Mythological themes, or motifs, are repeated again and again in the religion, literature, and art of vrious cultures throughout the world. Carl Jun offered an explanation of hwy this phenomenon occurred called the collective unconscious. Jung defines the collective unconscious as "a part of the psyche which can be netatively distinguished from a personal unconscious by the fact that it does not, like the latter, owe its existence to personal experience and consequentlys is not a persoanl acquisition . . . the contents of the collective unconsciouys have never been in consciousness, and therefore have never been individually acquired, but owe their existence exclusively to heredity (Read, 1969, 42)." The contents of the collective unconscious consists of the archetypes and the instincts. jThe archetypes are modes of perception common to all of humanity. They take the form of symbols in mythology, fairy tales, and religion, and are means by which certain unconscioyus ideas are communicated to the conscious mind. However, one must be careful not to confuse the symbol for the archetype. The archetype is an unconscious psychic organ, whereas the image is an expression or interpretation of that archtype in cultural clothing. A second set of occupants in the collective unconscious are the instincts. "[I]nstincts are typical modes of action: "uniform and regularly recurring modes of action" (Mattoon, 1981, 39)." Archetypes are concerned with the perception of a situation and instincts are concerned with action.

One particular archetype that Jung described was the anima. This is the feminine element of a man's psyche. The anima appears in symbolic form in many myths and fairy tales as the moon goddess, the maiden, or the virgin. Often if there is a beautiful princess in a story she is a representation of the anima. The anima is extremely important in male psychology when emotions or relationship is involved because the anima acts as a mediator between the consciousness and the collective unconscious. Therefore, the anima is seen as the gateway to spirituality for a man.

A man often projects his anima onto various women. He is attracted to women who catch this projection, or in some way reflect back the ideal qualities that he is searching for. The proper progression of this process is that after a short amount of time the man will begin to relate to the actual physical woman, and see the discrepancies between her and his projections onto her. When this happens the man ideally would stop projecting and relate to his anima on an inner basis and relate to the woman outwardly. This process often goes awry, however, and men jump from woman to woman in an attempt to maintain the anima projection. The whole notion of romance relies heavily on the projection of anima onto a woman, and for that projection to stay put.

The song, "Mysterious Ways," by U2 lends intself to analysis in terms of a man being urged to relate to his anima through healthy, internal methods. The imagery in the song is overwhelmingly feminine. Johnny is to "take a walk with his sister, the Moon(U2, 1991)." In many mythologies, especially Greek and Roman, the moon is a goddess. He is to let her "pale light in to full up [his] room (U2, 1991)." Her gentle light prods Johnny onto greater levels of consciousness; he's been living underground or a lower level of consciousness where he's not communicating with the archetypes in the collective unconsciousness. "You've been running away from what you don't understand (U2, 1991)." Johnny is characterized by his flight from the feminine. He doesn't understand his mysterious sister and as a result retreates entirely from her into the unenlightened underground.

Johnny needs to be willing to walk with his sister because she can tell him about the things that he can't explain. The anima can be the vehicle through which archetypes can be expressed. These revelations from the collective unconscious lend meaning to Johnny's life, and allow him to more fully integrate the unconscious contents of his psyche into his life. A proper relationship with the anima often appears in the form of religious life -- "If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel . . ." (anima can lead a man to prayer) (U2, 1991). Johnny's sister is described in oceanic terms, as well: "She's the wave, she turns the tide . . . (U2, 1991)." The ocean, waves, and tides are all linked to the moon and are also feminine symbols.

The anima is also able to see "the man inside the child," or as Robert Johnson put it see the god in the man. If the anima reflects the heroic 'god-like' idealization, then a man won't place that burden onto a women, thus allowing him to have an unencumbered relationship with her.

The phenomenon of the anima is a mystery to the man, but if he communes with her internally it will lift him up. The anima and the spirit (both are Jungian archetypes) work together to create this enlightening experience of lifting up the man's day to day experiences. The overwhelming imagery in the song, " Mysterious Ways," is feminine. The moon, the ocean, the waves, the tides, and the mystery are all feminine qualities in Western mythological thought.

The myth of Diana and Actaeon in the Greco-Roman tradition shows the tragic effects of not relating to the anima properly. Diana is the virgin goddess of the moon and the hunt. She is a probable expression of the anima archetype. Every archetype is bipolar, meaning that when interpreted into consciousness it can have a "positive" meaning or a "negative" meaning. In " Mysterious Ways" the anima is being related to properly and has taken on a postive mythological form. In this myth, however, Actaeon has trespassed, and as a result the form anima takes is vengeful.

Actaeon was a skilled hunter and the son of King Cadmus. He and his friends were out hunting all day and were far from home. Actaeon suggested that he and his friends quit their hunting for the day since they had been so successful and rest until the morning in a nearby valley thickly populated by cypress and pine trees. This valley was sacred to Diana, and at the far end of the valley there was a cave wherein Diana would bathe after her hunting forays. This very day Diana was in teh cave being attended to by her nymphs in the pool.

Actaeon, having left his friends, wandered through the valley aimlessly and came to the cave. As he entered the mouth of the cave the nymphs screamed and ran to cover Diana, but she was taller than they and stood before Actaeon uncovered. She tried to reach for her arrows, but they were out of reach, so she splashed water into Actaeon's face and said, "Now go and tell, if you can, that you have seen Diana unapparelled (Bulfinch, 1949, 38)." Immediately a pair of stag's horns began to grow out of Actaeon's head. His neck grew longer, his ears became sharp-pointed, his hands became hooves, his arms lengthened, and his body was covered with a spotted hide. Actaeon ran from the cave overcome by fear. He pondered for a moment what he shoudl do -- go home to the castle or stay here in the woods. He was ashamed to do the former and afraid to do the latter. While he paused, thinking, he heard the barking of one of the dogs in his pack. Soon the rest of the dogs joined in and began the chase. Actaeon ran and the dogs followed. Finally, one of the dogs fastened onto his back, and another onto his shoulder. Soon the rest of the dogs were on him tearing at him. All the while as he tried to call off his own dogs his companions searched for Actaeon, disappointed that he missed such an excellent hunt.

The themes in this myth closely echo those in the myth of the White Bison Spirit Woman of the Oglala Sioux as recorded in Robert Johnson's book, We. In this myth, two scouts, a wise one and a foolish one, see the White Bison Woman while out on the plains. The foolish scout is struck by the Woman's beauty and desires to do "bad" things with her. As she comes closer, the Spirit Woman tells the men that they can come do what they were thinking about. The foolish scout goes down to the Spirit Woman and is surrounded by a cloud. When the cloud lifts the foolish scout is nothing but a skeleton covered with worms.

The same motif runs through the myth of Diana and Actaeon. The valley can be thought of as the collective unconscious. It is dark because of the thick enclosure of trees. Diana is the queen of the valley (just like anima is the queen of the collective unconscious). Actaeon's mistake is that he is recklessly treading on holy ground. He ambles through the valley with no particular objective in mind, and as a result uncovers anima-Diana in an improper way. In some versions of the myth he actuallly sneaks up to the pool so he can glimpse Diana unclothed. It can be seen that Actaeon wasn't treating Diana (or anima) with proper respect. Actaeon is gravely punished for his trespasses, and ultimately dies because of his folly.

Proper relationship to anima is important for psychological health. "It is anima--White Bison Woman--who brings to the conscious mind the evidence of realities not seen in the physical world. We seek the spirit realm in romantic love, we seek it in sex, we seek it in physical posessions and drugs and physical people; but it is not there. It is only revealed through the soul (Johnson, 174)." The anima is especially important when a man is dealing with emotions. When involved in relationships with women, men have a tendency to project the anima onto a woman. This projection interferes with the development of love because while the anima is being projected the only sees the idealized "goddess" that the woman is reflecting and he doesn't get to know the woman for herself. Often when a man finally realizes that this woman he's "in love" with is another human being like him he rejects her and looks for another woman to reflect his anima back at him. This is the tragedy that is acted out in the myth of Tristan and Iseult. Tristan rejects Iseult of the White Hands because he can't shake the idealized image of Iseult the Fair from his mind. As long as a man binds himself to the anima projection like Tristan, he will never be able to enjoy the pleasures of this world. He will continually seek the thrill of the electrically charged romance, and scorn true relationship with a real woman here and now. Iseult the Fair is always far off -- existing in the past or the future, but never the present.

To end the projections, Robert Johnson suggests that a man learn to commune internally with his anima. This may take the form of mediation or religious devotion, or something else, but the point is that the proper place for the anima is in the psyche where she can relate the collective unconscious to the conscious. Until this has been done, the anima will continually weave a web of illusions and idealizations inevitably leading a man to reject the simple pleasures in the here and now.

Bulfinch, Thomas. (1949). Bulfinch's Mythology. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Johnson, Robert. (1983). We: understanding the psychology of romantic love. San Fransisco: HarperSanFransisco.

Mattoon, Mary Ann. (1981). Jungian psychology in perspective. New York, NY: The Free Press.

Read, Sir Herbert, Michael Fordham, Gerhard Adler, and William McGuire. (Eds.). (1969). The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 9, Part 1). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

U2. (1991). Mysterious Ways. On Achtung Baby [Cassette]. New York, NY: Island Records, Inc.