The Anima Mundi School is a center for learning, research and reclaiming of the deep feminine & connection to the Anima Mundi—the World Soul, supported by and grounded in the psychology of Carl G. Jung.
Reclaiming the Mythical Feminine
Class of 2022
Every year—since 2017—the Anima Mundi School journeys with a group of women through 7 myth-cycles. We return to an ancient way of rhythmic, repetitive work with the oral tradition of myth-telling, combined with creative expression, art and depth-work through analysis and dreamwork. The red thread of the stories weaves a belonging to an ancient mythic soil that belongs—and always belonged—to the (World) Soul. We are woven back to an ancient belonging, both participants and storytellers as well as the ecology of which we are part.
The start of 2022 marked the start of the Ukrainian war, which came as a shock to the world and is to this day an ongoing crisis and tragedy. In our mythic time, it came right at the time when we were immersed in the Egyptian myth of Isis & Osiris, a story that has deep archetypal political power struggles woven throughout it. Being in this mythic container and time, allowed us to stay present and witness the incredibly difficult news and hold in our consciousness the narratives of the myth as well as that of the news. In our collective dreamwork art that consists of collective dream-images and motifs (a work that is currently sealed from the public), we could hold both the myth and the Ukrainian war in one single image. The mythic and imaginal faculty is our greatest ally when the mind cannot make sense of what is happening in our world.
The group journeyed through 7 cycles filled with creation stories and myths on the feminine, tended their dream images with curiosity and generosity of their time and creative impulse. Here is a glimpse into the final creative works called ‘The Crescendo’. It is with love and enthusiasm that I share these with you again this year.
Take you time to go through these expressions as you would in an art gallery, let them speak to you and through you and feel free to share with those you feel will appreciate.
all the best blessings,
Faranak Mirjalili
(Founder Anima Mundi School)
Imagining Her
by Maria Stella Lydaki
Stills - performance, Rhodes Greece
““I walked in silence or with silence and I let images fill me.””
“When I was in the ruins of the church I moved my body into the space, I walked in silence or with silence and I let images fill me, sometimes there was nothing but I kept moving or being moved and then an image appeared I heard the waves of the night sea and then before I know I saw her dark waters filling this church; the water entered the space filling the cracks and I felt the presence of the dark Madonna grounding this place with Mystery, I kept moving even after the image was gone but when I left the space it felt as if a ritual had taken place. I felt refreshed, and excited, this place is different now in my mind and I hope that a passing tourist will stop and hear the waves of the night sea and might feel her presence too because I brought her into this space or she wanted to enter through me imagining her.”
The Divine Call to Love
by Stephanie Hulsmann
““I was inspired to immerse myself one last time and listened to all the myths, back to back. This painting is what emerged from this process. I had no idea what I was going to paint but trusted the journey.
It was like being in another dimension for 12 hours - just surrendering to my creativity.””
“The painting was done with acrylic paints on canvas. To show the interconnectivity of life, it was done through dotting the paint rather then uses brushes strokes. There were no outlines - the painting grew from the waters in the lower right corner— from where Inanna plucks the Huluppu tree from the river of Euphrates.”
The Dancing Goddess
by Catalina Scotti
charcoal + pastel painting and poem
Troubled Waters,
the stomach that waves, roars,
murmur of worlds of light and shadow.
How many faces to discover, how many words to say.
A song from the deep,
of past places,
from hidden places,
From deep places.
The night falls, its dancing stars
They move endlessly in an endless dance.
The queen of the night lights up her eyes,
murmuring words for those who seek comfort.
Do not forsake me, dance, my moving hands, my stomach on fire.
Electric energies crown the night.
The Ancestor
by Kate Alderton
““First stirrings of a fuller piece about women and wildness. A leap from a roof, and a fear of leaping. To be tame, or to be wild- at what cost? A gathering of the threads of my great-grandmothers voice through time, to speak some of her story and try to understand some of mine.
To create the piece I worked physically with the threads/ buttons/ dresses/ handed down through my mothers’ family line, with fire and ritual, as well as weaving with the stories and meditations we were steeped in during the course.””
Skeleton Bird Woman & The Cry of the Loons
by Esther
“The haunting cries of the loons shatter the silence of darkness on the warm summer nights of the bountiful lakes of the Canadian Shield. They are creatures of the skies and the depths, where they dive for food, but they cannot walk on land. Their red eyes help them locate prey while submerged.
The skeleton bird-woman came to me in a dream. Her body is of the earth and her limbs are made to walk on land, yet her head endows her with avian vision. Like Inanna, she brings together the wisdom of above and below so that we may carry the transformative power with us as we walk upon the Earth.”
Stitch-work
by Joke Gosker
“This piece brings together my personal journey where I stitched together animism, polytheism and monotheism, my past and my eternal present.”
Sacred Grief
by Sheena B. Patel
“I became intrigued by how sacred geometry and the seven energy centres of the body linked to one another. There were many different emotions aroused at various times throughout the Anima Mundi cycles. I want to thank all the goddesses that travelled with me on this voyage and left me with "holy gifts" in the form of this "crescendo.”
Gratitude Poem
Dear Inanna,
Thank you for gifting me the confidence to break cycles.
Dear Persephone,
Thank you for showing me the beauty of the Underworld.
Dear Isis,
Thank you for introducing me to 'Grief.'
Dear Kali,
Thank you for teaching me to use my voice
Dear Saraswati,
Thank you for showing me to honour my creativity.
Dear Sophia,
Thank you for bringing out my pain.