The sacrificer and what is sacrificed are one and the same: it is always the Self.
Only by sacrificing what we have can we know what we have.
Real sacrifice is made with the same definiteness and lack of bargaining that is involved in throwing something away.
We can do this only if we are forced by a greater power in us – a power stronger than the ego – that gives us the necessary strength.
We experience this power as an inner imperative that tells us that we “must.”
In Jungian psychology we understand that as a message from the Self, the regulating center of the pysche.
The sacrificer and what is sacrificed are one and the same: it is always the Self. ― Marie-Louise von Franz, Animus and Anima in Fairy Tales, Page 38
