BIRTH

British Museum For Children: The Gates of Paradise
Copy B, Plate 8

Carl Jung Resources

Archetypes constitute the structure of the collective unconscious - they are psychic innate dispositions to experience and represent basic human behavior and specific situations.

Jung about the Collective Unconscious

"The collective unconscious - so far as we can say anything about it at all  - appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents. In fact, the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious... We can therefore study the collective unconscious in two ways, either in mythology or in the analysis of the individual." (From The Structure of the Psyche, CW 8, par. 325.)

Birth

Larry was fond of saying that he had a theology professor who taught his students that "you must be born again and again and  again." Larry was delighted with this statement because it expressed the Christian life as a continual process of renewals, revitalizations and restorations. The archetypal experience of being born is to begin, to enter into a dramatically new phase of existence. Blake's emphasis was on two types of birth: birth to Mortal Life and birth to Eternal Life.

Although Mortal Life begins with being born in the material world, the Eternal Dimension is present from the beginning. The necessity for continual rebirth results from the tension between the influence of Spirit and Matter. In Blake's system the outer world of matter had an iron grasp on the mind of man. It obscured the inner world of spirit which was the true man sojourning for a time in the world of time and space. The woes of the outer world was symptomatic of the failure of man to recognize himself as an Eternal Being connected with all which is being created and all that is Infinite and Eternal.

Although Mortal Life is a gift it is also a danger if it hides the perception of the more valuable Eternal Life which it is meant to serve. Humans gain experience by assuming appearances of types, but each is born with an identity which is more basic than the stages through which he passes. The repeated births which man experiences are the transitions as the inborn Identity becomes capable of freeing himself from 'mind forged manacles' and seeing the world as it is - Infinite      

John 3
[3] Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
[4] Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
[5] Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 6
[63] It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

First Corinthians  2
[11] For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
[12] Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
[13] Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
[14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

First John 4
[5] They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
[6] We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
[7] Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
[8] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

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Songs of Experience, Plate 52, (E 30)

"To Tirzah 
Whate'er is Born of Mortal Birth,
Must be consumed with the Earth
To rise from Generation free;
Then what have I to do with thee?"

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 138,(E 406)
"The Expanding Eyes of Man behold the depths of wondrous worlds
One Earth one sea beneath nor Erring Globes wander but Stars
Of fire rise up nightly from the Ocean & one Sun
Each morning like a New born Man issues with songs & Joy
Calling the Plowman to his Labour & the Shepherd to his rest
He walks upon the Eternal Mountains raising his heavenly voice   
Conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day
That risen from the Sea of fire renewd walk oer the Earth"

Songs and Ballads,(E 473)
"Why should I care for the men of thames
Or the cheating waves of charterd streams
Or shrink at the little blasts of fear
That the hireling blows into my ear

Tho born on the cheating banks of Thames     
Tho his waters bathed my infant limbs
The Ohio shall wash his stains from me         
 I was born a slave but I go to be free"  

 Songs and Ballads, Mental Traveler, (E 484)
"Just as we Reap in joy the fruit
Which we in bitter tears did sow

And if the Babe is born a Boy
He's given to a Woman Old      
Who nails him down upon a rock
Catches his Shrieks in Cups of gold"

Auguries of Innocence, (E 491)
"The Babe is more than swadling Bands
Throughout all these Human Lands
Tools were made & Born were hands 
Every Farmer Understands
Every Tear from Every Eye
Becomes a Babe in Eternity"

Auguries of Innocence, (E 492)
"Every Night & every Morn
Some to Misery are Born 
Every Morn & every Night
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to sweet delight
Some are Born to Endless Night
We are led to Believe a Lie 
When we see not Thro the Eye   

Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears & God is Light
To those poor Souls who dwell in Night 
But does a Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day"

Descriptive Catalogue,(E 536)
"nor can a child be born, who is not one of
these characters of Chaucer, The Doctor of Physic is described as
the first of his profession; perfect, learned, completely Master
and Doctor in his art.  Thus the reader will observe, that
Chaucer makes every one of his characters perfect in his kind,
every one is an Antique Statue; the image of a class, and not of
an imperfect individual."

Annotations to Reynolds, (E 648)
 "Knowledge of Ideal Beauty. is Not to be Acquired It is Born
with us Innate Ideas. are in Every Man Born with him. they are
truly Himself.  The Man who says that we have No Innate Ideas
must be a Fool & Knave.  Having No Con-Science or Innate
Science"

Annotations to Reynolds, (E 656)
 "Reynolds Thinks that Man Learns all that he Knows I say on
the Contrary That Man Brings All that he has or Can have Into the
World with him.  Man is Born Like a Garden ready Planted & Sown  
This World is too poor to produce one Seed" 

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