sarahallegra

Anima-Animus

© Sarah Allegra

The first time I came across the concept of anima and animus, it was, like many things, through the lyric writing o...
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© Sarah Allegra

The first time I came across the concept of anima and animus, it was, like many things, through the lyric writing of Maynard James Keenan (who you probably know as the frontman in Tool and A Perfect Circle, his solo work as Puscifer or possibly through his winery Caduceus Cellars. He is a multi-talented guy. And yes, my cat Maynard is named after him.) One of Tool's albums is titled Ænima, which includes a song by the same name. That song, that word, caught my interest so I started researching it and discovered the theories of Carl Jung about anima and animus.

I was already a little familiar with Jung's work; I became infatuated with him and Joseph Campbell the first time I stumbled across a book based on their work at the library when I was about 15 or 16. Both of them immediately struck deep chords within me and I was very eager to learn more from them. But until I heard Tool's song, I couldn't have told you what the anima or animus were.

The full explanation is far more detailed than I can go into here, but here is a very boiled-down summary: the anima is the feminine side of every man's soul and the animus is the masculine side of every woman's soul. We all have both masculine and feminine sides to us (and our actual souls are genderless, being a perfect union of the two halves), no matter how we feel or appear externally. Jung's theory is that to achieve a happy, balanced psyche, it is necessary to reconcile both halves within yourself. And you know I love a good self-exploration journey, so I really resonated with this idea! Know that it is ok, normal, and, in fact, extremely healthy for you to embrace both parts of yourself, even if our culture tells us otherwise at times.

I thought this would be an interesting concept to try and portray visually; this concept has been rattling around my brain for several years before I finally found two wonderful models to bring it to life: Travis Weinand, who you'll have seen in my work before, and his girlfriend Gabrielle Hennessey. Since they're both extremely athletic, flexible and able to balance well from the truly impressive amount of yoga they both practice, I knew they'd be able to pull off this tricky pose.

What I wanted to show was the inter-connectedness of these two genders, how they really do complete each other (not in the romantic "you had me at hello" way, but that they genuinely are two sides of the same soul). When they're brought together, embraced, and nurtured, they are far stronger, more spiritual, beautiful and powerful than they were on their own. Wholeness of the soul is something I believe we should all strive for.

Many thanks to Gabrielle and Travis for helping me finally bring this vision to life! They are awesome, both as models and just as people. :)

If you're interested in learning more about the anima-animus concept, here's the Wikipedia page about it: https:--en.wikipedia.org-wiki-Anima_and_animus

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