EGO & ARCHETYPE

Edward F Edinger in Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Soul wrote of the development of the psyche as the individual travels through the process of individuation.

In Chapter 2 with subtitles The Alienated Ego, and Encounter with the Self, Edinger provides five images from Blake's Illustration of the Book of Job to supplement his text on the encounter between ego and Self.

"The Self is the ordering and unifying center of the total psyche (conscious and unconscious) just as the ego is the center of the conscious personality." (Page 3)

"It is generally accepted among analytic psychologists that the task of the first half of life involves ego development with progressive separation between ego and self; whereas the second half of life requires a surrender or at least a relativization of the ego as it experiences and relates to the self... [However] The process of alternation between ego-Self union and ego-Self separation seems to occur repeatedly in the life of the individual both in childhood and in maturity." (Page 5)

Picture 3 - The Fire of God Has Fallen from Heaven

Page 80

"Apparently the Self needs conscious recognition and is obliged by the individuation process to tempt and test the ego in order to bring about full ego-awareness of the Self existence."

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Picture 11 - Yahweh Frightens Job with a Glimpse of Hell

Page 87

 "The process of individuation requires that he accept and assimilate the dark inferior side."

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Picture 13 - Yahweh Answers Job out of the Whirlwind

Page 89

"The part cannot encompass the whole...The ego is being contrasted here with the size and power of the archetypes which determine psychic existence."

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Picture 15 - Yahweh Shows Job the Depths 

Page 91

"God reveals his own shadow side and since man participates in God as the ground of his being, he must likewise share his darkness."  

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Picture 18 - Job Sacrifices to Yahweh

Page 96

"Having experienced the transpersonal center of the psyche, the ego recognizes its subordinate position and is prepared to serve the totality and its ends rather than make personal demands." 

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Describing a stage in psychic development Edinger writes of the means through which the ego and the Self establish a proper relationship. The ego which resembles Blake's Urizen becomes reconciled to the Self which resembles Blake's Urthona. The ego which dominates the relationship of the psyche to the external, physical world, undergoes a process through which it recognizes the role of the Self as the manifestation of the internal, spiritual nature of mankind.    

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 79, (E 355)

"Urizen answerd Read my books explore my Constellations 
Enquire of my Sons & they shall teach thee how to War
Enquire of my Daughters who accursd in the dark depths
Knead bread of Sorrow by my stern command for I am God
Of all this dreadful ruin   Rise O daughters at my Stern command"

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 98 [90],(E 371)

"First his immortal spirit drew Urizen[s] Shadow away        
From out the ranks of war separating him in sunder
Leaving his Spectrous form which could not be drawn away     
Then he divided Thiriel the Eldest of Urizens sons
Urizen became Rintrah Thiriel became Palamabron
Thus dividing the powers of Every Warrior
Startled was Los he found his Enemy Urizen now
In his hands. he wonderd that he felt love & not hate     
His whole soul loved him he beheld him an infant
Lovely breathd from Enitharmon he trembled within himself"

New York Public Library
Milton
Plate 41

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 141) 

"Before Ololon Milton stood & percievd the Eternal Form
Of that mild Vision; wondrous were their acts by me unknown
Except remotely; and I heard Ololon say to Milton

I see thee strive upon the Brooks of Arnon. there a dread
And awful Man I see, oercoverd with the mantle of years.   
I behold Los & Urizen. I behold Orc & Tharmas;
The Four Zoa's of Albion & thy Spirit with them striving
In Self annihilation giving thy life to thy enemies"