Up: [[Spirituality]] Created: 2022-02-08 The anima mundi is the world/cosmic soul. Until 300-500 years ago, the world soul was the mediator between us and the divine. It was personified by [[Sophia]]. I think that makes Sophia an [[Archetype]] of the world soul. The world’s soul is always thought of as [[Symbolic Feminine]]. The creator god who works with the world’s soul to make and order the universe is almost always thought of as masculine. I wonder what that distinction means for the world’s soul. What characteristics does it have that makes it feminine? Do the major religions believe that there is a world soul distinct from God? Is it Mary? If the anima mundi could speak it would say, *I am alive. I am becoming!* At least that’s what [[Sharon Blackie]] believes. I’m not so sure. I understand that the world, as in the natural world, is changing and developing, but I don’t know what the distinction is between the natural world and the world soul. It sounds as if Sharon believes them to be the same thing. Ancients believed that we contain a bit of the divine world soul. Plotinus referred to humans and to the world soul as ‘soul sisters’. He said that the soul isn’t in our body, our body is in the soul. [[James Hillman]] phrased the same thing just a touch differently when he said, *We think that psyche is in us, but we are in psyche.* Hillman got much of his work from classical philosophy. See also [[Believing in the World's Soul Makes Depth Work Richer]]