In the psychotherapeutic context, this is a period of withdrawing a little from life, participating just enough to keep things “ticking over,” the main forces being inwards. This enables clients to experience sudden realisations about themselves and they often begin to question their life direction. It is easier to see, in a moment of insight, what is important and what is not. (Hamilton, The Alchemical Process of Transformation)
Another way of looking at this stage would be the appearance of “ah-ha” moments. Up to this point, a lot of time has been spent on the telling of dreams, the recounting of incidents from the past, the detailing of disturbances in the present, and in finding associations between each and all of them. Linkages and explanations are given, and there is a curious dance that begins to play as the information is approached and re-approached through various functions – feeling, thinking, sensate, and intuition. It is often the inferior function that breaks the logjam. There is movement, curious realignment, a change in the way one now perceives a particular piece of one’s story. A light has been turned on, so to speak.
At that moment, the psyche has shifted and one becomes different in real terms. Over time, as various lights come on, the process of transformation seems to speed up as though the psyche is primed to peer into the dark shadows with a flashlight. With the guidance of the therapist, associations are noted. One begins to see the connections between childhood patterns in response to father and mother or other authority (who take on a father or mother symbolism in terms of power). One then learns to see present relationships in the light of what has been exposed.
But, it is not enough to just turn on the lights. Now that one has awareness one is obliged to do something with this awareness.
