The focus of this thesis is the exploration of the process of female individuation through a grounded theory and hermeneutic methodology that utilizes the comparative analysis of alchemical text and myth. The integration of unconscious contents into conscious awareness is the foundation for the individuation process. Some unconscious contents include personal and collective parental complexes as well as contrasexuality. For a woman, the animus, lies at the heart of the father complex. On the other hand, the archetype of Goddess, is embedded within the mother complex. Current and historical patriarchal dominance, with its male centered bias, has resulted in the devaluation of the feminine principle. As a consequence, a woman's ability to interpret natural, indwelling masculine and feminine principles, as well as the developmental theory that surrounds them, has become compromised. Ancient texts, such as the story of “The Handless Maiden” and alchemy's Rosarium Philosophorum, offer a way to peel back the layers of patriarchal overlay, in order to gain insight about the fundamental interplay of opposites within the experience of female individuation.