“You see, the power of the animus consists, as a rule, in the possession of a woman’s feeling; that is, when she is not responsible for her feeling, when she does not look out for it consciously, the animus eats it; and then he becomes powerful and may devour her or any other innocent prey.”
— Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, p. 627
We are accustomed to viewing the soul as something higher than ourselves, but this is not entirely accurate. On the one hand, the soul is indeed something “higher,” because it is our connection to the infinite and the eternal. It is the seed that contains—and from which grows—human godlikeness. On the other hand, the empirical ego possesses something by which it surpasses the soul.
That something is consciousness.
And consciousness arises when the One divides into two, because its essence is differentiation. This is the meaning of the biblical story of eating the apple from the tree of knowledge, through which the eyes of Adam and Eve are opened and they fall out of paradise. The opening of the eyes is a symbol of the birth of consciousness, and in order for consciousness to arise, we need a mirror in which to see ourselves (the most basic duality is Observer–observed).
The mirror in which Spirit sees itself is matter.
In other words, the price we pay for our eyes to be opened and for us to become like God is to fall out of the paradise of unity and enter the cage of limitation, into the density of space-time.
I believe it becomes clearer what the reason is for the incarnation of the soul on Earth: to come to know itself in the “world of mirrors” and thus to develop. But since the foundation of every form of knowledge is projection, what we see outside is the same as what we have within ourselves. The role of the mirror is only to reflect. If at times we feel that we have ended up in a world of distorted mirrors, the distortion is within us, and its cause is our own ignorance.
Whenever the world does not correspond to our expectations, it means that the time has come for the “birth of consciousness”—for coming to know the one who looks out through our eyes, because only there lies the freedom to bring about the changes we seek in our lives.
I would like to make one further clarification.
According to Carl Jung, the soul of a woman is masculine (which he calls the animus), and the soul of a man is feminine (which he calls the anima). For me, these are the most confusing concepts in his analytical psychology. James Hillman and other authors challenge this gendered division of the soul, and I agree with them. I also prefer to view the soul as something that has no gender and is the same for both men and women.
Accordingly, I believe that the challenge of learning to know and “master our feelings” is equally important for women and for men.
This means developing the capacities of emotional intelligence, whose essence is that the mind understands emotions and takes care of them in the right way, including by assuming responsibility for them. I believe that in this way the meaning of the quotation above becomes clearer, because the animus proceeds from the Logos (that is, from the Mind of the Whole). And when this mind enters the limited human body—into the world of duality, projections, and distorted mirrors—it can produce many foolish and highly destructive thoughts (both in the minds of men and in the minds of women).
Thus, when we speak of the soul, it is good to hold a dual attitude toward it—as something that both surpasses us and is at the same time surpassed by us, simply because we possess consciousness. The irony is that we are both parts of the Self (the empirical ego and the immortal soul), but since the ego is the center of consciousness, we identify only with what we see in the mirror—our body and the perceptions, emotions, thoughts, and sensations that arise within it. The remaining part of the Self stays in the unconscious.
When experiences and thoughts arise from the depths of our psyche that attack us and are destructive, this is the unconscious longing to be known.
This is the biblical story of Jacob’s struggle with the Angel, enacted within our own bodies. When we come to know this destructive factor that attacks us from within, it gives us its blessing and reveals its other face. I believe it then becomes clear what it means that a woman’s animus “can devour her or some other innocent victim if she is not responsible for her feelings and does not take care of them in the proper way.”
If, however, this is still not clear to you, and the topic is relevant for you, you have the opportunity to learn more about it through the “29 Days Program,” which is devoted to building a full and mature relationship between the human mind and feelings.
Do not expect, however, to receive more information there about the anima and the animus, because the strength of Jungian analysis does not lie in the development of emotional intelligence skills. In order to explain how a full relationship between mind and feelings is built, I draw on my knowledge from other psychotherapeutic approaches. I see the strength of Jungian analysis in its capacity to reveal the spiritual dimension of human emotions, desires, and mind. And I see my own creative contribution in the creation of this Program in uncovering the connection between these two levels of working with them—emotional and spiritual intelligence.
Thus, our soul is a creative project in development, and if you wish to understand how exactly the soul creates in matter in order to generate consciousness, I remind you that this Program always begins on a New Moon.
The upcoming New Moon is tomorrow, on November 24, in the sign of Sagittarius.
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
