Ego and Archetype

My son lent me this book: I wonder what he’s trying to tell me…

The very first chapter deals with the ego separating from the Self. So, nothing new there, then.

But it’s a circular argument, as the ego must be reabsorbed by the Self, toward the end of one’s life. In the meantime, each of us goes through a process that can only be described as a rejection of everything that was before, so that we may grow into the being that we were meant to be. Strange idea, eh?

As an interesting offshoot of this concept, I read this personal journey from fundamentalism to liberation. And then I thought about my own journey from preacher’s kid to karmic astrologer.

In the last meeting I had face-to-face with my retired minister, adoptive father, we discussed reincarnation. As usual, the discussion got heated, until Rus stopped talking and listened to his ‘inner authority’. Then he said to me, “I’m being told it’s alright.” That moment (at age 35), I knew I had gained full emancipation from his ‘control’. I was free to choose my own path.

When I was 17, I looked into the future and ‘saw’ that I would die by age 34. What I saw was the death of the ego, after its struggle to gain freedom from the Self. (But only now do I understand it to mean that. At the time, I saw it was my literal death.) I had been rebelling against control since I was in my middle teens. My journey to England and the events that unfolded could only have happened after Rus let me go. Then I could become my Self again.

Now, using the image of the Ouroboros again, let’s look at The Journey:

These are the layers we shed before we can become less personal and more universal in our being. The archetypes can also show us where we are in the circle of life.

Now do you see why I like using PsyCards? (Tarot cards work just as well.) But the important thing is to realize that life is a mandala. It is the symbol of Earth.

Finally, one comes to an understanding of what Carl Jung was trying to show us.

Amen.