“The goal of the process is not to remain in the inner world but to bring its fruits to life.” —C.G. Jung
We have reached the final stage of transformation, which the alchemists called rubedo, or the reddening. This was also known as the final stage of the Great Work, when the transformed substance was no longer just imagined or though about, but embodied. For those seeking recovery, it is no longer an idea or metaphor, but now it is lived.
This reddening stage is not about perfection, as much as it is about incarnation. Those who had been suffering within the grips of addiction – once broken, scattered, purified, and now illumined, return to the world, bearing the scars of their journey. Not as someone “healed,” but as someone initiated.
In recovery, rubedo is when a person begins to live in alignment with their depths—not just avoiding substances, but expressing their soul. It may look quieter than expected, and it may not match what the collective recovery world calls “success.” But it is unmistakably real, felt, and authentic. It may be characterized by the thought that what one is listening to now has always been, but was never followed. Or, the realization that one no longer needs to prove their life has changed, because they feel it.
The goal is realized not in transcendence over the addiction experience, but the weaving into the thread of a meaningful life. Not recovery as an identity, but as a vessel of becoming.
In Hillman’s work, rubedo is not about rising above, but descending into the specifics of a life; into relationship, vocation, art, or love. This is what the whole process has been leading toward, a return to uniqueness, to the soul’s eccentric shape, and to the pursuit of what calls to us—and calls from us all at once.
“Soul is not saved in the abstract. It is saved by being given form, by being lived.”
—James Hillman
Therapeutically, this is the moment when the treatment staff begins to take a step back. The client is now the primary guardian of their soul’s unfolding. This moment marks not release, but recognition. As those who once guided step back, the client steps forward, carrying the flame they once helped kindle.
It is imperative at this stage that one be aware, that even in the reddening, the soul aches. Having moved through this initiatory transformation, the wound now speaks, rather than silences. It no longer sends the soul away, but it becomes the very place where soul appears.
In Depth Recovery, as in the alchemical process, this is the great turning. The transformed client no longer seeks to escape their story, but moves in such a way where it is carried artfully. They no longer live in fear of the descent, as they have gone down and returned moving through the world with a new relationship to ones soul…
“The Self is made real not in isolation but in embodied action. The opus becomes life itself.”
—C.G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis
