Animus

In the Name of Sophia – Part Two

~ Deborah Gregory ~ 20 Comments

In the Name of Sophia - Part Two

“In each of us two powers preside, one male, one female … The androgynous mind is resonant and porous … naturally creative, incandescent and undivided.”  ~  Virginia Woolf

For everything there is a season and mine is late spring, May to be exact. It’s my favourite month of the year in which the wedding of the Goddess and the Green Man takes place. The Goddess symbolises the manifestation of growth and renewal. She is the embodiment of the energy of the earth. The Green Man symbolises the life that grows on earth. They cannot exist without each other. The perfect time, I felt, for sharing the next part of my “In the Name of Sophia” series, as they come together in a beautiful embrace. In this second essay I will be exploring last year’s protests and pandemic in light of Sophia, updating you on my Animus Diet, before reflecting on “Becoming Sophian”, all with a nod to Jung.

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In the Name of Sophia

~ Deborah Gregory ~ 26 Comments

In the Name of Sophia - Part One

“Today I saw her. Today I saw her with my eyes, My queen, all bathed in radiance, Rejoicing, my heart stopped beating. This happened at the golden light of dawn, A miracle divine. All earthly desire vanished, Seeing her alone, her alone, only her.”  ~  Vladimir Solovyov

As it’s been more than two years since I wrote my essay and poem on the Divine Hermaphrodite, I thought it time to become more acquainted with Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom, in a similar way, for new life is calling. “In the Name of Sophia” series will be posted in three parts, the first two parts will be written in essay form and the third will be presented in the form of a long prose poem, hopefully all in a language that reaches the heart. Also, five years later, I felt it time to update you on my Animus Diet, but first, Sophia.

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The Animus Diet – Part Two

~ Deborah Gregory ~ 18 Comments

The Animus Diet - Part Two

Twelve weeks ago, around the start of the year, I made a conscious decision to start something completely new in my life, I call it the Animus Diet. Yes, I appreciate that January and dieting tend to go hand-in-hand, however, this was an entirely different kind of diet because there would be no calorie counting or weighing scales involved. Not even a tape measure, as I attempted to slim down my overweight animus, ‘Brutus’ and build up my skinny anima, whom I refer to fondly as ‘Olive Oyl.’ It was only when I discovered the wonderful cartoons at the beginning and at the end of this article that I recognised the characters as archetypes for my inner masculine and feminine aspects. In the first part of this article Journey of Love: The Animus Diet I wrote about my initial thoughts, reflections and changes that I felt I needed to make and I explored a number of suggestions about how to put these in place. This article picks up where week four left off as I continue to explore my inner masculine/feminine imbalance. And so the animus diet continues.

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Journey of Love: The Animus Diet

~ Deborah Gregory ~ 26 Comments

The Animus Diet

Okay, that’s it, I’m putting my fat animus on a post-holiday diet! For too long now he’s been aggressively stuffing me full of sugar and fat and making me feel, well, quite ill, if not tired most of the time. As a student of Jung I simply have to try out this lower inner-man diet. So back to the book shelves I go, to pull out Marion Woodsman’s impressive books that help me study “Feminine Consciousness” in more depth and try to figure out how to curb my invisible partner’s hunger.

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