IMAGE OF GOD

Wikisource

Jerusalem

Plate 99

In the thought of C G Jung the dynamic of individuation involves the ego/self axis which connects the conscious and unconscious functioning of the psyche. The ego, or consciousness, arises from the original state of unconsciousness which is the undifferentiated psyche. Jung calls the total psyche the Self; Blake calls the total psyche Albion (or Jesus or the Imagination.)

Jung and Blake discern that when consciousness develops, the connection between conscious mental processing and the unconscious totality is fractured. This is imaged as the division into the four functions in Jung and into the Four Zoas in Blake. Both men directed their thoughts to the restoration of the psyche as a unified whole which would incorporate the sundered parts and express each without division or competition.

In Blake the Zoa which became dominant was Urizen, the reasoning power of man. In Jung the ego which acted as the executive of the psyche was the thinking function. Blake and Jung agree that thought - not emotion, sensation, or intuition - governed the conscious functioning of the psyche.

Blake portrays the aspects of the psyche which are not dominant as struggling to wrest control from the rational function. This represents a tug of war in the individual as the separate parts seek expression. Luvah, Tharmas and Los battle with Urizen until the Eternal form of Los - Urthona - brings all into a unity as it was in the unconscious before the psyche interacted with the external world.

The parallel process takes place in Jung's system. The divided psyche which is under control of the rational mind or ego reconnects with the unified unconscious called the Self. Through the process of individuation the ego experiences that the totality of the psyche is the Self and the ego is drawn back into the greater reality.   

Blake discerned that the ultimate reconciliation restored to man the ability to perceive the Infinite Eternal Divine. Jung expressed the resolution of the process of restoring wholeness to the psyche in terms of the ego gradually subordinating itself to the completeness of the Self which is as close to a God-image as Jung goes.

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 191, (E 391) 

"And the Eternal Man Said Hear my words O Prince of Light 

PAGE 122 
Behold Jerusalem in whose bosom the Lamb of God
Is seen tho slain before her Gates he self renewd remains
Eternal & I thro him awake to life from deaths dark vale
The times revolve the time is coming when all these delights
Shall be renewd & all these Elements that now consume            
Shall reflourish. Then bright Ahania shall awake from death
A glorious Vision to thine Eyes a Self renewing Vision  

Jerusalem, Plate 27, (E 171)

You have a tradition, that Man anciently containd in his mighty
limbs all things in Heaven & Earth: this you recieved from the
Druids.
  "But now the Starry Heavens are fled from the mighty limbs of
Albion" 

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 133, (E 402)

"Not for ourselves but for the Eternal family we live
Man liveth not by Self alone but in his brothers face            
Each shall behold the Eternal Father & love & joy abound

So spoke the Eternal at the Feast they embracd the New born Man
Calling him Brother image of the Eternal Father. they sat down
At the immortal tables sounding loud their instruments of joy
Calling the Morning into Beulah the Eternal Man rejoicd"   

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 136), (E 404)

"This dreadful Non Existence is worse than pains of Eternal Birth
Eternal Death who can Endure. let us consume in fires
In waters stifling or in air corroding or in earth shut up
The Pangs of Eternal birth are better than the Pangs of Eternal Death"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 138, (E 406)

"Such are the works of Dark Urthona  Tharmas sifted the corn
Urthona made the Bread of Ages & he placed it
In golden & in silver baskets in heavens of precious stone
And then took his repose in Winter in the night of Time

The Sun has left his blackness & has found a fresher morning     
And the mild moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night 
And Man walks forth from midst of the fires  the evil is all consumd"