Carl Jung's Individuation in 4 Stages (Find Your Self)

Spiritually lost? this framework could save wasted time (+ Downloadable Summary 📝)

“Individuation is practically the same as the development of consciousness out of the original state of identity. It is thus an extension of the sphere of consciousness, an enriching of conscious psychological life”

– C.G. Jung, ‘Psychological Types,’ para. 762

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818) Caspar David Friedrich

You don’t have to die to go to Hell.

Doctor David R. Hawkins once said: “Hell is the final outcome of constantly choosing the negative and thus isolating oneself from love and truth.” The problem is, how do we see through the fog, and find the love and truth we desire?

Our age is confusion.

Nobody knows who to trust or what to do.

That’s why Jung’s theory of individuation is more important than ever; we have to learn to trust and act as ourselves. To be an individual doesn’t mean to be contrary or unique for the sake of it. But to find and live your authentic being (whatever it is).

This is the spiritual path you either walk willingly, or suffer dearly.

“A great adventure awaits you. Ready or not, you are called” – Steven Pressfield.

The price for neglecting growth is always neurosis. But weirder, the cost of growth is always suffering. Rising consciousness hurts like growth-pains. The difference is one leads to happiness and fulfilment, the other to dead-ends, frustration, and depression.

I know what I’m choosing.

Jung laid out 4 stages to individuation:

1. Ego Realisation

2. Shadow Integration

3. Anima/Animus Integration

4. Self Realisation

Here’s the 4 stages of individuation with actionable advice to save you wasting more time…

Stage #1: Ego Realisation

The first stage of all spiritual practices.

What is Ego? People tend to refer to it as pride or arrogance, “he’s got an ego,” but it’s more than that. ‘Ego’ is Latin for ‘I.’ In its fullest meaning, it is your conceptualisation of ‘me.’ From the moment you could remember, you’ve been told:

• “You’re from A”

• “Your name is B”

• “You’re a C kind of person”

This is your story.

But your story isn’t real.

What we believe to be very important and substantial facts about ourselves is really nothing more than some arbitrary opinions. Jungian psychology asks you to suspend this in order to discover your deeper and real Self. If you were born somewhere else, you’d have a different identity. If you had a different name, you’d have a different identity. If you were raised around different people, you’d have a different identity.

Your ego is like currency: only real if we all agree it is.

Like currency, it is also necessary for society to function.

“Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock”

— Matthew 7:24-25

When we build our foundations on sand, our life is prone to collapse.

When we dig deeper (past Ego, to the eternal Self), we find a safer place to live from.

(For a deeper dive check out this LETTER)

Stage #2: Shadow Integration

This concept could save the world.

Remember being yelled at as a kid? You were taught how to talk to people. How to behave in public. Why teachers are better than you, and why you shouldn’t question certain people.

Before this you were free.

Symbolically, you were Adam or Eve, running naked and carelessly through paradise.

Then you ate from the Tree of Knowledge. Now you know. The terrors and horrors of life. You repressed beliefs and “matured” so that you could survive.

But where did these repressed beliefs go?

Psychology is beholden to Universal principles.

The first Law of Thermodynamics states: “Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another or transferred from one object to another. The total energy of an isolated system remains constant.”

Your psyche is a system.

It’s energy is thoughts, instincts, and beliefs.

When something is repressed, it must go somewhere. Jung called this place the Shadow. Everything about yourself you neglect and refuse consciousness goes here. That’s why something can trigger you without you knowing why. The Shadow has been touched.

Freudians (and most the world) think the best thing to do is hide it away or destroy it.

It can’t be destroyed, and by hiding it, you feed it, until it takes on a life of its own.

The Shadow can possess. These are the people with “anger issues,” who can’t stop themselves from lashing out. They have lost autonomy to an unconscious archetype. Terrifying.

When a nation goes fanatically to war, a collective Shadow sits below the surface.

The only way to avoid possession is to integrate the Shadow.