The Woman Who Became a Spider

“being excluded from life for many years seems to me typically to illustrate a problem in feminine psychology. From the outside it looks like complete stagnation, but in reality it is a time of initiation and incubation when a deep inner split is cured and inner problems solved. This motif forms a contrast to the more active quest of the male hero, who has to go into the Beyond and try to slay the monster, or find the treasure, or the bride. Usually he has to make more of a journey and accomplish some deeds instead of just staying out of life. There seems to be a typical difference between the masculine and feminine principles. The unconscious is experienced as isolation by the heroine, and afterward comes the return into life.” - The Feminine in Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise vonFranz, chapter on The Woman Who Became a Spider

I can’t say I agree about her ideas on the difference between masculine and feminine psychology. I tend to believe people are more alike than not. But this did hold true for me. I had my deep problem-solving period when I withdrew from the world. Time will tell whether I healed the split or not. However, one of my sources that told me it was okay to withdraw in this way was a man who’d taken his own time away from the world.