My last two posts here and here, sparked a rich conversation with Deborah Gregory, a psychotherapist and poet who’s learning more about her masculine archetypes from the Partnership Profile in The Soul’s Twins. She wrote:
“Hmm, so now I’ve woken up to these insights and find myself in a similar place … having to reclaim the archetypal Father for myself! No wonder I feel deeply religious around this issue as I’m finally exploring my father/Father/masculine mystery! And no wonder I wrote “The Animus Diet” which focuses on finding balance between our feminine and masculine sides … because what better way to engage the Father archetype than to write a book! Wow, what huge insights I’ve gained from our conversation! Thank you Jeanie for helping me dig even further into my own mystery.”
I answered her:
” My writing heightens my sense of the presence of the sacred too. It feels like I’m coming home. I would suggest that’s true of you as well. Every stage of growth throughout your life has led you to this next step of re-membering your dis-membered masculine side and re-connecting it with your feminine side. Like me, you’re uncovering your mystery and coming home to your true, pure, soul by way of writing.”
As I wrote “your true, pure soul” I had a flashback to a very strange and synchronistic dream I had two nights before this conversation. I’d like to share it here:
Dream #5324
A handsome man is teaching me and others something to do with three factors or principles in our lives, helping us arrange them according to our individual personalities and experiences. I see them lined up as three sentences spaced vertically, one above the other. I ask someone who he is. They say he’s Dr….something that sounds like “Pier Truett.”
He seems troubled. Someone says he used to slap “her”. I wonder who “her” is. His girlfriend? His wife? I recoil at the thought. I think slapping a woman is unforgivable. But I ask myself, is this really unforgivable? Does not a God of love forgive all people for all things if they’re truly sorry? I wrestle with this moral dilemma for a while.
Then we’re sitting at a table. I encourage him to eat a fresh green vegetable. I tell him it will taste good with salt and vinegar. He likes it. It feels like I’m taming, civilizing this troubled man, teaching this teacher something valuable, just as he’s teaching me. This makes me very happy.
What an odd name, I thought when I awoke. I’ve never known anyone with either of those names. My associations led to this: Pier = Pure? Truett = True? This resonated. Was this masculine image a true part of my pure, authentic soul? A troubled Animus who used to “slap” femininity down metaphorically? Did he absorb the disdain patriarchal cultures have for the feminine? Has my masculine side been disdainful of me because I’m a woman? Have I judged him — and sometimes men by association — harshly because of this? Can I forgive him for being wounded by cultural attitudes that wounded my soul too? Can I forgive myself for absorbing these attitudes? And what about the salt? Alchemically salt was considered a purifier that neutralized dualities. Vinegar is a preserver made of sour wine.
For some years I’ve thought of my Animus as the idealistic, creative, driven part of me that wants to “save the world” with my writing. This association came from a dream I had in 1989.
Dream #42
I slam the top half of a Dutch door on a black stallion who’s been shut in a small room containing my neglected desk. He’s chasing me and I’m afraid of him. Sadly, he says, “Why are you trembling? Are you afraid of me? Did you think I would hurt you?” I feel foolish. I know he’s always been my friend and would never hurt me; but I have to get away from him.
I associated the desk with my lifelong passion for writing and my fear of taking it on as a full-time career. But this dream convinced me to trust my animal instincts. So at the end of the school year I quit teaching and started my first book. Years later, after my first two were published, I saw my dream stallion one more time. He was lying to my right in the backseat of a car with his head on my lap. He was my beloved friend. Meanwhile, an unknown driver was taking us to an unknown destination. My black stallion was no longer driving. He was being driven. Was the driver the Self? Was our destination home?
Deborah and I are trying to reclaim our archetypal masculine sides. She wants to reclaim her Father. My Warrior’s in good shape but my Father could use some attention. What disowned archetypes do you need to reclaim? What passions do you want to act on to come home to your pure, true soul? Maybe the Partnership Profile can help.
Jean Raffa’s The Bridge to Wholeness and Dream Theatres of the Soul are at Amazon. E-book versions are also at Kobo, Barnes And Noble and Smashwords. Healing the Sacred Divide can be found at Amazon and Larson Publications.com. Her new book, The Soul’s Twins, is available at Schiffer, Red Feather Mind, Body, Spirit and wherever books are sold. Subscribe to her newsletter at www.jeanbenedictraffa.com.
8 Responses
Dear Jeanie,
This is wonderful! I love our conversations around the Partnership Profile that waits to be discovered in your latest book “The Soul’s Twins”. This, your fourth book positively sparkles all the way through with deep archetypal insights and profound wisdom. In a pure and true sense, it’s brilliant! Okay, back to the dreams you mention. I’m sure you’ve done lots of digging yourself but here’s a few of my initial thoughts …
In your first alchemical dream I can’t help but think of your animus becoming well and truly “seasoned” by the sprinkling of salt and pepper onto those life-giving greens, as He and you, move from “age-ing to sage-ing”. Along parallel lines, one online search for the word “Truett” came up with a meaning of “Gift of God” and “Speaker of Truth” which our creative animus, when seasoned over many years, certainly becomes.
And anything associated with the number “three” often creates magick in the mix while the “slapping” (for me at least) helps to surface the ancient wars “below” between our masculine and feminine sides. Hmm, I’m beginning to feel that it’s almost a calling to forgive ourselves for recreating those “old” one-sided wars? For with time and seasoning, inner conflicts can find balance, especially when our animus becomes our teacher.
In your older dream what comes to mind was your psyche drawing attention to the split (when you close the top half of the door) between your body and psyche. And how, having read your blog for years now, your beloved horse (Shadow?) comes to mind and how much he’s helped you in your life … for having been shut away in a small space suddenly you were out and it was like “can somebody give that animus a pen!”
Interestingly, my Warrior and Lover are also in good shape, it’s just the Father and Sage to which I scored 0. I can’t recommend your Partnership Profile highly enough as there’s so much information about one’s self and Self to gather. I can’t stop thinking about my archetypal Father and have ordered Jason E. Smith’s book “Religious But Not Religious” which I believe will help.
Love and light, Deborah
Dear Deborah,
I love our conversations too. Thank you for your kind words about The Soul’s Twins and the Partnership Profile. It warms my heart
I experienced a huge “Aha” to your associations to both dreams. The seasoning of my animus is perfect! I never thought of that. He definitely has been seasoned through the years of writing my books and blog. What a brilliant insight that is. I too, looked up “Truett” and found the same meaning for it. i think that’s what emboldened me to share my associations for this dream here. I know so many people don’t know how to work with their dreams and I love sharing the ways that work for me. Your alchemical associations add so much to this.
Yes, “three” is surely the magic word: three wishes in fairy tales, three brothers who set out to make their fortunes, three Wise Men, Hestia, the triple-faced goddess, etc. etc. It’s packed with archetypal meaning, another clue that the dream comes from the collective unconscious to share valuable wisdom.
I also saw the “slapping” as the eternal conflict between the masculine and feminine duality. Your associations help confirm that.
I’ve sat with the horse dream for 31 years and NEVER got the clue about the Dutch door split between body and psyche!! Wow. Thank you! That’s super huge for me. That surely describes the way I was in 1989. Just about all my knowledge was mental, intellectual, heady, abstract, idealistic stuff. I was so out of touch with my body that I could go to the same movie theater for months before I recognized that the fact that I shivered throughout the entire film was a clue that I might want to consider bringing a sweater next time! Truly! I know how bizarre that sounds, but the sensory world was just barely in the periphery of my radar. And yes, my sweet horse, Shadow helped me change all that.
I laughed until tears came to my eyes when I read your words: “Can somebody give that animus a pen?”
My next stop is Amazon to read up on Jason Smith’s “Religious But Not Religious.” Sounds like a book I might want to review here. Let me know if you’re thinking of doing that on your blog because I don’t want to steal your thunder.
You are a true, pure treasure, my dear. Your recent comments have been making my days. They are the best reward I could ever get for putting The Soul’s Twins and the Partnership Profile out there.
Thank you.
Love and light back at you,
Jeanie
Oh, I love working with dreams Jeanie and in the Jungian Dream Group I attended for nearly 10 years, others could often see what I could not and what was hiding in plain sight all along! Ha-Ha! I’m so pleased you got to laugh with your animus … mine has a wicked sense of humour when he gets going! And happy that my initial dream associations help.
Go for it! There’s no thunder to be stolen as I don’t write book reviews on my blog, I keep it solely for my own poems and Jungian thoughts, so you’re more than welcome to review Jason’s book … in fact, I would look forward to reading it. I have a feeling his book will be perfect for exploring my relationship with my archetypal Father and my religious feelings.
Thank you so much Susan for joining in this rich conversation! Love and light, Deborah.
I led Jungian dream groups for several years too, and have always found it much easier to work with others’ dreams than my own. I believe Jung said the same thing about his dreams, so we’re in good company. Thanks again for your help, Jeanie
Wow Jeanie and Deborah! I’m blown away by this thread. I’m not sure I can offer anything more. Thank you for sharing your dreams with us, and for the broadening of them from Deborah. Those aha! moments are pure magic. Thank you both. love, Susan.
I’m glad you enjoyed sitting in on our dream session, Susan! Talking about dreams with people from all over the world is yet one more good thing about the internet! Love, Jeanie
This is a wonderful and illuminating conversation, especially as I work through The Soul’s Twins for the second time and dig deeper. I’m exploring the Queen and Beloved as the major feminine archetypes in my partnership profile and in my marriage, but the warrior was projected on Vic and I’ve spent the last dozen years becoming the Warrior in my life. It hasn’t been easy to take this archetype on and I’ve had many roadblocks, especially from the body. The Beloved is equally strong with the Queen in my partnership profile, and that leaves questions about the Lover which I also projected on Vic. I feel how much I struggle to Love myself and how that’s been an issue throughout my life. It’s still an issue as I have to accept new limitations caused by Meniere’s Disease which make getting out there in the world and doing my thing so hard, no matter how the Warrior tries. I’m still pondering and thinking all this through, but want to bring more focus to the masculine counterparts of where I’m clearly strong in feminine realms. I look forward to a deeper dive into the Couple, and that comes next as I work with this archetypal puzzle. Thanks for sharing so much Wisdom, Jeanie.
Tomorrow (Easter), my son and I will prepare the soil in my relatively small vegetable garden beds. That’s a great way to worship this particular day and time of year. My whole family has vaccines now, so this is a big relief and another thing to celebrate. New life for the young masculine in them–and perhaps also in me.
Thank you for sharing your marvelous insights here, Elaine. And for affirming the practical value of The Soul’s Twins. You and Deborah are doing exactly what I hoped readers would do. That’s an extraordinary gift to me.
My family celebrated an Easter meal with gratitude and joy at being together yesterday. I felt a softening in myself, like the soil of your vegetable garden that was cleaned of weeds and debris, then loosened and replenished so the seeds can sprout and new growth can come through. The atmosphere of love surrounding us was palpable.
How long this winter has been. How joyous comes the spring.