Response: Can women have an anima?

[The original article by Karen Hodges, “Reflections on Women, Depression, and Soul-image,” is available on the internet as a download (I can't get a link to include in this post - you're going to have to search Google for it. And you should, it's a great essay.)]


I don't know what this woman experienced, whether she does in fact have an anima or she's mistaken. Maybe what she's experiencing is actually the anima. Or maybe it's the Self/the Wise Woman. The powerful, Goddess-like woman with a scythe is the Goddess of Death, the most mysterious part of our lives (along with rebirth - we come from Mystery and return to Mystery, this Goddess is both the usherer of the mystery as well as the Mystery itself.)

The more I think about it, the more her description of her experience feels like she encountered the Wise Woman, or possibly an inner Goddess figure (i.e. the Self). We women need contact with the deep, powerful, numinous feminine in our lives; it's such a desert out there. This may be why so many feminists dislike the Jungian concept of the animus and anima. The most obvious reason is because they (and others - I've actually found men's rights activist Jungians!!!) confuse archetypal attributes with blanket statements about all members of a specific gender ("Jung says the anima is nurturing, and the animus is good at thinking! That means he thinks women can't think!!!") Clearly, I don't think this is what he was saying but I'll save that for another post.

The truth is, there's not enough of the feminine out there, whether it's the nurturing side, or the Goddess as the devourer. The nurturing Great Mother and the sexy Aphrodite Goddess of attraction may be more sought after, but even they're not really given respect. The Great Mother is demeaned as "merely" a stay-at-home-mom, while Aphrodite is called a slut and a whore. The only Goddess who gets any respect is the meek, inoffensive Maiden. But even the Great Mother and Aphrodite are treated better in this society than the Reaper Goddess; a woman may be denigrated for being a mother or a sexual being but society will try to obliterate her if she manifests Kali. I believe that what offends the author, and other women, is the lack of space for, and respect for, all the different parts of us; the ugly, the terrible, the horrifying, as well as the pretty and nice parts.

Then again, the point isn't to prove what's "right" and tell people what they "should" believe. It's not a goddam religion. From my perspective it looks like this and not that. That's what's important; if anyone else gets a little shock of recognition that shocks them into understanding their truth, then that's great. But the important thing is for us to discover our own truth, as much as possible. Then we can see if maybe it has value for others.