Ean Cochrane Macinnes Begg (1929 - 1 October 2018) was a Jungian analyst, writer, translator and broadcaster.

Career

After obtaining a Modern Languages degree from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and a spell as an officer in the British army, followed by an assortment of occupations, such as a wine merchant, headmaster and Dominican friar, Begg developed interests in comparative religion,

Gnosis Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge ( γνῶσις, ''gnōsis'', f.). The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it ...

and

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

. He went on to train as an analytical psychologist at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. His dissertation was on ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

''. On his return to England in the 1970s, he joined the Association of Jungian Analysts (AJA}. However, when in 1982 he was elected chairman of the organisation,

Gerhard Adler Gerhard Adler (14 April 1904 – 23 December 1988) was a major figure in the world of analytical psychology, known for his translation into English from the original German and editorial work on the '' Collected Works'' of Carl Gustav Jung. He als ...

, one of its founders, objected so strongly that a split developed and Ean Begg with a number of colleagues left AJA and went on to form a new group. It was called the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists (IGAP) which became home to Zurich

analytical psychology Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...

graduates in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Ean Begg was an

esotericist Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

. He had a private practice in South London and was a frequent lecturer until his death in 2018. Schwarze Madonna von Einsiedeln 10

A near-fatal car crash in Switzerland led Begg to ponder his survival which he attributed to the nearby presence of the shrine of the Einsiedeln Madonna. It led to his study of the phenomenon of the "black madonna" which he published in 1985 and was translated into other languages and appeared in several subsequent editions. Among Ean Begg's publications are: * “Myth and Today’s Consciousness”. * “The Cult of the Black Virgin” * “On the Trail of Merlin” * “In Search of the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood”, co-authored with his second wife, Deike. As a broadcaster, Begg compiled and presented and the

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

programme on C. G. Jung on the centenary of his birth. He subsequently edited and presented the 6-part

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

TV series ''Is There Something After Death?''. Among Begg's other documentaries are: * ''The Light of Experience Revisited'', 1984 * ''Gambling with Hope'', 1988 * ''Letting Go'', 1988 Begg at the British Film Institute
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References

External links

The Guild of Pastoral Psychology

video "The (terrible) Secret of the Black Virgin" with Ean Begg, produced by Jean Donohue
1929 births 2018 deaths Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford BBC television presenters Scottish writers Jungian psychologists 20th-century psychologists Positive psychologists Western esotericism scholars {{UK-translator-stub

Career

See also

References

External links