I'm back from my disappearing act! I haven't been absent for this long in a while --
I've been delving deeper into (mind-boggling) books, and thinking over and over
and incubating my thoughts -- thinking about writing here but not; until now.
And even now, I have nothing but a little excerpt that stood out to me as I work through this mind-bending book about Women who run with the wolves: Stories and Myths about the Wild Woman archetype. This book gives a whole new meaning to woman's intuition. It has led me further down this twisty rabbit-hole about the psyche; I recently got for myself another book called Symbol and Archetype (by Martin Lings) and I don't know half the time what I'm reading, haha.
I've really come to appreciate more of this yin-yang balance stuff though; this is fascinating. We intuitively know there's something masculine and feminine in each of us, and for the woman, it could be thus:
Wild Woman is the driver, the animus hustles up the vehicle. She makes the song, he scores it. She imagines, he offers advice. Without him the play is created in one's imagination, but never written down and never performed. Without him the stage may be filled to bursting, but the curtains never part and the marquee remains dark.
If we were to translate the healthy animus into Spanish metaphor, he would be el agrimensor, the surveyor, who knows the lay of the land and with his compass and his thread measures the distance between two points. He defines the edges and establishes boundaries. Also call him el jugador, the gamesman, the one who studies and knows how to and where to place the marker to gain or to win. These are some of the most important aspects of a robust animus.
So the animus travels the road between two territories and sometimes three: underworld, inner world and outer world. All a woman's feelings and ideas are bundled up and carted across those spans -- in every direction -- by the animus, who has a feeling for all worlds. He brings ideas from "out there" back into her, and he carries ideas from her soul-Self across the bridge to fruition and "to market". Without the builder and maintainer of this land bridge, a woman's inner life cannot be manifested with intent in the outer world.
...
The key aspect to a positive animus development is actual manifestation of cohesive inner thoughts, impulses, and ideas.
Oh, what rich internal lives we all live, mostly in complete obliviousness.
We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and in themselves. (Al-Quran XLI: 53),
~ Symbol and Archetype, Martin Lings
