Ary Scheffer (1795–1858)
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Women may appear strange to those who do not know them. Just as with men, women like to socialise, some do this with a greater sense of urgency than others. For instance they like to take many photos of themselves and post them on social media. Others prefer solitude, they are quiet and reserved.
In much the same way, the Soul or Anima will be confusing or be unrelatable to those who are unfamiliar with stillness. In an article from a few years ago, Cologero highlights the aim of meditation which is to “bring the I consciousness into the lower parts of being … [where] one will find other beings, i.e., different “I’s” or different personalities, each claiming to be the true I.” Discovering more about oneself can be exciting, as can finding out more about women, it depends on what path you want to take.
Let us consider a suggestion and a warning from a holy man of God:
A most excellent means of keeping ourselves pure, is to lay open all our thoughts, as soon as possible, to our confessor with the greatest sincerity, and keep nothing hidden in ourselves.
When sensual thoughts come into the mind, we ought immediately to make use of our minds, and fix them instantaneously upon something or other, no matter what.
St. Philip Neri
Saint Philip is here talking about the passions and their unnerving ability to lead us down paths we do not wish to go down. Through meditation we can unify the Self with the Soul or Anima so that our passions do not control us. By revealing our thoughts, even if it is painful to do so, we can gain knowledge of the Self. This is essentially what C. J. Jung describes in his Two Essays on Analytical Psychology.*
The Diurnal and the Nocturnal
Because history—as, moreover, the life of the individual —is “worked” by day and by night. It has a diurnal aspect and a nocturnal aspect. The former is exoteric, whilst the latter is esoteric. The silence and obscurity of the night is always full of events in preparation — and all that which is unconscious or superconscious in the human being belongs to the domain of “night”. This is the magical side of history, the side of magical deeds and works acting behind the facade of history “by day”.
Valentin Tomberg, Letter V, The Pope
As history repeats itself so do our dreams. I have had some interesting dreams recently. I will detail them as events that actually happened. Meeting someone new is a unique opportunity to reflect on oneself, reflecting on dreams can also be fruitful. As Tomberg affirms, “The silence and obscurity of the night is always full of events in preparation.” I wrote about my dreams before; I found the process to be helpful, reflective and enjoyable.
In the first dream I distinctly remember a sensation of touch as if the woman before me, who was standing in the room, was touching my arm. She was naked, smiling, and somewhat familiar – perhaps it was a memory or a film I had watched – Ex Machina comes to mind.
Then, last night, I again met someone who I thought I had met before. It is probably just my subconscious using images from my day to day life. However the way in which I met them was curious. I was in a beautiful house with multiple rooms. Each room was lavishly fitted and appointed. I was left to my own devices to explore, though meeting “the parents” was somewhat awkward.
There was a definite sense that the mansion was mine for the taking, being linked as it were, to the woman in the dream. This then could represent the extent of my existence and the woman as a potential aspect of my soul. Compounding this was the inclusion of another woman who appeared later, different from the first, but similarly familiar. While intimate with the first the second was more intimate, not much later, I woke up.
So there are three women, each distinct, from the first to the last becoming progressively more intimate; from a touch, to kisses, to embracing. When considering my life so far it seems to me that the physically pales in comparison to the spiritual and emotional effects of union with a woman, as strange as that might seem to some readers.
Some questions arise:
How does one go from a path of courtly love, in which the Knight and his Lady remain apart, often not meeting again, to the Catholic position on marriage, of which the principle goal is to get one’s spouse to Heaven?
What is meant by the choice between Good and Evil in the Soul? Eve came from Adam, and through her obedience to the Serpent rather than God turned Adam from God to the Earth. How does one undo that wrong and return to God?
A good place to start – for meditative insight – would be with Dante’s Comedia, where the Blessed Virgin Mary is exalted as the new Eve, where we find Beatrice and Saint Lucy, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux too. Furthermore, his initiation into the Fedeli d’Amore, and the fruits thereof cannot be left untouched. Fortuitously a Dante reading group has just started…
*The ultimate synthesis – speaking from the male point of view – is the integration of the Anima archetype, The archetypes are inborn in the psychic makeup, so the Anima is the image of the woman in the man. Prior to conscious awareness of the Anima, it is a dark force, erupting into awareness as unexplained moods and other ways.
What Matters Most 