Continuing with the hypothesis that a gender balanced individual is the ultimate state of being all of us strive to achieve in order to mature spiritually, I wish to talk about Carl Jungs' work on the anima and animus.
Jung described the animus as the unconscious masculine side of a woman, and the anima as the unconscious feminine side of a man- each transitioning the personal psyche. Jungs' theory states that the anima and animus are the two primary anthropomorphic archetypes of the unconscious mind, as opposed to the theriomorphic and inferior function of the shadow archetypes. In my understanding, the unconscious mind is the morontial soul of an individual. this morontial soul is the true progression progress of spiritual development, as a mortal is always compelled to achieve their own personal balance in life by harmonizing their existence with their environment in order to survive. And as they begin to thrive, they have the opportunity to progress their morontial and physical souls within the overall development of their spirit for Allahs' sake.
Jung believed that the anima and animus often manifested themselves by appearing in our dreams to influence an individuals' personal attributes and the interactions they have with the opposite sex. You see, a natural understanding of the opposite sex on a conscious level is instilled in the individuals' soul from a constant subjection to members of the opposite sex, which leads to the maturity of ones' anima or animus in order to achieve a balanced and harmonious state of being. Jung said that "the encounter with the shadow is the apprentice-piece in the individuals' development... that with the anima/animus is the masterpiece." In other words, the ego- be it male or female- is just a subjective learning point that we start at in life when we make our morontial journey to spirit to become an Ascended Master. With that said, know that the Greek word "anemos" means wind, and it refers to both the anima and animus. "pneuma" in another word for wind, which also means "spirit," and it's our pleroma which sums up the state of mind our soul experiences in the Ogdoad.
Jung defines "anima" as its Latin derivation meaning "soul," which is associated with the feminine side of men they need to unite with. While Jung defines "animus" as a Latin derivation meaning "spirit," which he describes as the masculine side of woman that they need to unite with.
Jung understood that our anima development has four distinct levels of eros, which he named Eve, Helen, Marry and Sophia. In broad terms, the entire process of anima development was believed to be about a male opening up to his emotions- and in this way- a broader sense of spirituality, by creating a new conscious paradigm that includes more of a creative, imaginative and intuitive process with a psychic sensitivity towards themselves and others where it might not have existed previously. Whereas Jung believed that every woman has an analogous animus within her psyche; this being a set of unconscious masculine attributes and potentials. He viewed the animus as being more complex than the anima, postulating that women have a host of animus images, whereas the male anima consists only of one dominate image, but he states that there are still only four parallel levels of animus development in a woman. I won't go into the descriptions of these levels because these binary processes aren't the same in gender reversed individuals. And even though most people follow in these footsteps, many start at different levels of development, so it's best to discover who you are before studying these levels.
The process of anemos development deals with cultivating an independent and non-socially subjugated idea of self by embodying a deeper consciousness of what an individual believes and feels about themselves, so they are able to express those beliefs and feelings properly, which in turn makes them more whole. Both final stages of anima and animus development have dynamic qualities related to the motion and flux of a spiritual development process known as ascension. As there are no statically perfect manifested cycles in this process, it's considered more of an open-ended quality of life which transcends the need for a singular image of oneself, as any subject or object can contain multiple archetypes or seemingly artithetical roles in different situations. But these anemos will form bridges to the next archetypical figure to emerge- regardless of where we are in the process, as the unconscious mind again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form to represent an aspect of the self.
Jungs' theory of anima and animus draws from his theory of individuation. In order for a person to reach the goal of individuation, they need to engage in a series of interpersonal dialogues that will help them understand how they relate to the world they live in. This process requires them to become more aware of their anima or animus. In so doing, the individual will learn how not to be controlled by their anemos. As an individual is made aware of their anemos, it will allow them to overcome thoughts of who they ought to be and accept themselves for who they really are.
According to Jung, individuals can discover a bridge to the collective unconscious I call Morontia through the development of their anemos, as ones' anemos represents the unconscious mind I call the morontial soul. Note that the anima and animus are not gender specific, so men and women can have both, and that's why I'm using the term anemos. Think of the morontial soul as that part of you that is also a part of Allah, and Allah is a hermaphrodite like all divine spirit beings are.
Jungians warn that being out of sync with the order of the male anima or the female animus process can lead to an invasion of the consciousness by the unconscious archetype, but I believe that with some understanding of oneself, some soul-searching and some proper guidance from the divine, the more complex individuation processes that are surfacing nowadays can be addressed in such a way that these individuals can excel beyond our wildest dreams in spiritual development. After all, balance and harmony are the very keystones by which spirituality thrives on, and that starts in the mind not the brain.