“One alchemical statement says that death is the conception of the Philosophers’ Stone. The death of the ego, or the ego experiencing itself as dying, is very often the prelude to the birth of awareness of the self. Jung makes the profound statement in Mysterium that “the experience of the self is always a defeat for the ego.” That’s because an encounter with the greater thing always has a wounding and damaging effect, initially, on the lesser thing. And the experience of guilt belongs to this whole phenomenon of defeat and inadequacy and wounding.” Edinger (1994) P29/30
Alan Bore 