I believe that the astonishingly consistent and nuanced reality of the planetary correlations with the archetypal dynamics of human life is one of the most compelling intimations we have that we live in a meaning-laden and purposeful universe.
Archetypal Cosmology: Past and Present
ince a recent issue of The Mountain reflect its emergence from a unique played a similar role in late modern cul- SAstrologer was devoted to matters convergence of scholars and intellec- ture, attracting countless scholars and archetypal, I was asked by the editors tual currents at two particular learning visionaries, from Aldous Huxley, Alan and a number of its readers to consider communities, Esalen Institute during the Watts, and Arnold Toynbee to Abra- writing a brief overview of the history of 1970s and ’80s and the California Insti- ham Maslow, R. D. Laing, and Lama archetypal cosmology. So, in this essay, tute of Integral Studies from the 1990s Govinda. An overriding impulse toward I would like to describe, first, the key to the present. Out of that creative exploration and transformation per- individuals and influences that contrib- commingling of people and ideas arose vaded the institute community, as con- uted to the academic discipline and phil- a distinctive vision of psyche and cos- temporary psychology and philosophy osophical perspective called archetypal mos, of the human being’s co-creative met esoteric traditions and practices cosmology, and then its longer ancestry, participation in an ensouled, evolving in service of expanding the horizons the centuries-old traditions out of which universe. This cosmological vision is of human experience and knowledge. it emerged. grounded in a particular astrological Ancient and modern, East and West, It could be argued that the emer- research paradigm that has proved body and soul, science and spirituality, gence of archetypal cosmology was in highly promising in the study of history shamanism and mysticism, quantum some sense inevitable, as scholars and and biography, psychology, philoso- physics and the psychedelic revolution researchers working in late 20th-century phy, religion, mythology, culture, and — all had a place at the table. academia recognized the larger implica- the arts. In astrology, the field at Esalen was tions of the evidence for planetary cor- It often happens that the fresh seeded by Dane Rudhyar’s lectures relations with the patterns of human winds of new ideas and spiritual there in the 1960s. I had first encoun- experience. Given the extraordinary impulses that enter into a culture and tered astrology in conversations with nature of these correlations, the obvi- eventually transform it do not originate a Jungian faculty member at Harvard ous task was to pursue the research in in the mainstream universities, but when I was an undergraduate in the a more systematic way, think deeply rather come from outlier institutions late 1960s and early ’70s, but it took about the resulting evidence, then inte- and learning communities that are the metaphysically wide-open, esoteri- grate this with the relevant ideas and more countercultural, adventurous, cally intensive atmosphere of Esalen conceptual frameworks from both the and visionary in character. Such was to spur a more serious engagement admired past, such as the Platonic– the case, for example, in 15th-century with that perspective. In my early years Pythagorean tradition or the work of Europe, when the late medieval univer- at Esalen, I was working on my doc- Johannes Kepler, and the cutting-edge sities had become stagnant, and the toral degree and taking seminars with present, from depth psychology to the crucial insights and scholarship that a number of remarkable teachers, each new paradigm sciences. helped bring forth the Renaissance of whom was carrying critical insights: But if the rise of archetypal cosmol- emerged from the Florentine Platonic Joseph Campbell, with his multicultural ogy was perhaps inevitable in principle, Academy. In the second half of the 20th erudition deciphering the archetypal its specific character and even its name century, Esalen Institute in California language of myth, “the secret opening
June/July 2011 * The Mountain Astrologer 65 Archetypal Cosmology we witnessed the various ways a transit involving Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or We witnessed the Pluto to the natal chart could be embod- through which the inexhaustible ener- various ways a transit ied in experience. We were also able to gies of the cosmos pour into human cul- assess with greater experimental preci- tural manifestation”; Gregory Bateson, involving Saturn, sion which astrological factors tended with his polymath’s recognition of an Uranus, Neptune, or to be most significant and what were “ecology of mind” in nature and “the the orbs (the range of degrees before patterns which connect”; Huston Smith, Pluto to the natal chart and after exact) within which planetary with his ecumenical transmission of the could be embodied aspects were archetypally operative. world’s religious and mystical traditions; We found that by far the principal and Stanislav Grof, with his radically in experience. factors in understanding these experi- expanded cartography of the psyche ences were the major planetary aspects and powerful methods of psychospiritual cine rituals with greater awareness of the in natal charts, personal transits and transformation. While, in retrospect, psychological dynamics active for that progressions, and world transits. The one can see how these teachings helped person and that time, to gain insight into astrological approach that emerged as shape the approach to astrology that certain cyclical activations of particular most illuminating was thus essentially would emerge at Esalen, initially astrol- complexes in an individual’s inner equivalent to that of Kepler, with his ogy still seemed to me an unlikely can- world and outer-life circumstances — emphasis on the planetary aspects as didate for being a key to the mystery of astrology seemed to represent, as Grof the dominant indicators of astrological psyche and cosmos. Richly symbolic, put it, a kind of “Rosetta stone” for meaning, an unfolding cosmic geometry yes, strangely helpful perhaps in fram- understanding the human psyche. I was of archetypal meaning centered on the ing imaginative reflections on one’s psy- reminded of Bruno Schulz’s words: moving Earth. The evidence also sug- chological tendencies — but what could gested the importance of recognizing it really have to do with the actual vast So it comes to pass that, when we larger orbs than have generally been universe of planets and galaxies? pursue an inquiry into a character used in traditional astrology. We came That perception rapidly changed beyond a certain depth, we step to see aspects not as acting like isolated when Grof and I, pursuing research out of the field of psychological cat on-and-off light switches, but rather as together in the field of consciousness egories and enter the sphere of the indicating archetypal wave forms that studies and following a suggestion by ultimate mysteries of life. The floor- enter into the individual or collective Arne Trettevik, were surprised to dis- boards of the soul, to which we try psychic field and interact with the larger cover an extraordinarily consistent to penetrate, fan open and reveal complex whole of archetypal dynam- and symbolically nuanced correlation the starry firmament.1 ics cumulatively operative in the field. between the timing of individuals’ major These are then shaped and inflected by psychological transformations and the This particular context and prag- the specific circumstances and creative planetary transits to their natal charts. matic motivation for our astrological responses of the individuals and com- Esalen offered many intensive tech- research had another unexpected munities in question, and expressed as niques and practices for catalyzing psy- consequence. The unusually profound concrete events and experiences. From chological transformation, and many encounters with the deep unconscious 1976 onward, we expanded the com- hundreds of individuals came there in that we were studying frequently pass of the research to include a sys- the course of their life journeys specifi- involved direct experiences of an arche- tematic study of the biographies of cally to undergo profound transforma- typal dimension of reality — whether hundreds of prominent historical and tive experiences, so Esalen proved to be in the form of mythic figures and nar- cultural figures, as well as the archetypal a superb laboratory for conducting this ratives from various cultures, gods and dynamics of the collective psyche evi- research. Suddenly, we had a method goddesses, transcendent Platonic Ideas, dent in major historical phenomena of illuminating both the archetypal or Jungian archetypes. These numinous and cultural epochs. character and the timing of such experi- essences and forces were experienced In essence, the research was driven ences, including non-ordinary states of as informing the wide range of bio- by a synthesis of two traditions that consciousness such as those mediated graphical memories, psychological com- had been evolving rapidly during the by powerful psychoactive plants and plexes, transpersonal experiences, and 20th century: the depth psychology of compounds — something Grof and his other vivid emotional and somatic con- Jung, Freud, and William James, devel- colleagues at psychiatric research clin- tent activated during the sessions. Such oped further by Rank, Reich, Klein, von ics in Prague and Maryland had sought encounters gave us a vivid experiential Franz, Edinger, and many others; and fruitlessly for many years. To be able ground for understanding astrological what we might call depth astrology, to better understand the sudden onset factors and allowed us to have a more coming from Rudhyar, with Leo, Carter, of a psychological crisis or a spiritual precise grasp of the multivalent char- Addey, and Ebertin among others con- breakthrough, to schedule sessions of acter of the archetypal principles con- tributing to the lineage. In the later LSD therapy or shamanic sacred medi- nected to the planetary alignments, as 1960s and ’70s, both these traditions
66 www.mountainastrologer.com received a fresh creative infusion, on the organizing principle for understanding one hand with the rise of transpersonal not only psychological phenomena but psychology led by Grof and of arche- The evidence from our much of the history of Western thought, typal psychology led by James Hillman, research suggested from antiquity to the modern age. The and on the other hand with a new gen- differences between Platonic arche- eration of psychologically informed the importance of types and Jungian archetypes as usually astrologers led by Robert Hand, Stephen recognizing larger orbs understood — the former seen as the Arroyo, Liz Greene, and Charles Harvey essential structures of reality; the latter, — most of them coming to Esalen at than have generally as the essential structures of the human this time for public seminars as well as been used in traditional psyche — represented an enormous private discussions. Hillman’s magnum metaphysical and cosmological evolu- opus of 1975, Re-Visioning Psychology, astrology. tion in the Western world view, with the was an eloquent manifesto of the arche- Copernican revolution as the turning typal perspective reaching back from Laszlo among them. All these thinkers point in shifting the locus of archetypal Jung to the Renaissance and the Greeks and influences provided a fertile matrix meaning from the cosmos to the human that deeply informed our astrological shaping the ideas and research that psyche, which were now sharply differ- analyses, while Grof’s Realms of the were developing into an archetypal entiated from each other. Human Unconscious in the same year cosmology. By 1980, an enormous body of provided a radically expanded map of In important respects, however, the evidence had emerged suggesting a sys- the psyche adequate to the emerging astrological evidence pointed to the tematic correlation between planetary vision. metaphysical intuitions of the past. alignments and the archetypal patterns Something of the excitement felt at The word “archetype” comes from Pla- of human experience — in the clinical this time, almost like a Platonic epiph- tonism, and indeed the archetypal cos- therapeutic setting, in individual biog- any, is conveyed in a letter written to mos was first articulated by Plato. Here raphies, and on the collective level in me by Charles Harvey, then president was the philosophical vision of the uni- historical and cultural phenomena. The of the British Astrological Association: verse as pervasively ensouled, informed question then became how best to intro- “Astrology has kept the archetypes alive, by transcendent archetypal principles, duce this evidence and perspective to we have all worked with them, but how and ordered in its complex celestial the larger educated public, to the intel- flat, abstract, remote, dry this all now movements by a sovereign divine intel- ligent general reader who is astrologi- seems … Like breaking through into the ligence. There were yet earlier roots to cally uninitiated and whose very sense world of real living ideas after watching this perspective: the ancient pantheon of rationality presumes astrology’s false- the shadow show … A living astrology of Greek myth (gods as archetypes), the hood. While Grof and I had already is being born again.”2 ritual illuminations of the mystery reli- begun lecturing on the material, devel- During the ten years of research gions (cosmos as divine revelation), and oping a synthesis of transpersonal at Esalen (where I stayed on as direc- the Pythagorean disclosure of a universe psychology and archetypal astrology, tor of programs and education for sev- whose unitive order was at once mathe- I decided for the longer term on a two- eral years), our astrological reflections matical and numinous. For the Platonic– stage strategy. Before introducing the were shaped by one other important Pythagorean tradition, to align with the astrological evidence, I would first write factor. Educated within the cosmologi- archetypal order of the cosmos was to a history of the Western world view, cal assumptions of a modern scientific realize one’s essential being. To know from the ancient Greek to the postmod- world view that made astrology more the cosmos was to know oneself. To ern, that would set out the necessary or less impossible in principle, Grof study the numinous order of the heav- concepts and contexts for understand- and I naturally sought to develop a ens was to be spiritually and philosophi- ing the significance of the archetypal new frame of reference that could bring cally elevated, to break free from the planetary correlations. Over the next these findings into a larger coherence. cave of ephemeral shadows, to know ten years, in researching and writing Although the evidence for planetary cor- the Good and the Beautiful. the book that became The Passion of relations sharply contradicted the main- I had been drawn to the concept the Western Mind, I traced the evolu- stream Newtonian–Cartesian scientific of archetypes since studying classical tion of the archetypal perspective from paradigm, we noticed many parallels Greek and Latin at my Jesuit high Plato and Aristotle onward, the devel- with the concepts coming from the new school, where Plato’s and Aristotle’s dif- opment of planetary astronomy through sciences — quantum physics, systems fering views of transcendent and imma- the Copernican revolution, the crucial theory, morphogenetic fields, the impli- nent universal forms had made a deep role of Christianity and Judaism, the cate order, the holonomic universe — impression. Years before I encountered complex interaction between religion and from innovative thinkers whom we the astrological correlations, I had pro- and science and philosophy, the rise of in turn invited to Esalen for numerous posed as my doctoral dissertation topic the autonomous modern self during the seminars and discussions: David Bohm, “A History of Archetypes from Plato Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Fritjof Capra, Rupert Sheldrake, Karl to Jung,” since even then it seemed to the emergence of depth psychology, Pribram, Theodore Roszak, and Ervin me that this concept provided a central and finally our own postmodern age of
June/July 2011 * The Mountain Astrologer 67 Archetypal Cosmology a thousand people in attendance. Orga- nized by Barbara Winkler and myself, The dialogue between participants included psychologists extraordinary metaphysical pluralism James Hillman and Stan Grof, physi- and creative fluidity. cosmology and cists Victor Mansfield and Will Keepin, Ideally, I hoped that this book and many leading astrologers: Robert could prepare the reader for the astro- psychology is especially Hand, Charles and Suzi Harvey, Ste- logical evidence and in some sense critical, with astrology phen Arroyo, Caroline Casey, Demetra serve as a credible foundation for what George, Steven Forrest, Glenn Perry, was to come. The second stage would as a meeting point. Greg Bogart, Karen Hamaker-Zondag, be a book setting out a body of plan- Laurence Hillman, Ray Grasse, and etary correlations sufficiently robust Gerry Goddard. and extensive that the rigorous, open- temology, metaphysics and meta- Cosmology is the encompassing minded reader could come to his or her psychology, as well as archetypal container within which take place all own assessment of the potential validity studies (Platonic, Romantic, eso- our activities, both collectively and indi- and value of astrology. This became teric), mythology, history of ideas, vidually. It is the largest frame of refer- Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a evolution of consciousness, ecofem- ence within which a civilization implicitly New World View. But although most of inist thought, new paradigm stud- operates. Yet, conversely, our cosmol- the research and the basic framework ies, and the changing relationship ogy is deeply influenced by our psy- had been completed by the later 1980s, between science and spirituality. chology, which shapes our cognitive another step would intervene. perceptions and collective paradigms. In the years after it was published in Over the next 17 years, hundreds Thus, the dialogue between cosmology 1991, The Passion of the Western Mind of highly committed and often brilliant and psychology is especially critical, became widely adopted as a text in students enrolled in the PCC program. with astrology as a meeting point. Par- philosophy, humanities, and history of Again to my surprise, the language of ticularly in discussions during the past science departments. I was invited to archetypal astrology became a kind of decade between Brian Swimme and join the faculty at the California Institute lingua franca (or lingua astra) within the myself — representing, as it were, the of Integral Studies, a graduate school community: an integral part of its dis- two poles within the PCC program: in San Francisco focused especially on course and evolving world view and a cosmos moving toward psyche, and psychology, religion, and philosophy. uniquely valuable tool for not only psy- psyche moving toward cosmos — the To my surprise, both the faculty and chological self-understanding but histori- term “archetypal cosmology” began to the students requested that I teach not cal analysis and philosophical insight. be used as a more comprehensive term only the history of philosophy and West- Many master’s and Ph.D. courses have bridging our multiple disciplines. The ern thought but also the results of our been taught applying archetypal astro- ideas of Alfred North Whitehead and astrological research, which Grof and logical analysis to psychology, history, Teilhard de Chardin were recognized I began to do in large graduate semi- philosophy, music, and film — even to as especially relevant, as were parallels nars, the most highly enrolled courses comedic creativity and the cultural role between Swimme’s concept of cosmo- in the school. At the same time, joined of comedy (in a course co-taught by logical powers and the cosmic arche- by cosmologist Brian Swimme, philos- John Cleese). types evident in astrology. A public opher Robert McDermott, ecofeminist Especially helpful for these astro- “Dialogue on Archetypal Cosmology” Charlene Spretnak, scholar of ancient logical studies was the larger multidis- took place at Esalen in 2004, followed religions David Ulansey, and others, ciplinary dialogue that was an essential by a doctoral seminar at CIIS co-taught I founded in 1994 a multidisciplinary ongoing aspect of the PCC program. by Swimme and myself, “Archetypal master’s and Ph.D. program called By bringing astrology into direct engage- Process: Whitehead, Jung, and the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Con- ment with the thinking of pioneers Meeting of Psychology and Cosmology.” sciousness (PCC). The program essen- in other disciplines — contemporary It was at this time that I began super- tially represented our ideal of the physics and evolutionary cosmology, vising the first doctoral dissertations in graduate program that we ourselves ecology, feminism, history of ideas, the field, beginning with Rod O’Neal’s would want to attend. As the institute postmodern philosophy, religious stud- “Seasons of Agony and Grace: An catalog described the program: ies — the school provided a nourishing Archetypal History of New England matrix for the critical self-reflection and Puritanism,” which applied the research This course of study is designed for refinement of astrological thought in a methodology of Cosmos and Psyche to students who wish to engage the philosophically rigorous, open-minded a single cultural movement — develop- intellectual challenge, in our post- academic setting. An example of the ing an approach to the study of history modern age, of exploring new under- kind of dialogue and synthesis develop- that O’Neal calls archetypal historiog- standings of the cosmos and the ing during these years was the “Return raphy. This was followed by Keiron Le human being’s place in it … Areas of Soul to the Cosmos” conference in Grice’s dissertation, “Foundations of an of inquiry include cosmology, epis- San Francisco in 1997, with more than Archetypal Cosmology: A Theoretical
68 www.mountainastrologer.com Synthesis of Jungian Depth Psychology study of planetary correlations in psy- correlations can help us to become and the New Paradigm Sciences.” chology, history, culture, and biography more consciously co-creative partici- Of course, it was the continuing as the empirical foundation of a wider, pants in a cosmic unfolding. All of this support from and collaboration with multidisciplinary inquiry into their philo- points to yet another level of archetypal the international astrological commu- sophical implications and cosmological understanding: what Plato would call nity that provided the essential context context. In 2010, two major books were the Idea of the Good informing the cos- for archetypal cosmology’s emergence: published that addressed archetypal mos, what Hegel would call the World the World Astrology Congresses in Swit- astrology in a multidisciplinary context: Spirit realizing itself through history, and zerland overseen by Claude Weiss, the Coming Home: The Birth and Trans- what Jung might describe as the Self Astrological Association conferences in formation of the Planetary Era, by CIIS archetype operating within the collective the U.K., Liz Greene’s Centre for Psy- professor and Hegel scholar Sean Kelly, evolution of humankind itself. chological Astrology in London, the provided an insightful analysis of the Much like a life-changing spiritual Faculty of Astrological Studies summer teleological, evolutionary dimension awakening produced by a powerful syn- schools in Oxford, and the UAC, NCGR, of history as it unfolds through the chronicity, it is possible that a collective and ISAR conferences. With this foun- archetypal planetary cycles described in encounter with the growing body of dation among the astrologically initiated, Cosmos and Psyche. And The Arche- rigorously researched and skillfully pre- there could be a fruitful dialogue with typal Cosmos: Rediscovering the Gods sented astrological correlations could other intellectual communities working in Myth, Science, and Astrology by Le help to awaken the modern mind from at the frontiers of contemporary thought. Grice addressed the theoretical basis for its disenchanted cosmological condition. After Cosmos and Psyche was published the relationship between the archetypal Astrology could then serve as a great in 2006, a sign of astrology’s increasing dynamics of the human psyche and the catalyst of humanity’s evolution of con- rapprochement with such communities planetary order of the solar system, in sciousness at this pivotal moment in our was the book’s being awarded the Book a comprehensive synthesis of Jungian history, reframing the larger Copernican of the Year prize from the Scientific and psychology, Campbell’s work in myth, revolution as part of a long, birth-panged Medical Network in the U.K., an inter- and many of the new paradigm per- initiation of humanity and the Earth into national association of innovative, spiri- spectives mentioned above. the larger cosmic community of being. In tually engaged scientists and scholars Most recently, several leading this sense, astrology itself might be seen (whose members include Sheldrake, teachers of archetypal astrology — mythically as a form of Promethean fire Pribram, Laszlo, and David Lorimer Le Grice, Jessica Garfield-Kabbara, bestowed from the heavens, helping to and, in earlier years, Bohm and Schu Chad Harris, Matthew Stelzner, O’Neal, liberate humankind from the collapsing macher). Until that time, no astrological Bill Streett, and Grant Maxwell, along modern matrix it has clearly outgrown. work had received the award, nor had with Grof and myself — founded the astrology played a role in the Network’s Institute of Archetypal Cosmology References conferences or public lectures. Similarly, in San Francisco, to offer dedicated 1. Letters and Drawings of Bruno Schulz, with in the Jungian world, Grof and I pre- instruction to students in archetypal Selected Prose, ed. J. Ficowski, trans. W. Arndt sented our astrological research at Era- astrological theory and practice, to with V. Nelson, Harper & Row, 1988; quoted nos in Ascona, Switzerland — where, provide a forum to pursue and share in John Updike, “The Visionary of Brohobycz,” The New York Times Book Review, October 30, half a century earlier, Jung had pre- research, and to help disseminate ideas 1988: www.nytimes.com/1988/10/30/books/ sented his paper on synchronicity, his to a wider audience. The first foun- the-visionary-of-brohobycz.html final annual lecture at Eranos. dational series of lectures (later to be 2. Letter from Charles Harvey to Richard Tar- In 2007, a group of about 70 schol- streamed as online videos) took place in nas, March 1, 1979. (Charles wrote to me after ars, researchers, and practitioners in early 2011. Another recent expression reading my early essay on archetypal astrology, the San Francisco Bay Area — most of of the vitality of the field is Correlations, “Prometheus the Awakener,” which set forth them faculty and graduates of the Phi- a series of lively, accessible podcasts on the beginning outlines of a conjoined archetypal cosmology and psychology.) losophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness archetypal astrology hosted by Stelzner, program at CIIS — formed the Arche- with Delia Shargel, Garfield-Kabbara, typal Research Collective, with monthly Harris, and other leading archetypal © 2011 Richard Tarnas – all rights reserved meetings, presentations, and discussions. astrologers in conversation. In 2008, Archai: The Journal of Arche- Richard Tarnas is a professor of philosophy and cultural history at the California Institute typal Cosmology was begun under the I believe that the astonishingly con- of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he editorship of Keiron Le Grice and Rod sistent and nuanced reality of the plan- founded the graduate program in Philosophy, O’Neal, its Web site established, and the etary correlations with the archetypal Cosmology, and Consciousness. He also lectures field’s principles articulated. It was at dynamics of human life is one of the on archetypal studies and depth psychology at this time that the term “archetypal cos- most compelling intimations we have Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, and is on the Board of Governors of the C. G. Jung mology,” suggested by Le Grice for the that we live in a meaning-laden and Institute of San Francisco. His article, “World journal, was chosen by the community purposeful universe — a cosmos that is Transits 2000–2020: An Overview,” which is as the name of the emerging academic coherent with our deepest spiritual and focused especially on the years 2008–12, can be field, with archetypal astrology and the moral aspirations. Recognition of these read at www.Archaijournal.org
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