What brought you to astrology?
When I was a college student, a professor at Harvard who had been trained as an analyst by C. G. Jung mentioned the value of astrology to me in a private conversation. A few years later, when I arrived at Esalen Institute in California, astrology was very much in the air, a typical feature of the community’s vocabulary of personal self-description. During the ten years I was there, the psychiatrist Stan Grof and I began to do systematic research on the remarkable correlations we discovered between planetary positions (natal and transits) with individuals’ psychological turning points and powerful experiences, including those that occurred in the context of psychedelic therapy. This drove my research, which eventually was expanded into the understanding of history and other fields of human experience.
Why do you practice astrology? What makes it juicy for you?
Astrology shines an extraordinary light on pretty much every area of human life — psychology, the arts, the sciences, philosophy, history, our personal lives, love relationships, family, day-to-day self-understanding. But it’s not only useful and illuminating, it is also a source of aesthetic delight: the sheer beauty of the orchestrated archetypal correlations between the cosmic motions and the patterns of human experience is a constant source of wonder and appreciation.
What is your specialty, or focus?
The relevance of astrology to depth psychology (psychoanalysis, Jungian and archetypal psychology, transpersonal psychology), to history (cultural, intellectual, political), to artistic expression (especially music, literature, and film), and to philosophy (epistemology, metaphysics, cosmology).
Is there a planet, sign, or aspect you’ve been exploring lately that represents an archetype or energy that feels important to you right now?
I am always paying close attention to the movements and cycles of the three “classical” outer planets, which Dane Rudhyar called “the ambassadors of the galaxy.”
What is your picture of astrology in the future?
As astrology is studied with greater seriousness and rigor, and becomes of interest to more and more highly educated individuals, including in the academic world, I believe it will gradually enter back into the center of cultural conversation—not just in the form of popular horoscope columns but as a source of unique insight for our collective self-understanding.
Are there any additional comments you would like to make about your lecture?
I look forward to sharing insights with students of astrology that they can integrate into their own practice and lives in a way that allows them to feel more grounded in the most important fundamentals of our discipline, more centered and oriented in their lives.
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Richard Tarnas is Professor Emeritus of psychology and cultural history at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he founded the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He is the author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche, which won the Book of the Year Award from the Scientific and Medical Network and is the basis for the documentary series about astrology and our times, The Changing of the Gods.