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| Wikipedia Commons Book of Urizen Plate 21 |
"The primordial image, or archetype, is a figure—be it a daemon, a human being, or a process—that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed. Essentially, therefore, it is a mythological figure. (...) In each of these images there is a little piece of human psychology and human fate, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in our ancestral history."
Carl Jung, On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry, in Collected Works 15, 127
In his exploration of his own psyche Jung reached into parts on his mind with which he had been unacquainted. Below his consciousness he found intimations of material which entered consciousness unexpectedly and by unpredicted pathways. As he allowed himself to be led into the unexplored areas he gave names to what he discovered. The structure nearest to consciousness became the subconscious. Pushing the boundary further he explored his temporarily lost memories and suppressed feelings. This level he called individual unconscious. He found that there is a collective unconscious as well, which is the shared inheritance of humanity. The contents of the collective unconscious he named archetypes.
He configured the collective unconscious into two classes: the active personalities such as the Mother and the Trickster, and the processes which he called archetypes of transformation. In my recent posts I have focused on Blake's development of his myth in terms of some universal human experiences which fit the understanding of archetypes as described by Jung. Blake brought forth archetypal ideas without attributing them to a source called the unconscious.
In notebooks Jung recorded his experience of entering and exploring his unconscious. This edeavour was precipitated by his alienation from Freud who had been his mentor. When Jung found it necessary to reject Freud's sexual theory of the psyche, he entered a period of formulating his own system which led to the process of individuation.
It is a well known observation that Jung and Blake shared many ideas. I have found only one acknowledgement from Jung that he was exposed to Blake's teachings. Without mentioning the source a Library of Congress website associated with an exhibition of Jung's The Red Book included a statement about Jung's attitude to Blake: "Jung wrote that he found 'Blake a tantalizing study, since he compiled a lot of half or undigested knowledge in his fantasies. According to my ideas they are an artistic production rather than an authentic representation of unconscious processes.'" It would have been impossible for Jung not to have seen similarities in Blake's work and the work he engaged in himself. I can only surmise that it was necessary for Jung to find the source of his psychology only in his encounter with the unconscious. Blake who wrote in English (not in the languages most familiar to Jung) and used images of the human body (not abstract mandalas) to present his psychological insights did not have the authenticity Jung sought.
Here are some correlations which may be helpful in working with Archetypes.
Blake's Archetypes Jung's Archetypes Blake's Myth Abstrations
Journey Birth Jerusalem Life
Nature The Mother Vala World
Spirit The Anima Urthona Eternity
Body Power Tharmas Physical
Selfhood Death Urizen Evil
Guidance The Hero Los Soul
Birth The Child Luvah Innocence
Marriage Rebirth Albion Unification
Descriptive Catalogue, (E 532)
" NUMBER III.
Sir Jeffery Chaucer and the nine and twenty Pilgrims on
their journey to Canterbury.
THE time chosen is early morning, before sunrise, when the jolly
company are just quitting the Tabarde Inn. The Knight and Squire
with the Squire's Yeoman lead the Procession, next follow the
youthful Abbess, her nun and three priests; her greyhounds attend
her.
"Of small hounds had she that she fed
"With roast flesh, milk and wastel bread."
Next follow the Friar and Monk; then the Tapiser, the Pardoner,
and the Somner and Manciple. After these "Our Host," who oc[pies
the center of the cavalcade; directs them to the Knight
as the person who would be likely to commence their task of each
telling a tale in their order. After the Host follow the
Shipman, the Haberdasher, the Dyer, the Franklin, the Physician,
the Plowman, the Lawyer, the poor Parson, the Merchant, the Wife
of Bath, the Miller, the Cook, the Oxford Scholar, Chaucer
himself, and the Reeve comes as Chaucer has described:
"And ever he rode hinderest of the rout."
These last are issuing from the gateway of the Inn; the Cook and
the Wife of Bath are both taking their morning's draught of
comfort. Spectators stand at the gateway of the Inn, and are
composed of an old Man, a Woman and Children.
...
The characters of Chaucer's Pilgrims are the characters
which compose all ages and nations: as one age falls, another
rises, different to mortal sight, but to immortals only the same;
for we see the same characters repeated again and again, in
animals, vegetables, minerals, and in men; nothing new occurs in
identical existence; Accident ever varies, Substance can
never suffer change nor decay.
Of Chaucer's characters, as described in his Canterbury
Tales, some of the names or titles are altered by time, but the
characters themselves for ever remain unaltered, and
consequently they are the
physiognomies or lineaments of universal human life, beyond which
Nature never steps. Names alter, things never alter."
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