International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Volume 20 | Issue 1 Article 5

1-1-2001 Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi A Transpersonal Anthropologist Looks at the Anima Charles D. Laughlin Carleton University

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Recommended Citation Laughlin, C. D. (2001). Laughlin, C. D. (2001). Mandalas, nixies, goddesses, and succubi: A transpersonal anthropologist looks at the anima. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 20(1), 33–52.. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 20 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2001.20.1.33

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Charles D. Laughlin Carleton University Ottawa, Omario, Canada and International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL)

Men past their midlives may become involved in a dialogue with their own unconscious. This dialogue often takes the form of female and female-related imagery and feelings that represent hidden mental processes in the self. C. G. Jung called the producer of these images and feelings the anima (or the animus in women), the harbinger of the contrasexual aspects of our being. We often come to know the anima by becoming aware of the qualities we project upon our contrasexual Other. The author, a transpersonal anthropologist, explores his own forty years of encounters with his anima, beginning with spontaneous and ecstatic "mandala experiences," and proceeding through decades of meditation and study in the traditions of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, the Western mysteries, and Navajo religion. He argues that engagement with the anima is a hermeneutic process, and that traditional societies often have an intact, mystical cycle of meaning within which such experiences make sense. Euroamerican contemplatives, however, are frequently in the position of having to create their own cycle of meaning, because their enculturation does not inform their personal anima expetiences. The role of culture in mediating anima/us related interpretations is discussed, and a model is presented that may help guide practitioners to a better understanding of how their psyches work, relative to both their conscious­ unconscious and their personal and cultural conditioning. The author concludes with an argument in favor of a closer integration of transpersonal psychology and transpersonal anthropology.

Not all the contents of the anima and animus mandala in a metaphoric sense, but quite are projected ... Many of them appear literally. I came out of sleep and into waking spontaneously in dreams and so on, and many awareness in a state of bliss and looking at my more can be made conscious through active imagination. In this way we find that room filtered through the most exquisitely thoughts, feelings, and affects are alive in us complex and colorful mandala. It was a living which we would never have believed possible. thing and pulsed in synchrony with the rhythm of Naturally, possibilities ofthis sort seem utterly bliss energies I felt coursing through my body. fantastic to anyone who has not experienced The experience lasted for only a few minutes and them himself, for a normal person "knows then subsided. The mandala image faded as the what he thinks." Such a childish attitude on the part of the "normal person" is simply the bliss energies faded. It is hard to describe the rule, so that no one without experience in this complexity of the image, for no matter how field can be expected to understand the real proficient an artist I might have been, there is no nature of anima and animus. way I could ever have rendered the image -Jung, Aion (1951/1959, p. 19) accurately on paper. It was made up of hundreds of thousands of fine, radiant colored lines, like a T ALL BEGAN nearly forty years ago when I multicolored, pulsing doily or circular lacework awoke early one morning staring at the made of pure energy hanging in front of my eyes. I world through a mandala. I don't mean The ambient light in my bedroom was dim, but I

The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, Vol. 20, 33-52 33 © 200 I by Panigada Press could discern the normal objects in the room virtual cultural universal. The appearance of the through the gauzelike filter of the mandala. mandala motif in religious and nonreligious This experience scared roe. In fact I became symbolism is very widespread among the world's furious with a friend with whom I had had coffee societies. It is present in the iconography of the night before, thinking that she had spiked roy Buddhist sects, Australian aborigines, and drink with some kind of drug. That was before I various Plains Indian groups, as well as Western myself had explored psychoactive substances, Christianity, to mention but a few examples. and I was very naive about such things. Of course roy friend had not inflicted any drugs on roe, nor Jung and the Mandala was she the kind of person who would have done UNG WAS, of course, fascinated by the mandala. such a thing. As it turned out, this was the first of But I was unaware of Jung or of his interest many such mandala experiences that I was to uring those early years of spontaneous have over the years, and I quite naturally became l transpersonal episodes and later drug-induced very curious about their phenomenology. The explorations.1 My first encounter with Jung and experiences in those early days were always his interest in mandala symbolism was profound spontaneous, and I had no notion that I could and significant. A decade after my own first willfully produce them. They were essentially mandala experience, I was browsing in a bookstore hypnopompic images and they all shared a and found a copy of Jung's Mandala Symbolism common structure: (1959/1972). As I leafed through the plates, I was 1. The Visual Aspect. An intense visual struck by the remarkable similarity between four experience consisting of an intricate pattern of of those images and my own mandala experiences. bright colored, infinitesimal lines-the total So I bought the book, and only later did I discover configuration corresponding to a classical in an editorial footnote that the four plates I had mandala (i.e., a pattern that manifests a definite center, is symmetrical about that identified were the very four, and the only four, center, and is circular while at the same time that Jung himself painted from his own dream "quaternary"; see Argiielles and ArgiielleR, recall. 2 This remarkable correspondence naturally 1972). The pattern is so intense that it may be led me to study closely all of Jung's writings perceived for a few minutes or longer after pertaining to the mandala. awakening, with the eyes open or closed, even Inanuroberofplaces, Jung(e.g., 1964) points to in a lighted environment. the scientific significance of the mandala motif in 2. The Affective Aspect. An intense and active dreams and religious symbolism around the state of euphoria not associated with the world. Jung described the phenomenon as follows: ingestion of drugs. This affective state corresponds in intensity and decay rate with The Sanskrit word mandala means "circle" in the visual aspect and is a similar state to that the ordinary sense of the word. In the sphere experienced in deep meditation or trance. of religious practices and in psychology it denotes circular images, which are drawn, Over the years I have spoken with a few people painted, modeled, or danced. Plastic structures who have had similar experiences of mandalas in of this kind are to be found, for instance, in their waking consciousness-usually during Tibetan Buddhism, and as dance figures these circular patterns occur also in Dervish meditation sessions-and many more people who monasteries. As psychological phenomena recall mandala motifs arising in their dreams. they appear spontaneously in dreams, in The direct experience of spontaneous, eidetic certain states of conflict, and in cases of mandala imagery while people are awake, schizophrenia. Very frequently they contain a however, appears to be a fairly rare event. I am quaternity or a multiple offour, in the form of still not clear as to whether or not the mandala a cross, a star, a square, an octagon, etc. In experience occurs in all persons during their alchemy we encounter this motifin the form of quadratura circuli. (1959/1972, p. 3) dream life, or merely in a significant few. But that it is experienced by some people in all societies is Jung firmly believed in the existence of the quite likely, for the mandala motif in company universal or "collective" unconscious, as well as in with other images expressing the wholeness of the fundamental tendency of humans to reason the self is-as Jung (1951/1959) noted inAion-a by constructing binary oppositions, or antinomies.

34 The lnternational]ournal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, Vol. 20 Jung felt the mandala to be the key to human emergence began to take on a three-dimensional symbolism because it is a primal archetype. 3 As quality and became one of rushing down a long, such it often represents both the self and the geometrically intricate tunnel. Ifmy concentration unification or nexus of all possible oppositions was sufficiently intense, the tunnel experience (Jung1951/1959,p. 3l).Arnongothercontexts, the would open out into other kinds of visions, either mandala is encountered by the conscious ego in of bright lights, or of some scenario like a lucid that of dreaming. But one thing that impressed me dream. I was not asleep, however, and was very from the beginning is that, although Jung did much awake and aware. By the later 1970s, or encounter mandala motifs in his dreams and in his about a decade and a half after the first mandala automatic painting exercises, he apparently did experience, I had learned a lot about formal not encounter eidetic mandala imagery in the meditation. During one weekend retreat, while I waking state in either hypnagogic/hypnopompic was meditating upon my breath, the mandala states or contemplative visions. This difference in experience again arose.6 I experienced myself our respective experiences of the mandala turns flying down the usual tunnel with ever­ out to be crucial, for so far as I can tell, Jung never increasing bliss, and into a light that became fully appreciated the mandala as a type of anima brighter and brighter until brilliant white light imagery, or as a doorway to the anima. His pervaded my entire consciousness and the bliss interpretation of mandala images was limited to had increased to the point of almost unendurable an expression of the wholeness of the self ecstasy. When I slowly returned to the awareness archetype. of my tingling and twitching body and my surroundings, I found I was lying on the floor, Mandala As Anima curled up in the fetal position, ten feet from the chair I had been sitting in when the experience ET ME continue with my own mandala saga had begun. I retained no memory of how I had L and I will return to this point in a moment. In gotten there. working with these spontaneous mandala As it turned out, this was the first time that experiences, I learned that I could gain some the mandala experience had morphed into a measure of control over the experience by the birthing experience, an initiation as it were. It exercise of concentration upon the center of the became an exploration that was to unfold for image. The more intense and unbroken my some years afterwards, especially during concentration became, the longer I could hold the meditation retreats. These experiences brought image and the ecstatic affect that accompanied it. me back into contact with my birth and with the In effect, what I was learning to do was to prolong trauma associated with that event. For some the hypnopompic state by stabilizing what is years, I could not do breathwork without normally an evanescent warp of consciousness triggering birthing experiences, sometimes between the dream world and the waking world associated with mandala imagery.7 into a more enduring state of consciousness.4 I On top of this, during the latter 1970s and initially hit upon this technique unaided, but I early 1980s I was intensively doing the Tibetan later discovered that it is used to good effect in Tantric Buddhist foundation practices (ngon­ Tibetan dream yoga for the alteration of the dro), one of which is called the "mandala practice" hypnagogic/hypnopompic warps in order to retain ordkyil-'khor(Beyer, 1973, pp. 437ff;MacDonald, awareness during the dream phases. In this Cove, Laughlin & McManus, 1988). This fashion, I was able to stabilize the imagery and repetitive practice involves constructing a affect for up to thirty minutes or more at a time.5 mandala-like form out of rice atop a round, At some point in this development, the mirror-like surface and then wiping the surface intricate, lacy mandalas began to morph. At first clean. The practitioner concentrates on the they only became geometrically dynamic- much operation of assembling and disassembling the like the ever-changing image in a child's rice-form while repeating a chant that describes kaleidoscope-but with the difference that the the construction of the mandala-like mystical geometric imagery appeared to emerge from the cosmos surrounding the mythical Mount Sumeru. center of the mandala and flow outwards to the This operation is repeated, often for hours at a edges of the visual field. Later, this process of time, at least a hundred thousand times during

Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 35 the basic introductory work prior to advanced the ongoing stream of consciousness. The Tantric practice.8 warning here from the self may be to attend to It is not surprising that this practice deepened the stream of consciousness and position the awareness in the middle between the and elaborated my spontaneous experiences of demands and productions of binary mandalas, and mandala-associated birthing structures-for example, between ego and experiences (a type of anima experience), and shadow aspects. underscored the significance of the mandala as a "calling" as it were from the anima-the mandala 3. Dynamic, three-dimensional mandalas. In their dynamic and three-dimensional "tunnel­ taking on the characteristics of "the womb of like" form, mandalas may represent the form'' (Namgyal Rimpoche, 1981). At such times, recurring transformation and "re-birth" which our consciousness produces an experiential is required for the ego to become sufficiently surround with ourselves in the middle, which flexible to incorporate both shadow and anima may be considered an aspect of the Great Mother materials into its increasingly dynamic archetype. organization. This recurring process may express the alternating coniunctio and Parenthetically, it is precisely this kind of negrido phases of psychic growth that Jung experience that is used to support empirically the emphasized (Schwartz-Salant, 1998, Ch. 7). view of death and birth as depicted in the Tibetan Book of the Dead (or Bardo Thodol, Tib: bar-do' i­ Jung on the Anima thos-grol; see Fremantle & Chogyam Trungpa, 1975). The Tibetan term bardo refers to the space UNG'S DISCOVERY of the anima (Latin for or gap between things, between events. A bardo is "breath," "soul," "shade") in males and the a point of transition between one state and Janimus in females is one of the main another. With respect to the stream of distinguishing features of his view of consciousness, bardo is equivalent to our psychodynamics.10 The anima/us is a: biogenetic structural concept of "warp" between 9 ...natural archetype that satisfactorily sums "phases" or states of consciousness. With respect up all the statements of the unconscious, of to death, the bardo refers to the warp between the the primitive mind, of the history oflanguage end of this life and the beginning ofthe next life­ and religion. It is a "factor'' in the proper sense in other words, rebirth. And some of the ofthe word. Man cannot make [the anima/us]; phenomenology arising during the bardo is said on the contrary, it is always the a priori to involve whizzing down tunnels into light and element in his moods, reactions, impulses, and whatever else is spontaneous in psychic other lucid phenomena. life. It is something that lives of itself, that The mandala experience as I have described it makes us live; it is a life behind consciousness is a type of anima experience, or may morph into that cannot be completely integrated with it, anima-rel ated imagery. In terms of but from which, on the contrary, consciousness psychodynamics at least, mandala motifs may arises. For, in the last analysis, psychic life is constitute anima expressions which vary in their for the greater part an unconscious life that function and their interpretation according to surrounds consciousness on all sides-a notion that is sufficiently obvious when one their distinct geometry and dynamics. I would considers how much unconscious preparation suggest at least three types of spontaneous is needed, for instance, to register a sense­ mandala experiences, as well as their functions: impression. (Jung, 1940/1968a, p. 27) 1. Static, two-dimensional mandalas. In their The anima/us performs the bridge or mediator two-dimensional form without much morphing, mandalas may emphasize union or relations function between the ego and the collective among antinomous structures. They may unconscious (Jung, 1930-1934/1997, p.127; Steinberg constitute a "calling" from the self to greater 1993, p. 183}--that vast field ofarchetypal structures union, or a warning that the ego is off center in that we inherit by virtue of having human brains some significant way. (Jung, 1940/1968a, pp. 27-28; see also Laughlin, 11 2. Dynamic, two-dimensional mandalas. In 1996a). Jung noted that there are as many their more dynamic, kaleidoscopic, hut two­ archetypes as there are species-wide, typical dimensional form, mandalas may express the perceptions (1940/1968a, p. 48). Archetypes of the antinomies that arise and pass away within collective unconscious are in a certain sense

36 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, Vol. 20 indistinguishable from the instincts (195111959, same-sex shadow performs that filtering process p. 179), and it is from the archetypal structures with the unconscious, and that the anima/us that the more developed, differentiated and involves the direct apprehension ofthe unconscious mature structures of experience grow (Steinberg, by the ego-a relationship that may nonetheless be 1993, pp. 182-185). The archetypes are living distorted by shadow responses to contrasexual tissue, and whether or not they grow, they are content. Indeed, it was Jung's view that it is alive and will at every opportunity "do their through incorporating the shadow, or the personal thing," usually outside the bounds of our ego unconscious, that one comes into a more direct and consciousness. effective interaction with the anima/us. For this The anima/us is also one of the most reason, he argued that the anima/us should be controversial of Jung's notionsY This is due encountered within the context of actual human primarily to (1) the difficulty of operationalizing relationships in order for the contrasexual the term in the kind of crisp, inclusive-exclusive elements of the psyche to be integrated into form that science requires, and (2) the cultural consciousness (Jung, 195111959, p. 22). As we shall stereotypes evident in Jung's definition of male see, while this is the most common course of and female attributes. Jung never intended the integration of anima/us materials, especially for concepts to be other than phenomenological ones, individuals undergoing analysis, the enactment of 13 covering as they so usefully do the very fuzzy the syzygies in actual relationships is neither natural categories of our experiences of the necessary nor sufficient for individuation. Were collective unconscious: this not true, then Eastern paths like Tantric Buddhism would be ineffectual. The empirical reality summed up under the Unfortunately, most people never come to concept of the anima forms an extremely understand that many ofthe attributes they project dramatic content of the unconscious. It is upon their contrasexual opposites derive from possible to describe this content in rational, scientific language, but in this way one qualities of their own psyches that their entirely fails to express its living character. enculturation14 has caused to be alienated from Therefore, in describing the living processes of their consciousness. In blind ignorance of their own the psyche, I deliberately and consciously give psychodynamics, most people fail to perceive the preference to a dramatic, mythological way of many and varied ways in which they project thinking and speaking, because this is not themselves upon other people (Jung, 195111959, p. only more expressive but also more exact than 19; 1930-1934/1997, pp. 4-5). Nonetheless, an abstract scientific terminology, which is wont to toy with the notion that its theoretic experience teaches those with the eyes to see that formulations may one fine day be resolved into we frequently become ensnared by our own algebraic equations. (Jung, 1951/1959, p. 13) projected psychic materials: The anima/us cannot be pinned down to a crisp The Anima determines man's relationship to women, and in the encounter with a woman, theoretical formulation, for to attempt to do so, as man experiences and recognizes the essence of many "Jungian" systematists are wont to do, is to his own soul. Wherever he projects his soul rob the term of its essentially phenomenological upon a woman, a kind of magic identity is power. Indeed, natural categories oftranspersonal established. This expresses itself in the guise experiences are by their very nature fuzzy (see of overwhelming emotions, especially with the Laughlin, 1993 on this issue). As Jung (196111965) intense feeling of "falling-in-love." Thereby the Anima becomes fate-shaping. When one's notes in his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, own soul is projected, one feels unable to Reflections, the notion of anima/us arose as a separate oneself any longer from the object of consequence of his experience of his parents, the the projection. When one believes he has experiences of his patients, and especially in his found, at long last, one's complement, one does own internal process of individuation. Considering not want to lose this "other half." Thus the this rich symbolic material, Jung suspected at first Anima drives the young man towards the that the anima/us is in relation to the unconscious realization of his yearnings. (Brunner, 1963/ 1986, pp. xxi-xxii) as the persona is in relation to the external world of objects (Jung, 1928/1966, p. 304). But being open to We unconsciously yearn for unity with our self, his own experiences, he later came to see that the but because we are outer-oriented, we project the

Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 37 contrasexual aspects of our selves upon the Other suppressed in my quest for a male identity.16 But and then feel compelled to interact with the Other because that quest had drawn my ego way off in a manner Jung called participation mystique center from the self, the self began to call the ego (1930-1934/1997, pp. 6-7; after Lucien Levy­ back into its fold with imagery that hooked my Bruhl, 1923/1966), or the kind ofmagico-mystical attention and awareness- the first and foremost involvement in which we can become trapped call being the mandala experience. My path of when possessed by unconscious materials. Such individuation, as is perhaps the case with possession states are frequently highly charged everyone, has been idiosyncratic-a reflection of with psychic energy (i.e., libido; see Jung, 1912/ my own distinct life-course (Ulanov & Ulanov, 1956, Part 2, ch. 2) and the object of our obsession 1994, p. 19). In addition, my path has also numinous, bordering on the sacred. Because the reflected both cultural and genetic elements-my state of participation mystique is a special kind of life-long enculturation and the array of archetypal hyperintentionality (samadhi or "absorption­ structures I inherited as a human with a very state" in Buddhist psychology; see Laughlin, typical human nervous system. McManus & d'Aquili 1990, p. 118), the experience Much has been made of Jung's presumed is of at least a partial dissolution of ego boundaries ignorance of the fact that his experiences as a and a sense of more or less union with the Other. contemplative and as a healer were culturally loaded. But this view is largely the result of a Culture and the Anima superficial reading of Jung. In fact he was perfectly aware that the anima/us experiences of T rs quite possible for any of us to learn how our people from other cultures would be different and I own psyches work. To accomplish this, conditioned by their upbringing. Moreover, as the however, requires that one develop a archetypes themselves are never experienced contemplative turn of mind. Armed with directly, and are really structures, not contents, an contemplative skills (Laughlin, McManus & infinite variety of images and themes may be d'Aquili, 1990, ch. 11), it is possible to understand mediated by the anima/us, depending upon the mechanisms of consciousness by studying personal and culLural facLors (see Ulanov & one's own mental acts-even as they are Ulanov, 1994, pp. 16-18 for a good discussion of operating upon objects and events in the world. this issue)P Keep in mind that Jung was as avid a And sooner or later this process of internal study reader of the ethnography of his day as was his brings us into contact with our anima/us. As I teacher, Freud, before him. Indeed, his appreciation mentioned above, Jung suggested the term of cross-cultural variation was at the root of his anima/us to cover the experiences we all have of suspicion that Eastern yogic and spiritual the contrasexual archetypes, the material practices were inappropriate for Euroamericans. appropriate to the opposite sex that we inherit as As for myself, because my masculine ego-ideal, humans and suppress during our development.15 as well as the field of underdeveloped archetypes For me, as for other males, this relationship with comprising my unconscious, were heavily impacted the unconscious is often mediated by feminine by my upbringing, it is clear that just what imagery, as well as by reflection upon my constellation of archetypes comprises the anima relationships with real women. That is, aspects of for me will vary from that of other males in my my unconscious self are frequently represented society, and is demonstrably influenced heavily by by female motifs in dreams, fantasies, episodes of culture. Culture clearly influences the extent to active imagination, spontaneous visions (Skt: which a male identifies with the variety of nimitta) during meditation, and in projections functions of the psyche-with emotion, with upon actual females with whom I am in intuition, and with other attributes of self. Thus relationship (Meier, 1995, p. 103). Those Eros the path of self-discovery for each of us is as much qualities that in the course of my own an encounter with our cultural background and enculturation were considered female- qualities personal development as it is with the deeper and like nurturance, emotion, sensitivity to nuances instinctual collective unconscious.18 As is sometimes of relationship, mood, softness, intuition and said in the Western mysteries, each knight must spiritual awareness-were for a long time enter the forest at the place darkest to him (or her).

38 The International journaL ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, ~L. 20 Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi will "do their thing," so to speak, in a very active way. But just because structures in the Since the beginning of time man, with his unconscious are living systems, compete for wholesome animal instinct, has been engaged trophic resources, and may eventually become in combat with his soul and its demonism. If entrained to conscious network, 19 this does not the soul were uniformly dark it would be a simple matter. Unfortunately this is not so, for mean that the archetypes themselves are the anima can appear also as an angel oflight, conscious. Rather, as Jung (1930-1934/1997) a psychopomp who points the way to the suggests: "It is as if you cut off a little finger and highest meaning. .. it continued to live quite independently; it would -Jung (1940/1968a, p. 29) then be a little fmger personality, it would be a he or a she, it would give itself a name and talk out HEN WE do enter that forest, we enter the of its own mind" (p. 1216). W domain of the Wild Mother (i.e., the The struggle of"I-ness" among the complexes chthonic unconscious, the thoroughly chaotic and is achieved through the competition of organized undifferentiated domain of Eros). We encounter societies of cells for entrainment to conscious both mythical beasts and domesticated animals, network- in this respect I come down heavily on demons of every sort and description, and Jung's side rather than James Hillman's more eventually the positive and negative aspects of metaphysical views (Hillman, 1989, p. 31; the contrasexual anima/us. As we emerge from Collins, 1994, p. 13). As far as I can tell, the each encounter, we are impressed archetypes are not conscious in with the living reality of the , the commonsense way we all archetypes-entities in the mean by the term- a term depths of the psyche that seem defined primarily by the qualities not only to be alive and enduring, of awareness and intentionality but also marked by something that we experience in ourselves approaching consciousness. every day. But when the Jung's writings appear at archetypes engage consciousness times to be ambiguous with by way of imagery, they do respect to whether or not the become involved to some extent archetypes are actually conscious, in consciousness, and in a and in particular, how conscious certain sense ''become conscious." the anima/us may be. He speaks As Jung (1928/1966) repeatedly at times as though the anima emphasized, however, the only attains consciousness by archetypes are autonomous, and interaction and integration with cannot be known directly, but the ego (e.g., Jung, 1951/1959, only by way of their sensory pp. 24-25), and at other times he productions. So causation from speaks of the anima as the ego's consciousness back to the psychopomp in its exploration of archetypes (so to speak) is the unconscious, and as having a personality of constrained by the fact of the unconscious nature its own (e.g., Jung, 1930-1934/1997, pp. 1215- of archetypal processing (p. 97). The unconscious, 1216). However, this ambiguity is only apparently and especially the collective unconscious, is so. A closer reading of Jung, accompanied by the largely free from the intentionality of requisite direct experience, may lead to a better consciousness. Yet, at the same time, the process understanding of the subtle distinction between of assimilation of archetypal materials by the ego being conscious of something in the normal ego does exercise a certain limiting effect upon sense, and the active, living presence and subsequent transformations produced by the intention of non-ego mediated archetypes. The archetypes, and the role of the ego in generating archetypes do compete for trophic resources, for distinctions and discriminations among after all they are living cells within the central archetypal elements arising in consciousness is nervous system (see Laughlin, 1996a). Being fundamental to the effect ofthe archetypes on our organizations of millions of cells, the archetypes experience.

Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 39 The most common medium for encountering in her youth. She is a creature of the oceanic the anima/us is in our most intimate contrasexual depths, inarticulate and seductive in her ways, relationships, beginning of course with our cross­ emotionally chaotic and often destructive; and if sex parent (Ulanov & Ulanov, 1994; Schwartz­ my gaze were to become trapped by her, I would be Salant, 1998). There is fascinating evidence from led into a tumultuous and chaotic roller coaster pre- and perinatal psychology that we are born as ride which would inevitably end in torment and social beings, cognizing and participating in social self-denigration-a siren of monumental events, and knowing our mothers. Not only is the proportions in my phenomenology, indeed. world of physical objects archetypally "already But also my anima will project another set of there" to neonatal perception at, or before birth, so attributions upon a taller, fairer, more slender too is the world of socially significant objects and and more intelligent woman-a female Other of interactions. These are objects that include speech radiance and loving countenance who may act as sounds or vocal vibrations, interactive gestures, both nurturing lover, fellow spiritual companion, emotional expressions and faces, and especially and psychopomp. The anima qualities that I the face, gestures, feelings, smell, physical touch, "recognize" in the Other will be somewhat breasts and speech of the mother (Field, 1985; different, depending upon the archetypal category Murray & Trevarthen, 1985; Butterworth & to which the woman penetrates.21 And of course, Grover, 1988). In other words, we are born with no living person can live up to these projections certain nascent proclivities to project socially entirely, if at all- be they positive or negative. If relevant meaning upon significant others. one holds tenaciously to these projections and As I have argued elsewhere (Laughlin, 1990), attempts to ignore or explain away the the psychological attributes projected upon the anomalous qualities of the real person, then the feminine are nonarbitrary, and are grounded in relationship, so long as it lasts, is doomed to our pre- and perinatal experiences of both the acted-out psychopathology and/or oblivion. woman as the world, and the mother or female When it comes to relationships with the caregiver as a powerful mediator between the opposite sex, we are caught upon the horns of the perinatal child and the world. Because of this proverbial dilemma-and the dilemma is wired heavy archetypal loading, followed by early into our neurophysiology. On the one hand we are experiential identification of the feminine with designed to track and model reality in a veridical Eros, the Logos faculties of the higher cortical way. This is important in the interests of functions that generally develop later than the adaptation. Psychotic hunters would not last long experiential-emotional faculties become invested in the jungle. On the other hand, we are propelled in the masculine. Of course the extent of by an inner urge to organic unity- to organize the opposition between feminine and masculine bits and pieces of our psyche into a coherent attributes in the adult will depend upon the whole. When we become engaged in tracking our personality, enculturation and age of the anima/us, we find out that the same person in the individual. Nonetheless, there exists a recognizable real world-our significant Other-is the object cross-cultural and nonarbitrary regularity to of the drive both for verity and for an anima/us gender projections. projection device (or APD). The same person The whole ofthe selfis never projected upon the becomes both a real object in the world, and a Other, nor can we rely solely upon tracking our mirror of our own unconscious processes. projections onto Others in the outer world to learn As I have mentioned already, much is made in the full breadth and depth of our anima/us the literature about real relationships being the manifestations (Jung, 195111959, p. 19; cf. principal locus for the anima/us work (e.g., Schwartz-Salant, 1998, Ch. 10). This is because Schwartz-Salant, 1998). While this is probably living people often draw projections they resemble true for most people who work within a Jungian in some manner relative to our anima/us imagery. frame, full engagement with the anima/us does But no one person can resemble all of our animal not require a real person, nor is a real us. In my case, my anima will generate one set of relationship sufficient for completing the work. attributions upon a small, dark, compact and In order to optimize our encounters with our moody woman who becomes for me a chthonic anima/us, we must learn to track our dream, nixie 20-a woman vaguely resembling my mother fantasy and other imagery directly-we must

40 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, Vol. 20 learn to quiet the mind and contemplate awareness ofthe visual image of a tunnel or birth spontaneous visions, and explore themes and canal. When corporeal awareness gradually scenarios in active imagination. In so doing we returned, I spent a couple of hours in complete may come to explore our anima materials freed tranquillity, either contemplating the essential from projection upon people, and in their natural attributes of mind, or in absorption upon this or settings-that is, within the internal field of our that symbol as it arose before the mind's eye. own "theater of mind." In this way we accumulate A number of elements of this experience are the data necessary to discern patterns in the significant to our discussion of pure anima visions: imagery, and thus begin to make cognitive 1. Perfection of the image. Contemplatives distinctions based upon the recurrent form of the come to understand that images freed from the imagery, the recurrent context of presentation, imposition of external perception tend to perfect and typical emotional and intuitive loading. themselves. From my point of view, the female form was utterly perfect. I felt that no living Coniunctio human being could ever be that beautiful. Or, in the case of a negative anima image, nothing in OR EXAMPLE, one of the earliest and most the world could be so utterly repulsive or terrible. profound experiences of psychic energy I have F In both Eastern and Western meditation ever had was during a weekend ''loving-kindness" training, an external object like a bowl ofwater or retreat in 1979. Part of the work we were assigned a flower or the painting of a deity or guru is was to imagine a rose in the heart region while repeating the famous mantra, Om Mani Padme frequently used to activate an image that is then internalized in the "mind's eye" and meditated Hum, associated with the Tibetan deity, Chenrezig 22 (Skt: Avalokitesvara). Numerous visual images upon as an eidetic image. Those who do this spontaneously arose during the retreat, including: work notice that the internalized eidetic image or a red sun emitting radiant rays of rose light; two "visualization" tends to perfect itself. It will lose rose planes, one above me and one below me, any flaws present in the external stimulus, and formed by conjoined bubbles; a bush sprouting will perfect the ideal geometry of relations in the innumerable red roses; blue tubes spewing rose form. The deity may become translucent and energy; and a long lake between mountain peaks even radiant as though backlit. In this manner with a golden mountain at the end of the lake. All one may learn that no object in the real world of these may be interpreted as Eros-related could ever completely match the perfection of the symbolism; that is, symbols expressing the inner archetypal imagery. As a matter of fact intensification of Eros energies in my body. there actually exist Tantric texts in the East At a certain point while I was in a state of deep describing the physical qualities to be looked for absorption and blissful peace, the image of a in finding the ideal lama consort. It is clear that beautiful blond female figure dressed in a red shift these instructions are for the purpose of finding a appeared walking away from me in my left visual lover who simulates the perfect dakini23 on the field. At first I intended to ignore her as I routinely inner plane as closely as possible. And with such did with all other distractions from the object ofmy an experience, one may learn that one's notions of meditation, but then I intuited that "she" was an gods and goddesses derive from the projections archetypal expression of my anima. So I sent her a onto our sensorium, and from our sensorium onto blast ofloving feeling visualized as a laser beam of the world, of the perfect productions of our rose light emanating from my heart. As the laser unconscious. beam of light connected with the image, both the 2. Intense affective charge. Pure anima images image of the woman and my bodily self-awareness may be entrained to intense libidinous energies. instantly exploded into a rapidly expanding Indeed, the affective charge may become so sphere of rose energy. Within a split second, my intense as to constitute a warp driving the consciousness was in a state of intense absorption consciousness into an altered state-perhaps a upon boundless space filled with pulsing, hyperintentional state of absorption. This shimmering rose particles and ecstatic bliss. pairing of the anima image and intense affect There then followed the eruption of a soundless may confirm and animate our interpretation of scream and another energy explosion from the the feminine principle. In the East, this energetic depths of my being that culminated in the principle is associated with images ofthe dakinis,

Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 41 young naked females dancing in the flames of draped over rocks as far as the eye could see, transformation. The image of the blond woman in involved in every conceivable posture of sexual the red shift was my very Western vision of the abandon. Such visions were accompanied by dakini-perhaps a Western version of Dorje intense sexual arousal that would at times Pagmo (Skt: Vajravarahi), a young female figure, persist for hours. approximately16 years old, who is paired (yab­ It was during this period that I learned of the yum) with the male deity Korlo Demchog (Skt: unitary source of psychic energy. I hit upon this Chakrasamvara)- forming a typical syzygistic fact quite by accident, for becoming bored with all image in the Tibetan Tantric system. Mter the the lascivious imagery and sexual arousal, I tried peak experience, I was able to meditate with great willing those energies to rise up the central concentration and energy for a considerable channel, rather than out via the genitals. And it number of hours. worked! Playing with this experience, I discovered 3. Coniunctio. With the amount of love that that there exists something like a psychological had been generated doing the "loving-kindness" "tap" by which one can willfully shunt psychic penetration work, there transpired the explosive energy outward as sexual arousal, or upward into dissolution of both ego consciousness and the heart as pure loving-kindness (Skt: metta; see alienation from the Other, thus producing, for a Laughlin, 1985), and further upward into the few moments at least, a coniunctio oppositorum "third eye" region of the head, thus leading to (Jung, 1951/1959, p. 31; 1940/1968a, pp. 175-177), intense clarity and penetrating awareness (see the mystical resolution of the tension of syzygistic Laughlin, 1994a on kundalini and Tibetan dumo duality. Loving or positive, blissful psychic energy [or tummo] practice). There is an experience in is the universal solvent which, when it fills the which one may flip back and forth between crucible containing the opposites, dissolves the outward and upward shunting, and during this boundaries and creates union. I suspect that the flipping back and forth, the imagery changes in closest most people come to this experience is appropriate accord. If for example one is focused during orgasm, a relatively brief state which is upon a radiant female deity as the object of mediatP.d hy the simultaneous discharge of hath meditation, the psychic energy directed from the the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous heart may lead to ecstatic union, whereas if the systems. The meditative coniunctio experience energy is directed outwards through the genitals, is probably energized in a similar fashion, but the imagery may shift to coitus. A central point to without the involvement of the sexual organs. I make here is, so far as my phenomenology can should note that the coniunctio experience was tell, as goes the structure of psychic energy (or many times as intense as any orgasm I have ever libido), so goes the imagery. The image and the experienced, thus adding to the sense of the affect appear to be two aspects of the same 24 sacredness and numinosity ofthejoining. underlying structure. With respect to the shadow, and its impact upon Girls, Girls, and Not a Drop to Drink! experiencing the anima and its productions, one HIS EXPERIENCE proved to be a profound one for must keep in mind that we are dealing with the T my development, but was by no means a interplay between two levels in the development of solitary event. In fact many hundreds of images the brain. One ofthese is the conditioned "personal" have emerged out of the mist in dreams and unconscious and the other is the deeper, more visions that have provided information about the primordial and relatively unconditioned "collective" breadth, depth, and various attributes of the unconscious. The latter, in my view, is the nascent, anima. Often these images reflected the ego­ genetically inherited organization25 of the human shadow ambiguities relative to the feminine. nervous system, while the former are the more There was one phase during which, in meditation developed, antinomous adaptations that have retreats, many of my meditative visions and emerged during enculturation and ego-identity dreams were replete with more than the usual formation of the individual. In my case, there has sexual imagery. For example, sometimes the existed a strong attraction toward, complemented entire visual field would be taken up by a by a fear of and aversion to, the female Other. This landscape of rocks and boulders, with hundreds ambiguity was laid down in my infancy, and was of naked and lascivious male and female figures acted out in the world for years by a neurotic

42 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, Vol. 20 alternating attraction and aversion to the same to the shadow very much as the shadow stands in relation to ego-consciousness. The main woman. affective emphasis seems to lie on the latter; In the experience of pure anima imagery, the at any rate it [the ego] is able, by means of a duality expressed itself at times as female figures considerable expenditure of energy, to repress that would morph from sexually attractive forms the shadow, at least temporarily. But iffor any into repulsive, fearsome forms, and vice versa. For reason the unconscious gains the upper hand, example, during one retreat I had a vision in which then the valency of the shadow and ofthe other I was sitting behind a picket fence looking out at a figures increases proportionately, so the scale vast and dismal landscape. In the distance a of values is reversed. (p. 28; emphasis added) female figure appeared-a manikin really-with a Of course in meditation work, the unconscious naked lithe body which shone as though she were may well gain the upper hand, at least for a while, covered in chrome. As she came nearer, she smiled for the deepening tranquillity that develops in seductively and reached out and opened a gate in mature contemplation, as it were, pulls the energy the fence. As she passed through the gate she rug out from under the repressions. Arising anima morphed into a dark, frightening figure with figures may be greeted by ambiguous feelings and leathern wings and demonic countenance, and conflicting attitudes, depending of course on the then took flight and passed over my head. distinct pattern of enculturation and personal The affect during this episode was revealing development of the individual psyche-that is, and typical of many of my encounters with anima depending upon the ego-shadow configuration and figures. The affect was ambivalent-of se~ual its limbic and cognitive-perceptual associations. attraction or interest on the one hand and amaety Anima possession can no doubt be dangerous to on the other, the ego/persona associating itself the stability of an individual's daily adaptation. But with the positive attraction to the feminine, while possession does have its lighter side. The funniest the shadow was in fear of engulfment and encounter with anima possession I ever experienced possession by the Terrible Mother. To the occurred during a lengthy retreat in Scotland. shadow, woman takes on the aspect of the During that retreat I was working on the 8 u.ccuhus,26 one of "Kali's minions." This episode symbolism of the Tibetan Tantric deity Demchog shows that the anima may be experienced both (in Tibetan Buddhist terms, the yab ). Demchog's positively and negatively, as both good and evil, consort is Do:rje Pagmo (tbeyum), the young naked as radiant light and order, or darkness and all­ female figure mentioned above. The two are engulfing chaos, depending upon the filter of depicted in the text and in pictures as dancing in affect and attitude intervening between flames while in sexual union-that is, in the so­ consciousness and the archetypes (Jung, 1940/ calledyab-yum posture. One of the techniques used 1968a, pp. 28-36). Of course the normal state of in this practice is to imagine oneself alternately as consciousness of one encountering the anima is the male deity embracing the female, then as the primarily that of ego involvement with imagery female deity embracing the male. Naturally it was while the various shadow elements are repressed. far easier for me to identify with Demchog than Hence, most of us are conscious primarily of with Do:rje Pagmo, so I spent a lot oftime working positive affect relative to contrasexual Others on being a young, vivacious, red-skinned female. upon whom we project our anima. Our shadow While identifying with the yum, I would take on a attributions and affect remain in the subconscious certain submissive relationship27 to the yab, and and act out their values and intents in devious would imagine quite successfully being entered by ways, including projection upon people o~n "his" phallus. Meanwhile, during this retreat I was more distant from us than loved ones. But m wearing the long flowing red robes of the Tibetan meditation states the shadow may become far monk, and I would daily take long walks out on the more conscious and be capable of penetrating into moor where all I ever saw were herds ofsheep in the the conscious network such that one is aware of distance and the occasional shepherd. There came a both complexes simultaneously. As Jung (19511 point in these meditations when the female image 1959) put it: penetrated deeply into my unconscious and I began The relative autonomy of the anima- and to act out the part, and on several occasions found animus-figures expresses itself in these myself dancing lightly across the moor singing qualities. In order of affective rank they stand tunes like "I'm a girl! I'm a girl!" at the top of my Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 43 lungs. Part ofmy observing mind was fascinated by hindu standing between the red and blue these transformations, while another part drew spheres. amusing associations with Julie Andrews in the 2. Bindus may represent the anima. The movie, The Sound of Music. interaction of the hindus represents to some extent the general state of consciousness at the Simplification of the Anima Images moment, even during more ordinary states, and in particular the interaction between the THERLESS entertaining, but no less informative watcher, the shadow and the female anima. The 0 things were learned during this retreat, vastness of the self often crops up as a red mist among them being the discovery ofthe inexorable surrounding the dynamic yah and yum hindus, simplification of the core symbolism involved in the red sphere representing the anima-bridge Tantric meditations. Those who have done this between the ego identified with Logos and the kind of work will know that eventually the deities vastness of the unconscious. "come alive" in the sensorium, and instead of 3. Simplification increases symbolic universality. one struggling to hold an eidetic image, the As symbols become naturally simplified, they meditation becomes one of watching the eidetic also become more universal. Symbols like figures "do their thing" in the mind's eye. 28 Much Demchog and Dorje Palmo, as with Jesus or with of the behavior of these yab-yum images was the Navajo's beloved Changing Woman, are dancing. But how the yah and yum interacted heavily loaded with cultural attributes. But as with each other within the dance began to reflect they simplify before the mind's eye, they take on the state of my consciousness at that moment increasingly universal forms-forms like flowing relative to watcher and unconscious. Not only water, colored mist, spheres, lightning bolts, that, but within a few days, the Demchog-Dorje rocks, and so on. This includes the naked human Pagmo humanoid figures had transformed into two simple bindus,29 or bubbles, colored form as well. respectively blue and red. The dance between the red and blue bindu-ized yab-yums became the Anima and the Cycle of Meaning dance between my male and female self, and Thus the anima and life itself are meaningless when the state of consciousness was one of in so far as they offer no interpretation. Yet they opposition between the male and female elements have a nature that can be interpreted, for in all of my consciousness, the hindus would remain chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret distinct and relate to each other by differential size order, in all caprice a fixed law, for everything and complementary activity. But when my that works is grounded on its opposite. It takes consciousness was experiencing ecstatic union, man's discriminating understanding, which the two hindus would become part of a larger breaks everything down· into antinomial judgements, to recognize this. symbol, with the blue male hindu in a red field -Jung (1940/1968a, p. 66) and the red female hindu in a blue field, and the two fields swirling around and around, OMING TO terms with one's anima is a intertwining with each other. Thus it was that I Chermeneutic process (Jung, 1940/1968a, pp. learned firsthand the phenomenological origins 32-41). Meanings do not adhere in the contents of of the Taoist yin-yang symbol. the unconscious, but are attributed by conscious I also learned that: reflection to contents. Yet there is an ordered­ 1. Bindus may become permanent fixtures. Once one might even say lawful- regularity to these the deities had morphed into hindus, they became contents. It is the task ofthe engaged ego to apply a permanent fixture in my consciousness. To this meaning that as closely as possible approximates day, over fifteen years later, ifi close my eyes and the hidden order expressed by the anima-and to concentrate, the two hindus are there in the do so in a dynamic, growing and nonideological mind's eye. Moreover, when I am intensely manner. For, as I have said, the anima is not the watching the male and female aspects of unconscious itself, but only the expression of consciousness, the hindu representation will processes forever hidden from our sight. As a frequently resolve into the yah and yum hindus northward-flying wedge of geese is the harbinger with a smaller, more intense and golden colored of spring, so too is anima imagery the harbinger of

44 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, 1M. 20 processes in the self. The s~ght of a flight ~f geese ~s mystical worldview, and had I undergone many onlY a harbinger to the mrnd that associates this of these experiences, I likely would have phenomenon with a much-welcomed change of interpreted them within the local cosmological seasons. In other words, the phenomenon is context-a cultural process we have called the interpreted as a sign, and as it happens is cycle of meaning. 31 naturally associated with seasonal changes. The cosmology, which people mainly carry Just so, we learn to interpret our own anima around in their heads, is imagined and expressed imagery in a way that both accurately reflects the by way of their culture's stock of symbolic material underlying processes of the psyche, and builds a in such a way that people are able to participate shared repository of meaningful imagery by intimately in their version of a symbolically means of which the conscious and unconscious pregnant mythic reality.32 As Alfonso Ortiz (1972, parts of the mind-brain may communicate with p. 135) noted, the associations, principles and each other. It is as though there is room for only assumptions upon which a traditional cosmology one library of symbols within memory, a are founded are rarely, if ever, created anew by repertoire of images that both the conscious and individuals. Rather, most people accept and unconscious parts of the psyche may use to participate in accordance with the worldview they communicate. The problem is that the grammar inherit from their culture. This participation of the communication differs drastically between results in real life experiences that are in turn the two, and it is the task of the conscious mind to interpreted in terms of the cosmology, thus learn to read the unfamiliar rules of the completing a negative feedback loop33 which unconscious, for the unconscious cannot and will instantiates the cosmology in individual not adapt to the grammar of the higher cortical experiences and which also confirms the truth of functions of the brain. In time, there develops a the people's system of knowledge. corpus of shared meanings by which the Let me suggest a good example of an intact unconscious may express its deepest processes, traditional cycle ofmeaning from the culture ofthe and which consciousness may use to penetrate Navajo people of the American Southwest-a and engage unconscious processes. For example, people amongst whom I have lived and researched ifI close my eyes and focus my attention upon the for years. While it is true that many Navajo people spontaneous dance of the bindus , I will be better today do not entirely subscribe to the traditional able to interpret what is going on in my psyche. In worldview, and may in fact know little about their that way I am privileging the communication traditional roots, traditional Navajo cosmology from the unconscious. But alternatively I can use exhibits many of the features common to such to visualization techniques trigger desired cosmologies worldwide (see Laughlin & Throop, activities normally outside the direct control of 2001). Moreover, the cosmology is thoroughly consciousness. For example, suppose that I am syzygistic both in religious iconography and in its feeling stressed. If I focus my attention upon a appreciation of the antinomous, yet unitary radiant cool blue, pea-sized bindu in my "third nature of reality. Much of Navajo philosophy is eye" region and then suddenly drop the sphere organized around the postulate that all perceivable into my navel region, my body will almost things in the world have invisible aspects that may instantaneously become calm. In this way I am be imagined as ''Holy People"-for example, the privileging the executive function of the Mountain People, the Star People, the River conscious ego over the unconscious.30 People, the Rain People, the Corn People, and so forth. Most of the humanoid Holy People have a The Traditional Cycle of Meaning male and a female representation; that is, Blue OR MY conscious ego and for my unconscious, Corn Boy, Blue Corn Girl, and so forth. For more Fthe meaning of the bindu and other anima philosophically inclined Navajo thinkers, these related images (nixies, goddesses, succubi) has Holy People are thought of as anthropomorphized developed out of their nascent, relatively symbols for the normally hidden and vital undifferentiated forms into a virtual dictionary of element within all things, which traditional symbols, based upon a lifetime of experiences Navajo philosophy equates with "Wind" (nilch'i; associated with them in memory. Had I been born see McNeley, 1981). As real people, we also have and raised in a traditional society with an intact such a hidden dimension called "the Wind within

Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 45 one" (nilch'i hwii'siziinii). All these Winds are female elements-like the male hindu in the really part of the one all pervasive and all female field and the female hindu in the male encompassing Holy Wind. Winds are never field in the yin-yang symbol. Hence anyone understood to be distinct entities, since energy is reared under the influence of these stories and thought to be flowing in and out of even the most ceremonies would come to interpret relationships apparently enduring objects. It is the coming and as characterized by both polarized tension and going of wind that accounts for the tapestry of unity of complements. Moreover, both men and reciprocal causation typical of this particular women are conditioned to think of themselves as understanding of the cosmos. The choice of"wind'' embodying male and female principles, and being as the central metaphor is an explicit recognition­ essentially whole and spiritually empowered by common to many cultures on the planet-that the one, all pervasive Holy Wind. The most there are forces that normally cannot be observed, important concept in Navajo philosophy is hozho, save by inference from their effects. which is usually translated as ''beauty'' or At the root of the sacredness of Navajo ''blessing," but which also connotes harmony, cosmology, and of the Holy People who represent health, unity, good, and so forth (Farella, 1984). the essence of reality, are the many myths Men who have knowledge about, and participate recounted through the generations. It is very in the traditional ways will explicitly interpret much the function of myth in societies like that of the Navajo to reveal and explicate the hidden their state of hozho in terms of the male and dimensions of the world. The hidden energies that female principles being in harmony within their are the essence of the world are given a face-a being. Their anima (they would not speak in countenance that may be contemplated, that is these terms of course) would be related to the "pleasing to the mind," that may be enacted in female Holy People and especially to Changing ritual (e.g., in the elaborate and ingenious Navajo Woman, the Navajo's most revered goddess and system of hitaal, or healing ceremonies), and that beloved Earth Mother (Schwarz, 1997).34 may be imagined in daily life as the efficient cause of significant phenomena and events. For those Charlie's Transpersonal Cycle of Meaning members who are well versed in their society's UT MANY of us in modern Euroamerican mythopoetic system, the core myths and their Bsociety do not have such an intact syzygistic various symbolic extrusions are often understood cosmological tradition into which we have been to be all-of-a-piece. They form a single, ramified nurtured and enculturated, and to which we can "cognitive map" (Wallace, 1966) within the context have recourse when interpreting our inner of which events in their everyday lives make sense imaginings. Thus part of the spiritual path for and are easily related to both other events in the many of us requires that we discover some sensible contemporary world, and archetypal events that context within which to lodge and integrate these unfold in the context of mythological narratives. meanings. This quest for an integrated context of As I said, Navajo cosmology is essentially syzygistic. The main tension and complementarity meaning is required by the holistic operator of the characteristic of the world is attributed to the brain (d'Aquili & Newberg 1999), or what Jung interplay of the male and female principles. called the archetype ofwholeness, which he held was Complementarity is emphasized, each pole indistinguishable from the image of the divine requiring the other in order to maintain viability. (Jung, 1951/1959, p. 40; 1940/1968a, p. 388). Jung There are even myths that tell the story of what found his own context by way of a careful happens when the male and female principles get reconstruction of latter day alchemy (1944/1968b; out of synch (see e.g., Matthews 1897/1994, pp. 1955-1956/1970). I, on the other hand, like so many 71-74). Even the famous Navajo ceremonials are these days, have borrowed extensively from divided into complementary sets, the Blessingway Eastern mystical teachings and have combined ceremonies- given female attribution and them with various aspects of modern science, concerned with harmony-and the Enemyway including knowledge about how the human brain ceremonies (given male attribution and concerned works. Still others have found the required context with protection; see Griffin-Pierce, 1992, pp. 40- in charismatic Christianity, Sufism, orin shamanism, 41). Within each of these sets, there are male and wicca and other so-called "new world religions."

46 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, Vol. 20 The result is that I, like many who spend years animals, geographical features like simulacra,s6 tracking their inner psyche, have developed a tunnels and streams may all represent or quite personal, and essentially transpersonal cycle penetrate the anima. A symbol as simple as a of meaning. Recall the mandala experience with hindu may suffice. Thus it is clear that to know which I opened this paper. The first time I whether or not a symbol represents the anima is encountered this experience, the only context of an interpretive act, easy enough to accomplish interpretation I had in my head was that a friend with projections upon actual females, but a much had dosed me with a psychotrope. In other words, more creative operation with tunnels and hindus. I had no appropriate cycle of meaning within We need always to keep in mind that Jung never which a transpersonal experience made any sense. intended the concept to be crisply defined by any But later on- much later on-my life course had particular form. The anima is a function of the led me through various avenues and adventures, psyche.37 Whatever imagery occurs to express and I ended up thinking about things out of an those unconscious and archetypal aspects of the essentially transpersonal worldview in which not nonmale self that we have suppressed in our only mandala experiences, but ecstatic union with development as males may be reasonably ladies in red shifts and dancing hindus make supposed to be activities of the anima. In any perfect sense. The major difference between both event, this forms a good working hypothesis from the paths found by myself and Jung on the one which to begin discriminating anima and hand, and those of people raised in traditional nonanima imagery. cosmological cycles ofmeaning on the other, is that 2. Anima as structure and as content. There is the former paths are relatively dynamic and a natural ambiguity involved in thinking of the plastic, while most traditional systems tend to be anima as an innate function of the nervous extremely conservative of meaning.35 In fact, system which, until active in producing imagery adepts in traditional systems tend to place strict in the sensorium, remains essentially contentless. controls on the types of experiences that are This is similar to saying that until the hand does allowed to occur and the range of interpretations its thing, there is no grasping. Anima may refer to available for those experiences. For instance, the underlying structure of communication professional Moroccan oneiromancers always between the conscious and unconscious mental interpret the more important dreams of their faculties, and it may refer to the dream and clients in terms of the symbolism and teaching of fantasy imagery that expresses activities in the the Koran, whereas a proper Jungian approach to unconscious. This distinction is far from trivial dream interpretation is appropriately individual when we place the issue in cross-cultural and dynamic (see e.g., Jung, 1930-1934/1997; see perspective, for while there is such a phenomenon also Maidenbaum, 1998). as a relatively pure archetypal experience, most anima imagery is culturally loaded. I seriously Conclusion doubt that a black native of Zimbabwe, or a Micronesian from the Marshall Islands would HESE REFLECTIONS upon the anima have been encounter a radiant white blond in a shift during Tall too brief. But I think a few salient points a meditation retreat. More than likely, their have been brought out with respect to our positive anima ideal would resemble their own engagement with the anima. Let me close by culture's goddesses. But to say that the content of briefly outlining the more important points, and anima imagery is culturally influenced is not to then discussing the relevance of the anima to deny the universal, archetypal basis of the transpersonal studies: structures within the nervous system that 1. Anima and gender. Although we most mediate it.38 commonly encounter our anima in the image or 3. Anima and affect. While it is natural to focus person of the female-especially in the intimate upon dream imagery and meditation symbols, it relationship with our significant Other- not all is often the affect associated with these anima imagery is explicitly female. Nor need it phenomena that alert us to anima eruptions. be, either when it spontaneously arises or when This is especially true with shadow-anima we use imagery to penetrate and potentiate interactions. My impression for years has been unconscious processes. Images like mandalas, that the symbolism in a vision or dream may

Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 47 actually be produced by the affect, rather than Transpersonal anthropology takes as a the affect tagging along after the imagery. Often fundamental tenet that the extraordinary the imagery would seem to provide a scenario experiences encountered by people everywhere that makes sense of the feelings we have at the are to be considered relevant and appropriate to moment. Conflicting emotions may well produce science-thus reinforcing the arguments made by a scenario of conflicting relations among images. William James in support of a radical empiricism Thus not only archetypal images may be (James 1912/1976; see also Laughlin and influenced by culture, but also the emotion McManus 1995). As I have made plain by coming associated with the imagery, for emotion as it is down hard upon the essentially hermeneutic commonly understood in our culture is mediated aspect of the process of individuation, the range of by cognitive as well as affective structures experiences that may be considered anima-related (Laughlin & Throop, 1999). will vary from culture to culture. I am 4. Anima and interpretation. The main point I emphasizing the cross-cultural aspect to anima wish to stress here is that working with the anima, experiences, not because ethnography is the stock­ in any cultural setting, is an interpretive process. The anima must be involved in some form of cycle in-trade of the professional anthropologist, but of meaning that integrates knowledge- often because of the apparent ignorance of cross­ social ways of knowing-with the individual's cultural factors often found in the Jungian direct experiences. Most traditional cultures will literature today. During the years that I worked provide an interpretive context within which with meditators of all ideological stripes and anima imagery and affect will make sense. cultural backgrounds, I was impressed by the It is very unlikely that such systems will extent to which people can uncritically accept the interpret anima-like experiences as psychodynamic. interpretations most amenable to their worldview. Rather, they will tend to be interpreted in terms of To my reading at least, the failure to take into visitation by spirits, goddesses or demons, consideration the relativity ofinterpretation is not depending upon whether they are affectively only antithetical to what Jung taught, but is also a positive or negative. Anima possession may be blind spot in the development of transpersonal viewed as soul-loss, or possession by some spirit for studies. the purpose of healing or killing (Boddy, 1994; A better integration of transpersonal Bourguignon, 1976; Prince, 1968). If they are psychology and transpersonal anthropology considered bothersome, sometimes anima states would help the development of transpersonal may be seen as being due to witchcraft or sorcery. studies. Transpersonal psychologists are frequently The positive aspect of anima manifestation may unacquainted with over a century of ethnographic involve interpretations of "divine intervention" interest in transpersonal experience, and over a when manifestations include intuitive inspiration­ quarter century of organized transpersonal the word "inspiration" being used advisedly here, anthropology (see Campbell & Staniford, 1978; for it originally meant the divine breathing wisdom Laughlin, 1988, 1994b; Laughlin, McManus & into one. Intuition in many cultures is considered Shearer, 1983). Meanwhile, transpersonal intervention from the external domain of the spirit, anthropologists often ignore clinical and rather than as an internal and largely unconscious experimental research into the causes and function of the psyche. It is very important from the anthropological varieties of transpersonal experience. Moreover, point of view to understand that a "Jungian" the interpretive element that is involved in all hermeneutic is just as culturally loaded as any experience is often given less consideration than it other. It is the purpose to which the interpretation requires in the transpersonal psychological is put that matters. From the standpoint of literature. Just as debilitating, the individuation, the Jungian approach will probably psychophysiological processes that underlie carry one to higher states of maturity than will extraordinary experiences are, as a rule, given traditional cycles of meaning. The latter are short shrift by anthropologists-due primarily to normally more concerned with the social the implacable mind-body dualism that infests integration of meaning than with aiding the that discipline. It is true to say that transpersonal individual to optimize his or her own individuation. anthropology is far more robust than is

48 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, vol. 20 neuroanthropology, and very few of the handful of 3. Archetype is defined by Jung (1959/1972) as "a neuroanthropologists have any interest whatever particular, frequently occurring, formal aspect of instinct." The term of course predates Jung, and may be in relating brain science to transpersonal studies. traced to the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers and The study of the anima/us function of the mystics; see Meier (1995, p. 96). human psyche might provide an auspicious focus for the integration of transpersonal psychology 4. The stream of consciousness is punctuated by rapid transformations of internal structure (in biogenetic and transpersonal anthropology. This is for structural theory we call these "warps"; see Laughlin, several reasons: first, anima/us experiences are McManus & d'Aquili, 1990, pp. 140-145) that establish almost by definition transpersonal, regardless of the initial configuration of the much more enduring their cultural setting. Because of the bridging "phases" or states of consciousness. function of the anima/us, the ego, of whatever 5. In my own exploration of Tibetan dream yoga, I was configuration, is brought into direct communion forced to attempt to sleep sitting upright in order not to with the unknown, the mysterious and the lose consciousness during the hypnagogic warp. I built a numinous. Second, anima/us imagery would wooden box that was padded on the sides and on the bottom with thick styrofoam in which I slept every night appear to be a cultural universal, usually related for three months. I was thus able to maintain to the aspect of culture we in the West recognize as consciousness through an altered hypnagogic state and religion. As such, there must be a genetic and into a night oflucid dreaming with virtually total recall. psychophysical basis for such universal 6. In other words, anapanasiti meditation. psychological properties which produce some of the core elements of traditional worldviews. And 7. These birth-related experiences are originally what third, anima/us related experiences would seem to involved me in the study of pre- and perinatal psychology, and eventually led me to various writings on pre- and arise in many folks as spontaneous and perinatal anthropology (see, e.g., Laughlin, 1991). ineluctable callings from the spiritual domain­ though how people interpret such encounters will 8. As with any meditation, many experiences may arise during the course of this work. One of the main insights vary with their cultural background. Thus animal that will inevitably axise is that the mirror practice is a us imagery may provide valuable clues to the symbolic replica ofthe sensorium, and that the rice grains etiology and psychological significance of aJ:e dots, the mandala the totality of forms that arise in shamanistic and other spiritual conversion the sensorium via the organization of dots, and the wiping experiences. In short, the transpersonal study of clean of the mirror is the flux of sensorial events, including the dots making up the events. Full realization the anima/us function and anima/us related of the essential impermanence of sensorial events is experiences would seem to be pregnant with considered in some Buddhist traditions to be a principal possibilities for research, whether that research be watershed in the psychological development of a being. based upon contemplative, clinical, experimental, 9. See Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili (1990, n. 5). ethnographic, or psychophysiological approaches. 10. For useful discussions ofthe anima/us, see Hopcke (1989, ch. 19), Stein (1998, pp. 125-149), and Brunner (1963/1986). Notes 11. Jung wrote that the archetypes are "ever-repeated An earlier version ofthis paper was presented before the typical experiences" that are somehow impressed upon C. G. Jung Society in Ottawa, Ontario, on May 11, 2001. the materiality ofthe body- that they had been "stamped It is dedicated in loving memory to my friend and fellow on the human brain for aeons" (1928/1966, p. 69). And not ICRL member, Mike Witunski. in human beings alone are archetypes to be found, but 1. I should note that I began exploring psychotropic drugs, very likely in animals as well (1928/1966, p. 69). including marijuana, peyote, mescaline and LSD-25 12. See for example the feminist critique of Jung's during the later 1960s. None ofthe spontaneous mandala presumed sexist bias in Karaban (1992). experiences were associated with ingesting drugs. 13. "Syzygy" is from the Greek and Latin roots meaning 2. The editor's footnote in question is note 1 in Jung's "yoked" or "paired." It refers to the structures responsible Mandala Symbolism (1959/1972, p. 71) and in the second for the fact that each of us has within us both male and edition of Jung's The Archetypes and the Collective female aspects. It also refers to the male and female Unconscious (1940/1968a, p. 355). The four plates are complementarity in many of the cosmologies of numbers 6, 28, 29 and 36. traditional peoples.

Mandalas, Nixies, Goddesses, and Succubi 49 14. The term "enculturation" derives from cultural 27. See Steinberg (1993, pp. 162-163) on submission as a anthropology and means "the process by which an feminine attribute. individual acquires the mental representations (beliefs, knowledge, and so forth) and patterns of behavior 28. This "coming alive" aspect of visualization practice is required to function as a member of a culture" (Barfield, a type of "universal symbol" about which we wrote in 1997, p. 149). Laughlin, McManus, and Webber (1985) and Laughlin, McManus, and d'Aquili (1990, pp. 201-202). These are 15. See Brunner (1963/1986, p. x.xi-x.xv). archetypal symbols that arise in the sensorium unbidden. Yet they are lawfully entailed by the type of visualization 16. I was raised in Arkansas and Texas, and all of my kin, practice in which one has been engaged. Often the including my mother, who were in any way spiritually changes in the universal symbol offer clues to the teacher active were females. as to how advanced the adept has become in the practice. 17. This structure vs. content distinction is not unique to 29. Skt: bindu (Tib: tig le or thig.le) meaning "drop" or Jung. Far from it. It is to be found in the metaphysics of "dot." This term connotes the essence of the male and Aristotle and Kant, to name a couple of thinkers. The female energies, and combined refers to the essence of the great sociological theorist, Emile Durkheim, likewise Buddha mind. reasoned that inherent "categories of understanding" organize culturally variant contents into universal 30. The scientific study of this process in relation to patterns of cognition; see Throop and Laughlin (2002). healing is called psychoneuroimmunology; see Ader (1980). 18. See Tiberia (1977) for empirical research on this issue. Tiberia demonstrated that the qualities projected upon 31. The "cycle of meaning" is a central concept in fantasized females vary with the type of masculine ego­ biogenetic structural theory. For further reading on the ideal, and the attributes of the psyche with which the topic, see Laughlin (1997), Laughlin, McManus, and subject identifies. Also, Colman (1996) looks at early d'Aquili (1990, pp. 214-233), and Laughlin and Throop developmental factors that may impact the later (2001). experience of the anima/us, and Beebe (1984) examines 32. Lucien Levy-Bruhl (1923/1966) called this intimate the relationship between the father's anima and that of engagement with a people's mythopoetic system his son. "mystical participation." (See my earlier section, "Jung on the anima.") 19. "Conscious network" is our term for the network of neurophysiological structures mediating consciousness 33. Using systems theory, a "negative feedback loop" is an in each moment of consciousness; see Laughlin, information channel that tends to reinforce the previous McManus, and d'Aquili (1990, pp. 94-95). state of the system-in other words, it is conservative feedback. A "positive feedback loop" is an information 20. A "nix" is a water demon or sprite-a "nixie" being the channel that tends to cause the system to change or female version; for instance, the mermaid. readjust. 21. See Laughlin, McManus, and d'Aquili (1990, pp. 189- 34. Many modern Navajos who interact within the 195) on the concept of symbolic penetration. context of Anglo society will no doubt also experience 22. See Laughlin, McManus, and d'Aquili (1990, pp. 198- Anglo anima imagery. I am speaking here of more 211) on the Tibetan Buddhist system of symbolic traditional people who live out their lives on the Navajo penetration. reservation. 23. The dakinis are Tantric goddesses who are protectors 35. Of course there must be some flexibility in traditional and servants of the Buddha Dharma. Some dakinis systems, for otherwise they would not keep up with actually dwell among humans on earth. changes in society and the environment, but changes tend to be slow and take generations. This is the process 24. I might also note that the peak experience here was anthropologists call "revitalization" (Wallace, 1966). not equivalent to the experience of nirvana, which although also an absorption state is not an absorption into 36. A "simulacrum" is a geographical feature, like a rock sensory material. This experience was equivalent to or a mountain, that resembles (to the human mind) some ecstatic union with the godhead, not to "stream entry" in anthropomorphic form, like a vagina, horns, breasts, face, the Buddhist sense. and so on; see Paul Devereux (1992, p. 152; 1996, pp. 194- 207). 25. That is, neurognosis; see Laughlin, McManus, and d'Aquili (1990, p. 49) and Laughlin (1996b). 37. In biogenetic structural terms, the anima/us is the homeomorphogenic structure by which processes outside 26. A succubus is a female spirit said to have sex with men the structure of the sensorium become imagined in the while they sleep. It may also disturb the tranquility of sensorium. Because all innervation within the nervous meditating monks. system is reciprocal-that is, nerves run back and forth

50 The International journal ofTranspersonal Studies, 2001, Vol. 20 between any two loci-images may be caused by Farella, J. R. (1984). The main stalk: A synthesis of Navajo unconscious processes (expression), or may excite philosophy. fucson, AR: University ofArizona Press. unconscious processes (penetration); see Laughlin, Field, T. M. (1985). Neonatal perception of people: Matura­ McManus and d'Aquili (1990, p. 193). tion and individual differences. InT. M. Field & N. A. Fox (Eds.), Social perception in infants. Norwood, NJ: Ablex 38. James Hillman's rejection of this crucial distinction Publishing. between structure and content bas the effect, intended or Fremantle, F., & ChOgyam Trungpa.. (1975). The Tibetan book otherwise, of totally culturally relativizing the concept of of the dead: The great liberation through hearing in the the anima/us. Hillman (1985, p. 13) and others (e.g., bardo. Berkeley: Shambhala. Griffin, 1989, p. 40) have rejected Jung's distinction Griffin, D. R. (1989). Introduction. In D. R. Griffin (Ed.), Ar­ between the archetypes as unknowable structures in chetypal process: Self and divine in Whitehead, Jung and themselves and archetypal images and ideas as knowable Hillman (pp. 1-76). Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univer­ transformations (or "contents") of those structures. They sity Press. Griffin-Pierce, T. (1992). Earth is my mother, sky is my fa­ do so on the dubious grounds that, if the "archetypes in ther: Space, time, and astronomy in Navajo sandpainting. themselves" are in principle unknowable, then how can we Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. know anything about them? But this is a serious error that Hillman, J. (1985). Archetypal psychology: A brief account. further confuses the underlying ontological difficulties Dallas, TX: Spring Publications. with the notion of archetype. Moreover, it is a view that is Hillman, J. (1989). The poetic basis ofmind. InT. 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