Description

Summary : In the present state of contemporary knowledge, one recognizes a certain "astrological phenomenon". Apparently, an order exists which underlies the world and may be experienced through the perusal of our birth chart, the latter reflecting the fathomless structures of our interiority. Nonetheless, with the emergence of scientific thought three centuries ago, astrology was met with new difficulties as it tried to coexist with novel approaches to apprehending the "real". In fact, the very validity of astrology is repudiated by those who conceive of a sole level to reality (which they believe science to reveal) even though physics has recently proved the existence of at least two levels to reality. As a reaction, astrology closes itself off to scientific discourse, or, conversely, dresses itself up as a science. In an attempt to sort through the conflicts between science and astrology, this article explores the unconscious foundations which gave birth to astrology. It draws from what C.G. Jung called the symbolic function and originates in the "place" of the soul where mind and matter may potentially reunite.