I don’t know how much of the following is my own, and how much is Carl Jung’s view on archetypes, but I will endeavor to ransom this idea (archetypes) from its esoteric Jungian terminology. 

Archetypes are, simply put, arch-examples of things. Human consciousness needs to be constructed within a framework of hierarchical ideas, in order for it to grow. Archetypes are this framework. Archetypes are the building blocks of consciousness. 

Something significant is happening when we consciously interact with an archetype. Of course, the majority of an archetype, of an arch-example, arch-association, remains unconscious, but the part of it that does emerge into consciousness serves to compare our subjective understanding of things wth the objective templates of reality that are archetypes, thus rendering us more sane, more clearly grasping what is. 

So many subjective factors (emotions, intuitions, desires, and the past experiences we have had with those factors) skew our perception of reality, until we are living in the wounded past, and not really living in (interacting with) the moment before us. 

Invoking an archetype, is simply reminding our self to refer back to the objectivity inherent in that archetype, objectivity that is significant to some part of life we are presently dealing with. Invoking is the conscious grasping of, and the emotional embrace of, some objective idea. When we invoke, we are doing so because we are aware of the limitations of our subjective human consciousness, and are trying to re-experience some of the objectivity (real sense of the context of things), as represented in those arche-associations/types. 

When viewed in this way, the preoccupation humankind has always had with ritual and religious worship, begins to make sense to us. Rituals are such an attempt to recall the insight inherent in archetypes. Some rituals are more resonant with the archetypes than others, and some people make fuller use of ritual than others.