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... Jung's model of the psyche is the most complete and comprehensive model of the human psyche we have in psychology.

-- William Walker

Sky [quoting William Walker]: Jung's map of the psyche includes the ego, persona, shadow, complex, anima/animus, Self, introversion, extroversion and the like. Jung saw problems in opposites (or the antinomies) and looked for a resolution of this duality into unity, writing, "The Self then functions as a union of opposites and thus constitutes the most immediate experience of the Divine which it is psychologically possible to imagine" (CW 11, par. 396).

Much of Jung's work emphasized the need to bring the opposites into union by becoming conscious of them. What we are not conscious of we will project onto others. My earlier post touched on shadow projection, perhaps it would be timely to take a look at the anima/animus and projection.

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Anima: The inner feminine side of a man. (See also animus, Eros, Logos and soul-image.)

The anima is both a personal complex and an archetypal image of woman in the male psyche. It is an unconscious factor incarnated anew in every male child, and is responsible for the mechanism of projection. Initially identified with the personal mother, the anima is later experienced not only in other women but as a pervasive influence in a man's life.

Jung distinguished four broad stages of the anima, analogous to levels of the Eros cult described in the late classical period. He personified them as Eve, Helen, Mary and Sophia.

In the first stage, Eve, the anima is indistinguishable from the personal mother. The man cannot function well without a close tie to a woman. In the second stage, personified in the historical figure of Helen of Troy, the anima is a collective and ideal sexual image ("All is dross that is not Helen"-Marlowe). The third stage, Mary, manifests in religious feelings and a capacity for lasting relationships. In the fourth stage, as Sophia (called Wisdom in the Bible), a man's anima functions as a guide to the inner life, mediating to consciousness the contents of the unconscious. She cooperates in the search for meaning and is the creative muse in an artist's life.

Ideally, a man's anima proceeds naturally through these stages as he grows older. In fact, as an archetypal life force, the anima manifests in whatever shape or form is necessary to compensate the dominant conscious attitude.

So long as the anima is unconscious, everything she stands for is projected. Most commonly, because of the initially close tie between the anima and the protective mother-imago, this projection falls on the partner, with predictable results.

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Animus: The inner masculine side of a woman. (See also anima, Eros, Logos and soul-image.)

Like the anima in a man, the animus is both a personal complex and an archetypal image.

Jung described four stages of animus development in a woman. He first appears in dreams and fantasy as the embodiment of physical power, an athlete, muscle man or thug. In the second stage, the animus provides her with initiative and the capacity for planned action. He is behind a woman's desire for independence and a career of her own. In the next [third] stage, the animus is the "word," often personified in dreams as a professor or clergyman. In the fourth stage, the animus is the incarnation of spiritual meaning. On this highest level, like the anima as Sophia, the animus mediates between a woman's conscious mind and the unconscious. In mythology this aspect of the animus appears as Hermes, messenger of the gods; in dreams he is a helpful guide.

Any of these aspects of the animus can be projected onto a man. As with the projected anima, this can lead to unrealistic expectations and acrimony in relationships.

Source: The Jung Lexicon


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According to Jung, the shadow is always of the same gender as the individual and frequently contains that which we find repulsive or unacceptable. The anima/animus however is of the opposite gender. Most of us come face to face with our anima/animus through the act of romantic love and we're very familiar with this process. Essentially, we all have an image of the perfect mate within us. For example a man might value the attributes of attractiveness, nurturing, even physical qualities such as blonde hair. When he meets a woman who possesses enough of the same qualities as his inner anima, a projection is triggered. The male projects his inner anima upon the woman and the common characteristics that both she and the anima possess serve to hold the projection in place. The man is now in love, but we can't especially say that he's in love with the woman; he is in love with the image he has projected upon the woman. Inasmuch as the real flesh and blood woman shares the same characteristics of his anima, he can be said to be in love with the woman.

Plato has some similar insights... "Plato believed that in the beginning there was only one human who was composed of two halves. At some point in time that perfect human was split apart becoming separate individuals. Ever since that separation occurred humankind has been searching for their other half to make them whole. The desire and pursuit of this wholeness is called "Love".

Not infrequently, the real woman will fail to live up to the image and the man will fall "out of love". Alternatively, the man's anima may mature in such a fashion that the real woman can no longer "hold the projection". In hindsight, he may wonder what 'he ever saw in her'. What he saw was the incomplete aspects of his Self, made whole--at least temporarily--via his relationship with the woman. Naturally, women can go through a process that is nearly identical in scope.

I'm going to quote once more from William Walker: Jung saw problems in opposites (or the antinomies) and looked for a resolution of this duality into unity, writing, "The Self then functions as a union of opposites and thus constitutes the most immediate experience of the Divine which it is psychologically possible to imagine"

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"When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

Source: The Gospels of Thomas


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That which is Everything contains both the entirety of the opposites and yet, is beyond duality. Stripped of all projection, "God" does not have a gender. That doesn't prevent us from defining our relationship with "God" in human terms however. To many people, "God" is experienced within the dynamic of a parent/child relationship. Still others experience God as Lover and describe that union with tender, erotic undertones.

<center>[b]Stanzas Of The Soul

1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.

3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.

4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.

5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.

6. Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.

7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.

8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.

St. John of the Cross ~ Dark Night of the Soul</center>

Music of the Hour [youtube video]:

(One of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.)

See also: [*] Song of Songs[*] A Commentary on the Rosarium Philosophorum[*] The Heiros Gamos