Blake and Jung

Most Blake students have a passing acquaintance with
psychology, and especially with jungian psychology.
Although coming from very different backgrounds,
Blake and Jung had a great deal in common:

Jung was the son of a minister, the grandson of two
ministers, the nephew of dozens of them. Nevertheless
when he was four he dreamed that a gigantic turd had
fallen from the sky upon the local cathedral.

Blake was the son of a draper -- from a lower middle
class family. When he was four he ran screaming to
his mother to report that he had seen an ugly God in
his window. His religious experience presumably
sprang from the "radical dissenter" values and beliefs
of his mother.

The ugly God dominated Blake's thoughts for the next
three decades. The pages of his poetry were filled
with description of the ugly God: in
Urizen;
Nobodaddy was another name he used.

So we may say that both men had a prophetic role
against the established religion of their day. However
both of them are very popular among people who, like
them, deplore the corruption and excesses of so much
of popular religion.

To gain a close acquaintance with Jung and especially
to see how closely he resembled Blake, you need to
read Memories, Dreams, Reflections.