‘ … in a small corner of the house’

Anne Baring, Jungian analyst, writes about the incalculable effects on the world of the loss of ‘the Feminine’.

‘Instinctive knowledge of the holy unity of things, reverence for the interconnection of all aspects of life, trust in the power of the imagination and the faculty of intuition – all this as a way of relating to life through participation rather than through dominance and control, has almost been lost.’

She cites the devastation of nature, pollution of the earth, and impoverished lives and diseases as evidence of this.

‘The human heart cries out for the return of beauty, for a place of sanctuary, for community and relationship, where the inner life is seen to be as important as the outer and where a unifying sacred order to life on this planet is recognized and honoured.’

The remedy suggested by another Jungian, June Singer, is to balance the masculine and feminine aspects – masculine and feminine attitudes and consciousness – within each one of us. This involves the exploration of who we really are, rather than who we are supposed to be. Singer in her book Androgyny thought the resolution was the active loving and acceptance of internal and by extension external differences. Singer describes working with a Catholic priest, Father E, who was also devoted to his work as a college professor and a scholar. His interest was really in a studious way of life, but this stood in the way of his expected progression in the Church hierarchy. Well-respected, he was unable to spend the time he needed for writing. He said sadly to Singer: ‘My creativity has been frustrated by authority.’ His superiors demanded he fulfil a certain role model, one that left insufficient time and freedom to meet his creative life, his inner feminine.

‘Father E was keenly aware of the two energic qualities within himself, and he could live their relationship as inner harmony, even while feeling frustrated in his exterior life because so little space was allotted for his intellectual work’.

Singer continues:

‘Only recently is he coming to understand that in his celibate life as androgyne, his contributions come not so much from what he is doing, as from his way of being. Androgyny does not depend on what you do, but on what you are.’

Singer is suggesting we can conform in an outward way to the usual gender definitions/expectations, but something other can develop in our internal development that extends beyond and is independent of what society expects. [Note she was writing in the 1970s so much has changed, though also much hasn’t.] Singer describes another patient Mrs F, who, whilst holding down a demanding job, and bringing up three daughters, had found a place where everyday she can, in her own words, “… feel whole, complete, where my entire being functions at once and harmoniously”. This is when she separates herself from all demands of what, in her circles and times, a woman is: wage earner, housekeeper, wife, mother, socialising with friends, so that in a small corner of the house Mrs F spends time alone in contemplation and meditation.

‘She was different from the women she knew, and she had faced this truth about herself, accepting the reality of her involvement with the Spirit. All this belonged to a separate life for her, and to a deep inner relationship…. Both she and Father E had arrived at a sense of fulfilment, apart from any sexual attachment, which attested to an inner wholeness and freedom … both had found their androgyny through a form of spiritual celibacy.’