EGO & ARCHETYPE 2

British Museum
Daniel
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

Daniel 3

[20] And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
[21] Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
[22] Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
[23] And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
[24] Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellers, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
[25] He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
[26] Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.
[27] And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellers, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
[28] Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

In his book Ego and Archetype, Edward F Edinger uses an account of a man in the throes of an angry mood to illustrate the power of a symbol of an archetype to break the grip of a destructive state of mind. By connecting to an account of three men who were released from a situation similar to his own, under the dominance of even more dramatic circumstances, he was freed from his intense state of anger which controlled him. Realizing the archetypal nature of his internal status gave meaning at a symbolic level. He was released by discovering the source of his emotions.     

From Page 116 of Ego and Archetype by Edward F Edinger:

"Intense mood and emotional states will also yield up their meanings if the relevant symbolic image can be found. For example, a man was in the grip of an angry mood... The third chapter of Daniel describes the decree of Nebuchadnezzar that all people fall down and worship his golden idol...

This image resolved the angry mood because it expresses symbolically the meaning of the mood. King Nebuchadnezzar represents an arbitrary, tyrannical, power-driven figure who would usurp the prerogatives of God and rages when he is not treated as a deity. He is the ego identified with the Self. His rage is synonymous with the fiery furnace... The fourth figure that appears in the furnace 'like the son of God' would represent the transpersonal, archetypal component that was actualized in the experience. It brings meaning, release and wholeness (as the fourth).

...To the extent that one is unaware of the symbolic dimension of existence, one experiences the vicissitudes of life as symptoms...Almost any difficulty can be borne if we can discern its meaning. It is meaninglessness which is the greatest threat to humanity...

It is the discovery of the symbolic life which releases man from this 'awful, grinding, banal' life which is only a succession of meaningless symptoms." 

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We find in Blake's poetry references to aspects of the psyche asserting dominance by declaring themselves God. Blake was using his symbolic language to gain understanding of the ills which beset man. Release from distorted perceptions offered hope of restoring mankind to Eden, the status of perfect harmony.  

Any aspect of the psyche which assumed the position of God invited its own downfall. In Edinger's narrative it was the recognition by Nebuchadnezzar that he had no power over Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego which made him aware that he was not a divinity to be worshiped. The man consumed by anger saw too that he had given power to a dominating force which was not a god but a construct of his psyche.

Book of Urizen, Plate 3, (E 86)

"8: While  Fuzon [fire] his tygers unloosing
Thought Urizen slain by his wrath.
I am God. said he, eldest of things! 

Milton, Plate 8, (E 103)

"Saying I am God alone   
There is no other! let all obey my principles of moral individuality
I have brought them from the uppermost innermost recesses
Of my Eternal Mind, transgressors I will rend off for ever,
As now I rend this accursed Family from my covering.

Thus Satan rag'd amidst the Assembly! and his bosom grew     
Opake against the Divine Vision: the paved terraces of
His bosom inwards shone with fires, but the stones becoming opake!"

Milton, Plate 38 [43], (E 139)

"Satan heard! Coming in a cloud, with trumpets & flaming fire   

Saying I am God the judge of all, the living & the dead
Fall therefore down & worship me. submit thy supreme
Dictate, to my eternal Will & to my dictate bow"

Jerusalem, Plate 54, (E 203)

"But the Spectre like a hoar frost & a Mildew rose over Albion    
Saying, I am God O Sons of Men! I am your Rational Power!
Am I not Bacon & Newton & Locke who teach Humility to Man!
Who teach Doubt & Experiment & my two Wings Voltaire: Rousseau.
Where is that Friend of Sinners! that Rebel against my Laws!
Who teaches Belief to the Nations, & an unknown Eternal Life     
Come hither into the Desart & turn these stones to bread.
Vain foolish Man! wilt thou believe without Experiment?" 

Four Zoas, Night I, Page Page 12, (E 306)                          
"Indignant muttering low thunders; Urizen descended
Gloomy sounding, Now I am God from Eternity to Eternity"

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 12, (E 307)

"Thus Urizen spoke collected in himself in awful pride

Art thou a visionary of Jesus the soft delusion of Eternity   
Lo I am God the terrible destroyer & not the Saviour
Why should the Divine Vision compell the sons of Eden
to forego each his own delight to war against his Spectre
The Spectre is the Man the rest is only delusion & fancy"

Four Zoas, Night IV, Page 51, (E 344)  

"Tharmas before Los stood & thus the Voice of Tharmas rolld

Now all comes into the power of Tharmas. Urizen is falln
And Luvah hidden in the Elemental forms of Life & Death
Urthona is My Son O Los thou art Urthona & Tharmas
Is God. The Eternal Man is seald never to be deliverd"  

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"