azurewren said: Jung was a student of Freud, so that makes sense. Also what is a dark anima?
yeah but im on board with a lot of Jung's other stuff this particular idea is just really sexist and stupid
the anima was Jung's idea that men have a part of their subconscious that's kind of all their ideas about women and feminine qualities rolled up into one figure: first a seductress as they start to become attracted to women, then a Strong Female Character, then a virginal font of purity and innocence, before finally being able to think about women as people.
it's kind of one of those ideas that says more about the thinker than the subjects.
mythologically speaking scholars love applying the idea of the anima to literally every remotely feminine deity and/or entity like "this is really the goddess within us all" etc
in this light goddesses kind of break down into nice and not nice. dark anima refers to the not-nice figures: seductresses, traitors, violent and unpredictable, uncontrollable. a lot of these analyses hinge around the word uncontrollable: they didn't want women in power so they had to show that women with power were dangerous. which is often a valid point, but people get way too hung up about it
the dark anima concept i'm referring to is a kind of minor archetype that we see mostly around the mediterranean: a somber goddess associated with death and darkness, often the sister or similar reflection of a brighter, more vivid anima. the prime example would be ereshkigal and ishtar: ereshkigal spends all her time guarding the dead and being somber and kinda scary, while ishtar is battle-twerking her way through life and loving it. other examples include neith the sister of isis, allat of the satanic verses, persephone to a certain extent (although she also has a lot of fertility associations), and way up north, hel
i dont even know i just find it a really interesting archetype, especially when literally the only other death entities are tricksters or death kings, with an outside chance of horrible monster. it would be tempting to just view the dark anima as a female death king, but! do not! practically the whole point of the death king is that He Is The Law and that the dead stay dead by his rightful authority, whereas the dark anima has this kind of undertone that she really shouldn't be handling this power, but she does anyways.
