“With a love like that, you know you should be glad” She Loves You, The Beatles
The anima experience brings us face to face with the enigma of soul. So, to continue the previous post:
“Confrontation with the anima, or for that matter of any unconscious autonomous complex or drive, requires awareness of the nature of its autonomous expectations and personal response patterns. It requires the establishment of a relationship to the complex as an autonomous entity like an inner “Thou,” allowing for and consciously adapting to its urges and needs, channeling its impulses whenever and wherever possible into expressions compatible with external reality and the ethical dictates of ones innermost conscience.” Edward Whitmont, The Symbolic Quest, pg. 197
Sound a bit crazy? Relating to an inner Thou and expecting a response? Just a tad…
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The concept is never the experience. Often the theoretical approach to the archetypes tends to posit a system, which like a house of cards, collapses without a foundation.
Art on the other hand gives the experience of the archetypes expression. And the analytic encounter works from the archetypal contents manifesting in dreams. In both cases, the archetype itself is the basis of the activity.
The idea of the Anima/Animus, the counter-sexual soul figure, is easy to dismiss if the reality of the archetype remains unconscious. Though it seems simple enough, being aware of the idea is not the same as being conscious of the experience.
So… where is she?
That’s the question which opens this field.
“I mean this as an actual technique…The art of it consists only in allowing our invisible partner to make herself heard, in putting the mechanism of expression momentarily at her disposal, without becoming overcome by the distaste one naturally feels at playing such an apparently ludicrous game with oneself, or by doubts as to the genuineness of the voice of ones interlocutor.” Carl Jung, CW 7, par 323.
Unfolding, unfurling…one of the best images in nature of the mandala, which in many traditions is a visual representation of the soul, is the flower. Each petal a different facet, a different capacity, a reflection of desire.
Our garden provides ample opportunity to reflect upon flowers. How their designs attract the insects in symbiotic purpose. How their colors adorn the creation in splendor.
But it is the surprise of each flower, how it’s unique fragile statement reflects the wholeness and perfection of our souls. Yes, it’s the surprise that unfurls as we walk into the completion of our lives that each flower sings of while turning to face the sun.
Related Post:
Portrait of the soul
(Zoe Westhof asked in the comments, “I’m curious to know your thoughts on the muse as an archetypal image?”)
Historically, the muses were figures of inspiration that provided the impetus for poets and artists to create. In Jung’s thoughts we can glipmse these figures within his writings on the Anima. Like all the archetypes, the Anima is elusive and tends to morph into a new form once a claim is made with our rational minds in an attempt to define Her. Jung paid great tribute to this reality by saying “The anima is the archetype of life itself.” (CW 9i, par.66)
Like the mythic figure that loosened the poet’s tongue, the Anima is that archetypal reality whose engagement is recognized when the spirit of life is coursing through us. “It is always the a priori element in moods, reactions. impulse and whatever else is spontaneous in psychic life. ” (CW 9i, par.57)
What I value about the relationship we see between the muse and the poet is that it puts the poet in right proportion, perspective, and position to these figures. The ancient texts begin with an invocation seeking assistance in the task at hand. As we desire to engage archetypal realities, relating to these forces with this attitude relies on accepting what Jung defined as the objective psyche. To encounter aspects of ourselves as “other” is always, as Jung says, a defeat for the ego, but it is also the path that leads to the widening of consciousness. When we are ready, the Anima leads us down that path.
(Note: Jung defined a contra-sexual psychic reality whereby for women, the Animus functions in the same manner as the Anima does for men.)
Related Post: Soul Figure
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Lifestream Digest for December 23rd