The Journey: Individuation

I recently had a dream that (a friend helped me to see) was pointing out the role of the animus, masculine energy, in my life.
This insight led me to revisit Carl Jung’s concept of individuation. Individuation is, essentially, the psychological process we undergo in the latter part of our lives. As our bodies age and mature, so do our psyches. We spend a lot of time and energy on the early stages of development, but once we are adult, we seem to be largely set adrift, with not a lot of societal support or acknowledgement of our ongoing development.
Individuation, as I understand it, involves our confronting and accepting our shadow self (the “dark” side of our personality); acknowledging both the feminine and masculine aspects of our selves; becoming conscious of our spirit selves (also could be seen as becoming wise); and, finally, achieving full self-realization, or wholeness.
It is interesting to me that wholeness is the destination, for certainly wholeness is our origin is well. Life truly is a circle! We spend our lives believing that we are separate and unique, yet in the end we return to unity.
The belief in separateness, even though it causes difficulties in and of itself, can also be said to be the key to creativity. If you believe that we are here to manifest love and to create (as I do), then it can easily follow that the illusion of separation is a necessary component.
This is illuminating for me, at least, because in the last few years I have tended to pathologize the concept of the separation illusion. Now I see more clearly that, used with intent, the illusion is a tool of creativity.
More on this story as it develops…..