Free Web Hosting : Election 2008 : Drug Rehab : Troubled Teens : Teen Drug Treatment
Jungian Venture

The Richmond Society for Jungian Psychology
P.O. Box 17792
Richmond, Virginia 23226

Program Review: Astrology and Analytical Psychology

by Hal Wallof

Raye Mathis is an excellent communicator. I am a person who is relatively unaware of astrology, yet she, as a modern-day Hermes, enabled me to cross over the border into that strange astral world. Said she: "We are a part of the universe---not apart from it." Further: "All of the things that happen in a given moment are significantly related to each other." Our presenter even dared to consider 9-11 in terms of the work of current astrologists, suggesting that there were "signs" (Saturn in opposition to Pluto) pointing to such a massive catastrophe. She suggested that above that event another whole layer of energetic forces was at work. As above, so below! Raye fully grounded her comments in Jungian psychology, as Joe Mathis, using an overhead projector, showed us quotes from Jung's Collected Works, especially the section entitled Aion. These quotes demonstrated the importance which Jung afforded to astrology. It was, after all, Chaldean astrologists (euphemistically called wisemen) who pointed to the birthplace of the infant Jesus, and thus also to the Age of Pisces, the beginning of which that birth signaled. Raye went on to speak of Jung's interest in opposites (light and shadow, etc.) in our psyches and in the universe, now entering the Age of Aquarius. She introduced a new-to-me $100 word: ENANTIODROMIA---a psychological and astral principle wherein a build-up on one side will, in time, cause the opposite to emerge, and sometimes with great violence. That was especially interesting to me as I have experienced such movements in my life and in other's lives as well. But, to consider that the same movement occurs in whole cultures and in the universe, is mind -boggling, to say the least! It was even suggested that our personal coming to balance through individuation can have a dramatically positive impact on our society and world. As within, so without! As dear colleague Buddy Williams said to Raye at the program's conclusion: "A lot of what you said was incomprehensible, but, nonetheless, very meaningful!"--or, words to that effect. All in all, it was to me a very interesting and even hopeful presentation. It was hopeful in the sense that it conveyed the impression that the Spirit/Universe within us, around us, and above us, is tending towards balance and wholeness, and is doing so in the midst of all the acute current global and personal upheavals.