Archive for July 7th, 2009
Anima, the Feminine as Symbolized by the Moon
I took this photo of the moon from in front of my home during the early evening of July 1st, just before I got ready to set off a display of fireworks. This year was the third year in a row that I have done a fireworks display for July 1st, the only such display in our little town. It really isn’t all about nationalism, though I am proud to be Canadian, it is about celebrating being together. The holiday is just and excuse. Again, with our little grandchildren, setting up small traditions is something important, something to let them know how special relatedness is in a world that is becoming increasingly individualistic.
Individuation, a Jungian concept, is not a celebration of one’s ego self, it is a process of discovering the fullness of one’s self in relation to others by becoming aware of the personal shadow, the anima and the collective shadow. Finding an internal balance of shadow and anima, a balance between logos and eros, between the masculine and the feminine, allows one to become more aware of self, a self that is differentiated from the collective. And in doing so, one finds that one is only whole when consciously in relation to other, to the collective. As the saying goes, “No man is an island.”
