The form, then, in which our complexes confront us is the form in which the fundamental materials of our human structure come into our here-and-now existence.
Like crystals they are always imperfect to some extent and often unrecognizable or grossly disfigured in comparison with the “ideal” shape, the shape that would represent the “pure” incorporation of the crystal scheme.
But we have to meet them in this more or less imperfect or distorted form and out of this form we have to transform them into something that may be more akin to the aboriginal “intent” inherent in their archetypal cores.
This undertaking or process, is what Jung calls individuation.
— E.C. Whitmont - The Symbolic Quest
