What if the connection between heart and mind in a man is feminine, where that connection in the woman is her masculine ‘side’?
Are the Anima and Animus literally the animating, animated part of the human?
That’s also the view Nietzsche holds, as does the East, in general - in Chi Kung there is the concept of the ‘second brain’ located 2 finger breadths under the navel, called Tan Tien, or in Japanese, Hara. (As in Harakiri, where a samurai stabs himself in that place for an honorable death)
Nietzsche calls the ‘mere brain’ the little self, and the body the greater self.
In Chinese Medicine, there is a sequence of 5 organs; heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, liver, corresponding to five emotions; joy, worry, sorrow, fear, anger (and back to heart, joy) that is recommended rather than any other order. It’s a powerful form of meditation to feel these emotions in sequence, in general we are taught to avoid ‘negative emotions’ but that of course only clogs them and causes diseases of these organs. Its great to give them all the chance to express in this sequence. All of them are part of this greater self of which the heart is ruler.
The anima is the unconscious feminine in the masculine, the animus is the unconscious masculine in the feminine. Each of the two partners has a feminine side, an anima, and a masculine side, an animus. The anima (feminine) side of your partner is the side that is most sensitive, vulnerable and emotional, and the animus (masculine) side of your partner is the side that is analytical, critical and logical. To work on this anima/animus dynamic, I need to remember that I am not my anima or animus but that both are inside me and work on me. A man’s animus has to work on integrating the feminine side of himself into his masculine mind and ego.
Does the brain, via nerves, receive any messages from body parts other than OK and not OK? Is the anima the right brain and the animus the left brain? (Sperry), Romantic references to the heart, which is a pump, obscure the matter rather than clarify it.
In the past emotions were thought to come from the liver and the kidneys. Can you imagine what our songs would be like if that way of thinking had persisted?
“I left my liver in San Francisco”. e.g. Chinese medicine still connects emotion to body parts.