Synopsis: Captain Sisko decides to marry Captain Yates in spite of the warning from the Prophets, while Kai Winn arrives on Deep Space Nine and experiences visions.
This episode can be seen as illustrations of James Hillman’s theory about the relationship between the Senex, or wise elder, archetype and that of the Puer or Puella, the eternal youth archetype. Archetypes being unconscious patterns of energy found in all human psyches.
In “‘Til Death Do Us Part” while initially Captain Benjamin Sisko calls off his wedding to Captain Kasidy Yates because of the vision he received from the Prophets, he changes his mind and goes through with it. Meanwhile, when Kai Winn arrives on Deep Space Nine, she experiences visions from whom she believes are the Prophets, that tell her about a guide that will come to her.
In this episode when Winn finally has a vision and receives guidance from whom she believes are the Prophets, she unquestioningly obeys their orders grateful for the instructions that she has been given. This is as it often is when the energy of the Puer or Puella archetype first comes in contact with that of the Senex. And Hillman believed that this is a necessary step in the maturation process of the psyche. However, when Sisko goes against the Prophets, his conduct can be analogized to the Puer or Puella energy breaking apart from that of the Senex contained in the psyche. This is also a necessary process, and in truth, there is an ongoing balance of energies between the Puer and Puella energy and that of the Senex throughout our lives. Hillman believed that this relationship could be used to examine all the various relationships between different archetypal energies in the human psyche.
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