Relationship with the Anima

Introduction:  A Feminine figure, analogous to the human soul … The Sophia resides in all of us as the Divine Spark. … In Gnostic tradition, the term Sophia (Greek for "wisdom"). Definitions are courtesy of http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com

This blog records the flow of unconscious knowledge from a mysterious source we refer to as right-brain, supermind, higher-Self, and sometimes Sophia. The method involves downloading and interpreting weekly packets of information from the unconscious. The words in italics are the symbols we extract and interpret according to the Mx formula.

I must report on synchronicity: I found the I Ching translation by Richard Wilhelm, as was recommended in the second download [11Nov], in our local second-hand bookstore. It happens often that Mind directs one to find something to bring specific information into awareness. The I Ching is a book of divination that evolved into a book of wisdom in which the individual shares in shaping his fate, making it possible for the unconscious man to become active.

This blog is about communicating with the Anima/Animus. It answered a question I had regarding automatism and paraphrasing from citations i.e. to restate passage in other words to clarify meaning as a studying or teaching device.

The subject for this download is Deconstruction [01] from David Lodge, Modern Criticism and Theory, Longman (1988):

Deconstruction … interpretation … The previous text is both the ground of the new one and something the new poem must annihilate by incorporating it … so that it may perform its possible-impossible task of becoming its own ground. … in a perpetual re-expression … which forms itself again today in current criticism. … The relation is a triangle, not a polar opposition. There is always a third to whom the two are related … which they divide, consume, or exchange.

It calls attention to methods of textual criticism that involve discovering, recognizing, and understanding the underlying ideas that form the basis for thought and belief.

The download introduces Criticism [02] from Plato’s Theory of Knowledge:

So the defence ends. Socrates’ dialectical construction … the identification of perception with knowledge is finally rejected.

The Socratic method of instruction was by way of question and answer to elicit truths he considered to be implicitly known by all rational beings. We find threads to Sophia and the term Sophist, which is a synonym for one who teaches, especially by writing prose works that impart practical knowledge.

The mystery composer of this download reveals itself as the Anima [03] using E.A. Bennett’s book, What Jung Really Said (Abacus, 2001):

“femme inspiratrice” … separate the outward relationship from the inward creative fecundity … Music is a heavenly art … she may serve as muse, inspiring his artistic or spiritual dev, and putting him in touch with correct inner values and hidden depths of his personality. (Also as the “Soror Mystica” or female alchemist.)

The synthesis of the first three symbols is the critical interpretation of unconscious knowledge from the Anima using deconstruction methods.

Anima [ http://www.nyaap.org/index.php/id/7/subid/44 ]: The inner feminine side of a man. The anima is both a personal complex and an archetypal image of woman in the male psyche. … The anima is personified in dreams by images of women ranging from seductress to spiritual guide. It is associated with the Eros principle; hence a man's anima development is reflected in how he relates to women. Within his own psyche, the anima functions as his soul, influencing his ideas, attitudes and emotions. …  One way for a man to become familiar with the nature of his anima is through the method of active imagination. This is done by personifying her as an autonomous personality, asking her questions and attending to the response.

The Deconstructive Phase [ http://www.socraticmethod.net/ ]: The purpose of the first phase of the Classic Socratic Method is that it prepares people to think.  The only people who are incapable of thinking about an issue are those who are already convinced they have “the” understanding of an issue.  There are no “Socratic teachings”, but there is a Socratic goal. … This is its value.

The download gave us the symbol Interpreting [04] from R. Blum’s The Book of Runes (1982):

The seed of God is in us … seeds grow … and God seeds into God. Meister Eckhart. … In approaching an ancient mystery surrender is required. … It remains for us to honour our own natures and trust the Knowing Self within … a single question … simple prayer … show me what I need to know for my life now.

It tells us to let the unconscious have free rein to answer questions because one must first get hold of the unconscious material before applying a critical interpretation. The next symbol is that of the seal woman (anima) [05] from CP Estes’ book Women Who Run With Wolves (1992):

she wanted to stay with her child … but something called her, something older than she … older than time. She dove into the sea … seal woman and her child … yet it came time to return the boy to land. … I am always with you. … She is known as Tanqigcaq, the bright one, the holy one … It is said that humans are not truly animated until the soul gives birth to the spirit, tenders and nurses it, filling it up with strength.

This appears to fit Jungian theory that the anima will return to the unconscious when it is properly integrated. The download makes one aware of one’s responsibility with the symbol of reaction [06] H.G. Barnett  (1953) writes in Innovation:

Rossman’s study of war and invention reveals the degree of interrelationship between these variables. … There are individual and group reactions to emergencies and security threats. … Individuals with narrow ranges of experience and little training in objective thinking have only a limited number of responses to any given situation at their command. Their restricted frame of reference makes them more susceptible to first impressions and to suggestions … unable to set the impression or the suggestions in a realistic context. … The naïve and the uneducated therefore characteristically respond to crises in unrealistic ways.

This relates to the use of oracles. One needs to develop the right state of mind to receive and interpret unconscious material. This may also relate to humanity’s reaction to the unfolding threat of global warming and how we will be looking to try restoring the balance. Capitalism however, with its focus on driving materialism, has corrupted our symbolic spiritual life. Marketing gurus treat the unconscious as a frontier from which to exploit the naïve masses. We are then given the symbol Implicit association [07] from G. Zaltman, How Customers Think  (2003):

… measures the relative association of two sets of concepts in consumer’s minds … many psychologists argue that implicit attitudes ... not only reflect consumer’s real attitudes, but also more accurately predict their actual behaviour. Consumers may sincerely believe their own stated thoughts, but they may not consciously understand the opposing forces that drive their behaviour.

Humans are predictable, no surprise there. But add to this the fact that our brains are probability estimating machines linked to a web of interconnected minds (like our internet), and add the collective unconscious (which is another place altogether), and then think of why millions die in wars etc. The unconscious helps us build weapons, helps us kill each other, if that is what we want, or what it wants. The conditioning that we need to overcome is covered by the symbol renunciation [08] which in ’s The Inner Eye (1981), we are advised to

Renounce all clinging and craving! … Once liberated from self-centered craving one gets everything back and can cry with St John of the Cross: Now that I least desire them I have them all without desire … the journey is the answer to a call and is made under the sweet influence of grace and the gentle guidance of the Spirit.

People need to think about this in terms of the current financial crisis. Capitalism is a greed based ideology that drives consumerism, and it falls to the individual to awaken to what the term unsustainable means. The download calls for a change in attitude if one is to try doing the right thing. We need a vision [09] to work towards. B.K.S. Iyengar (1993) gives us his interpretation of the sutras:

develop emotional stability, the prerequisite of spiritual realization. … A yogi can develop a balanced head and a poised heart, and from his visions of … (great teachers) he may obtain guidance and inspiration … Through the faculty of spiritual perception the yogi becomes the knower of all knowledge. … impulsive nature is transformed into intuitive thought.

The sutra III.33 is a synthesis of "head, light, perfected beings, vision" that I take to relate to the example set by enlightened people and the vision one needs when striving for higher consciousness.

The right-action is more cryptic, it is the symbol look [10] from Goethe’s Faust:

Helena: the ancient night … The royal House … A veiled and giant woman seated … not like me who sleeps, but one deep-sunk in thought. … Thalamos adorned … near the treasure-room: But suddenly … the wondrous figure sprang, barring my way … showed herself … There look, yourselves! She even ventures forth to light! Here we are masters, till the lord and king shall come.

Or is it? ‘There, look for yourselves!’ Does this refer to higher consciousness (royal), the thalamus (information), pituitary (treasure), anima (veiled), ego consciousness (light, masters), and higher consciousness (king)? The quality of the relationship with the anima [11] is covered by E.A. Bennett in What Jung Really Said (2001):

The anima is an autonomous complex and is not set in motion by the conscious intentions of man. It just ‘happens’ that he projects his anima, that is his image and ideals of womanhood, on a particular woman. As the friendship develops her other qualities (and his) will become apparent. Consequently ’falling-in-love’ whatever meaning we attach to this indefinite state of affairs - may well be a compound of projection and conscious appreciation of the qualities of the other person. … paintings … usually the eyes are veiled.

The quality of anima experiences depends on becoming aware of one’s own projections. The download tells us to focus on an objective, the symbol is orientation [12] which E. Fromm, The Sane Society (1955) explains:

… is to develop a productive orientation … The fact of suffering, whether it is conscious or unconscious, resulting from the failure of normal development, produces a dynamic striving to overcome the suffering, that is, for change in the direction of health. … repression … refers to the irrational passions, to the repressed feelings of aloneness and futility, and to the longing for love and productivity, which is also repressed. … next step … changing a practice of life which was built on the basis of the neurotic structure. And which reproduces it constantly.

I interpret this as meaning that the objective is to develop a productive orientation towards the anima. The final outcome of this download is from the symbol body-mind [13] out of J. Levey’s book Simple Meditation & Relaxation (1999):

experience your body as hollow, open, and filled with clear space. … an inner openness within which feelings and sensations can freely come and go. … the integration and optimization of neuromuscular, autonomic, and central nervous system functions, as well as to reduce pain and enhance endurance and overall mind-body coordination.

Work with the anima, try integrated it. Get help, use alternative energy healing systems like BodyTalk.

Spare a thought for Tiger Woods and Joost van der Westhuizen.