Introduction to the Interpretation of Fairytales & Animus and Anima in Fairytales
Marie-Louise von Franz believed fairytales to be the purest and simplest expressions of the collective unconscious. Too often the interpreter regresses to a personalized approach, however, heroes and heroines are abstractions that embody collective archetypes. The innumerable variations within the same fairytale told in different cultures are like a musical theme crisscrossing humanity. In Volume 8, von Franz establishes that there is only one psychic fact to which the fairytale addresses itself, namely, the SELF.
Some fairytales emphasize the beginning phases of this experience by dwelling on the shadow, others draw attention to the anima and animus, while still others hint at the unobtainable treasure. This volume contains new and updated translations of The Interpretation of Fairytales along with Anima and Animus in Fairytales and combines them into a single volume, clarifying the Jungian approach to interpreting fairytales and offering a deep dive into anima and animus.
The anima and the animus deliver to consciousness the “life-affirming fruit.” Individuation requires engagement with these contra-sexual archetypes, but von Franz observes that “Anima and animus are not always happy to have this relationship—they lose part of their power when they are made conscious.” She further warns of the inflation resulting from possession by them and points out that the animus “loves to create an atmosphere of mist in which nobody can find orientation.” These are supra-personal elements of psychic life capable of breaking beyond the tendency of consciousness to become one-sided. This second section of Volume 8 provides an insightful explanation of a woman’s encounter with her animus and a man’s encounter with his anima.
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Interpretation of Fairytales
Chapter 1. Some Theories of Fairytales
Chapter 2. Fairytales, Myths and other Archetypal Stories
Chapter 3. A Method of Psychological Interpretation
Chapter 4. A Tale Interpreted: “The Three Feathers”
Chapter 5. “The Three Feathers” Continued
Chapter 6. “The Three Feathers” Completed
Chapter 7. A Man’s Shadow
Chapter 8. The Challenge of the Anima
Chapter 9. The Woman, The Shadow, and the Animus in Fairytales
Part 2: Animus and Anima in Fairytales
Chapter 10. A Fairytale from Northern Germany: Oll Rinkrank
Chapter 11. A Turkestan Fairytale: The Magic Horse
Chapter 12. A Norwegian Fairytale: Kari, the Girl with the Wooden Frock
Chapter 13. An African Fairytale: The Magician of the Plain
Chapter 14. Anima Stories
Chapter 15. A European Fairytale: The Black Princess
Chapter 16. A Russian Fairytale: The Virgin Czarina
Aurora Consurgens, the rising sun, is a vision forged in the pseudo-Aristotelian tradition that became a cornerstone of medieval Church doctrine and the centerpiece of the Dominican and Franciscan traditions. While its authorship has been shrouded in mystery and controversy, Marie Louise von Franz furnishes ample evidence that this was a final work of Thomas Aquinas, a Doctor of the Church. His vision begins with an anima figure of the Sapentia Dei.
This medieval alchemical text is rich in symbolism and offers a glimpse into how unconscious contents can be understood through their interactions with the material world. Marie Louise von Franz places Aurora Consurgens squarely in the tradition of visionary spiritual writings similar to the visions of Hildegard von Bingen or John of Patmos. Aquinas’s visions and his final commentary on the Song of Songs appear to have been the result of a state of ecstasy into which he fell just before his death. Marie Louise von Franz excavates a psychological treasure from his work.
Niklaus Von Flüe And Saint Perpetua: A Psychological Interpretation of Their Visions
Saint Niklaus von Flüe, the patron saint of Switzerland, was held in the highest esteem by both CG Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz. Jung even declared him the Patron Saint of Psychotherapy, due to the Saint’s deep inward reflections and profound experiences. His visions reportedly began while still in his mother’s womb and continued until his death. One of his later visions was a terrifying image of the face of God. Von Franz saw Niklaus as the shadow brother of Christ and wrote of him as the alchemical Anthropos, a universal man. His visions were an evolution of Christian mysticism.
Saint Perpetua was a young Christian woman put to death in 203 AD in the Roman arena at the age of 22. Her profound visions occurred days before her death. Von Franz penetrates these images, suggesting they were revelations of a new, Christian God-image breaking through from the collective unconscious into the animus of young Perpetua.
Marie-Louise von Franz is at her very best as she unravels the mysteries held within the visions of these two saints.
Volume 3 turns to the Maiden’s Quest within fairytales.
The maiden/heroine navigates a complicated maze of inner and outer relationships as she builds a bridge to the unconscious. The heroine contends with the animus in many forms like a devouring and incestuous father, demonic groom, the beautiful prince, an androgenous mother, a cold dark tower, and through conflict with the evil stepmother.
Dangers and pitfalls await her as the conscious feminine strives to make connections with the unconscious masculine. The maiden is the undeveloped feminine and the promised fruit of her struggle with the animus is the coniunctio. Volume 3 is a masterwork of cross-cultural scholarship, penetrating psychological insight, and a strikingly illuminating treatise. With her usual perspicacity and thoroughness, von Franz gathers countless fairytale motifs revealing a myriad of facets to the maiden’s quest.
Volume 2 – The Hero’s Journey is about the great adventure that leads to a cherished and difficult to obtain prize. In these fairytales, the Self is often symbolized as that treasured prize and the hero’s travails symbolize the process of individuation. In its many manifestations, the hero embodies the emerging personality. “In the conscious world, the hero is only one part of the personality—the despised part—and through his attachment to the Self in the unconscious is a symbol of the whole personality.”
Von Franz’s prodigious knowledge of fairytales from around the world demonstrates that the fairytale draws its root moisture from the collective realm. This volume continues where Volume 1 left off as von Franz describes the fairytale, “suspended between the divine and the secular worlds (…) creating a mysterious and pregnant tension that requires extreme power to withstand.” The resistance of the great mother against the hero and his humble origins, as well as the hero freeing the anima figure from the clutches of the unconscious are universal archetypal patterns. The spoils retrieved by the hero symbolize new levels of consciousness wrested from the unconscious.
Volume 1 – Fairytales, like myths, provide a cultural and societal backdrop that helps the human imagination narrate the meaning of life’s events. The remarkable similarities in fairytale motifs across different lands and cultures inspired many scholars to search for the original homeland of fairytales. While peregrinations of fairytale motifs occur, the common root of fairytales is more archetypal than geographic. A striking feature of fairytales is that a sense of space, time, and causality is absent. This situates them in a magical realm, a land of the soul, where the most interesting things happen in the center of places like Heaven, mountains, lakes, and wells.
Today we pause to reflect on his impact on our lives and the world as a whole.
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
― Carl Gustav Jung
Books from Chiron on the
Life of Jung
Jung: His Life and Work – A Biographical Memoir
Published originally in 1976, this work has become a classic retelling of Jung’s life and work by Barbara Hannah, one of his most dedicated followers and intimate friends. Now back in print, this work deserves to occupy a place of importance in every Jungian library
Young Carl Jung offers a balanced view with rare glimpses into Carl Jung’s formative years. In a masterful telling of Jung’s childhood, Robert Brockway provides a clear perspective on the impact young Carl’s experiences played in forming his later theories.
E.A. Bennet’s biography of C.G. Jung went to press just a few days before Jung’s death in 1961. Over the preceding 15 years, Bennet had met frequently with Jung at his home and stayed there as his guest. Their many talks—about Jung’s childhood, his family, his career and the development of his ideas—yielded the material for this authorized biography.
Thanks to Bennet’s unique opportunities to hear Jung’s personal perspective—on subjects from Freud to Hitler, and including a valuable correspondence about Aion—regarded as Jung’s most “difficult” book—C.G. Jung sheds new light for today’s scholars on Jung’s work and on the man himself.
Based on the letters of Jung and Neumann, which have been recently published, along with the impressions Micha Neumann gleaned from his parents, this book provides a framework for this correspondence and provides additional insight into a rich, personal dimension of Jung and Neumann’s complicated relationship.
This story details Jung’s friendships with Mary Mellon and J. B. Priestley, who both admired him and helped make his psychology known and recognized throughout the world. In this book, we get a glimpse of Jung the man, with “nose and ears,” as his son Franz said of him—a remarkable genius but also a man with ordinary human strivings and flaws.
Spiritual Direction and Jungian Psychology in Dialogue
Depth Calls to Depth: Jungian Psychology and Spiritual Direction in Dialogue draws on the author’s dual background as a certified Jungian analyst and psychologist as well as a spiritual director with a master’s degree in theology. Over the last several decades, spiritual direction has moved beyond its monastic origins to become a major force in contemporary spirituality. Its emphasis on direct spiritual experience offers a natural parallel to Jung’s model of psychospiritual healing.
This book describes how Jungian dreamwork can enhance the practice of spiritual direction. There is much interest in Jung’s thought in spiritual circles but little informed understanding of the details of his model and its application to work with individuals. In an effort to meet this need, chapters alternate between descriptions of Jung’s approach, augmented by extensive case material and accounts of spiritual direction sessions. In this way, the book combines a comprehensive summary of Jung’s main ideas and methodologies with vignettes that illustrate their practical application. Larger issues regarding the relationship between psychology and spirituality are discussed as well as Jung’s complicated relationship with the Christian tradition.
The author’s background in Ignatian spirituality and the work of mystics like Meister Eckhart allow him to demonstrate how these approaches can bridge gaps between the Christian and Jungian models of spiritual growth. Parallels to 12-Step spirituality also are explored.
“Depth Calls to Depth is a much-needed exploration of the dynamic interplay of psychology and spirituality for spiritual directors. With years of experience as both a Jungian therapist and spiritual director, John Ensign brings layers of insight and a fresh writing style that makes the depth human journey truly accessible. His grounding in the story of one directee and their interactions across time makes the exploration concrete and eminently useful. I will recommend this gift of a book to directors-in-training as well as those currently practicing!”
-Sandra Lommasson. Bread of Life Center founder, spiritual director, and spiritual direction faculty for 30 years
“Like looking through a kaleidoscope, spiritual directors will find a generous illumination of the ever-present entanglements as spirituality and psychology play in the lives of their directees. With access to the intimate soul and dream sharing of a spiritual directee, Dr. Ensign provides layers of rich and reverent encounters that examine the stages of spiritual development from adolescence into adulthood. This intimate endeavor offers a compelling view through the lens of Carl Jung alongside threads of wisdom from Saint Ignatius, Meister Eckhart, the scriptures and other inspired writings. The depth of Ensign’s attention to bridging the ‘human and divine’ powerfully demonstrates the sacred tending of the spiritual lives with those we companion in spiritual direction.”
-Colleen Gregg, MA, Director of Mercy Center Auburn, Spiritual Director, Supervisor for Spiritual Directors
“In this thoughtfully written book, John Ensign employs Jungian and Christian-Ignatian methods of integration in his practice as a spiritual director. He has a rare ability to clarify for readers how spiritual direction and Jungian analysis can complement one another to form a guidebook for individuals who are in search of religious experience and meaning through the wisdom of dreams, meditation, and the imagination.”
-Steven Herrmann, Ph.D., MFT. Jungian analyst and author of Swami Vivekananda and C.G. Jung: Yoga in the West
“In Depth Calls to Depth, Dr. Ensign offers a refreshingly readable, lively, and pragmatic illustration of a particular approach to spirituality, individuation, and development, revealing the inexpressible aspects of spiritual reality that might emerge out of dedicated attentiveness to both spirituality and psychology. Faithful to a tradition of spiritual direction and to his vocation as a Jungian analyst, he deftly interweaves these domains, attending to one directee’s life experience and dream expressions through this dialogical approach. Dr. Ensign’s work not only reveals his solid scholarly ability and an astute clinical mind, but a deep sensibility to both models, drawing on them ‘to better understand how the divine unfolds within a human life.’ Whether one takes up this book from the spiritual direction tradition or from a more psychological footing, the dialogue will captivate attention, offer new perspectives, and enhance an appreciation of the natural harmony of both approaches.
-Susan Calfee, Ph.D. Analyst Member, C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco
John Ensign, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a Jungian analyst with more than four decades of clinical experience across a wide range of settings and treatment areas. He is also a spiritual director with extensive training in Ignatian spirituality and holds a master’s degree in theology.
In addition to his wide studies in Christian spirituality, he has a longtime interest in the relationship between Eastern and Western contemplative practices and works with individuals from multiple traditions. He is an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and has a private practice in Davis, California.
Introduction to the Interpretation of Fairytales & Animus and Anima in Fairytales
Marie-Louise von Franz believed fairytales to be the purest and simplest expressions of the collective unconscious. Too often the interpreter regresses to a personalized approach, however, heroes and heroines are abstractions that embody collective archetypes. The innumerable variations within the same fairytale told in different cultures are like a musical theme crisscrossing humanity. In Volume 8, von Franz establishes that there is only one psychic fact to which the fairytale addresses itself, namely, the SELF.
Some fairytales emphasize the beginning phases of this experience by dwelling on the shadow, others draw attention to the anima and animus, while still others hint at the unobtainable treasure. This volume contains new and updated translations of The Interpretation of Fairytales along with Anima and Animus in Fairytales and combines them into a single volume, clarifying the Jungian approach to interpreting fairytales and offering a deep dive into anima and animus.
The anima and the animus deliver to consciousness the “life-affirming fruit.” Individuation requires engagement with these contra-sexual archetypes, but von Franz observes that “Anima and animus are not always happy to have this relationship—they lose part of their power when they are made conscious.” She further warns of the inflation resulting from possession by them and points out that the animus “loves to create an atmosphere of mist in which nobody can find orientation.” These are supra-personal elements of psychic life capable of breaking beyond the tendency of consciousness to become one-sided. This second section of Volume 8 provides an insightful explanation of a woman’s encounter with her animus and a man’s encounter with his anima.
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Interpretation of Fairytales
Chapter 1. Some Theories of Fairytales
Chapter 2. Fairytales, Myths and other Archetypal Stories
Chapter 3. A Method of Psychological Interpretation
Chapter 4. A Tale Interpreted: “The Three Feathers”
Chapter 5. “The Three Feathers” Continued
Chapter 6. “The Three Feathers” Completed
Chapter 7. A Man’s Shadow
Chapter 8. The Challenge of the Anima
Chapter 9. The Woman, The Shadow, and the Animus in Fairytales
Part 2: Animus and Anima in Fairytales
Chapter 10. A Fairytale from Northern Germany: Oll Rinkrank
Chapter 11. A Turkestan Fairytale: The Magic Horse
Chapter 12. A Norwegian Fairytale: Kari, the Girl with the Wooden Frock
Chapter 13. An African Fairytale: The Magician of the Plain
Chapter 14. Anima Stories
Chapter 15. A European Fairytale: The Black Princess
Chapter 16. A Russian Fairytale: The Virgin Czarina
Aurora Consurgens, the rising sun, is a vision forged in the pseudo-Aristotelian tradition that became a cornerstone of medieval Church doctrine and the centerpiece of the Dominican and Franciscan traditions. While its authorship has been shrouded in mystery and controversy, Marie Louise von Franz furnishes ample evidence that this was a final work of Thomas Aquinas, a Doctor of the Church. His vision begins with an anima figure of the Sapentia Dei.
This medieval alchemical text is rich in symbolism and offers a glimpse into how unconscious contents can be understood through their interactions with the material world. Marie Louise von Franz places Aurora Consurgens squarely in the tradition of visionary spiritual writings similar to the visions of Hildegard von Bingen or John of Patmos. Aquinas’s visions and his final commentary on the Song of Songs appear to have been the result of a state of ecstasy into which he fell just before his death. Marie Louise von Franz excavates a psychological treasure from his work.
Niklaus Von Flüe And Saint Perpetua: A Psychological Interpretation of Their Visions
Saint Niklaus von Flüe, the patron saint of Switzerland, was held in the highest esteem by both CG Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz. Jung even declared him the Patron Saint of Psychotherapy, due to the Saint’s deep inward reflections and profound experiences. His visions reportedly began while still in his mother’s womb and continued until his death. One of his later visions was a terrifying image of the face of God. Von Franz saw Niklaus as the shadow brother of Christ and wrote of him as the alchemical Anthropos, a universal man. His visions were an evolution of Christian mysticism.
Saint Perpetua was a young Christian woman put to death in 203 AD in the Roman arena at the age of 22. Her profound visions occurred days before her death. Von Franz penetrates these images, suggesting they were revelations of a new, Christian God-image breaking through from the collective unconscious into the animus of young Perpetua.
Marie-Louise von Franz is at her very best as she unravels the mysteries held within the visions of these two saints.
Volume 3 turns to the Maiden’s Quest within fairytales.
The maiden/heroine navigates a complicated maze of inner and outer relationships as she builds a bridge to the unconscious. The heroine contends with the animus in many forms like a devouring and incestuous father, demonic groom, the beautiful prince, an androgenous mother, a cold dark tower, and through conflict with the evil stepmother.
Dangers and pitfalls await her as the conscious feminine strives to make connections with the unconscious masculine. The maiden is the undeveloped feminine and the promised fruit of her struggle with the animus is the coniunctio. Volume 3 is a masterwork of cross-cultural scholarship, penetrating psychological insight, and a strikingly illuminating treatise. With her usual perspicacity and thoroughness, von Franz gathers countless fairytale motifs revealing a myriad of facets to the maiden’s quest.
Volume 2 – The Hero’s Journey is about the great adventure that leads to a cherished and difficult to obtain prize. In these fairytales, the Self is often symbolized as that treasured prize and the hero’s travails symbolize the process of individuation. In its many manifestations, the hero embodies the emerging personality. “In the conscious world, the hero is only one part of the personality—the despised part—and through his attachment to the Self in the unconscious is a symbol of the whole personality.”
Dr. Murray Stein’s prolific career has produced a substantial body of writings, lectures, and interviews. His writings, captured in these volumes, span a wide domain of topics including Christianity, individuation, midlife, the practice of analytical psychology, and topics in contemporary society. His deep understanding of analytical psychology is much more than an academic discourse, but rather a deeply personal study of Jung that spans nearly half a century.
Volume 7 of the Collected Writings of Murray Stein brings together the author’s writings on moral conscience and the problem of evil as developed in the works of C.G. Jung and other psychologists and philosophers. Included are reflections on the nature of evil and the source of evil, the importance of becoming conscious of what Jung called “the shadow” aspect of the personality, and the role of the individuation process for containment of shadow enactments.
Table of Contents
-Foreword
-Conscience
Preface
Chapter One – The Complexity of Conscience
Chapter Two – Solar Conscience
Chapter Three – Lunar Conscience
Chapter Four – Relations Between Solar and Lunar Conscience
-Introduction to Jung on Evil
-C.G. Jung and Erich Neumann on the Problem of Evil
-A Formula for Violence
-Explorations of Shadow: An Interview with Len Cruz
Murray Stein, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the International School of Analytical Psychology Zurich (ISAP-ZURICH). He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (1977) and of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts (1980). He was president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP) from 2001 to 2004 and President of ISAP-ZURICH from 2008 to 2012.
He has lectured internationally and authored countless papers and well over 45 books, including Jung’s Treatment of Christianity, In Midlife, Jung’s Map of the Soul, Minding the Self, Outside Inside and All Around and Jung’s Red Book for Our Time Volume 1 through 5 (co-edited with Thomas Arzt).
He is currently preparing his Collected Writings, seven volumes of which have been published to date. He lives in Switzerland and has a private practice in Zurich and from his home in Goldiwil.
Organizers have gathered provocative and diverse experts from Western, Eastern and Native American cultures and will encompass the fields of climate science, analytical psychology, ecopsychology, cultural ecology, deep ecology, environmental science, metaphysics and philosophy. Together you will explore the interconnection of all things, the personal and collective response to the climate crisis, the meaning of the pandemic, and the call to change that it has highlighted.
a Zoom seminar led by Eve Maram, PsyD, author of Psychopathy Within &
The Schizophrenia Complex
Friday, July 14, 2023
Noon – 3:30 p.m. EST
By going consciously into dark experiences of psychopathy with love, appreciation for symbol, compassion, and a touch of humor, Dr. Maram will show the gold, the possibility of authentic life, that lies hidden in what seems most unacceptable and most destructive to ourselves and others.
Keynote speaker for this conference is the renowned poet and writer, Ruth Padel, an advocate for environmental causes and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Professor Padel will also read and discuss some poems from her newest collection, Watershed.
broadcast in person (São Paulo, Brazil) and online
This Conference is hoping to bring together professionals, researchers, and scholars in an interdisciplinary context, to promote dialogue between topics such as the psyche and its relationship with spirituality, dreams, depth psychology, the body, and the spirit.
