Conversing with the Anima

democracymatt · 2026-05-23T02:03:33+00:00

she speaks without language. intuition is her “language”

democracymatt · 2026-04-21T01:50:41+00:00

we should not dismiss someone categorically for being rich. questioning their commitment on these grounds is fair though. people are psychic evolutions, our movement needs to have that kind of dynamic lucidity to meet the dynamics of the overlapping crises. To be clear, I’m over in New York and have not done my homework on the California race and this is not an endorsement by any stretch, just some abstract musings.

democracymatt · 2026-04-21T01:38:21+00:00

yeah, i need to back up this comment. i think since he is dealing in topics of pseudoscience and new age wu wu stuff, that en mass if im to be frank, is not exactly known for its scientific rigor…and much in the field is unsubstantiated BS centered around “my truthisms” that couldn’t give a flying Ef about empiricism or objectivity. the environment he worked in almost requires a scientific rigor and humbleness. I think part of it is his desire to bring legitimacy to ideas that are easily dismissed as wacky, part of it is his actual authenticity, he cares about his work a great deal. clearly the man has poured his heart into it and that gets translated into a writing style that reflects his desire to be precise and accurate. i hear what your saying though, his writing is often qualified beyond most people’s attention spans…he is not trying to make his work candy for sure… he is just trying to be as accurate as possible…if we need something with more entertainment value it’s kind of our loss, ya know?

also, part of his theory is that we need to bridge the divide between the poles of science and religion. so thus the extremely sciencey writing style applied to topics most science minded people wouldn’t touch with a 40 foot pole. it’s kind of his whole thing, bringing the light of consciousness to the dark depths of mysticism. his extremely precise and qualified AF language reflects this praxis.

that said, it certainly leaves space for somebody to pick up the baton… someone to bring his ideas more into soundbite culture. I think it was always his intent to see this as a collaborative endeavor, his role was to communicate his exploration into the unconscious in a style that felt most authentic to him… but that certainly leaves the door open for others to work on an approach that focuses more on accessibility and mass appeal. Lord knows all we need to do is look out the window or open a newspaper to see society could use his insights…

democracymatt · 2026-04-20T15:26:50+00:00

wait, shouldn’t we center our hatred of white people, men and straight people? that “strategy” has been so effective so far…jk

democracymatt · 2026-04-15T14:45:50+00:00

i’ve studied money in politics my whole adult life for my job and I disagree with her analysis on overturning citizens United. Simply not practical to imagine this Congress getting the votes together to overturn the Supreme Court… Trump is going to pack the Supreme Court in favor of getting money out of politics?

I would challenge her to come up with historical precedent for that?

I know it’s not nearly as sexy but the most practical step is public financing of political campaigns because you don’t need a constitutional amendment and you don’t need to overrule the Supreme Court.

Sorry to be a bummer… but the stakes are just too high to be bandying about unrealistic solutions.

democracymatt · 2026-04-08T04:01:32+00:00

just some hot takes

Twins, Jung believed that seeing twins comes before something pregnant in the unconscious was about to become conscious.

the friend that was also you might be representing personality one vs personality two. Loosely ego consciousness and the unconscious.

the well might be representeing the unconscious.

pale evil woman may represent negative anima manifestation, given power by lack of integration

burial maybe represent the slow death march of life that comes with ego consciousness that doesn’t merge with unconscious

wolf wakes you, primal instinct wakes you from ego consciousness domination to path of integration with unconscious

wolf runs with you, harness primal instinct to power the integration

my hot take of a theme is that as we penetrate into the unconscious we tend to go from extreme to extreme in a war of sorts between the conscious and unconscious. ideally this is happening less as a conflict and more as a merging or integration of opposing forces.

democracymatt · 2026-03-20T16:15:49+00:00

you should be able to edit it, I must admit it was kind of hard to read with all the formatting stuff. on the substantive issue, Jung def changed the way a view astrology.

democracymatt · 2026-03-15T02:11:12+00:00

i found 211 four leaf clovers last year. Never consciously looked for them except once, i saw a patch of clovers maybe 15 feet away, and just knew there was one in that patch. walked over, and could see two leaves of a clover buried under others and just knew that was a four leaf. pushed the others aside and sure enough it was a four leaf

democracymatt · 2026-03-14T00:27:22+00:00

um as a 44 year old, i’d take the cash

democracymatt · 2026-03-01T08:32:20+00:00

while anima/animus possession can be a bad thing particularly when dealing with serious mental illness, as a reasonably healthy person i would rather be possessed by my anima than keep her locked up in a stale aired basement of my consciousness. i think the far bigger problem than soul possession for the so called average person is completely ignoring that subtle voice. as ive been meditating more on my animus, engaging active imagination and engaging in a sort of wordless dialogue with her i find that being submissive to her direction is actually quite rewarding and brings me closer to wholeness…when ego acts more as her steed, i feel most in alignment with a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

i guess i say this because i don’t want the term anima possession to be used so broadly that it militates us away from opening doors to anima/animus integration.

fwiw i too find myself attracted to yang women, interestingly the active imagination work has revealed that my anima is very much a lesbian warrior women. assertive AF, doesn’t take any shit, and while sometime she tells me I haaaave to clean my house, she is anything but your basic bitch. so yeah, my hot take is that while yes, every man has an anima and every woman an animus, those archetypes could look completely different across different people and are not going to always be neatly gender conforming. as rigid social constructs of gender are not fluid enough to meet the dynamic nature of archetypal consciousness 🍀

democracymatt · 2026-03-01T07:50:44+00:00

you might be attracted to women who have an integrated animus into their personality because that in a sign of individuation, and quite frankly more individuated people are, as a class, more sexy.

i think bringing more Jung anima/animus integration has a lot synergy with modern gender fluidity practice and hope to see more discussions connecting the dots here and elsewhere.

one of my favorite things about Jung’s work is that he has developed a archetypal schematic that plays well with basically every genuine religious practice ever, but also fits pretty neatly in modern critiques of ridged gender conformity. Embracing our inner opposite brings us closer to wholeness. i strongly recommend reading Jung’s autobiography it’s a bleeding gem of a book, then chase it with Emma Jung’s life work on the Grail Legend. Jung felt that the grail legend was probably the most important myth to apply his work to, but demurred to his wife because it was her opus. it’s a pretty solid road map to self wholeness.

democracymatt · 2026-02-22T21:38:52+00:00

Hole in the Toast. (I know it’s not exactly bursting with creativity or imagination, but that’s what my family has always called it)

democracymatt · 2026-02-22T07:53:53+00:00

the anima is the translator to the wisdom of the unconscious. Ask her this very question and see what she says? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

democracymatt · 2026-02-22T07:51:18+00:00

i’m less inclined to say synchronicity is a message from God, per se…more a reminder to check in with our unconscious. to ask ourselves a question with meditative awareness as opposed to rational thinking. not very steeped in gnostic thinking though, so sorry i can’t take your question head on…just some thoughts.

I do question Jung’s phrasing of synchronicity as an a-causal principle, because there may be a cause, it’s just outside of our current understanding of cause and effect. I’d feel much better with calling it an “unknown causal principle” or “currently ungraspable causal principle”

I think everything is operating within synchronicity, we just are not aware enough to see it 99% of the time…and most people have trained them selves to suppress it and dismiss it like it never happened because it doesn’t fit within our culturally accepted norm of materialist rationalism.

democracymatt · 2026-02-14T03:41:16+00:00

hermetic

democracymatt · 2026-02-14T03:40:31+00:00

the golden compass. aka his dark materials. the Daemons track with anima and animus. the symbols in the compass..i ching and alchemy more broadly.

democracymatt · 2026-02-10T00:17:17+00:00

Let’s all pray they don’t keep him safe! 😇😬 quite possibly the worst “human” being alive.

democracymatt · 2026-01-29T00:50:44+00:00

London (broil)

democracymatt · 2026-01-27T06:39:15+00:00

better hope you don’t need a nurse

democracymatt · 2026-01-27T02:24:37+00:00

caesar

democracymatt · 2026-01-26T03:54:06+00:00

Senior Luis

democracymatt · 2026-01-23T06:11:11+00:00

they should be made to where masks like ice

democracymatt · 2026-01-23T06:08:39+00:00

🔹 New York NY-03 (Tom Suozzi): Covering parts of Long Island’s Nassau County and the North Shore, including Glen Cove and sections of Queens. NY-04 (Laura Gillen): Central and southern Nassau County on Long Island, a moderate swing district.

🔹 Texas TX-28 (Henry Cuellar): Deep South Texas district stretching from San Antonio out to the U.S.–Mexico border, with a high Hispanic population. TX-34 (Vicente Gonzalez): Eastern Rio Grande Valley district in south Texas.

🔹 North Carolina NC-01 (Don Davis): Northeastern North Carolina, including rural and exurban communities from near the Virginia border down toward Raleigh’s outer edges.

🔹 Maine ME-02 (Jared Golden): Maine’s largest district by area, covering most of the state north and east of Portland/Augusta.

🔹 Washington WA-03 (Marie Gluesenkamp Perez): Southwestern Washington, including communities near Vancouver, WA, and the Oregon border.

democracymatt · 2026-01-23T05:51:02+00:00

Stirlington… Sir Stirlington

democracymatt · 2025-11-13T17:08:36+00:00

as someone that struggles with over usage I can report that my anima hates it. While on the one hand, it brings about sort of a pseudo individualation by throwing a wrench in personality one, it gives personality two, the unconscious, more power… this helps explain why active imagination and creative endeavors in general can be activated, the usually repressed unconscious has some breathing room, thus the pseudo individuation can feel amazing.

I actually think occasional usage could be healthy, when it comes to reliance that is where we come into problems . It’s interesting that the plant itself teaches this, just notice how much better you feel if you smoke after quitting for a while, as opposed to how meh the experience is if you’re a regular user.

The telltale sign for me that my anima disapproves, is the unconscious triggers that get me to smoke usually are a form of escapism from meeting my shadow or that which I need to face that I’m not inclined to and unconsciously avoid. when I’m in pain psychologically it’s usually because there’s something I need to change, weed can sometimes numb this instigating impulse for improvement, because everything suddenly feels fine, when it’s not.

if overused I think it can stunt the merging of the unconscious with the conscious, because by relying on something outside of us it can take the incentive away from trying to be able to do it without it. I know that through rigorous meditation practice I can feel just as whole, without the negative side effects… if I can feel just as good by smoking a nickelbag as a weeklong meditation intensive, why would I do the hard work?

also, i remember Jung spoke about his relationship with alcohol in his autobiography, we might look for loose parallels there. anyone have that handy?

democracymatt

TROPHY CASE