Anima & Animus part I
Today we will look into the concept of anima and animus a.k.a. ‘The inner other’.
We are often attracted to the inner other in our outer world. These opposite energies are mysterious and they animate us in a mystical way. This is the numinous feeling of falling in love. Remember your first love?
Our first love is influenced by the relationships with our primary caregivers and it will keep influencing our romantic relationships.
Working with dreams the anima/animus often show up as a contra sexual figure. The psyche visualizes the symbolic opposite energy in the dream. The language of the unconscious is symbolic and archetypal, meaning they are primitive mental images, inherited from the earliest human ancestors.
Some might argue this concept is antique. In our modern world with new ideas around sexes, genders and relationships, it makes sense, and we believe this concept still holds a lot of validity. We experience that for a lot of people working with these energies helps them develop.
Both the anima and animus have a relational function. They guide us to the inner and outer world. A developed animus can help a woman put her creations into form and relate to the outer world.
Hermes is often named as the example of a developed Animus. The messenger between the inner and outer world. Helping a woman in a creative process and getting it out into the outer world. He serves as a bridge.
Sophia - (Queen/Goddess of inner wisdom) is a great example of a developed anima. This will help a man use this Yin energy to trust his path, knowing without intellect. Developing his capacity to relate to this Yin energy in himself will help his relationships in the outer world enormously.
According to Jung, it helps to personify these characters so we can get to know these parts of ourselves and when we integrate (the part that can be integrated) we develop a relational function.
They are here to animate us as both words carry the root anim, meaning Life in Latin.
Anima means Soul in Latin. Animus means Spirit.
It is common to see heterosexual men/women project their soul/spirit onto an individual of the opposite sex in the outside world. We get to know these primordial figures primarily through relationships.
In a woman’s life working with the Inner other can help boost creativity. The energy between these opposites contains a lot of Libido (life energy). Think about the creation process of a child, the life energy that is invested in that. The wonder of creation. This happens when two opposite energies conjunct. This works the same way in the psyche, metaphorically.
There is a personal part and a collective part of the anima/animus. Parents shape the personal part, but the collective part goes way deeper. That part will never be integrated. The Anima for example will always be there in a man's life to animate him. If he allows the energy. Jung described these archetypes as autonomous energy. This inner voice in him was feminine and sounded a lot different. We can read about this voice in the Red Book personified as Salomé for example.
We work with this opposite energy as we do with all opposites in ourselves. We relate to them. But in some way, dealing with a negative animus/anima could mean we have to stand our ground.
Shadow work is important as we can see that an archetype is still intertwined with the personal shadow (for example a father complex). This means the archetype will be hostile. We have to do the shadow work first, build up ego strength, develop the capacity to differentiate ourselves from the autonomous energy, and stand our ground.
The collective energy of these archetypes is not to be underestimated. It is strong. Archetypal energy has the capacity to take over your ego. Remember the last time you had an argument with the opposite sex? It could very well be that it was actually a fight between the anima and the animus, you are not in control. After the fight, you might ask yourself, what got over me? This is a clear example of this autonomous energy.
In a relationship, we can try to give space for these energies inside of ourselves. We will project these energies. We need to understand that the numinous (magical) energy of falling in love should develop into something more mature. Less magical but more sustainable. We want to get to know the real person. We don’t want to keep carrying the inner other for our spouse and project our soul onto them, we both want to become whole. That could be a fine reason to be in a relationship; becoming whole. Relationships might be the hardest thing on the planet, but is there a better way to grow and become whole?
