Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey - Inner City Books

Woman’s Inner Man 47
While a man’s task in assimilating the anima involves discovering
his true feelings, a woman must constantly question her ideas and
opinions, measuring these against what she really thinks. If she
does so, in time the animus can become a valuable inner companion
who endows her with qualities of enterprise, courage, objectivity
and spiritual wisdom.
Jung describes four stages of animus development in a woman,
paralleling those of the anima in a man. He first appears in dreams
and fantasy as the embodiment of physical power, for instance an
athlete or muscle man, a James Bond or Sylvester Stallone. This
corresponds to the anima as Eve. For a woman with such an animus
a man is simply a stud; he exists to give her physical satisfaction,
protection and healthy babies.
In the second stage, analogous to the anima as Helen, the animus
possesses initiative and the capacity for planned action. He is behind
a woman’s desire for independence and a career of her own.
However, a woman with an animus of this type still relates to a man
on a collective level: he is the generic husband-father, the man
around the house whose primary role is to provide shelter and support
for his family—Mr. Do-All, Mr. Fix-It, with no life of his own.
In the next stage, corresponding to the anima as Mary, the animus
is the Word personified, appearing in dreams as a professor,
clergyman, scholar or some other authoritarian figure. A woman
with such an animus has a great respect for traditional learning; she
is capable of sustained creative work and welcomes the opportunity
to exercise her mind. She is able to relate to a man on an individual
level, as lover rather than husband or father, and she seriously ponders
her own elusive identity.
In the fourth stage, the animus is the incarnation of spiritual
meaning—a Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Dalai Lama.
On this highest level, like the anima as Sophia, the animus mediates
between a woman’s conscious mind and the unconscious. In mythology
he appears as Hermes, messenger of the gods; in dreams he
is a helpful guide. Sexuality for such a woman is imbued with spiri-