Carl Jung on the Animus of a Woman
Mysterium Coniunctionis (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.14)
If, therefore, we speak of the anima of a man, we must logically speak of the animus of a woman, if we are to give the soul of a woman its right name.
Whereas logic and objectivity are usually the predominant features of a man’s outer attitude, or are at least regarded as ideals, in the case of a woman it is
feeling.
But in the soul it is the other way round: inwardly it is the man who feels, and the woman who reflects.
Hence a man’s greater liability to total despair, while a woman can always find comfort and hope; accordingly a man is more likely to put an end to himself than a woman.
However much a victim of social circumstances a woman may be, as a prostitute for instance, a man is no less a victim of impulses from the unconscious,
taking the form of alcoholism and other vices. ~Carl Jung, CW 6, Psychological Types, Page 469, Para 485.
Statements by men on the subject of female psychology suffer principally from the fact that the projection of unconscious femininity is always strongest where critical judgment is most needed, that is, where a man is involved emotionally.
In the metaphorical descriptions of the alchemists, Luna is primarily a reflection of a man’s unconscious femininity, but she is also the principle of the feminine psyche, in the sense that Sol is the principle of a man’s.
This is particularly obvious in the astrological interpretation of sun and moon, not to mention the age-old assumptions of mythology.
Alchemy is inconceivable without the influence of her elder sister astrology, and the statements of these three disciplines must be taken into account in any psychological evaluation of the luminaries.
If, then, Luna characterizes the feminine psyche and Sol the masculine, consciousness would be an exclusively masculine affair, which is obviously not the case since woman possesses consciousness too.
But as we have previously identified Sol with consciousness and Luna with the unconscious, we would now be driven to the conclusion that a woman cannot possess a consciousness.
The error in our formulation lies in the fact, firstly, that we equated the moon with the unconscious as such, whereas the equation is true chiefly of the unconscious of a man; and secondly, that we overlooked the fact that the moon is not only dark but is also a giver of light and can therefore represent consciousness.
This is indeed so in the case of woman: her consciousness has a lunar rather than a solar character.
Its light is the “mild” light of the moon, which merges things together rather than separates them.
It does not show up objects in all their pitiless discreteness and separateness, like the harsh, glaring light of day, but blends in a deceptive shimmer the near and the far, magically transforming little things into big things, high into low, softening all colour into a bluish haze, and blending the nocturnal landscape into an unsuspected unity. ~Carl Jung, CW 14, Mysterium Coniunctionis, Page 178, Paras 222-224.
