THE JOURNEY WITHIN:
EMBRACING THE DEPTHS OF SELF
“At first, the encounter with the Self is indeed a defeat for the ego; but with perseverance, Deo Violente, light is born from the darkness. One meets the “Immortal One” who wounds and heals, who casts down and raises up, who makes small and makes large - in a word, the One who makes whole” - Edward Edinger (Encounter with the Self).
Our task in life is two-fold. One, we need to build a strong ego through our negotiations of daily life, and our engagement in courage in the face of life’s demands.
Secondly, we are asked to use this ego strength as a preparation for the journey that follows: the descent into our own inner world. It is inevitable however that the ego, as the centre of our identity, struggles and fears the relinquishing of its place in our psyches. In the end it is a deflating defeat that renders our identities often fragmented . Existential angst follows. We question our reality and feel defeated. This position often ushers in the inward process of reflection and encounter with our inner world beyond the ego. The ‘Abyss’. The ‘Nothingness’. We begin to question everything. We fear. We require courage and endurance. We search for meaning in the void between the loss of our identities (ego) and the shimmer of the lantern (Self) in the distance of our ‘Night-Sea-Journeys’.
We fear the loss of identity, as if it will usher in a psychotic break into madness. But this journey is in all of us, waiting in the recesses of our psyches, a pre-programmed unfolding towards wholeness that our Souls long for. The ending is a promise never reached.
The craving is the lived experience. The reward is the connection to the Greater Personality, the parts never experienced before emerging out of the depths. It is only when we allow this wounding of our ego to be experienced, given in to, and made space for, to work and play with through contemplation, that we are able to delve into and mine the unconscious . Finally we descend into the greatest journey of our lives.
(Written after thoughts of a Colombian scene).
Written by Konrad van Staden - Clinical Psychologist and Jungian Analyst