<p dir="ltr">This dissertation will use the lens of Jung’s theory of archetypes to analyse the shift from sacred icons to modern celebrities and display how the sacred is still experienced in a secular society. By using Jungian archetypes to illuminate the subject, one can discover parallel images that reveal the outlets through which the sacred is still experienced in the present day. I examine the presentation of these icons, as well as their reception, to highlight these parallel images. I structured my dissertation to go back through time, as I want to reveal how one can use the archetypes atemporally to explore the different filters each culture has for the same thing: the sacred realm. I explore this first through analysis of Livia Augusta and then a comparison to Lana Del Rey. I only describe Del Rey in terms of how she compares to Livia Augusta to show that current celebrities are not isolated, rather they are another cultural phenomenon that acts similarly. I aim to contextualise the modern world within the ancient rather than to compare the two equally. I also use my own lens and data from those around me to explore Otto’s concept of the numinous as induced by an in-life experience with Del Rey, to demonstrate the experience of the sacred that comes from iconic figures. Then I analyse Panhellenic Greece, comparing a recent representation of Lily Rose Depp to representation of Iphigenia. First, I analyse Iphigenia and how her cult works in terms of concepts from Burkert’s <i>Homo Necans</i> and then go on to discuss Lily Rose Depp’s cult in the context of Iphigenia, and how Jung’s archetypal images connect. I analyse these four subjects because Augustan Rome adapted Panhellenic ideas and culture to fit their own. I demonstrate how this reveals Jung’s theory: of cultures building upon one another’s archetypal images, representing the images in the ‘unconscious’. In terms of modern celebrity, I argue that they have become archetypal images, because of projections. By observing these archetypal images, one can conclude that people access spirituality through iconic figures and do so in a shifted way, due to culture being reshaped by the internet.</p><p><br></p>
