Does individuation originate from the ego or the Self?
[Does individuation originate from the ego or the Self? This confronts us with the ego-Self paradox.]
[For the alchemis] . . . . it is not a question of a one-way ascent to heaven, but, in contrast to the route followed by the Christian Redeemer, who comes from above to below and from there returns to the above, the filius macrocosmi starts from below, ascends on high, and, with the powers of Above and Below united in himself, returns to earth again. He carries out the reverse movement and thereby manifests a nature contrary to that of Christ and the Gnostic Redeemers. ~Carl Jung, “The Spirit Mercurius,” Alchemical Studies, CW 13, par. 280.
The self, like the unconscious, is an a priori existent out of which the ego evolves.
It is, so to speak, an unconscious prefiguration of the ego. It is not I who create myself, rather I happen to myself . . . [However] psychology must reckon with the fact that despite the causal nexus man does enjoy a feeling of freedom, which is identical with autonomy of consciousness . . . .
The existence of ego consciousness has meaning only if it is free and autonomous. By stating these facts we have, it is true, established an antimony, but we have at the same time given a picture of things as they are . . . . In reality both are always present: the supremacy of the self and the hybris of consciousness. ~Carl Jung, “Transformation Symbolism in the Mass,” Psychology and Religion, CW 11, par. 391.
If ego consciousness follows its own road exclusively, it is trying to become like a god or a superman. But exclusive recognition of its dependence only leads to a childish fatalism and to a world-negating and misanthropic spiritual arrogance. ~Carl Jung, The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos, Page 324.
Carl Jung on the “Ego.” Anthology
Natural man is not a “self”—he is the mass and a particle in the mass, collective to such a decree that he is not even sure of his own ego. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 81.
I conjecture that the treasure is also the “companion,” the one who goes through life at our side—in all probability a close analogy to the lonely ego who finds a mate in the self, for at first the self is the strange non-ego. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 117.
But a conscious attitude that renounces its ego-bound intentions—not in imagination only, but in truth—and submits to the supra-personal decrees of fate, can claim to be serving a king. This more exalted attitude raises the status of the anima from that of a temptress to a psychopomp. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 380.
That center, that other order of consciousness which to me is unconscious, would be the self, and that doesn’t confine itself to myself, to my ego: it can include I don’t know how many other people. ~ Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 783.
On the whole my illness proved to be a most valuable experience which gave me the inestimable opportunity of a glimpse behind the veil. The only difficulty is to get rid of the body, to get quite naked and void of the world and the eg0-will. ~Carl Jung, Letters Volume 1, Pages 355-357
The eg s0ays “I will,” the self says “thou shalt.” ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 568.
The self in its divinity (i.e., the archetype) is unconscious of itself. It can become conscious only within our consciousness. And it can do that only if the eg0 stands firm. ~Carl Jung; Letters Volume 1; 335-336.
I wouldn’t call the ego a creation of mind or consciousness, since, as we know, little children talk of themselves first in the third person and begin to say ‘I’ only when they have found their eg0. The eg0, therefore, is rather a find or an experience and not a creation. ~Carl Jung, Letters Volume 1; Pages 254-255.
The ego wants explanation always in order to assert its existence…Try to live without the eg0. Whatever must come to you, will come. Don’t worry! …Don’t allow yourself to be led astray by the ravings of the animus…He will try every stunt to get you out of the realization of stillness, which is truly the Self. ~Carl Jung, Letters Volume 1; Page 427.
Whatever happens in the fantasy must happen to you. You should not let yourself be represented by a fantasy figure. You must safeguard the ego and only let it be modified by the unconscious, just as the latter must be acknowledged with full justification and only prevented from suppressing and assimilating the eg0. ~ Carl Jung, Letters Volume 1, Page 561
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