Couples, an Alchemical Crucible

In the life of a couple, a person first encounters and copes with his or her shadow. When the shadow is integrated, expanding the personality, the deepest layers of the unconscious emerge, and with them, the true nature of the encounter: animus/anima. From this encounter and the ensuing confrontation, a quaternio is formed, and the self, axis of individuation, can differentiate. For a young woman presented here, the spiritual process materialized in the birth of a child: psychic and physical evolution coincided. For other women and men, the unconscious animated by the archetypes encourages a new emergence of the feminine principle, freeing it from the shadows where it has been banished by patriarchy. The couple is an ideal medium for these potential transformations. In the dreams presented, the process at work is perceptible.