Cultural Influence of Astrology - Psychology and Mythology

Psychology and Mythology

Different astrological traditions are dependent on a particular culture's prevailing mythology. These varied mythologies naturally reflect the cultures they emerge from. Images from these mythological systems are usually understandable to natives of the culture they are a part of. Most classicists think that Western astrology is dependent on Greek mythology.

Some modern thinkers, notably Carl Jung, believe in its descriptive powers regarding the mind without necessarily subscribing to its predictive claims. Jung described astrology in the following terms: "As we all know, science began with the stars, and mankind discovered in them the dominants of the unconscious, the 'gods', as well as the curious psychological qualities of the zodiac: a complete projected theory of human character. Astrology is a primordial experience similar to alchemy". According to Jung this had a continuing value in European culture right to the present day: "Whereas in the Church the increasing differentiation of ritual and dogma alienated consciousness from its natural roots in the unconscious, alchemy and astrology, were ceaselessly engaged in preserving the bridge to nature, i.e., to the unconscious psyche, from decay. Astrology led consciousness back again and again to the knowledge of Heimarmene, that is, the dependence of character and destiny on certain moments in time". Consequently, some regard astrology as a way of learning about one self and one's motivations. Increasingly, psychologists and historians have become interested in Jung's theory of the fundamentality and indissolubility of archetypes in the human mind and their correlation with the symbols of the horoscope.