The Anima Mundi School research center
our research objective
We are living in unprecedented times. The urgency of climate and ecological breakdown, together with the impending collapse of many socio-political and economic structures, can feel overwhelming to acknowledge and to carry in our everyday reality. Polarization and splitting deepen within societies and relationships. The pandemic showed us how quickly life can change on a global scale. What does it mean to live in a world facing such an immense scope of crises—and what is our place within this unfolding uncertainty?
Our place individually— as citizens, colleagues, friends, parents & partners—as well as our place collectively; as human beings. Carl Jung said more than 50 years ago, that human beings have lost their innate connection to the World Soul, what the ancient alchemists called the Anima Mundi; the living breathing spirit of nature and the cosmos. He foresaw the dangers and that the only way of ‘saving’ our world from destructive patterns, was for each of us to reclaim this innate, ancient connection in the roots of our psyche, the ground of our soul.
While there is a story of destruction and extinction unfolding, some of us are also drawn to witness a new story emerging from the depths. ‘A new story’, is what is often said these days as a solution to our problems. But can we conjure up a new story and impose it onto life, because we do not like the old story any longer?
The ancients knew that stories and myths emerge from the inner worlds. They come from the world of images, the Mundus Imginalis and the archetypal patterns of creation. They knew that to heal, be it the individual or the community, they had to ‘tend to the gods and goddesses’ —the true meaning of the word ‘therapeia’. But how far is today’s therapeutic world from this ancient way of communion and kinship? Most of humanity has forgotten, and denied, that it is these primal powers that are the ones holding the future of humanity, either destructive or regenerative. Our way through is if the old stories become the compost and chrysalis of these primal powers who can start weaving humanity back into that ancient being, the axis mundi, the cosmic world soul.
This is the work we take up at Anima Mundi School: research that begins from the bottom up, from the depths of psyche, reclaiming what has been lost and forgotten. It is only in a descent that we can touch the depths of soul. Individually and collectively, we make the descent of our time into an initiatory one—one that brings us closer to soul, and from there into relationship with the World Soul. From this ground we offer not conventional education or a course to merely “consume” but depth education: a way of learning that belongs to the mysteries of the soul.
“This is how elders were crafted, tempered through the heat of loss and the weight of loving this world.”
— Francis Weller
Our long-term courses and trainings are held within the framework of our research center. What began as a women’s incubation space has grown into a school of learning open to all, while remaining firmly rooted in the Feminine. We are a community dedicated to uncovering our deep roots, our place, and our creativity in the world, while cultivating an attitude of service to the Anima Mundi. Collectively, we listen, witness, and research myths, fairytales, dreams, and the emerging motifs of our time, as they rise from the depths through our work with the mythic imagination.
“Psychology, so dedicated to awakening the human consciousness, needs to wake itself up to one of the most ancient human truths: we cannot be studied or cured apart from the planet.”
core values
The Anima Mundi School holds a trinity of core values around which all our learning and research programs are crafted.
Personal in-depth growth: Our courses are first and foremost designed to help you reach within yourself and your psyche. For this reason, our work is grounded in the scientific contributions of C. G. Jung and later developments in depth psychology and alchemical psychology. All of our long-term courses are coupled with individual Jungian therapy, with a strong emphasis on dreamwork.
Braiding from the roots: Finding our roots, grounding in soil and soul, and reclaiming feminine wisdom is woven not only through our teaching modules but also into the very fabric of our organization. We strive to work in collaboration with the inner worlds and the mythic imagination—allowing realities to braid together, watching the story evolve rather than imposing fixed goals or outcomes. We initiate, create, and collaborate, but resist the colonial attitude of extraction, leverage, and imposition. Instead, we follow the breadcrumb trail of the present into the future, growing within the ecology of which we are part, rather than imposing ourselves upon it. The future we long for—a world where humans live in harmony with the natural world and with one another—can only arise from full participation in the present moment.
Independent & Interdependent: We hold a deep respect for science and the academic world, yet we believe the way of the feminine is first and foremost the way of nature. We engage with academic approaches when they move in rhythm with the soul and with the living essence of the Anima Mundi. For this reason, we have chosen an independent yet interdependent relationship to academia and institutional structures. To decolonize and re-enchant education, we must find our place outside rigid structures, while not rejecting them altogether.
There are emerging fields within academia that seek a more embodied, soulful, and ecological relationship to the more-than-human world. We welcome cross-pollination with these fields and seek to bring their insights into our learning experiences.
“To propose a psychology of Anima Mundi is to invite oneself to a relationship of intimacy with the Soul of the World and its objects. From this point of view, the psychic reality of the World’s Soul becomes available from the images. There is no way to separate our soul from the souls of others – and by “others” I mean people as well as everything that we can consider an environment. It is, thus no longer possible to work with the classical notion of individuation and its rhetoric of ‘my travel, my process, my journeys’, the blind frenetic pursuit of an inner Self, and to ignore the individuation of the Soul of the World and its objects. The care of the soul does not necessarily mean introversion or denying the reality of the world, its substance, and objects. There is no way to engage in soul-making if we keep ourselves attached exclusively to the Self, and exclude the world.”
— Marcus Quintaes on James Hillman’s Polemics in Archetypal Psychologies (Marlan, 2008)
