The Physical is related to health, integrate consciously the energy of the opposite gender/3.part

Marketa Juristova

Whenever I write about the archetypes of anima and animus, I cannot describe exclusively one of these archetypes without digressing to the other. Thus, it is impossible to completely distinguish between a text that relates only to the anima or only to the animus. This is probably because the two energies are inextricably linked and cannot be separated even when they are examined. Nevertheless, I will try to devote this article more to the male personality-energy within the female, the animus, to which I obviously have a personal relationship.

I don't know if every woman is aware of her animus, which is the first condition for its acceptance and integration, so I will try to give more insight into how to identify this energy within oneself, at least a little. I will therefore address women in this article, but men will also find interesting information here.

Animus -image of the woman spirit

Ladies, do you remember the fairy tales that you listened to in your childhood and a certain feeling or desire that you felt about them? I remember for me it was the desire to be protected. I wanted to be protected by some mysterious being, like a dragon or a good wizard. Over time, this wish crystallized into quite a rational reflection and frequent reproaches to my parents : "Why don't I have an older brother?" The hypothetical older brother was probably a kind of first unconscious trace of animus energy for me. I think if I had an older brother in reality, my rationalization of the unconscious wish would probably be different.

A later fairy tale wish that carries animus energy is the so-called "prince charming," the idea of an ideal mate. The mysterious unknown stranger who may (but of course need not) be on the edge of the law (Black Tulip, Zoro the Avenger, etc.) has a similar charge. The whole literary genre, the so-called "red library", basically works with the animus archetype, and romance book publishers and movie producers are making quite a profit from it.

This romanticization of the animus persona sort of isolates women (girls) from the real world with real people. They are waiting for their prince and tend to discover their dream perfect hero in a man. The result is often disappointment, which is behind the break-ups of first loves, or divorce proceedings and scars on the soul. By bumping into real life, a woman actually confronts herself with an animus and is thus able to distinguish her inner unconscious desire (saturated with the energy of the animus) from real life with men. However, this confrontation is not always understood and some women continue to search for their dream ideal, waiting to meet the mysterious stranger, or may succumb to another romantic notion.

Thus, unless a woman turns away from the energy of her animus and escapes it in some sense, the development of her personality (including, of course, the unconscious component) is arrested. In this period, for example, girls entered the convent, their life was then realized in the spiritual sphere (here the animus was transformed into a divine being). In other cases, if a woman allows herself to be isolated by her animus, she may fall into addiction, most often to alcohol. Note that male alcoholics, often drink in the presence of other men, on the contrary, female alcoholics, as a rule, drink alone.

I also thought about how the issue of battered women relates to the topic of anima and animus. I think that here, too, one of the reasons is the interruption of personality development in the unconscious, where the animus remains in a phase where he isolates his wife in romantic dreams. This leaves the woman at the mercy of the tyrant who (under the influence of the evil anima) instead of subjecting his own inner self to the dressage, destroys his partner and thus actually projects the anima into reality where he punishes her. Perhaps it would help if the woman who is the victim of the bully would try to shift her own animus in her development by being able to break out of isolation in real life by her own will (usually it's about completely cutting off contact with the particular problematic person). Then she could ask the animus for help and thereby discover her hidden power. Bullies have a special charm for their victims, which is related precisely to archetypal energy. If a woman could feel this energy within herself, she would distinguish it from her bully and become stronger and more independent. The biggest problem is that victims of violence tend to return to their abuser and fall into romantic fantasies of a reformed sinner.

This transformation can be seen beautifully in Katy Perry's song Roar

You can also feel the energy of animus in situations when you are overwhelmed by emotions you don't fully understand. Of course, you only realise this after you have cooled down. Are you asking yourself why I was so upset by a comment from a colleague, my husband or an email from a customer? When you think about it, isn't there an underlying belief about some order, some truth, something that is just a given and has been violated or challenged? If so, that's it - an animus that echoes from the unconscious. And if you are able to become aware of its voice, even later, it means that you are integrating it. It's a long-term process, of course, but here it is 100% true that the journey is the destination.

And of course, you can meet the animus in dreams, but we'll talk about that next time, in the article about communicating with this archetype.