Laurel Howe

The animus remains a baffling, misunderstood force in women’s psychology, but the fairytale “Fitcher’s Bird” brings his ambivalent, wizardly power and his psychic aims as the spirit of individuation into view, reaching into rich alchemical symbolism to do so. The tale and its alchemical background are illuminated with dreams and psychic images from several women’s lives, whose stories help us understand the profound personal and archetypal value of engaging creatively with the animus. Like the alchemical nature God, Mercurius, the animus is a life force, an archetype with two sides. His negative side is symbolized in “Fitcher’s Bird” by a wizard’s longtime ability to abduct maidens from their parental homes with barely a touch by dressing as a beggar and appealing to their charity. He displays a perverse dominance over the feminine that has built up in our traditional attitudes over the millennia and takes hold of women through their own participation in those attitudes. Taking them to his great house in the forest, the wizard promises young women riches for their obedience. But the maidens, like the wives of Bluebeard, predictably enter the one forbidden room and end up slaughtered—in “Fitcher’s Bird” they are hewn limb from limb. Only one maiden is clever enough to pay attention to the gift the wizard’s positive side offers—a simple egg, symbolizing the process of individuation when an ego nurtures a relationship with the unconscious. Switching her focus to the egg, the heroine redeems her sisters and at the end of the tale makes an appearance as the wondrous Fitcher’s bird—an image for the archetypal feminine redeemed from dismemberment and disappearance.

Returning Spiritual Life to Nature in the Individuation of Women

The Wizard, the Egg and Fitcher’s Bird

Marie-Louise von Franz

Gotthilf Isler

Rivkah Schärf Kluger

Regine Schweizer-Vüllers

For the house of wisdom that already exists in the beyond – in the unconscious – to truly manifest within an individual human being, the whole of a person is required, along with all their four psychic functions of consciousness. This encounter with wholeness – with the divine – is a shocking event that leaves both parties – the human and the divine – renewed. The cover image of this volume portrays precisely this kind of event. It was painted by a Sicilian artist, Antonello da Messina (15th century) and it depicts l’Annunciata, The Annunciation of Mary, the fateful moment in which Mary encounters the Archangel Gabriel and becomes aware of her destiny. The angel is not depicted; we see only Mary and the shock she experiences in her encounter with the divine. The essays in this volume by Marie-Louise von Franz, Rivkah Schärf Kluger, Gotthilf Isler, and Laurel Howe revolve around this encounter. They detail the possible union of the opposites – the divine with the human, the feminine with the masculine, the demonic with the redemptive. Ultimately, they are all about a new god-image in which the feminine – Wisdom in its feminine form – is united with the masculine. This development has been in the making within the collective unconscious for centuries and it wants to become a reality in our time. This volume includes an original contribution by Marie-Louise von Franz, as well as other essays on Jungian Psychology. The main focus is upon aspects of the feminine and their psychological interpretation. Contents: Regine Schweizer-Vüllers, Foreword Rivkah Schärf Kluger, The Queen of Sheba in Bible and Legends Laurel Howe, Redeeming Mary Magdalene – The Feminine Side of the Death and Resurrection Archetype Marie-Louise von Franz, Rumpelstiltskin Gotthilf Isler, “The Cursed Princess” – The Redemption of the Feminine in Folk Tales.

Laurel Howe

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