ABSTRACT
At many periods in history, in many different parts of the world and in many different cultures, birth and death have been identified with each other. The equivalence of birth and death can also rest on the assumption that there is another world, which mirrors the image of this world. Rank thought of birth as the primary and central trauma, the very foundation of all other human conflicts, from which all others evolved. Carl Gustav Jung looked at birth primarily as an important symbol of renewal, transformation, evolution, even revolution, and he linked it quite closely to death, both being part of the same process. The actual birth giving is surely most similar to the experience of ‘inspiration’: it comes when it will, is relatively sudden, and has a revolutionary rather than evolutionary character. Creativity, creation, birth—they all engender the process, the event of ‘incarnation’.
