E.1-11: What Are Anima and Animus? Jungian Archetypes for Christian Spiritual Growth
Season 1: Episode 11
What Are Anima and Animus? Jungian Archetypes for Christian Spiritual Growth
listen by clicking the audio player here:
In this episode you will learn:
In this episode of The Christian Jung Podcast, Angela Meer takes us into the sacred waters where creation and the soul meet. Through Jung’s vision of anima and animus and the biblical imagery of rivers, we uncover how wholeness is written into God’s design. These archetypes aren’t about gender — they are inner parables of tenderness, courage, imagination, and truth.
We talk about:
🌊 Why Jung saw water as the symbol of the soul’s depths
📖 How Scripture reveals anima and animus in figures like Deborah, David, and Mary
💬 Why wounds in these inner archetypes block us from reflecting Christ fully
🔥 How the Holy Spirit unblocks our soul so rivers of living water can flow again
Whether you’ve wrestled with wounded intimacy, a harsh inner voice, or the longing for something more, this episode invites you into a deeper encounter with the Spirit who hovers over your hidden waters.
Episode Length: 20:00
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Transcript
“Have you ever stood at the edge of a river and felt, not just the pull of the current, but the sense that something was pulling you — down, inward, deeper?
“From the beginning, God created us in His image — male and female He created them. What if that mystery of creation is still written into each of us, not in the body alone, but deep in the soul — a hidden design meant to draw us closer to Him?”
The Bible begins by saying: ‘And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.’
Not over a garden, not over a city, but over a vast and formless sea.
For Jung, these waters are more than a backdrop. They are a symbol of the soul itself — mysterious, hidden, alive with meaning we cannot yet see.
And just as the Spirit hovered over those primeval waters, the Spirit still hovers over the depths of your inner life. Waiting. Brooding. Whispering.”“In this new season, we’re going to explore how God’s image in us speaks through two mysterious patterns of the soul — what Jung called the animus and the anima. They may sound unfamiliar at first, but they echo a truth Scripture has been telling us all along: that deep within every heart is a design for wholeness, where the living waters of the Spirit flow.”
It’s time to awaken holy wonder. Stay with me.
From the very first chapter of Genesis, we hear these words: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27).
This verse is more than a statement about physical creation. It is also a mystery about the soul. Just as God’s image holds both strength and tenderness, justice and mercy, Word and Spirit — so too does every human being carry within them the pattern of traits associated with the masculine and the feminine.Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, gave language to this truth. He said that deep in the unconscious, there is the animus, the soul-image that represents masculine characteristics. There is also the anima, the spirit-image that bears feminine characteristics. These are not about gender roles or social stereotypes, but about the way God has inscribed wholeness into our very being. Think of the last time your role as a mother demanded that you protect and guard your children: that is the animus at work. Or the last time your role as a man required that you used gentleness and patience in solving a problem: that is the anima at work.
Think of the stories of Scripture. Joseph dreams dreams that guide nations — but it is his tenderness toward his brothers that reveals God’s heart. Deborah leads Israel with boldness — but it is her song that carries the Spirit’s poetry. David slays giants with courage, yet weeps with abandon before the Lord. Mary treasures words in her heart, yet speaks her Magnificat with prophetic fire.
These are glimpses of the animus and anima at work: the bride and bridegroom archetypes woven into the tapestry of the soul. One draws us toward love, imagination, and intimacy. The other strengthens us with clarity, word, and conviction.
Jung once wrote that these inner figures are “mediators between the conscious mind and the mysteries of the unconscious.” As Christians, we might say: they are part of the inner scaffolding God has placed within us — so that when the Holy Spirit hovers over our lives we represent Christ in all His fullness.
However, this is exactly why we need to understand the animus and anima at work in our lives – because if we have wounds from our parents, perhaps a spouse or a partner, those wounds prevent us from showing the full measure of Christ – and we can get blocked in our ability to shine the light of Christ.
narnia, the river rhine and you
We are about to go to a break, but before we do, consider this thought: at what points in your life did you need God’s compassion? What points of your life did you need God’s correction? How do these two different aspects of God come into union in your life?
The very first picture the Bible gives us of creation is this:
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen. 1:2).Before there were stars, before there were gardens, before there were people — there was water. Chaotic, formless, yet alive with potential. And the Spirit of God brooded over those waters like a mother bird over her nest.
For Jung, this image of primordial waters was not just a metaphor about the universe — it was a picture of the human soul. In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he tells the story of being a young boy lying on the bank of the Rhine River. He gazed into the current and suddenly felt that the river itself was alive, filled with meaning and mystery. He wrote that he felt “the secret of existence” stirring in those waters, as if the depths themselves were speaking to him.
C. S. Lewis also carries this theme in his Narnia series, where the rivers are not mere scenery but living presences. In Prince Caspian, he describes the Naiads — the river-spirits who once moved freely through the land until the forests were felled and the streams defiled. When Aslan returns, the trees and waters awaken, and the Naiads rise again from their long silence.
And Scripture, too, gives us this image. Jesus says in John 7:38, ‘Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ In Revelation 22, John sees ‘the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.’ The waters of the soul, the waters of creation, the waters of God’s Spirit — all flow together in this image of what it means to be an unblocked carrier of God’s presence to the world.
For Jung, the Rhine whispered of the secret of the depths of the human soul. For Lewis, the Naiads groaned under the weight of defilement until Aslan’s return set them free. And for Scripture, the river is the Spirit Himself, flowing with eternal life that mirrors Jesus’ mission statement that He came to give us abundant life in John 10:10. All three voices tell us the same truth: the soul is like a body of water teeming with life and creativity. When blocked, these impulses of demonstrating Christ with our soul falls silent. But when we examine ourselves by the Spirit and recognize where blockages are occurring in our understanding of gender, the Spirit of God can then meet us in our needs and help us in unblocking areas of His light.
For Jung at the river Rhine, that moment stayed with him for the rest of his life. Water became the great symbol of the unconscious — the vast, hidden depths of the soul where God still hovers. Just like Jesus used the image of water to demonstrate the Spirit that flows without blockage.
Just as the Spirit hovered over the deep in the beginning, the Spirit hovers still over the depths of your soul — over the dreams you do not yet understand, over the longings you cannot yet name, over the mysteries that have not yet surfaced.
The story of animus and anima begins here, in those waters. Because before we can speak of inner images, or voices of the soul, we have to begin where Scripture begins — with the Spirit of God brooding over the deep.
anima and animus in the bible
When Jung spoke of animus and anima, he wasn’t talking about gender roles. He wasn’t saying men are one thing and women another. Instead, he was describing archetypes — patterns of the soul that give us wholeness.
Think of archetypes like parables that God has already written into our being. Jesus told stories of seeds and lamps, prodigals and shepherds, not to trap us in categories, but to awaken us to truths we already carry inside. In the same way, animus and anima are inner parables: the soul’s language for love, imagination, and intimacy on one side; for clarity, strength, and conviction on the other.
I’ve known this truth not just in theory, but in my body. Living with cerebral palsy, I’ve had to navigate the limits of strength, balance, and movement every single day. There have been seasons when I felt my body resist me.
But here’s the paradox: in those moments, something rose up from deeper waters. Sometimes it was the animus, teaching me to rest in gentleness toward myself. Other times it was the anima, that inner voice urging me to press on, to speak with authority, to claim the ground of faith even when my body trembled.
Neither was about male or female. Both were about wholeness. If I only succumbed to gentle rest, I would not have the fire that I need to do the work Christ has given me to do. Similarly, if I only responded to my body with a type of “soldering on” I could easily do damage to my body in the short and long term. What is interesting here is that I actually have a damaged animus complex: meaning that I had to let God teach me to treat my body with compassion. Because I had a complex I often carried that militant forcefulness into my work in ministry. How many of you can guess how well that worked out for me! But it wasn’t until I began to heal my anima that I began to work with people, including myself, with a great deal more compassion.
I suppose you’ve probably also met people with an animus complex: they never push themselves, they’re only compassionate, without the fire and drive necessary to take on their own calling, or individuation in life.
If these ideas are speaking to you, I have good news: we are covering the animus and anima in the next 10 episodes so that you can get a really good picture of how to heal the animus and anima complexes.
Let’s turn now and see where animus and anima show up in Biblical characters because the Bible itself is full of these patterns. We have
• David, the warrior-king, weeping with tears of intimacy before the Lord — the anima and animus in dialogue.
• Deborah, the judge who led armies with boldness, yet also sang a song of Spirit-filled poetry — strength and soul woven together.
• Mary, who received the Word of God in her womb with receptive openness, and then spoke her Magnificat with prophetic fire.
Each of them embodies more than “masculine” or “feminine.” They embody the fullness of the image of God at work within a human life.
So when Jung described animus and anima as archetypes, he was not giving us a new gender system. He was offering language for the mystery Scripture has been telling us all along: that God’s image is bigger than our categories. That the Spirit hovers over the hidden waters of the soul, bringing forth both tenderness and strength, both intimacy and clarity, both the Bride and the Word.
And for me, living with weakness in the body has been one of the great teachers of this truth. Because in the very place where my strength runs out, I often find my imagination catches fire. And in the very place where my heart grows weary, I hear a voice urging me to endure. These are not two separate people. They are the archetypes of animus and anima rising from the waters within me, and the Spirit of God reminding me that the image of God in me is whole, even when my body feels broken.
not “fixing myself”…letting holy spirit remove what is necessary
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Drive the Jungian aspects home
And here is the invitation: to let these archetypes do their work. To let the animus teach us to feel, imagine, and love. To let the anima teach us to discern, to speak truth, to act with courage. And, ultimately, to let the Spirit weave them together in Christ — until, as Paul says, “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
Jung called the animus and anima mediators — bridges between our conscious mind and the hidden depths of the soul. But he also admitted that they are not always easy to reach. Sometimes the animus is blocked, caught in distortion, leaving us trapped in illusion or false intimacy. Sometimes the anima hardens, leaving us with opinions instead of true discernment.
In other words, left to ourselves, these archetypes can confuse us as much as they enlighten us. They remain like wells with stones blocking the water.
This is why, as Christians, we cannot stop with Jung. We need the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said in John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John goes on to explain, “By this he meant the Spirit.”
The Spirit is the one who hovers over the waters of the soul. The Spirit is the one who removes the stones from the well, who unblocks the flow of animus and anima so that they can carry us toward Christ.
Think of Romans 8:26 — “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” This is exactly what Jung saw in symbolic language: that something deeper than our ego speaks within us. But Scripture reveals the fullness of that truth: it is the Spirit, not just archetypes, who moves in those depths with groanings too deep for words.
I have felt this in my own life. There are times my imagination feels sealed, like a closed door. Other times my inner voice grows harsh or rigid, like a dictator or leaving me dry. But then, often in prayer, the Spirit softens what was blocked. Suddenly a dream makes sense, or a word of Scripture comes alive, or a surge of courage rises where before there was only fear.
That is not me fixing myself. That is the Spirit, unlocking the mystery.
And this is why animus and anima matter. Not because they are ultimate in themselves, but because they are vessels — inner parables — through which the Spirit of God reveals the wholeness we were created for.
Without the Spirit, we remain fragmented. With the Spirit, the rivers of living water flow.
reflect and pray
A prayer: You know, as I was preparing this episode there came an image in my Spirit of someone or someones who are listening. I felt like this episode is pulling at something in you that God wants to heal and touch. I saw two different people: one was a boy – a younger version of you – that was watching his parents get a divorce. Something in you broke when you saw that your father was determined not to love your mother anymore. You saw your mother as the most important woman in your life, and watching your father reject her broke something in you at this tender age and at the level of anima and animus. I’m going to pray for you soon that God heals you of that breach so that you can start functioning in wholeness toward yourself and toward the people God has you on assignment for.
Invite Reflection:
Even if this person isn’t you, this prayer is.
Holy Spirit,
You hovered over the waters in the beginning,
and You hover still over the hidden waters of my soul.
You know the depths I cannot see,
and the mysteries I cannot name.
Lord Jesus,
You are the Bridegroom of my heart,
and You are the Living Word who speaks into my silence.
Heal within me what is divided.
Where my soul-image, the anima, is wounded —
restore her tenderness, her capacity for love,
her gift of imagination to see You clearly.
Where my spirit-image, the animus, is broken —
purify his voice, strengthen his conviction,
teach him to speak only what is true and good.
O God,
Remove the stones from the wells of my heart.
Let the rivers of living water flow freely again.
Bring my inner opposites into harmony,
so that in their union I may glimpse Your wholeness.
As Paul prayed,
“May I be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).
As John saw,
may I be made ready as a bride adorned for her Bridegroom (Rev. 21:2).
Spirit of Truth,
hover over me now.
Heal what is hidden.
Awaken what is asleep.
And bring me into the wholeness of Christ,
in whose image I was created,
male and female, whole and holy.
Amen.
“In the paid Christian Jung community, we dive deeper into these practices, with the main goal being your spiritual transformation and psychological wholeness. Membership is only open a few times each year, so I invite you to go to our website at AngelaMeer.com to sign up.
“We’ll be here every week, diving deeper into the profound union of faith and psychology. Join me again, same time next week, to continue your journey toward God as Divine Spirit.”
“Next episode we are going to dive deeper into the anima and animus and discover why these parts of us tend to be broken in this world and how to let the Holy Spirit illumine us into wholeness.
Encourage 3-5 minutes of quiet reflection: “Take a few minutes now to sit in silence before God. What is He showing you in this moment?”
Guide listeners into a short contemplative prayer practice.
Closing Prayer (St. Catherine of Siena):
O eternal Trinity,
You are a deep sea,
into which the more I enter,
the more I find,
and the more I long to seek.