Records show a strange congruence between the development and psyche of these two men:
Blake saw the face of God in his window at four.
Jung dreamed of a giant turd dropping from heaven on the cathedral at four.
Both men had a critical attitude toward conventional Christianity; note Blake's "Nobodaddy" and Jung's departure from several generations of ministers on both sides of his family, and of course the 'turd dream'.
Both men were primarily visionaries and poets although Jung of course carefully disguised himself from those roles.
In particular you will note a strange coincidence regarding one extremely critical vision: Blake's four zoas and Jung's four functions. The functions appear to relate positively to the zoas:
Tharmas may be related to Sensation.
Luvah to Feeling.
Urizen to Thinking.
Los to Intuition.
How did this come about? We know that Jung had read Blake.
Rightly or wrongly he never gave Blake credit for the functions. To do that might have given away his mask as a scientist.
In studying the two men we note a close resemblance between poetic (and graphic) vision and scientific discovery. Blake was certainly not (much of) a scientist, and Jung was more of a visionary than he cared to acknowledge.
He came closest in Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, written in his 80's and published posthumously. By that time he didn't care!
It's funny, Larry, I just wrote a blog entry that mentions Jung. I like what's written here and am looking forward to learning more about both characters... glad you found something really interesting to work on!
ReplyDeleteMy first commenter! Bless you, dear Julie. Jung has been big in our family for a long time.
ReplyDeleteHe came from a long line of ministers on both sides. He took 'Christianity's' measure at an early age.
However he found that about all of his patients over 35 were suffering from the alienation of leaving their faith orientation.
Papa Freud would have been happy to give Blake credit.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how deep Blake goes without seeming to do so. There are passages in Will Blake that are as profoundly psychological as anything Freud or Jung wrote. Consider a seriously brilliant poet in him.
ReplyDeleteBlake, in my opinion, is the poet of the last millenium in this, we are at last ready to interpet him; as W.B Yeats said, 'he announced the religion of art' and really, art is the only religion we have left.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was the only religion we ever had...
ReplyDelete