Up: [[Mystery]] Created: 2023-02-23 Updated: 2025-10-23 Jung described [[Individuation]] as a process of circumambulation. I hadn’t heard the term much prior to Jung but he used it so frequently that I’ve looked it up. Walking around something in a circular form is one of the [[Rituals]] that has been around forever. It has been used by people from ancient times onward to show respect to sacred shrines and objects. Now that I think of it, when a full moon circle ends, the woman in charge circumambulates the setting and all of the rest of us. From a therapy perspective, circumambulation is uniquely Jungian. It is used with dreams, with symbols, and with symptoms of [[Complex]]es. Circumambulation stays close to the central image by reflecting on it from different points of view. Imagine a spider web of interconnecting images. This is in marked contrast to Freud who practiced free association with his patients, which takes people away from the central image of the dream. I found Jung’s writing very, very difficult to read at first. That was because he was talking about the unconscious, which is unknown, and it can’t be grasped by our conscious, logical ego looking at it from our singular perspective. Jung’s writing therefore circumambulates images and ideas. He came to this process during the many years of arduous work which resulted in [[Jung's Red Book]]. He learned early on that *the process required trust: cycling in paradox and unknowing is neither fast, easy, nor a familiar experience of progress.* (Bruce Parent, *A Guide to ARAS* p. 38)