanding of nurturing, control, and growth — offering important insights into leadership success [5].
Cinderella
Once upon a time, there was a kind and beautiful young girl named Cinderella. After the death of her mother, her father remarried but soon passed away as well. Cinderella was left in the care of her cruel stepmother and two stepsisters. The stepmother, envious of Cinderella, coerced her into servitude. Dressed in rags, she was forced to sleep in the attic and do all the household chores while her stepsisters constantly mocked and mistreated her.
The king announced a grand ball at the palace to find a bride for the prince. All the maidens in the land were invited, and Cinderella asked her stepmother if she could attend. Her wicked stepmother, not wanting Cinderella to outshine her daughters, agreed only if Cinderella completed an overwhelming list of 'impossible' chores. To make matters worse, her stepsisters tore apart Cinderella’s ballgown, leaving her in tears.
In her moment of despair, Cinderella's fairy godmother appeared. With a wave of her wand, she summoned the mice and birds to swiftly complete Cinderella's chores [6]. She then transformed a pumpkin into a magnificent golden carriage, the mice into horses, and Cinderella's tattered clothes into a stunning gown, complete with glass slippers [7] [8] [9]. With a warning that the magic would wear off at midnight, the fairy godmother sent Cinderella off to the ball [10].
At the ball, Cinderella enchanted everyone, and the prince could not take his eyes off her. They danced into the night, but as the clock struck midnight and the magic began to fade, Cinderella fled, leaving behind one of her glass slippers on the grand staircase.
The prince searched the kingdom with the glass slipper, proclaiming that he would marry the girl it fit. When the royal messenger arrived at Cinderella's home, her wicked stepmother locked her in the attic. However, with the help of her loyal animal friends, Cinderella escaped just in time to try on the slipper, which fit her perfectly. Cinderella married the prince, leaving behind her life of hardship. And they lived happily ever after.
The Great Mother in Cinderella
The Good Mother
Cinderella's birth mother dies at the start of the story; her presence, however, is felt in the values Cinderella holds — her kindness, resilience, and inner beauty are reflections of her mother's nurturing influence. These traits help Cinderella to withstand her stepmother's cruelty and maintain hope despite her circumstances. The fairy godmother takes on the role of the Good Mother when Cinderella is at her lowest ebb. She enables Cinderella's transformation, offering her the tools, symbolised by the gown, carriage, and glass slippers, to realise her potential. The fairy godmother's actions reflect the Great Mother's protective, supportive and nurturing aspects, encouraging growth and opening the door for opportunity, allowing Cinderella to transcend her limitations and fulfil her potential.
In leadership, the Good Mother archetype recognises potential and provides nurturing support. Such leaders remove obstacles, offer guidance, and equip their team members with the tools they need to succeed. The fairy godmother highlights the importance of timing — stepping in when Cinderella was on the brink of despair, stretched to her limits. Similarly, influential leaders find the delicate balance between granting autonomy, allowing room for growth, and offering support to prevent failure, ensuring that assistance is provided before the descent into chaos.
The Devouring Mother
Cinderella's stepmother embodies the Devouring Mother archetype; she represents the shadow forces of envy, control, and oppression. Instead of nurturing Cinderella, she constrains her at every turn, assigning menial tasks, withholding opportunities, and eroding her self-esteem. Driven by the fear of being overshadowed, the stepmother is overpowering, striving to keep Cinderella in perpetual subordination. She is a figure of suffocating control whose need for dominance stifles growth and opportunity — preventing Cinderella from fulfilling her potential.
In leadership, the Devouring Mother archetype is driven by a fear that others possess greater potential and will surpass them. As a result, these leaders become overbearing, exerting excessive control, micromanaging, and refusing to delegate. This desire to suppress the potential in others creates an environment where innovation, autonomy, and growth are stifled, and others fail to fulfil their potential.
This dynamic of control and suppression is vividly illustrated in the tale of Hansel and Gretel, where the Devouring Mother archetype takes on an even more sinister form, exposing the destructive consequences of a self-serving maternal figure.
Hansel and Gretel
Once upon a time, a poor woodcutter lived with his two children, Hansel and Gretel, and their cruel stepmother. During a severe famine, the stepmother persuaded the woodcutter that they could no longer feed the children and must abandon them in the forest. Overhearing their plan, Hansel secretly gathered white pebbles, dropping them along the path the next day as their stepmother led them deep into the woods [11].
After being abandoned in the dense forest, Hansel and Gretel waited for the moon to rise. Its light reflected off the pebbles, guiding them safely home [12]. Beside herself at their return, their stepmother led them to the heart of the forest. Hansel left a trail of breadcrumbs this time, but the birds devoured them, leaving the children utterly lost [13] [14].
They wandered for days in the forest, cold and starving, until they stumbled upon a house made entirely of bread, cake, and candy [15]. Desperate from hunger, they began eating the walls. Suddenly, an old woman appeared and invited them inside. Unaware of her true nature, they had no idea that she was a wicked witch who used her candy house to lure and trap children [16]. She imprisoned Hansel in a cage and made Gretel work, fattening Hansel with sweets to prepare him for the cooking pot [17].
Hansel tricked the witch into prodding a bone he had picked off the floor instead of his finger when she checked if he was fat enough to eat [18]. Growing impatient, the witch decided to consume him anyway and ordered Gretel to stoke the oven. Pretending not to understand, Gretel asked the witch to show her how. As the witch leaned forward, Gretel shoved her into the oven, where she burned slowly to death [19].
Hansel and Gretel escaped with the witch's gold and jewellery, eventually finding their way back home [20]. Upon their return, they discovered their stepmother had died, and they lived happily ever after with their father.
The Great Mother in Hansel and Gretel
The Good Mother
In Hansel and Gretel, the Good Mother archetype is evident through the children's resilience and resourcefulness, traits instilled by their own mother before her death. Hansel's quick thinking — gathering white pebbles to guide their way back home — and Gretel's cleverness in tricking the witch into the oven — represent the enduring protective influence of a nurturing presence. The moonlight illuminates the pebbles and guides the children back to safety, symbolising a protective maternal figure, offering light and guidance in their darkest moments. Together, these elements reflect the lasting power of the Good Mother's nurturing, encouraging experimentation and empowering the children to rely on their creativity and intelligence to survive and overcome adversity.
In effective leadership, the Good Mother archetype embodies protection, empowerment, coaching, support, and guidance yet fosters exploration, resilience, solution-finding, and independence. Just as the moon's light helps the children to find their way without direct intervention, leaders who channel the Good Mother provide a secure environment and necessary tools but allow team members to forge their path.
The Devouring Mother
The Devouring Mother archetype in Hansel and Gretel is embodied by both the stepmother and the witch. The stepmother's jealousy and control mirror the familiar lessons from Cinderella. She sees Hansel and Gretel as threats to her access to the father's love and resources. Although the famine serves as an excuse, her actions are rooted in insecurity, driving her to rid herself of the children to secure her position.
This repetition of the trope highlights leaders who fear being overshadowed, withholding opportunities and undermining others to maintain control. With this familiar pattern established, let us turn to the witch's role as the more extreme version of the Devouring Mother.
The witch represents the pinnacle of expression of the Devouring Mother archetype, driven entirely by self-serving motives. She cloaks her manipulations in a deceptive veneer of care and security. In Hansel and Gretel, this is symbolised by the candy house — an inviting and comforting structure on the outside that harbours deep malevolence within. The candy house symbolises false promises: an outward display of warmth, help and concern for others that conceals the witch's intent to consume and destroy. This deceit is emblematic of leaders who offer false opportunities or create environments that seem safe and supportive but are designed to exploit those under their control.
The witch's fattening of Hansel reveals a calculated cruelty; it is not an impulsive act but a slow, methodical process of building dependency before the final act of destruction. By creating an illusion of care, the witch ensures that her victims remain under her control until she is ready to consume them.
In leadership, this extreme form of the Devouring Mother archetype manifests in leaders who are quintessential narcissists, using their teams solely for self-aggrandisement and placing their own needs above others. These leaders create environments of total dependency, stifling autonomy and initiative in favour of control. They micromanage, refuse to delegate, and manipulate situations to ensure that colleagues remain trapped in servitude, advancing only the leader's personal goals. This total consumption of potential mirrors the witch's desire to devour Hansel, as these leaders subvert and ravage the growth and potential of their teams, undermining both individual and organisational development.
The Devouring Mother archetype is deeply seductive, luring us with the promise of superficial protection. In Hansel and Gretel, this is embodied by the allure of the candy house. The fairy tale invites us to reflect on our psyche — what drives our craving for security, even at the cost of stunting our individuality? Neumann argued that we must all confront this dependency on the Great Mother to continue the path to maturity, challenging the pull of comfort to foster authentic independence.
The Great Mother in Leadership
Earlier, we asked: "What happens when empathy and compassion are taken too far?". The complexities of the Great Mother archetype, with its polarising forces of nurturing and destruction, offer a compelling answer. Traits associated with the Good Mother — empathy, compassion, and care — are invaluable in leadership, as they promote psychological well-being and help colleagues to realise their full potential. Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo, serves as a powerful example. Renowned for her genuine concern for her employees, Nooyi cultivated a culture of trust, growth, and support, empowering her teams to experiment and take risks within a safe, nurturing environment. Through thoughtful coaching and guidance, she avoided overbearing control, embodying the most constructive qualities of the Good Mother archetype.
The development lesson of the Good Mother archetype is straightforward: people thrive on the edge of chaos — a space where they are challenged but not overwhelmed. The elasticity between leaders and their teams should be stretched far enough to allow for a real risk of failure, creating the necessary tension for experimentation, growth, and self-reliance to flourish without descending into disorder. The sweet spot of the mature Good Mother is encouraging direct reports to operate at the boundary of chaos and order. However, even well-intentioned leaders may miss this mark, leaning toward overprotection or exposing teams to overly harsh failures. In this regard, leaders should aim to be "good enough," allowing cumulative opportunities for development to mitigate potential harm.
The Devouring Mother archetype spans a continuum of behaviours, from overprotection to stifling control. At its core, these behaviours are driven by various conscious and unconscious motivations, making effective individuation essential. Leaders must strive to fully understand their drives, as there is a material risk that they believe they are acting out of love and concern when their unconscious motivations are more self-serving. Without comprehensive individuation, what appears as care for colleagues can conceal more malevolent motivations, such as the fear of being surpassed, jealousy, a need for aggrandisement, or a fear of letting go.
The Devouring Mother takes on a fully pathological form at the end of the continuum. Here, the leader's self-serving nature is still cloaked in a facade of care and benevolence, but their primary goal is self-aggrandisement. Team members are managed as tools to fulfil the leader's ambitions — leading to exploitation and sacrificing colleagues' potential and well-being for the leader's gain.
The challenge for leaders lies in understanding their own darker motivations and recognising when the veneer of care and empathy hides a more malevolent, unconscious, and self-serving set of drives. Only through individuation can leaders ensure that their actions are genuinely aimed at helping their colleagues realise their potential.
Conclusion
The Great Mother archetype embodies a profound duality in leadership. On one side, the Good Mother represents nurturing qualities such as empathy, care, and support, fostering resilience, independence, and growth. Leaders who embody this archetype create environments where their teams can truly thrive. In these settings, colleagues feel safe, challenging assignments are delegated, risk-taking and experimentation are encouraged, and coaching is a regular practice.
Conversely, the Devouring Mother represents the shadow side of leadership, where nurturing morphs into control and possessiveness, stifling development and autonomy. This archetype often disguises itself as acting in others' best interests, but the true motivations stem from fear, insecurity, or self-aggrandisement. In its extreme form, the Devouring Mother sacrifices others' potential for their own gain, creating an oppressive culture marked by micromanagement and limited autonomy.
Combined with the Great Mother archetype, egotism is a recipe for disaster. As leaders, we must have the humility to regularly examine our motivations, especially when we believe our actions are driven by care. Unconscious drives are deceptive, leading to behaviours that serve our insecurities rather than fostering the growth of those we lead. We must be vigilant in modern organisations as we promote care, safety and growth; the Devouring Mother's influence has become entrenched in our cultures, going unchallenged and undermining actual progress.
References
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Footnote
[1] The first article in the sequence is "The Once and Future Leader: The Ruler"; the focus being the Ruler archetype in leadership success.
[2] Jung coined the term "Devouring Mother" to describe the destructive aspect of the maternal archetype, while Erich Neumann referred to this darker side as the "Terrible Mother".
[3] The mythological cycle of creation, destruction, and renewal is evidenced across cultures: in Norse mythology, Frigg, whose son's death precipitates the chaos of Ragnarök and eventual rebirth. And in Hindu mythology, Kali is the life-giver and destroyer who clears the old to allow for regeneration and cosmic balance.
[4] Northrop Frye's high mimetic mode refers to Ruler narratives, where characters possess significant power and authority but remain bound by human limitations. These stories emphasise leadership, governance, the maintenance of tradition, and the struggle to maintain order.
[5] The fairy tales were chosen for their universal appeal, yet parallels are easily found in mythology. Demeter fiercely guards her daughter Persephone, Hera punishes those who challenge her authority, and the Norse goddess Angrboda, the mother of monsters, embodies maternal power's devouring, chaotic aspect.
[6] The mice denote humility, resourcefulness and loyal companionship, while the birds represent freedom, hope, and divine guidance. Together, they embody Cinderella's inner strength and her dreams of escape. They demonstrate the transformative power of small acts of kindness.
[7] The pumpkin symbolises transformation, growth, the fruition of Cinderella's dreams, and the fleeting opportunity of magic.
[8] Cinderella's gown represents the potential for transformation. It allows Cinderella entry into the ball — the world of possibility.
[9] The glass slippers embody Cinderella's principality — symbolising her position at the preeminent position in the hierarchy of attractiveness and virtue. They reflect her purity, beauty, and uniqueness, embodying her destiny and highlighting her transformative journey from servitude to royalty.
[10] Midnight signifies the fleeting nature of opportunity. It serves as a reminder that all magical changes are temporary, marking the boundary between fantasy and reality, urging Cinderella to seize her moment before time runs out.
[11] The white pebbles symbolise hope, guidance, and cleverness. Hansel's use of them reflects his resourcefulness. Their white colour highlights Hansel's and Gretel's innocence, untainted by the cruelty of their stepmother.
[12] The moon represents the Good Mother archetype, symbolising nurturing, protection, and emotional depth. In Hansel and Gretel, the moon guides the children, offering hope and illumination during their darkest moments — embodying the Good Mother archetype.
[13] The breadcrumbs denote fragility and uncertainty, representing a desperate attempt to find safety, and easily destroyed by external forces.
[14] The birds represent the uncontrollable forces of nature, consuming hope and disrupting plans. They are the unpredictable dangers that Hansel and Gretel face, reminding us that events beyond our control can blow us off course.
[15] The candy house symbolises temptation, false security, and the dangers of overindulgence. Though inviting, it conceals a deadly trap, illustrating how too much comfort prevents growth. It represents the deceptive allure of immediate gratification with hidden, long-term consequences.
[16] The witch conveys the extreme of the Devouring Mother archetype, consuming and destroying the child, while the wicked stepmother's jealousy manifests as psychological oppression. The witch's actions are violent and terminal, making her more insidious than the stepmother. Both, of course, do profound damage.
[17] The cage embodies the overpowering nature of the Devouring Mother. Once tempted by the lure of the sweets, Hansel and Gretel are trapped.
[18] Hansel's bone trick symbolises the ability to outwit and subvert the Devouring Mother, turning her destructive plans against her.
[19] The fire signifies purification, the destruction of evil and the Devouring Mother's defeat. It signifies transformation, renewal and freedom for Hansel and Gretel.
[20] The gold and jewels denote reward, security, transformation, and moral victory, marking Hansel and Gretel's successful journey from vulnerable to safe and secure children.