Syzygy: Anima And Animus

Jung's chapter on the syzygy ( CW9.2, par. 20 ) first examines the term itself. It means pair or couple:

PAIRS OF AIONS

The pairs of aions that the Gnostic god emanated were called syzygies, but the original meaning of the word was “to yoke together.” It is derived from two different stems: “syn” meaning with, and “zygon” meaning yoke or the cross-bar of a harness AL ¶ 0

As Jung uses this term it refers to the masculine and feminine principles that are yoked together in the human psyche AL ¶ 0

FOUR STATES OF EGO'S RELATION

TO THE ANIMA OR ANIMUS

Also important in this context are the different states of the ego's relation to anima or animus, which is of some importance in evaluating analytic patients. I distinguish four different states: AL ¶ 0

INFANTILE STATE

The infantile state, the projected state, the possessed state, and the conscious state. The infantile state is the original one of symbolic mother-son or father-daughter incest AL ¶ 0

SECOND STATE

In the second or projected state, the anima and animus are experienced in projection upon a member of the opposite of sex. Further distinction can be made between remote and nearby projections AL ¶ 0

By remote projections I mean such things as the adulation of movie stars and rock singers, and other `groupie' phenomena; a collective projection is usually participated in by a whole group, and the projection carrier is not available to provide any corrective response, so the projection has a sizable infantile component AL ¶ 0

NEARBY PROJECTIONS

Nearby projections get closer to home, and these lead one into actual life encounters in which the projected image is contrasted with the reality of the person carrying the projection. That results in greater consciousness AL ¶ 0

POSSESSED STATE

The third stage of relation to anima / animus I called the possessed state; the anima-possessed man and the animus-possessed woman AL ¶ 0

When a man is anima-possessed, a condition that usually comes and goes with moods, he is sensitive and resentful, and his feelings are very easily hurt. I would say that the key word for the anima-possessed man is resentmenta sour, disappointed attitude AL ¶ 0

Another way of putting it would be that the anima-possessed man is inappropriately soft AL ¶ 0

The animus-possessed woman is quite the reverse. She is opinionated, argumentative, brittle. When the animus state is uppermost, she is inappropriately hard AL ¶ 0

CONSCIOUS RELATION TO

ANIMA OR ANIMUS

Finally, the fourth state would be conscious relation to anima or animus. At this stage of things, as Jung puts it in CW9.2: par. 40 , anima and animus “represent functions which filter the contents of the collective unconscious through to the conscious mind” AL ¶ 0

EGO RELATION TO ANIMA

When the ego has a conscious relation to anima or animus, it is no longer subject to possession, and the contrasexual element becomes a conduit by which the contents of the collective unconscious can move from the unconscious to the ego AL ¶ 0

ATTENTION TO UNCONSCIOUS

This conscious relation to the anima or animus leads to an attitude that gives regular attention to the unconscious AL ¶ 0

ULTIMATE GOAL

The ultimate goal of these masculine and feminine principles which make up the syzygy is the coniunctio, their union. This dynamic, the urge of the syzygy to achieve the coniunctio lives itself out in external life in a fairly typical way AL ¶ 0

EXTERIORIZED CONIUNCTIO

This is what I would call the concrete or exteriorized coniunctio sequence: a man and a woman fall in love; in other words, they fall into mutual anima and animus projections. That stage of things is really delicious. Each is convinced that he or she has found a soul-mate in the other, and there is a blissful feeling of wholeness whenever they are together AL ¶ 0

PAINFUL SENSE OF LOSS

On the other hand, there is a very painful sense of loss when they are apart. This initial state of things, because it is largely unconscious, usually cannot last long. It generally evolves in one of three ways AL ¶ 0

FIRST POSSIBILITY

One possibility is that the concrete coniunctio proceeds in life, so that there is marriage, family and a joint life, and the libido that had been flowing between the anima and animus projections is progressively led into the effort of developing a concrete existence together AL ¶ 0

SECOND POSSIBILITY

The second possibility is that instead of a concrete coniunctio there will be a concrete separatio; in other words, the projection drops off for one or the other. It drops off for one person, and then the other is abandoned AL ¶ 0

THE REJECTED ONE

When that happens, the rejected one is exposed to grief and despair, and sometimes resorts to violence. This is the Dido phenomenon, the Medea phenomenon, the Don Jose phenomenon in Carmen AL ¶ 0

DESPAIR OR VIOLENCE

Extremes of despair or violence are activated because one has lost one's soul-mate and this is experienced as a total defeat, a failure of the possibility of coniunctio; the despair leads to destruction AL ¶ 0

THE OTHER PERSON

The alternative is the realization that the other person was not the essential thing; then one starts to make connection with the anima or animus internally. This has been expressed as “When half-gods go, the gods arrive,” which was Ariadne's experience when Theseus abandoned her and then Dionysus arrived on the scene AL ¶ 0

THE THIRD POSSIBILITY

The third possibility is that progressive development occurs in the midst of the mutual projection: the individuals gradually discover that their in-loveness is based on a projection of the anima or animus AL ¶ 0

CONSCIOUS OBJECT LOVE

But, as a consequence of having been the carriers of that projection, they are also led to the discovery of and the capacity for conscious object love. Then it becomes possible to love the partner as he or she actually is, simultaneously developing and maintaining a living connection to the inner image of the animus or anima AL ¶ 0