Might you be interested?

Whilst sipping my cup of tea in bed this morning, I started browsing this book, 'Ego and Archetype', by Edward Edinger, 1972, which I have had for many years. I was browsing the many illustrations, some of which were of very obscure alchemical drawings, which accompany this discourse on the individual's journey to psychological wholeness, known in analytical psychology as the process of individuation.

I plumped for this particular image, as I thought it might interest the many parents who seem to blip. I will quote a short introductory passage of the book, which relates to it:

Many myths depict the the original state of man as a state of roundness, wholeness, perfection or paradise. Being round in the initial period of existence is equivalent to assuming oneself to be total and complete and hence a god that can do all things. There is an interesting parallel between the myth of the original round man and Rhoda Kellog's studies of pre-school art (Analyzing children's art, Palo Alto, CA, National Press Books 1969).

She has observed that the mandala or circle image seems to be the predominant one in young children who are first learning how to draw. Initially a two-year-old with pencil or crayon just scribbles, but soon he seems to be attracted by the intersection of lines and begins to make crosses. The the cross is enclosed by a circle and we have the basic pattern of a mandala. As the child attempts to do human figures, they first emerge as circles, contrary to all visual experience, with the arms and legs being represented only as ray-like extensions of the circle.


This book is one of many I found as I became more and more interested in individuation following my study of dreamwork and then the powerful words and works of Carl Jung.

I was very grateful here for the fingers of Catherine, who is staying with us for a few days, on her holiday away from her teaching job in Adelaide, South Australia. I grabbed the picture just before our fish supper was served. It was very yummy, with salad and baked potatoes, followed by (yes!!!!) one of Helena's special apple puddings!