Using an ancient Egyptian story of a shipwrecked traveler, we will look at an archetypal journey through terrorizing ordeals to confront the chaos of abandonment and extreme affect, as well as defenses against such traumatic states. The myth involves a series of confrontations between human and deity, ego and Self, which allow the protagonist to undergo a profound transformation of consciousness. Sacrificed in the fire of affect, the traveler surrenders to “die before [he] dies,” and discovers he has reoriented his identity in the processes of the Self and become an initiate, able to mediate the meanings of his confrontation back to society.
JUNGIAN.DIRECTORY
