The Anima

The second stage of the INDIVIDUATION process means encountering what Jung calls the 'soul-image', which is one of the archetypal images. For a man this is the 'anima; for a woman, the animus. The anima is the feminine aspects of a male psyche: for example, gentelness, tenderness, patience, receptiveness, closeness to nature, readiness to forgive, and so on. The animus is the male side of a female psyche: assertiveness, the will to control and take charge, fighting spirit, and so on.

Anima is, in short, the woman in men. There are certain secondary female sexual features in male. On the psychological plane we talk about the soul, or sensuality as opposed to rationality and reason (animus). But anima is much more than the sexual and psychological aspects. It is relational. That is, the anima archetype rules over the relationship between men and women. It is a kind of innate guide that leads one through the ambiguous path of meeting the woman and interact with her.

The most known anima image is the mother archetype. It rules over the mother-son relationship. Therefore it is projected onto the mother image. We know of such female figures from the cultural and religious themes. Virgin Mary or Mother Earth and other such mythical figures may lead us to the mother archetype.

In relationship with the boy this figure represents a mixture of father and mother archetypes. Its constellation may be linked with the missing of the natural father in the son's life and the compensation it should bring.

Every man has a feminine component in his psyche; every woman has a masculine component in hers. Unfortunately, for centuries, and particularily in the western world, it has been considered a virtue - 'the done thing' - for men to suppress their femininity; and until very recently women have been socially conditioned to think it unbecoming to show their masculinity. One result of this has been man's bad treatment of women. Man's fear nad neglect of his own femininity have had dire consequences. Not only has he repressed the femininity in himself; but also, being frightened of women - who are 'the feminine' par excellence - he has suppressed them, kept them subordinate and powerless.

 

 

      

The further consequence of this suppression of femininity in a world dominated by men is war. Wars are the result of the lopsided development of men whose aggressiveness has not ben balanced by love and patience and a feeling for harmony: that is, whose anima has been kept under lock and key. The macho male is violent and destructive.

Another consequence is mechanical, soul-less sex. Sex can be an invaluable aid to the achieving personal wholeness and harmony; and it has been recognized as such in the Tantric mystic-meditative traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. But can reach those heights only when there is worship: that is, where each partner acknowledges the worth of his or her sexual opposite. The macho male tends to reduce sex to merely a physical and emotional level, at which his partner is turned into a mere object.

Sexual objectification of women (without getting emotionally involved to)

For sevearl reasons, therefore, it is imperative, both for individual and for social progress, that we lear to acknowledge and integrate our anima or animus, our soul-image.

Your soul-image will led your conscious ego safely into the unconscious and safely out again. When Theseus neded to penetrate the labyrinth in Crete in order to slay the monstrous Minotaur, the fair Ariadne, with her thread, enabled him to go in and find his way out again. If we follow Jung and translate this story into psychological terms, the labyrinth is a symbol of the unconscious, the monster is the frightening and threatening aspect of whatever in our unconscious has been neglected and has therefore 'gone wild'; the slaying of the monster means 'taming' that wild, unruly force and bringing it under conscious control. The 'slaying' can be accomplished, however, only by love (Ariadne - the feminine) - only by accepting the neglected thing, honouring it and welcoming it into our unconscious.

 

                                     

The anima serves the man by working as his guide to the unconscious. Like the animus in a woman, the anima also becomes the mediator of the religious experience “whereby life acquires new meaning” (Jung 207).

 

The soul-image, then, is a mediator - a go-between or middle-man (or middle-woman) - who establishes communication between the conscious ego and the unconscious and reconciles the two. In the realm of religion there is the pyschopomp, the on who guides human souls safely into the undreworld; or - in some cultures - the shaman, who not only leads the souls of the dead to the spirit-world and makes the necessary introductions to spirits who will take proper care of the newcomers and get them ready for rebirth, but also carries the souls of sick people to the spirit-world for healing. The underworld or spirit-world is the unconscious. The unconscious has healing powers and by descending into it the conscious self can attain new life.

To quote Michael Harner, renowned author of The Way of the Shaman; “a shaman is a man or woman who enters an altered state of consciousness at will to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality in order to acquire knowledge, power, and to help other persons.   The shaman has at least one, and usually many, ‘spirits’ in his personal service”. The word shaman comes from the Tungus people of Siberia, meaning ‘one who sees in the dark’.  With esoteric knowledge and uncommon spiritual ability, the shaman is one who mediates between the visible world of form and matter and the invisible world of energy and spirits.  For the shaman there is no supernatural world - only the natural world exists, with its visible and invisible realms.  Like 2 halves of the whole, there is the world of things seen, and the world of things hidden.  It is to the hidden world where the shamanic practitioner journeys to obtain information and power for their client.
The distinguishing feature of shamanic versus other healing or spiritual practices is that the shamanic practitioner does their main work in this hidden world, working as an intermediary between the human and the spirit worlds.  With the direct experience that all of creation (including illness - physical, mental, emotional or spiritual) is alive and has spirit and voice, the shamanic practitioner moves to that realm to communicate with the spiritual essence of whatever is the focus or challenge at hand.

Jung stated that there are four stages in the development of ones relationship with the anima.

The first is represented by Eve. This stage is a purely instinctual and biological one, and has to do with basic drives to reproduce, and the instinctive drives between mother and baby.

                                

Venus of Willendorf - fertility             Nurturing (milk) Great mother                               Eve       

The second stage is a romantic and aesthetic one. Like the first, this still includes sexual elements, but also deals with the personality of the loved one and social processes.

 

Helen of Troy, in Greek myths, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. By marriage she was Queen of Laconia, a province within Homeric Greece, the wife of King Menelaus. Her abduction by Paris, Prince of Troy, brought about the Trojan War.

Example of meeting the anima in a young man’s dream: I was at a party in a very large house set in its own grounds. I found the party frivolous, surface talk only, and unsatisfying to my inner feelings. It was dusk outside, but I stepped out of the French window on to the sloping lawns around the house. A large wood rose at the edge of the lawn and I entered it, eventually coming to a lodge house. The gatekeeper, the man who lived at the lodge house, told me I ought to be careful in the wood, as many strange creatures lived in it. I told him I thought I would be all right, and walked on. There were wolves in the wood, I saw them, and a strange serpent jabberwocky type of creature that was forever moving through the trees, but they did not harm me.

I walked on and suddenly came to a clearing deep in the wood. It was still quite light and in the clearing stood the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. She was naked, yet somehow this was natural, as she was brown, and like a creature of the woods. We stood and looked at each other, people from two different worlds, and I knew that if I left my ordinary life, and went into the woods with her, I would find a love such as I had never believed possible. But I also knew that I would be lost to the world; that I too would become a creature of the woods. I was in doubt what to do.

Then, to my amazement, out of the shadows at the edge of the wood, where he had been standing all the time watching me, the god Pan walked to the girl and looked at me. Around him walked tiny creatures of the forest, rabbits, mice, deer and others. Without words, he offered the girl to me and tried to persuade me to come with them to unearthly delights. Then an inner voice spoke to me, telling me to save myself, to resist or I would be lost. I felt a tremendous power of attraction from the girl, as if I longed for her beyond all else, as if she were the answer to all my longings and dreams; but the voice kept on at me, telling me to think of a woman I loved in the outer life, any woman, and thus save myself. I did, for I knew I would be lost otherwise, but there were tears in my eyes as I did so; and the scene faded, and I was back in the wood again, a wood without magic, or fairy love, or unearthly delights or the strange presence and power of the gods. It was just a wood, and I turned away.  

The wood here represents all inner ideas and opinions and also the inner self beneath consciousness, the strange unearthly world of the unconscious that can make the drab world magical and full of meaning, turn women into goddesses through projecting strange powers and emotions on to them. Yet it is dire to lose oneself thus, for one may lose one’s sense of identity, be possessed by the gods, or powers of nature active in oneself, and lose contact with the outer life, and family and friends. This is why the dreamer had to think of someone in the Outer conscious life he loved, to re-establish ties with them, to re-stimulate his awareness at that level.

The third stage can be likened to the Virgin Mary. It depicts a love that has developed possibilities beyond simply the biological, emotional, intellectual and social drives. It shows the possibility of deep self giving and the discovery of experience pouring into consciousness from the unconscious, the birth of intuitive insight.

 

            Caring Holly Mary, giving shelter and protection

The fourth stage leads to a new form of wisdom in the individual. This can be understood by an overview of the whole process leading through the four stages. To start with the individual’s identity and sense of self has emerged out of biological drives and the instinctual or unconscious reactions that take place between parent and child. The person gains a sense of self from the weakness or strength of their body, their physical prowess or lack of it, the power of their sexuality and how this is responded to by the opposite sex and others. If they have a positive identification with the society in which they live, and if their self expression meets with success or reward, then they may experience satisfaction in the first half of their life. If otherwise they may suffer some degree of depression, anxiety or emotional ill health.

  

Jung proposed that there were four stages of the anima in man’s psyche, these being Eve, Helen of Troy, the Virgin Mary and at the apex of development of the anima the spiritual wisdom of Sophia (Athene). 

In either case the person has been largely shaped by factors other than their own power to shape their life. They are trapped in what has formed them. The transformation of the relationship with the anima gradually alters this. The individual breaks through the ready made boundaries of their personality and discovers the forces – archetypes and experiences – which helped form them. The ensuing wrestle with self leads to personal insight into ones own life, and into the collective life of humanity. One gains insight into the collective forces, ideas, dynamics, which direct human life. This is spiritual insight. It enables the individual in some degree to gradually find motivation from other than the urge toward sexual reproduction, social power, aggressive domination and self aggrandisement. It isn’t an easy process, but a new type of person emerges from the work.

Theoretically, a man’s anima development proceeds through these stages as he grows older. When the possibilities of one have been exhausted, the psyche stimulates the move to the next stage. This move seldom happens without a struggle or a crisis of some sort that helps to move a man forward in his anima development, but the move forward is always worthwhile, for it leads him ever onward, to his true inner home.

The anima is the personification of all female psychological tendencies in the psyche of a man, including feelings, moods, intuition, receptivity for the irrational, the ability for personal love, a feel for nature, and the man’s  attitude toward the unconscious.

 

The man who recalls his anima projections and becomes to himself what he longs to find outside himself finds that his suffering is worthwhile, for it makes him a deeper, more vibrantly alive, and creative human being.

 

Your soul-image (anima/animus) has characteristics which are the opposite of those possessed by your persona (the self-image you have constructed for the specific purpose of relating to the external world and for 'making your mark' in that world). For instance, if your persona is an intellectual one, your soul-image will be characterized by sentiment and emotion; and if you are the intuitive type, your soul-image will be earthly and sensual.

Persona with different social masks

The Persona is how we represent ourselves to the world with different masks. This means that depending who we are with, what we are facing, and the situation at which we stand, our personality and behavior changes. It is important to acknowledge that it isn’t really us within each mask, it is more like a disguise to conceal the true nature of the individual. However, if we identify too with it, we might believe it to be so. 

 

This means that if, instead of acknowledging and becoming acquainted with your own soul-image (anima/animus), you project it on to members of the opposite sex, you may be led into disastrous relationships. For example, an emotional man may choose a blue-stocking for his partner; or a sensitive woman may be irresistibly attracted by bearded intellectuals.

If, however, you accept and integrate your soul-image (anima/animus), it will make up deficiencies of your persona and help you become a fuller and more balanced person.

A man may be captured by his anima, so to speak, and so identify with her that he finds her in an actual woman, marries or partners with her, and is led away from his responsibility to himself. In fairy tales, this problem is often represented by the false bride character.

 

When inner realities are not recognized or owned, they appear in the outside world through projection:

 

-          if a man’s anima is lonely and desperate for attention, he will tend to fall in love with dependent women who demand his time and energy. Fatal Attraction (1987)

 

-          the man with a mother-bound anima will choose a woman who wants to take care of him. Bad Boy Bubby (1993)

 

-          the man not living up to his potential will be attracted to women who goad him on and make more of him than he would otherwise be. In other words, whatever qualities a man does not recognize or develop within himself will confront him in real life.

Jung pointed out that the problem of admiring or worshiping the anima in a collective sense, as in goddess worship, is that she loses her individual aspects as soon as she is shared. A man’s anima is meant to be his and his alone; once she is projected into the world rather than integrated into his very being, a man becomes either a “victim of his erotic fantasies or compulsively dependent on one actual woman” (Jung 198).

Whatever aspect of the anima is most pronounced in a man, there is a tendency to project it on to any woman he gets close to emotionally. The woman then appears to be an angel of light, or a destructive witch, or even a femme fatale. Unfortunately women reap the harvest of what has probably been sown by the man’s mother. Mother was the man’s first experience of love, and whatever lessons were learned – whether good or ill – will be lived out with his partner unless they can be changed. Whatever the situation, the man is challenged, perhaps by a love affair that tears his marriage apart, to meet in a more adult way the feelings that were generated in childhood, and may have remained at that level.

Whatever one may make of Jung’s ideas regarding the anima, they remain a useful definition of the variety of ways men handle their emotions and their relationship with a woman they love. If one is to mature and grow as a person, the childlike dependencies and angers, the blaming and the idolisation must be met and transformed. In doing so one is led into, or uncovers, a wealth of experience within oneself that was previously unconscious. Out of this maturing and growing process the images of the anima as guide and initiator have arisen. All must meet themselves in one way or another in the process of maturing, just as we all dealt with emerging sexuality in one way or another in adolescence. At such a point, the myths and classical stories still portray to us a wealth of information which may support us on our own unique path.

 

Negative manifestations of the ignored or repressed anima can be seen in a man’s waspish and poisonous remarks, whereby he gives the image of a person playing a destructive intellectual game. He may become such a pseudo-intellectual that he loses all joy and spontaneity in life and becomes stalled by always ruminating on it.

Is shown as moodiness, irrational feelings, love that clings to what is painful or destructive; hunches that may be prophetic, or expressions of anxiety or jealousy. The dark anima may be depicted in dreams as a witch, or a woman who deals with evil spirits and calls up fear in the dreamer. This dark side of ones emotions is easily seen in the moods that lead to depression and despondency, the dark inner condition that engulfs any joy or achievement and leaves the person feeling irritable, touchy, unloved and unable to love. Perhaps this is why the witch may represent this aspect of our emotions, because unless one can uncover the roots of such despair, it may feel as if one were bewitched, haunted or cursed by such feelings. Or it may be that rather than darkness, one is haunted by the dreams of ideal and wonderful love that only lead one on to misery – a sort of chimera or mirage that tempts but provides no reality.

      

A slightly different side of this negative anima that Marie von Franz points out is that of the woman/mother who poisons everything, whose waspish, critical remarks hurt and constantly demean. This may live on in a man as self criticism. A slight twist on this is the man who considers himself an intellectual, but actually is possessed by an anima that does not allow real creative thought, but expresses opinions and fears as clever words or arguments. This enables the person to feel themselves always right, and actually avoid any real meeting with other people or life experience. Strangely, such men are often driven to pornography, in a desperate drive to meet denied personal needs.

One side of the anima – the female – that has an ancient history, is the ability the female has for exploring or contacting the unconscious. This is due to the receptiveness and ability to allow something other than her own will to live in her, as a woman does with love, with a foetus, and often with her man. This giving of oneself is sometimes represented by the breast or the womb. In literature and myth we find the theme of the woman guiding the man through the underworld a frequently recurring one – as with Dante and Beatrice, Theseus and Ariadne, Rider Haggard and She. The example dream  also shows the female figure as a guide to the spiritual world, a world that was previously unconscious or unknown to the dreamer.

 

Just like any archetype, the mother archetype has a positive as well as negative side. Her positive side is the birthing, nurturing and care giving, the comfort she brings to all souls as the Holly Virgin. She is ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of her child. Or she is the savior of the decayed men - The Sophia or the Wisdom of God from the Gnostic mythology.

The other side, the negative one, is the devouring mother, depicted in such images as animals of feminine nature such as Gorgon. A few words about the Gorgon:

In Greek mythology, a Gorgon [...] is a female creature. The name derives from the ancient Greek word georgos, which means "dreadful". While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not, and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus. (From Wikipedia)

Gorgons lead also to the seductive aspect of mother-son relationship. This is a very dangerous situation as the son will never be able to free himself from his mother eros thus being doomed to the psychological death or the loss of his capability to evolve, from child to mature person.

              

      One of three Gorgon sisters - Medusa                                         Oedipus complex ('emotional incest')

 

Carl Jung used to illustrate the destructive mother figure reminding us of She (That Must Be Obeyed), the heroine of the Rider Haggard's well-known novel.

 

 Let us look at some of the forms in which the soul-image may appear in dreams. 'The first bearer of the soul-image,' says Jung, 'is always the mother'. This applies to both men and women, and it means that the man or woman has not achieved liberation - independence - from mother. Therefore, the appearance of your mother in a dream - especially if she appears with possessive or devouring characteristics - may well be a symbol of your soul-image. If that is the case,bear in mind that the way to detach yourself from the suffocating influence of your mother is to intgrate your anima or animus into your conscious ego. Accept your soul-image, respect it and welcome it as a creative contributor to your personal growth, and you will the find that your soul-image ceases to be represented in dreams by negative devouring mother figures and that you are gaining a proper degree of independence from your mother. (Incidentally, it doesn't make any difference if your actual mother is alive or dead. Even a dead mother may live on as a forceful presence within your unconscious.

 

                                          

      Devouring mother (possessive, controlling)                                                    Evil stepmother (driven by envy and jealousy)

 

The Sphinx (which means 'Strangler') asks, “What is it that has one name that is four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed?” Oedipus answers, “Man…for as an infant he does upon four feet; in his prime upon two; and in old age he takes a stick as a third foot”. He answers correctly, causing the Sphinx to release the Theban acropolis, of which Oedipus then becomes king as promised (Graves, 1960, Narrative 105e; Guirand, 1968, p.305).

Jung says that Oedipus’ tragic fate, to kill his father and marry his mother, results from his inability to realise that “the riddle of the Sphinx can never be solved merely by the wit of man”. This suggests that the riddle is like Zen koan – a non-logical puzzle which, when solved, opens one to the deeper meaning of life.

 

According to Jung the entire process of anima development  is about the male opening up to emotionality and to a broader spirituality, this includes intuitive processes, creativity, imagination and psychic sensitivity towards himself and others.

Just as the anima is the master of a man’s moods and irrational behaviour, so too the animus  is the master of opinions and judgements in a woman. Its important here to emphasis that woman is as much in the unconscious grip of her animus as man is of his anima, resulting in unconscious  judgements, opinions and over-intellectualism  at the expense of feeling in her.

 

Sphink's punishment for men, which are overusing 'left side of the brain' (logic, philosophing) as defense mechanism (intellectualization or reasoning) and neglecting non-logical 'right side of the brain' (emotions, intuition, art, creativity)?

 

In Jungian psychology the femme fatale is an archetypal figure who represents the lowest manifestation of the anima in the unconscious contents of the male psyche. Typical descriptions include her being mysterious, subversive, double-crossing, unloving, predatory, tough-sweet, unreliable, irresponsible and manipulative. She is often portrayed as a woman who is extremely attractive with a sultry voice, a provocative body and a complex character. She tends to be very intelligent, in addition to her beauty she often speaks, behaves and dresses in an unusual and striking manner designed to attract male attention. Most importantly, she is extremely dangerous; an entanglement with a femme fatale often involves devastating consequences for a man.

 

Even today, Marilyn Monroe is an unbelievably powerful symbolic figure — for both men and women, and on all kinds of levels.  In her persona and public image, Marilyn represents a female figure who is essentially conformed to the will of men.  In her whole bearing, in her breathy-voiced, man-pleasing manner, she represents a very powerful manifestation of the “anima woman”, a woman who is so permeated on the unconscious level by her need to conform herself to the inner image of woman in male fantasy that it takes over her entire outer presentation.  A woman who lives out her entire life in this mode is very often headed for a tragic outcome.  Such seems to have been the fate of Marilyn, the fatherless girl who so deeply yearned for male approval and love.

 

 

From the enchantress Circe’s transformation of men into pigs to the alluring song of the Sirens in Homer’s epic poem ‘The Odyssey’, to Biblical characters such as Delilah’s emasculation of Samson to Salome’s erotic dance, examples of the femme fatale occur throughout  world literature. Other notable literary characters  include Sheridan Le Fanu’s  ‘Carmilla’ and De Quiros’ Genoveva in  The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers  but there's many other portrayals of the femme fatale  scattered throughout world literature, too numerous to mention.

 

   

Another anima figure is the seductive nymph. Ondine is one such nymph. Ondine has no soul, and can gain on only if she can get a man to embrace her. There are many stories of mermaids who lure sailors to their underwater beds. Here we have a two fold message: Man, give life to your anima; but take care you do not drown in your unconscious depths. Find the treasure that is there, then surface again. In other words, maintain conscious control.

Negative effects of projection upon the anima (animus in a woman) are directly related to a man’s unawareness and devaluation of his feminine side, and vice-versa in a woman. 

 

If a man is under the influence of the positive anima (+) he will show tenderness, patience, consideration, and compassion. The negative anima (-) manifests as vanity, moodiness, bitchiness, and sensitivity to hurt feelings.

With the exception of the mother figure, the dream symbols that represent the soul-image are always of the opposite sex to the dreamer.

Good relationship with or marrying the woman

Shows the man integrating his own real emotions, sensitivity and intuition. He is recognising not only his conscious needs, but also the deep needs of his nature within. This makes him more whole, balancing his exterior male qualities and his personal will. As this occurs he becomes less dependent upon an external female to feel whole. It also shows the man meeting his experience of his mother in a healing way. This enables the man to have a realistic relationship with an actual woman. It also brings a sense of connectedness between his conscious self and what he senses as Life, or as Bucky Fuller calls it, Universe. See: Archetype of the great mother below; example of difficulty in integrating anima.

To integrate the anima is often shown in a series of dream in we the man gradually gets closer and closer to the woman and eventually marries her. This can be a wonderful spiritual experience.

Example: My third marriage was to an entirely different type of girl. I met her after experiencing a peculiar sort of time shift, or entry into a new time, or something. She then came to me simply because attracted, and I loved her. She had brown wavy hair to her shoulders, is a round feminine face. Very loving and sympathetic, intelligent, devoted wife, housewife, mother, cook, etc. I remember she had a Bible in her hand.

The dream finished with me building three new bedrooms upstairs. She was frightened I would go through another “time change” and leave her. But I assured her. In meeting her, my last wife said, “Weren’t you silly,” meaning marrying the other women when she was always waiting to really love me as I wished to be loved. I said something to the effect that I had been young and stupid, but realised my mistakes.

Example: I was courting an Indian girl on the beach. I had sex with her. All her family seemed to know this. We wanted to get married, and this meant terrific formalities. A banquet was given by her family, and a careful note was kept of what we chose to eat. In some way this was taken as omens, and it worked out unfavourably. We were told we could not marry. I thought seriously about this, and the problems of East marrying West, but still felt we could make a successful marriage, as we loved each other.

Example: As I looked back upon all that in what I am meeting today, I could see that it has been an enormous part of my personal growth over the years right the way back to childhood. I have experienced a mystical marriage in myself. I am life – and although that is not true, at the same time it is true. In my being I am Krishna and Radha.  In me they both live in a wonderful union of bliss.  I am both the incarnation of godhead and also the worshipper before that wonder.  That this wonder can live in us is beyond my understanding.  That it can take on flesh – and that it does, every time a baby is born – leaves me in a state of wonder. I feel all this because I am that blissful union of Krishna and Radha.  In myself I know the union and the love.  I have been and am that sweet love forever joined. That the very creator of the universe can take on flesh, as it does every time a baby is born, brings me to my knees.  This is beyond belief.  Yet that is what I am seeing and experiencing as the truth.  That is what I am experiencing in myself.  I know that in this very existence, lost as I am in the sensory experiences of the world, and my feelings of isolation and physicality, I am at the same time, at the same moment, the godhead itself.

The examples give three stages of meeting the anima.

To be in conflict with the woman, or unable to make real physical and pleasurable contact with her: Suggests difficulty in meeting what may have been a painful or threatening experience of mother. This can lead to becoming an intellectual but emotionally barren man. Or being possessed in a negative way by the female traits, becoming emotionally unstable, opinionated and illogical. Actual relations with women will be difficult. Actual emotional or intimate merging is threatening because it brings the man close to the pain or fear connected with mother. Sex may be possible but not with a close feeling union. See: woman.

Thus, a man's anima may be represented in his dreams by his sister; a woman's animus by her brother. Some other symbols of the animus are an eagle, a bull, a lion, and a phallus (erect penis) or other phallic figure such as a tower or spear.

 

Tamed Animus (wild energetic bull) as source of woman's inner power (assertiveness, control, thoughtful rationality, and compassionate strengt)

 

The eagle is associated with high altitudes and in mythology the sky is usually (ancient Egyptian mythology is the exception) regarded as a male and symbolizes pure reason or spirituality The earth is seen as female (Mother Earth) and symbolizes sensous existence - that is, existence confined within the limits of the senses - plus intuition.

Some symbols of the anima are the cow, a cat, a tiger, a cave and a ship. All of those are more or less female figures. Ships are associated with the sea, which is a common symbol for the feminine, and are womb-like insofar as they are hollow. (At a launching we still say, 'Bless all who sail her".) Caves are hollow and womb-like. Sometimes they are filled with water, which - as we have seen - is a symbol of the feminine, and are the womb of the Mother Earth or vaginal entrances to her womb.

One common representation of the anima calls for special attention. This is the figure of the damsel in distress, frequently appearing in so called 'hero' myth. Here a recurring theme is that of the hero rescuing a beautiful young woman and some cases marrying her (e.g. the Greek hero Perseus saves the Ethiopian princess Andromeda from a sea-monster and later marries her). In a folktale variant of the same theme, the hero wakes a maiden from the sleep of death with a kiss (Sleeping Beauty). In logical terms, the damsel in distressis the man's anima, which, because of nelect or repression, is - metaphorically speaking - either 'dead' or in danger of 'dying'. The rescue or kiss of life means that the man has now lifted his femininty out of its dark imprisonment and welcomed it - and, indeed, submitted to it - as an indispensable factor in his life and happiness.

After the prince has succeeded in waking Sleeping Beauty, all the other people in the palace - who have also been asleep for a hundred years - wake from their sleep. This may be seen as a symbol of how the 'waking ' of a man's anima is the first step towards the 'waking' of all the 'sleeping' (repressed, neglected) aspects of his psyche.

A folktale animus figure is the dwarf. Dwarfs and other 'little people' work underground in mines, out of which they bring forth gold and other precious substances. This illustrates the way the animus, if cared for and nurtured bt a woman (as Snow White looked after the Seven Dwarfs), will bring up from her unconscious many valuable things that will serve her well in her daily life and her quest for self-realization

Incidently, marriage or sexual intercourse (or, in relatively modern and bowdlerized folklore, a kiss or embrace) symbolizes the union and intermingling of conscious ego and unconscious soul-image. It may also symbolize that complete union of the conscious and the unconscious which is the final stage of individuation. (A third possibility is that, where the anima or animus has not yet been distinguished -'rescued' - from the shadow, soul-image and shadow may be symbolized by bride and bridegroom.)