In this chapter, Bluebeard preys on the naive psyche. When “the youthful spirit marries the predator, she is captured and restrained during a tie in her life…instead of living freely, she begins to live falsely” (46). We need a key to break away from not looking – not knowing – and open the door that was a psyche barrier.
Individuation has many definitions but it can be simplified as the work of the second half of life. There is no age range. It is more of a decision to go within and uncover one’s own human consciousness. When younger, as CPE notes, we are guided by norms that are imposed by society and family and we become what is expected of us. We develop our persona. Our mask.
Individuation, Carl Jung suggested, is the alchemical ‘Great Work’ and it is about how we might grow into our most authentic self as we journey through life…and into elderhood eventually. Sharon Blackie continues, “it is a process where a person becomes a genuine individual – recognizing and embodying her uniqueness” (Hagitude, Module 4). A goal of individuation is to release the personal and embrace the changes needed to align ourselves with our passions, callings, and longings.
We need to embrace our curiosity and reveal our gifts that we brought with us when we were born into this journey. We grow into the person we were meant to be. Symbolically, the blood in the story is associated with creativity. It is the life force, the arterial blood of the soul, and it is noted by CPE that the blood on the clothing can represent the persona which is what the world sees us wear. When the key stains our personas we can no longer ignore what needs to be addressed. The light shines on the dark.
Backtracking and looping are tools to reveal our true essence. The key opens the door and the initiation moves us toward our instinctive senses. According to CPE, the story of Bluebeard is teaching a tale about cutting down and rendering the natural predator of the psyche. “It puts our inner life back into motion” (61). Once the awareness is illuminated, “she is free to wrest the powers from the thing which has assailed her and to turn those powers which were once used against her to her own well-suited and excellent uses. That, is a wildish woman” (62).
SoulCollage® is a tool for the work of Individuation.
A feminist twist on Snow White
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The Power of Story 