If you look in a Latin dictionary, you will find that this word, which means life, mind, or soul, is given in a twofold form, masculine and feminine, Animus and Anima. Now it is in the dual nature thus indicated that the action of spiritual causation consists, and we cannot eliminate either of the two factors without involving a confusion of ideas which the recognition of their interaction would prevent us falling into.

When once we recognise the nature and function of Amina Mundi, we shall find that, under a variety of symbols, it is referred to throughout the Bible and indeed forms one of the principal subjects of its teaching; but to explain these Bible references would require a book to itself. In general terms, however, we may say that Anima Mundi is "the Eternal Feminine" and the necessary correlative to Animus Dei, the true Originating Spirit. It is what the medieval writers called "the Universal Medium" and is that principle which, as I pointed out in the opening chapters of this book, is esoterically called "Water".

It is not the Originating Principle itself, but it is that principle through which the Originating Principle operates. It is not originative but receptive, not the seed but the ground, formative of that with which it is impregnated, as is indicated by the old French expression for it, "ventre saint gris", the "holy blue womb" --- the innermost maturing place of Nature; and its power is that of attracting the conditions necessary