Having already addressed the Shadow and the main, general points on Social relationships, as well as Love and the two archetypes, we address here what differentiates the Anima from the Animus.
Astrologer Dane Rudhyar, in his book “Astrology and the Modern Psyche : An Astrologer Looks at Depth Psychology” explains three fundamental concepts about the Anima :
- 1- The anima helps the conscious ego to understand the unconscious; this reaction counterbalances the conscious, one-sided attitude that the ego identifies with
- 2- It functions as a mediator that links the ego to the deeper levels of human nature, and to the permanent, collective wisdom of our race
- 3- It represents the idealized picture of femininity for man
What is the Anima ?
The anima is “Eros” (love), desire, sensitivity, substance, sense, beauty, emotions, valorization, the power of attraction, gravitation, intuitiveness, dreams, the unconscious, the absolute consciousness, the collective, the many…
The anima is the feminine archetype; it’s the seduction of man, and it pulls him into the world of sensitivity, gentleness, feelings, affection, deep relationships, empathy, and compassion… It encourages the creation of a home and the search for well-being, comfort, and pleasures, and as a result it can stifle individuality.
The anima is the complementary, contrasexual part of a man : it’s present in him.
The anima is inherent in a woman, thought each woman has her own particular way of expressing it, and there are different standard types of anima, which we can link to the Astrological Elements. Every woman is of course a mix of these various styles :
- The Maternal Woman (water), an attentive protector, is benevolent and reassuring, and “the nurse” is the standard example.
On the negative side, a woman of this type may also be invasive and possessive. - The Seductive Woman (air) knows how to use her beauty, demonstrating elegance and culture, and has a gift for the games of love. “The lover and the femme fatale” are the standard examples.
On the negative side, a woman of this type may show herself to be temperamental, immature, self-serving, and superficial, or even scheming, manipulative, unfaithful, and cold. - The Strong Woman (earth) is pragmatic, rational, materialistic, smart, competent, organized, practical, and hard-working, and “the regent and the Amazon” are the standard examples, given their skills of management and leadership.
On the negative side, a woman of this type may become overly-dominating, authoritarian, and particular to the point of getting lost in the details. - The Mystical Woman (fire) is visionary, spontaneous, lively, radiant, intuitive, creative, a dreamer, inspired, and inspirational. “The Virgin and the muse” are the standard examples : the inspiration of the religious, poet, or painter.
On the negative side, a woman of this type can develop a tendency to be hysterical, exuberant, eccentric, and quirky, and may tend towards madness.
These are the standard categories of the anima that we may find in men’s projections of the anima onto women, projections that may in fact be radically different from the anima that the woman in question is actually experiencing !
The anima may also be projected outside of a relationship, onto activities that are related to the types of anima evoked above : maternity, art, work and sports, religion and mysticism, etc…
In practice, each woman expresses an anima that is the fruit of a mix of these four standard types of anima, although we should still always ask which of the anima qualities, conscious or unconscious, led a man to project a particular standard type.
Women should become aware of their unconscious Animus, their inner partner, and integrate it into their lives, keeping in mind that no real man could ever be the true equivalent of this idealized inner image.
The anima and astrology
Like with other things, there is no magic formula to concretely determine where the anima is hiding (the entire anima) in a Birth chart, because there are many factors that can have an influence, and not all of them are easy to see at first glance.
Let’s start with the obvious planets of the anima : the Moon and Venus are the most important.
The Moon is particularly significant in the birth chart of women.
Dane Rudhyar characterizes the anima represented by the Moon based upon its position in relation to its orbit around the Earth :
- When it’s internal (between the Sun and Earth), it represents turning inward on ourselves, and subconscious, passive behavior.
- When it’s external (opposite the Sun from the Earth), it represents turning outward and manifests adaptation to the outside world, the formation of biological and psychological structures.
Understanding this polarity is vital : if we want to favor our inner energy, we need to restrain our external flow of energy and thus restrain our sexuality (Mars), our tendency to submit to social systems (Jupiter), and our egocentricity (Saturn) and refocus ourselves on the personal Planets : the Sun (the ego), the Moon (intuitiveness), Mercury (intellect), and Venus (affectivity).
This is the goal of many religious practices, often ascetic or monastic, such as meditation and Yoga.
Venus’ role with respect to the anima is notably the function of valorization, materialism, and beauty… As it’s a personal planet, its period of Retrograde motion is very significant.
The planets Venus and Mars should of course be analyzed more carefully when we are examining the anima and the animus. The inherent energies that they possess may vary significantly depending on whether they are dignified or debilitated (see Rulerships) and depending on which sign (masculine or feminine), or else the Astrological Elements they are located in (remember that water and earth are feminine and fire and air are masculine).
For example, when Venus is in detriment in Aries (the sign that Mars rules over), it will have an eminently masculine tint… In the event that at the same time Mars is in Libra (sign that Venus rules over, which moreover would create an Opposition), thus in detriment too, it would inevitably be “softened” (this example is a case of Mutual Reception).
Mercury is androgynous, and so it may be representative of both the anima and the Animus; its placement among the signs and the elements determines which one it’s more representative of, but Mercury is never anything more than a secondary significator in this way.
Saturn (also androgynous) may indicate the Shadow of the anima. This planet is above of all a significator of our dark side, and it may take on aspects of both the anima and the animus, so it needs to be analyzed in parallel with the rest of the chart (Aspects, Framings, etc.).
The soul develops through the irrationality of the anima/animus (See article on Love, psychology, and astrology), in parallel with socioprofessional life, logic, and intellect (the social planets, Jupiter and Saturn); later in life, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto bring the collective unconscious into the mix.
Neptune and Pluto (androgynous), as transpersonal planets, are connected more to the image of the collective unconscious of the anima and motivate a need for spiritual transcendence or belief. They may incite projections onto external moral entities (businesses, states, churches, etc…), especially if they are in contact with the personal planets of the animus.
In any case, when a planet is assigned to the feminine sex, we need to qualify that assignment (nuance), because if the planet then finds itself in a masculine sign and a masculine house it may clearly manifest masculine characteristics.
Furthermore, if the animus is represented by the Ascendant, the anima is represented by the 7th House. The seventh house (the descendant) represents Projections; it’s a house of complementarity, but here the word complementarity should be understood as the realization that the qualities that we are looking for in others are already present in ourselves. In fact, this is how we project these qualities onto our partners.
Given this point of view, we could say that the ascendant and descendant are two sides of the same coin, the first representing the conscious and the second the unconscious : we unconsciously look in others for that which we try to develop, consciously or unconsciously, in ourselves. Thus a planet in the 7th House is often experienced indirectly through our relationships with “others,” especially with our romantic partners. In fact, the qualities of this planet and those of the 7th house are present in us, but are projected.
The Black moon, given its symbolism and its meaning, lends itself quite well to the projection of the anima.
A combination of our unconscious Self-seeking, sexuality and transcendence, it represents the impulses of the anima, its seduction type, and reveals the complementary being that the anima is searching for. The black moon is a “threatening female presence” (under the influence of Mars and Pluto), a repressed “anima Shadow”, sometimes quite dominant, that exacerbates the dark sides of all of the standard types of anima and causes them to surface in our conscious.
And what about the Lunar nodes ? While the north node represents a sort of synthesis, that is to say the direction of the final union with our “inner partner,” the nodal axis is “neutral,” and in terms of the anima and the animus we could say that it’s “androgynous” : it may change gender, and it takes on different tones over time, according to the evolution…
For Jung, the personality develops chiefly as a result of the integration of its “inner partner”, but this integration cannot be achieved if one psychological function is repressed relative to another (therefore a planetary function).
The various techniques for Individuation involve a global development of all parts of a person (i.e. the entirety of the Birth chart; see Visualization Techniques) and a reciprocal interpenetration of all of their psychological opposites, especially between the conscious and the unconscious (the Shadow and the contrasexual partner, the Animus).
Individuals cannot be happy if they repress and deny a part of themselves; this often leads to Depression.
To go further :
Anima on Wikipedia