Psychological astrology,
Astrological Psychology or
Astropsychology is a recent product of the cross-fertilisation of the fields of
astrologyAstrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer...
with
depth psychologyDepth psychology is a broad term that refers to any psychological approach examining the depth of human experience...
,
humanistic psychologyHumanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory....
, and
transpersonal psychologyTranspersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience....
. It uses the
horoscopeIn astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, the astrological aspects, and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning "a look at the hours" In...
and the
archetypeAn archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all...
s of astrology to inform the psychological understanding of an individual's
psycheIn psychoanalysis and other forms of depth psychology, the psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior and personality. The word is borrowed from ancient Greek, and refers to the concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul, self, and mind...
.
Other significant pioneers include
Liz GreeneLiz Greene, is a notable American-born British astrologer. She is the sister of the writer Richard Leigh.-Career:...
and Howard Sasportas who in 1983 founded the Centre for Psychological Astrology.
Psychological astrology,
Astrological Psychology or
Astropsychology is a recent product of the cross-fertilisation of the fields of
astrologyAstrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer...
with
depth psychologyDepth psychology is a broad term that refers to any psychological approach examining the depth of human experience...
,
humanistic psychologyHumanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory....
, and
transpersonal psychologyTranspersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience....
. It uses the
horoscopeIn astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, the astrological aspects, and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning "a look at the hours" In...
and the
archetypeAn archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all...
s of astrology to inform the psychological understanding of an individual's
psycheIn psychoanalysis and other forms of depth psychology, the psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior and personality. The word is borrowed from ancient Greek, and refers to the concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul, self, and mind...
.
Other significant pioneers include
Liz GreeneLiz Greene, is a notable American-born British astrologer. She is the sister of the writer Richard Leigh.-Career:...
and Howard Sasportas who in 1983 founded the Centre for Psychological Astrology.
Bruno HuberBruno Huber was a Swiss astrologer who, with his wife, Louise Huber, founded the Huber School of Astrology in 1962. A later branch of the school opened in the UK in 1983. He previously worked as an assistant to Roberto Assagioli doing psychosynthesis and was a follower of Assagioli's friend and...
& Louise Huber also developed their own method of astrological psychology, referred to as the Huber Method which links to
Roberto AssagioliRoberto Assagioli was an Italian psychiatrist who was the founder of the psychological movement known as Psychosynthesis.An humanist, Assagioli differed from Freud...
's work with
psychosynthesisPsychosynthesis is an approach to psychology that was developed by Roberto Assagioli, M.D. He compared Psychosynthesis to prevailing thinking of the day and contrasted Psychosynthesis with Existential psychology, but considered loneliness not to be "either ultimate or essential." . Assagioli...
.
When Carl Jung was investigating the symbolic meaning of dreams; he would commonly come across mythical figures that have been passed down to us from
our ancestors.He then noticed a correlation in the images pictured in ones dreams to the gods that were attached to heavenly figures mapped out in the stars.
From this he concluded that the heavenly figures in astrology come from images we make in our minds. Jung felt that it was these mental images that brought
about astrology. He did believe that astrology could teach us about the human mind but on a general level. Several astrologers as well as psychologists
followed up on his claims and found that from horoscopes they could discover the structure of their character. From this they assumed that a person’s mental
difficulty could be found through the horoscope. This was the start of astrology making its way and influencing some psychological tactics. Psychological
astrology does not directly believe that a persons everyday life is dictated by the position of the stars. It just shows the horoscope as a mere tool to help
identify a person’s attributes. For example a psychological astrologer might use a horoscope method to see if the individual possesses specialized abilities
based on their mindset.
It is difficult to verify the tenets of psychological astrology via quantitative research. Astrologers working in a psycho-diagnostic framework rely upon personal experience to induce how psychological
astrology can provide meaningful information about a persons character. According to Riemann, “The dispositions visible in the horoscope are then covered up and their unfolding is blocked by external influences.
The horoscope then helps in once again uncovering the buried dispositions.” It is, Riemann contends, because of this reliance on personal experience and the likelihood of external
influences, that scientific evidence would show that the diagnosis of a psychological issue most likely couldn’t be made by a horoscope. However, within the psychological world of study it is found to work with certain empirical and theoretical methods. In psychology’s past
there have been experiences in which methods were applied to patients that called for horoscopes being used as a diagnostic for showing their mental characteristics.
These experiences haven’t been able to show any testable empirical evidence that it was in fact the horoscope that found out the mental characteristics of a person and
that that was in fact an actual characteristic of that person.
Jung believed that there are reasons to suspect that heavenly bodies actually affect a person's development at birth, and that the correlation is acausal and not actually influenced by the planets and stars themselves. He went on to further state his reasons for believing the mindset of a person involved in supposedly aucausal phenomena was crucial in whether the correlation even existed. Psychological astrology is then again brought back to
connections through personal experience.
Using Occam's Razor from Carey, rival explanations can be found about why the horoscope may seem to accurately identify the mental characteristics of an individual, that are more generally accepted than that of an astrological explanation. When a person is mentally evaluated by a psychological astrologer and is told their prediction of their mental characteristics they will begin to associate things they do with what the astrologer is saying, which will give the perception that they are accurately portraying their attributes. A study done by Shawn Carlson took astrological charts that were prepared for 83 subjects, based on natal data from his data the results showed that, "Each subject was given three charts: one chart based on their own natal data, and two charts derived from natal data of other people. Each subject was asked to identify the chart that most correctly described him or her. In only 28 of the 83 cases, the subject chose their own chart. This is the exact success rate expected for random chance. The astrologers predicted that the subjects would select their own chart more than 50% of the time. In order to balance any bias against astrology it is worth looking at the recent book, 'Cosmos and Psyche, Intimations of a New World View,' by respected cultural historian, philosopher, and psychologist
Richard TarnasRichard Tarnas , author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche , is a cultural historian and professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, and founding director of its graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and...
, which offers new evidence in support of the astrological worldview.
External links