Anima – The Binding Chaos Lexicon

Life energy.

Expanded explanation

The glossary line is two words, but anima carries much of Marsh's model, so the books define it more fully. She chooses the word deliberately and marks off what she does not mean: since the study of life in objects is recognized as animism, the word anima is used to represent life energy, and its usage is unrelated to any sense in psychology or Jung. Anima is the animating energy of life itself, the thing her definitions of alive, altruism and predation turn on. It comes in primary form, accessed directly, and secondary form, drawn through others, and it can be released, shared, intercepted, extracted and stored, which is what makes the anima bank and the predator possible. Marsh places it in a long line of names for life force, listing qi, anima mundi and chokmah among them, while giving it a specific technical role.

In Heather Marsh’s words

Marsh adopts the word and separates it from the Jungian sense.

“the word anima will be used in Binding Chaos theory to represent life energy. The usage of anima here is unrelated to any usage in psychology or other Jungian references”
Abstracting Divinity

Examples

Primary anima: Energy a living thing accesses directly is its primary anima, the base case of being alive in Marsh's sense.
Secondary anima: Energy drawn through other people, given or taken, is secondary anima, where predation becomes possible.
Stored anima: Surplus energy collected in a person, object, rite or idea is an anima bank, a store others can draw on.

How others use it

Anima is Latin for breath, soul or life, and versions of a life force appear across traditions, which Marsh lists: qi in Chinese thought, anima mundi in Western philosophy, chokmah in Kabbalah, and more. In psychology, Jung used anima for the unconscious feminine aspect of the psyche, a sense Marsh sets aside. Her usage keeps the old core meaning, life energy, and builds a specific mechanics around it.