The yin and yang. There are many given meanings to this ancient symbol: light and darkness, good and bad, positive and negative, heaven and earth, love and hate, life and death …
However, in this case, the yin and yang is a perfect representation of the Animus and Anima – or male and female – that dwells within us all.
First coined by famous psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, the terms “Anima” and “Animus” both refer to the male energies present within the female, and female energies present within the male.
In this article, we will explore both unconscious archetypes (or universally present elements of the human psyche), and how they influence us in daily life.
The Anima
Derived from Latin meaning “a current of air, wind, breath, the vital principle, life, soul”, the Anima refers to the unconscious feminine dimension of a male which can often be forgotten or repressed in daily life. However, in order to psychologically progress and reach greater internal balance and harmony, it is necessary for a man to recognize, embrace and connect to this latent element of his character.
As described by Jungian Psychologist Dan Johnston, the man who has connected with his feminine Anima displays “tenderness, patience, consideration and compassion.” However, repression of the female element within the man results in a negative Anima that triggers personality traits such as “vanity, moodiness, bitchiness and sensitivity to hurt feelings.”
The Animus
The Animus, which is a Latin word that means “the rational soul; life; the mental powers, intelligence“, is the unconscious male dimension in the female psyche. Due to societal, parental and cultural conditioning, the Animus, or male element within the woman, can be often inhibited, restrained and suppressed. On the other hand, some societies and cultures (such as the Western way of life), ruthlessly impose masculinity ideals as ways to excel, succeed and get anywhere in life for women.
All of these external elements can contribute towards a negative Animus, which reveals itself in a woman’s personality through argumentative tendencies, ruthlessness, destructiveness, and insensitivity. However, integrating a positive Animus into the female psyche can result in strength, assertiveness, levelheadedness and rationality.
Gaining Wholeness
In the mind of Jung – who derived many of his thoughts and teachings from Eastern Philosophies – in order for a person to be whole through the process of “Individuation“, a person must encounter and work to embrace their internal Anima or Animus.
As Jung goes on to explain, the process of this becoming whole – or Individuation – can be described as:
becoming an “in-dividual,” and, in so far as “individuality” embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore translate individuation as “coming to selfhood,” or “self-realization.”
Thus connecting with our inner male or female element is essential for the development of self-awareness and understanding, which are important components of inner work.
Making The Connection
Connecting to your inner Anima or Animus does not require you to become homosexual or lesbian, as commonly thought. And if you identify with either of these sexual orientations, it doesn’t require you to become heterosexual either. Why? Because these dormant elements within us have nothing to do with sexuality, and everything to do with creating a balance on the scales of passive (female) and aggressive (male) energies within us.
In essence, what we are striving for is an androgynous state, the state that is often attributed to our Spirits which balance all opposites into one unified whole.
So how can we further complete the process of Individuation, how can we connect to that other hidden side of ourselves? Here are some suggestions.
For Males – Connecting to the Anima
Connecting to the Anima for males is about understanding feminine energy which manifests itself as passivity, sensitivity, and emotionality. Suggestions include the following:
- Practice the art of listening with concern and compassion.
- Rediscovering your passionate side through romantic gestures.
- Taking care of, or nurturing something.
- Practicing thoughtfulness and consideration of the needs of others.
- Expressing the inner Anima creatively, e.g. music, art, sculpture, poetry, dance.
- Practicing mindfulness, meditation and other ways to get in touch with, and understand, inner emotions.
- Expanding your hobbies or interests to incorporate feminine energies in your life.
- Practicing Self-Study in order to develop greater consideration of your internal needs for love and fulfillment.
For Females – Connecting to the Animus
For females, connecting to the inner Animus is also about understanding masculine energy which manifests itself as everything that is active, dominant, and logical. Suggestions include:
- Practicing assertiveness.
- Adopting a role or position that puts you in authority/dominance.
- Learning to take charge of something in your life.
- Discovering and developing your leadership abilities.
- Reading non-fiction instead of purely fiction.
- Becoming more self-sufficient and self-reliant.
- Learning masculine skills, (e.g. fixing car problems, handy-man abilities like using drills, fixing broken appliances, etc.)
- Gaining more emotional balance by practicing mindfulness, meditation, and Self-Exploration, etc.
- Learning to become more rational by studying the approach to problems, decisions and situations by rational people.
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In essence, the basic question you need to ask yourself is: “what is the current balance of male and female energies in my life, and what needs further development?”
Females for instance, may possess more Animus (male) energy than female energy, and thus will need to get back in touch with the Anima (female) energy latent in the unconscious mind. Vice versa for males. Essentially, creating a balanced self is always contextual, and changes from person to person.
Through meditation I have often experienced the state of inner androgyny, of the inner balance of male and female or Anima and Animus. The feeling brings great equanimity and wholeness.
So if you enjoyed this article, or have any ideas or recommendations, please share them below!
How about females with people pleasing traits? I know I need to balance and heal my feminine side but I lack assertiveness and have problems concerning men, does having a problem with the animus ( negative/imbalance) create unhealthy boundaries and passivity thus leading to repressed anger? Thank you Luna for this guide, it really has helped giving me insight :)
I thought I might have an interesting position in this discussion. I am a trans male. Assigned female at birth. I had always tiptoed around this subject because it had always been told to me that males need female energy and vice versa . The way you explained it in this article though, you can be male and still need to work on your male energy, I finally feel that I understand. Thank you.
Howdy. I’ve had a couple of dreams lately that I believe involved my Anima but I’m unsure as to what the meaning of the encounter was. Last mights dream involved a theme based on the Hero’s Journey that played out like an Avengers movie. There was chaos raging all around & all characters were male save for one. At one point towards the very end of the dream where i was in an Iron Man suit & landed somewhere close to a large body of water, possibly the ocean “represesting my unconcious?” an d there was a young woman who was standing on the opposite side of a guard rail. I approached her to embrace but had to squeeze myself through two of the wooden support posts that were part of the rail, it was a tight squeeze but still managed to fit through. Once on the other side she & i embraced & began kissing & holding each other. The biggest detail to this was that “i could actually smell her” & it was wonderful! I can’t recall ever being able to smell in my dreams but during that embrace i could. I’m wondering if this is what Jung called “the final masterpiece?”
Any thoughts & considerations are greatly appreciated! Thank you.
Is it possible to connect to my animus if I spend time with my little brothers?
When my dad came to visit, my mom and I felt more motivated. What can we adopt in our lives while he’s gone to keep up the motivation?
Bitchiness related to the feminine side? Oh this is really sexist.
Sorry, but I disliked it a lot.
Please be more careful about the language/ expressions.
no women IN GENERAL compared to men use argumentative language rather than men who are more likely to lash out. This isn’t sexist it is just fact. Men and women’s brains are different we think and act different in general. You have to accept that. Being different doesn’t make one side better than the other.
JUST WHAT I NEEDED FEELING THIS WAY AND ITS SO TRUE I PULL THAT stern strong MASCULINE ENERGY INTO LINE WITH MY FEMININE GRACE SIDE IT WORKS A UNIQUE BALANCE WAS AWESOME TO BE REMINDED OF WAYS TO BALANCE MY ENERGIES. THANKS LONERWOLF – females for instance, may possess more Animus (male) energy than female energy, and thus will need to get back in touch with the Anima (female) energy I NEEDED THIS GUIDANCE Big Thanks LonerWolf. Carol
Sexist & “please control what language is used?” Lol talk about Anima/Animus projection!
I wish you luck!
Very nice article. Lots of unique and unknown facts has been discussed here. Very helpful. Looking forward to see more information on this topic. Good job.
What does it mean if you’re a man with rather debilitating symptoms of anima possession, but you practice all the suggestions of getting in touch with the feminine side? How do I get in touch with the masculine side?
It is a very helpful post for gaining awareness of our dualities inside as a human but I wish there were more details about how to get back balance of anima and animus if there was a problem about it. Also, I want to recommend a book about this topic to find more ; Women Who Run With Wolves, Clarissa P. Estes
Hi, I really enjoyed your post. I am now doing a Masters in Ecology and Spirituality and currently writing an assignment on the subject of anima/animus. I would appreciate interviewing you and also learning where are the references and books you used, more specifically when you quote some texts. Would you be available for a quick chat? My contact info is: duda.souza@gmail.com.
thank you. Maria Eduarda
I was wondering, If a man or woman practiced on balancing there feminine and masculine energies, would they want to be in a relationship still? IF so, what kind of relationship would they want? Friendship, marriage, twinflame? I think both men and women suppress there masculine or feminine energy so that there lover expresses that. Which your article is saying is basically unhealthy , correct?
Hey Layla. Of course! Balancing your male/female energies actually makes you better equipped to form and maintain healthy relationships. Men and women suppress the yin and yang energy because it is conditioned into us since birth to play a certain role. When we step out of that role, we make ourselves available to become more whole and complete beings.
As a homosexual & empath male myself, I keeps experience intensely both positive and negative anima and animus from time to time which makes me so hard to reach a stable self, commitment to a life routine and keeping a stable-self partner. Is there any advice for me to work on that?
I started reading the Jung’s book which talks about anima and animus. After finishing the first two chapters I came to lonerwolf to see if there are any blogs on this. This blog has been quite useful to understand the topics plainly.
Thank you for a great article!
My pleasure Renee! I’m glad that you got something out of it. :)
In all the readings I’ve been exposed to, Jung indicates that shadow work should be worked on, first, before the integration of the Anima(us). The integration of the ego/shadow would then facilitate the integration of the ego(shadow)/anima(us). If I remember correctly, Jung’s sequence of archetypal integration was established because he believed that it was easier to identify shadow projections, withdraw, them by reclaiming and accepting them and, thereby, integrating them within oneself. But, what the article suggests isn’t difficult to do, so, perhaps, my information may be outdated.
Great article! I would love for you to provide an article or series of articles that speak to the integration of our psyche. Maybe, the articles could be directed as a means of doing what needs to be done by us to try and achieve wholeness. I would be ecstatic if I could sufficiently integrated ego/shadow and anima(us)/persona to experience the higher consciousness of the self. Just a suggestion.
I welcome all suggestions, so thank you Greg! I will make a note of that for the future. At the moment Sol and I are planning on releasing a series of practically applicable articles to achieve greater wholeness and self-realization which we hope to publish next year sometime.
Appreciate the comment!
I suppose that many finnish women posess this Animus quality.
I wasn’t aware that Finnish women were so masculine Julio. :P
-Luna
I think my energies are quite balanced, I just lack the authority thing. :)
Assertiveness you mean? That can always be improved with time and persistence. I wrote an article about assertiveness a while back which you may be interested in reading: https://lonerwolf.com/how-to-be-quietly-assertive/
Thank you for reading Marina :)
-Luna
Great article. Really insightful too! I’ve always been aware of the masculine/feminine traits I had as I grew up, but could never put a name to it. Now I hope to find a balance :)
That means a lot to me – thank you Isabelle. :)
All the best with finding a balance within your life,
-Luna