https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus#Levels_of_anima_development
Levels of anima development
Carl Jung believed anima development has four distinct levels, which in “The psychology of the transference” he named Eve, Helen, Mary and Sophia. In broad terms, the entire process of anima development in a man is about the male subject opening up to emotionality, and in that way a broader spirituality, by creating a new conscious paradigm that includes intuitive processes, creativity and imagination, and psychic sensitivity towards himself and others where it might not have existed previously.
Eve
The first is Eve, named after the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. It deals with the emergence of a man’s object of desire. The anima is completely tied up with woman as provider of nourishment, security and love. The man at this anima level cannot function well without a woman, and is more likely to be controlled by her. He is often impotent or has no sexual desire.
Helen
The second is Helen, an allusion to Helen of Troy in Greek mythology. In this phase, women are viewed as capable of worldly success and of being self-reliant, intelligent and insightful, even if not altogether virtuous. This second phase is meant to show a strong schism in external talents (cultivated business and conventional skills) with lacking internal qualities (inability for virtue, lacking faith or imagination).
Mary
The third phase is Mary, named after the Christian theological understanding of the Virgin Mary (Jesus’ mother). At this level, women can now seem to possess virtue by the perceiving man (even if in an esoteric and dogmatic way), in as much as certain activities deemed consciously unvirtuous cannot be applied to her.
Sophia
The fourth and final phase of anima development is Sophia, named after the Greek word for wisdom. Complete integration has now occurred, which allows women to be seen and related to as particular individuals who possess both positive and negative qualities. The most important aspect of this final level is that, as the personification “Wisdom” suggests, the anima is now developed enough that no single object can fully and permanently contain the images to which it is related.
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My Thoughts
For the women, what do you entice in men and what do you hope to bring out in them?
Is it the seduction of Eve, the hopeless and naive downfall of the man locked in obsession?
Is it the basic respect that a man feels for the Helen archetype and her ability to move through and excel in the professional career world?
Is it the softer affinity that a man feels for the Mary or matriarchal archetype, which embodies what most people think of as the highest expression of the feminine? There’s a stark difference between the Mary and Helen archetypes. The Mary can be the professional in the career world but has also embraced her softer/more emotional feminine side.
Is it Sophia, the Goddess, emotional depth and wisdom itself?
Are these questions offensive? Is it offensive that I’m posing questions that ask women what they are to men rather than just ask women where they think they are in their own anima development?
Before you reply with offense, keep in mind how much POWER women have over men. Women have great influence, sway, seduction, and subtle leadership over men. I know I’m generalizing yet it is generally true.
Wars have been started over women. Women have vast power in this world from at a material level being able to choose what genes get carried on. To the more subtle/psychological/emotional level of influence over men with their presence.
So when I pose a question like “Women, what are you inspiring and bringing out of men?” it’s not to say that you’re objects for men. It’s to say men are often the objects easily influenced and seduced by women.
I support and encourage the “Sophia” woman, or the woman who has the potential to become a Goddess in her own right. I have always marveled at that and supported that self actualization in women. I admire the full range of humanity in a woman, which includes the light and dark side. That women are as human, perfect and flawed, as I am.
To the men out there, where are you at your level of emotional development? How do you see women? How do you perceive your ideal woman?
Is she the alluring yet simple and quaint, seductive yet naively destructive Eve? Is she a mindless sex thing? Just something to use and abuse? To solely treat like an object without a mind of its own? A helpless damsel who can’t think for herself and needs you to rescue and do everything for her?
Is she more intellectually competent like the Helen? Do you see the intellect in her? Is she an equal at school or at work?
Is she the matriarchal Mary or even more evolved, the Goddess herself? Full and multi dimensional. Do you see the higher reflection of your own anima in her?
and of course no man’s or woman’s anima development is strictly any archetype, it’s a mixture of all at different levels, generally speaking one’s focus is going to be stronger at one of those levels though
Which is to say a man’s feminine side isn’t constrained to a singular thing. He sees the animating presence of the anima in all things. In all of nature. Everything is beautiful (and sometimes dark) and of the Goddess to him. The world is the Goddess and so he is richly in love.
He doesn’t need Eve to be in love, as much as Eve would want him to believe that ALL his love should be directed to her and anything less is a show of infidelity to the insecure Eve. When he finds his Eve she becomes part of his emotional tapestry and the love he has for life itself.
In this way a man can actually help a woman emotionally develop. IF she trusts him and realizes that life isn’t an unrealistic fairy tale of Adam and Eve where lovers obsessively focus on each other and there’s nothing else.
A woman can go far with an emotionally evolved man if she trusts that even though he falls in love with the sky… and he feels ecstasy in the breeze… he feels passion for life itself… he still loves her in a way most special and exalted. She holds a special place in his heart.
As much as a man can fall in love with life itself and not need to obsess about partnership… There is still a special place in his heart that is only for his Eve/Helen/Mary/Sophia. For his “mate”.
That man is going to seek a queen, a goddess, who can enjoy the depth and richness of life as much as he can. His emotions can run deep and they are tempered with wisdom because that’s what Sophia teaches men. That along with the incredible range of emotion that can be felt, there is the need for temperance and wisdom.
Of course the woman needs to know that the man’s love is utmost true. Sometimes she wants to break down to her inner child or her Eve because working day to day as the intellectually tasked Helen, or maybe she has a family and is the motherly Mary taking care of that, or Sophia and yet the weight of the world gets to be too much… There are times she needs to break down and be vulnerable and loved like she IS the only thing in the world to her man. As selfish as that sounds, sometimes she needs that. It’s not a man’s job to judge it but to just be there and provide for that need.
When I say encouraging the Goddess in women is good, I’m not against emotional vulnerability and need. As if vulnerability and need are lower states of emotional evolution?! That’s “Helen” thinking! That’s Helen reacting against the naivety/unknowing/vulnerability that are associated with Eve. So the Helen often closes off to her emotions because it’s a reaction against falling to the Eve in herself. WE HAVE ALL BEEN THE HELEN REACTING AGAINST OUR EVE! Anytime we’ve done something foolishly hurtful or been hurt because we were naive, often our reaction is to close off and run from our feelings.
I’m saying as a man, with women, if you want to meet their Sophia you have to show them that they can trust you, you have to show it by your behavior and actions. There’s an interesting truth about lower/higher archetypes. It is that the lower and higher selves are intimately close. Eve is closer to Sophia than Helen is to Sophia.
The fractal nature of reality is so true this truth is in our brain waves! By your level of zoom you’ll see higher and lower frequencies embedded in each other. If you really want to blow your mind, everything is seen from subjective standing anyways! There is no absolute state of higher evolution or devolution. We can zoom infinitely. So what matters most is not an absolute state of evolution but our direction and orientation. This is why you don’t judge others for where they are in their evolution. This is why no one is “better” than others. We can all find a solidarity in seeking and encouraging the greatness in the ourselves and each other.
Has anyone ever cried on your shoulders, man or woman, then sprung up like the Spring afterward? Their mind is more awake, breath deeper, and them calmer? You gave their inner child or Eve a hug, and then they were ready to leap back into their more “adult” self. That’s the magical power of embodying the mature side of the emotional spectrum. It’s being able to not only handle our own emotions but embrace others and show them that Sophia level of wisdom and understanding. There is so much magic in just being able to “be there” for someone and hug them or just listen to them. It can be the means in which to refresh and reset them, the comfort and release they need.
As much as emotional maturity allows a person to practice emotional empowerment it can be inversely dangerous not to develop it. The lack of development can lead us to destructive people and situations.
It behests us men, and women, to grow emotionally so that we gain the knowledge to not fall to self defeating patterns and so that we can heal our wounds and be whole in ourselves. It’s not useful to beat ourselves up for having been naive and wounded regardless of how naive we were. It is our responsibilities to seek our own healing and self actualization.
It behests a man to see more in women than just the Eve archetype. That they have minds (Helen) and there is softness to them (Mary), and individuated personalities (Sophia). That they aren’t perfect, they have light and dark sides, perfections and flaws… This again is Sophia.
Eve is being naive to the dark side and flaws, only seeing the candy exterior we want to see. Sophia is maturely seeing and accepting that people have light and dark sides. Romantic idealization is fine if at the same time we also soberly realize that even the idealized lover is human.
Real love is when we love them (man or woman) more for it. For their humanity, for their flaws. We love them from a deep, mature, unconditional, accepting place.
That’s when we get the Sophia energy working in our relationships. The “Goddess” shines upon those kinds of relationships.
That’s a full and rich light we should want to be in. As men we should strive to be in it, to evolve ourselves emotionally so that we can meet that Sophia, that Goddess. Which opens up a whole new world when it comes to how we see and relate to women.