“Expressing my burgeoning separation and independence from my father, which is a natural and healthy stage of growing into who I am, was the very thing that sent him into psychotic, out-of-control demonic rages. This is typical of the myth of the negative father, an archetypal figure that gets constellated when the son, the would-be hero, begins to separate, individuate, step into his own power and find himself. The process of individuation, which denotes a process by which a person becomes a separate, whole, undivided ‘in-dividual,’ means becoming who one is. Individuation not only has to do with becoming a true autonomous individual who is one with oneself, but one with humanity as well. The ‘becoming conscious’ represented by individuation ultimately expresses creation becoming conscious of itself through the individual. Individuation is the creatice process par excellence, in which we play an active role in creating ourselves, consciously participating in our own evolution. The process of individuation entails a gathering, recollecting and remembering of all the split-off, projected parts of the psyche. Etymologically, the root of the word individuation means ‘un-divided,’ as if the process of individuation is the antidote to the diabolical, disintegrating effects of evil.”
“Dr. Leonard Shengold writes about ‘the disturbed parent’s need to prevent individuation and hold onto the child, who is regarded as a need-fulfilling adjunct or even as part of the parent’s self-image.’ My father wanted to keep me a little boy so that I could continue to fulfill his narcissistic needs; he was a ‘psychic pedophile.’ Chronos, the mythic negative father, felt so threatened by the potential for his children to usurp his role of power that he devoured them–swallowed them whole–to keep himself in the dominant position.”
“In the Bible Christ says (Matthew 23:9), ‘And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father who is in heaven.’ Parents have power over their grown children only because the latter continue to project the images of the archetypal parents onto their personal parents. To ‘call no man your father’ means to withdraw the projection of the Father archetype from our earthly father and discover and cultivate a healthy and direct relationship with it within ourselves.”
“At a certain point we might have to leave our family behind if they are holding us back from our path. This brings to mind Christ’s statement from the Bible (Luke 14:26), ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate their own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, they cannot be my disciple.’ Honoring the spirit of individuation means that ties to spirit take precedence over flesh and blood.”
“Jung writes that ‘it is madness to fall out of one’s conscious world into an unconscious condition. Insanity means just that, being overcome by an invasion of the unconscious.”
–Paul Levy in Awakened by Darkness: When Evil Becomes your Father”
