Alone and palely loitering - Jolanta (Reflecting on my Animas - I)
In this episode, I am reflecting on my experience with being a friend and at the same time, being attracted to a conflicted female, Jolanta. Shortly after meeting her in a bartending course, I feel attracted, repulsed, angered and enamored by her presence. My fellow classmate, Dan, warns me I'm in for some trouble, yet I have to see it through. Jolanta is beautiful, intelligent and, at times, mysterious. Do I have a chance, or am I a plain fool, waiting around hopelessly for her to choose me?
“For a woman, the typical danger emanating from the unconscious comes from above, from the ‘spiritual’ personified by the animus, whereas for a man it comes from the chthonic realm of the ‘world and woman’, i.e. the anima projected onto the world.”
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, c. 1863, John William Waterhouse - Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt
“At this, the Unico Arentino remarked: ‘... And their beauty is nearly always accompanied by cruelty and ingratitude towards those who serve them most faithfully and whose nobility, gentleness and virtue deserve to be rewarded.’”