Reconciliation

Here, the two figures patterned with floral motifs share a moment of recognition. Their patterns interweave across the surface, and their red eyes hint at the intensity of this process; the calm gesture, its eventual peace.

The piece is derived from the Jungian concept of Anima & Animus, two psychic entities that dwell in the body – The animus – bright and active – dwells in the eyes. The anima – dark and earth-bound, dwells in the abdomen.

Within their Chinese written forms both contain the symbol for daemon, the departed one. The animus is daemon and cloud. The animus – daemon and white.

Jung got this idea from an esoteric Chinese text, ‘The secrets of the Golden Flower’.

According to this text, bodily life is activated by the interplay of these two psychic structures. In Chinese they are termed yin and yang.

If the two come to an accommodation, a new ‘centre of life’ is developed which is independent of bodily existence. This idea remained central to Jung’s work – that we can – if we can reconcile the anima and animus – develop a sense of ourselves – an inner harmony – something beyond internal strife: the secret of the Golden Flower.