The Red Thread of Feminine Becoming

In the rubedo or the “reddening” stage of alchemy the ego finds a way to be in right relationship to the Self. Material that has previously been unconscious now becomes conscious, and shadow material, both from the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious is revealed and integrated. This is a perilous operation however as the ego is in danger of being overwhelmed or possessed by archetypal forces if it is not strong enough to withstand them. Confronting the unconscious without adequate ego strength can lead to inflation, psychosis or an existential crisis. I believe we are witnessing some of these issues en masse through social media.

In the process of individuation, becoming an authentic individual and not a copy of anyone or anything else is the true gold.

In the rubedo phase, a necessary but detached withdrawal from the world experienced in the albedo gives way to full flesh-and-blood embodiment and return to the physical world with all of its inherent mess and problems.

The rubedo invites us to act beyond self-centred ego desires and stand in service to humanity. Through recognising that the Self is not personal but that something else, God, source, love, or the mysterious binding substance that connects us in our humanity and in our relationship with the cosmos, speaks through us. With an internal authority hard won, we mediate this numinosity through a fluidity of being, and a releasing of the need for external validation; validation now comes from an inner wholeness that is aligned with something greater than ourselves. Instead of reflecting light we now become a source of light. This is the change that began in the citrinitas stage of alchemy, and “the yellowing of the Moon”, where we become less reflective and more creative.

While our inner authority, charged or reddened by the light of the Sun is relevant to both men and women, I feel women experience these shifts in a particular way. Up until quite recently, women were not necessarily encouraged to become a great light in and of themselves but to be a lesser light, a supportive light often in service to the men in their lives. It is written in the bible, in Genesis 1:16-18: God made the greater light (the Sun) for the day and the lesser light (the Moon) for the night.

If through deep inner transformative processes, a woman reaches rubedo, the final stage of the opus, it is unlikely that she will tolerate being in service to the ego and desires of one man and will instead shift her libido to something of greater value. In working with women in menopause, I find this shift is beginning to happen quite organically. That is not to say women cannot find value in personal relationship however the relationship would likely be one that is aligned with her higher calling.

In the albedo stage a woman may distance herself to discern what is rightfully of herself and what has been thrust upon her through colonization of culture, family, or shadowy impulses of the unconscious. In the citrinitas stage the light of conscious awareness is beginning to dawn. It is therefore only in the nigredo stage, that raw, undifferentiated state of chaos, that women are most susceptible to leaking their feminine energy or having it stolen. It is in this stage that a woman may quite literally lay her life (at least her life force) on the line in service to the ego desires of one man.

One cannot help wondering if there is at work some unknown force that has an interest in keeping women in a state of confusion and instability precisely to benefit from her lack of cohesion, and life of servitude.

As I continue with this work I am encountering both in myself and in some of the women I work with, an almost incredulous awareness of how much life energy has been poured into relationships with men (often without acknowledgment), and in adhering to the demands and expectations of society. It is at this stage that a woman may begin to withdraw her energy back into herself. This often coincides with menopause.

Historically in the modern West, creative women were valued as muse rather than makers in their own right; as une femme inspiratrice, or Soror Mystica, their role was to inspire powerful men to great heights; the men often claimed the inspiration or work as their own. The creative and intellectual lives of many women have been assigned to the vaults of obscurity while the men they consorted with, often lovers, often married, rose to fame. Women who were attuned to the unconscious and who lived beyond the confines of social constriction were sought by eminent men keen to excavate their inner world and chart the female psyche. In the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, and arguably still today, women were thought of as landscapes, wildernesses, dark continents to be conquered, controlled, mapped and colonized.

Taking from a person without permission or without acknowledging their contribution occurs in many ways both big and small. Tantamount to stealing, these transgressions happen every day, sanctioned and normalised to varying degrees. Though theft happens in a myriad of ways to both men and women, the things of women that have been taken, co-opted, and stolen are not so easy to pinpoint.

On a physical level, up until relatively recently women were prohibited from owning their own property: The Law of Property Act which allowed women to hold and dispose of property on the same terms as men was only passed in 1926 in the UK. While these things are easy to track, what is less obvious are the intangible, unseen things of the emotional, mental, and psychic planes of existence such as ideas, intuition, and inspiration.

In the alchemy work I do with women, from the very beginning, we acknowledged the ways in which the womb-energy of women is used without conscious recognition, or consent both by women themselves and those who are closest to them. Often this translates as women processing emotions for others, but it is also existent in the warmth, love, eros, sensuality, erotic creative expression, insights, and feelings of women who share themselves freely with others. So often this is unacknowledged.

In working with women and the stages and processes of alchemy, I am questioning what it means for a woman to individuate and if the processes of transformation are different for men and women. In working with the contrasexual aspects of the unconscious, Jung says that the anima in a man is the bridge between the ego and the Self, and the animus in a woman provides structure and logos to the psyche. Given that anima/animus are fundamental principles in achieving individuation, it is possible, even likely that the path to individuation for men and women is distinct.

For women, in becoming conscious of not only their personal unconscious but the collective unconscious, recognising the ways in which female energy has been used, often beneath the veil of consciousness is necessary. As we enter 2026, a year that many are predicting is a time when uncomfortable truths will emerge, I suspect much of what has been hidden or obscured about the feminine psyche will be unveiled. It is however important for women to claim and chart their own experiences. In this way we may discover a whole new understanding of the female psyche.

In the reddening, we are called to be in service to something greater than ourselves, the difference is that once we are individuated, we are fully aware of how and to what or whom we are in service to.