Thread: Astrology
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Old 28-August-2004, 11:35 PM
Stinger Stinger is offline
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gzhpcu: I did some googling on "natal astrology" and still see a reliance on planets etc to determine a person's character. I also visited that Jung link you posted in the Hoagland thread along with some connecting ones. I'm somewhat familiar with some of Jung's views, from his belief in "synchronicity" (he basically doesn't believe in coincidence) to his advocating a "collective unconscious" which I'll leave to another board. As far as his views on astrology he comes across as vague and wishy-washy. He mentions time as the significant factor here:
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The fact that it is possible to reconstruct a person's character fairly accurately from his birth data shows the relative validity of astrology. It must be remembered, however, that the birth data are in no way dependent on the actual astronomical constellations, but are based on an arbitrary, purely conceptual time system.
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The thing that matters is not the position of the stars, the thing that matters is time.
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We are born at a given moment in a given place and like vintage years of wine we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything else.
Sorta contradicts himself here (bolding mine):
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Synchronicity does not admit causality in the analogy between terrestrial events and astrological constellations ... What astrology can establish are the analogous events, but not that either series is the cause or the effect of the other. (For instance, the same constellation may at one time signify a catastrophe and at another time, in the same case, a cold in the head.) ... In any case, astrology occupies a unique and special position among the intuitive methods... I have observed many cases where a well-defined psychological phase, or an analogous event, was accompanied by a transit (particularly when Saturn and Uranus were affected).
and here:
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Sometimes people without knowing one's birthdate can make remarkable guesses as to where one's signs are. Twice it has happened to me: once in England and once in America. I was told that my sun was in Leo and my Moon in Taurus, Aquarius rising. This made a great impression on me. How the devil did they know? Did they see it in my face?
Then, the kicker here (bolding mine):
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Your Sun in Libra demands undisturbed balance. You only get it when either side carries equal weight. Christ is crucified between the one going up and the other going down, i.e., between opposites. So do not try to escape your fate written in the stars. I know, it is the mistake of Libra people: they are afraid of anything disturbing the balance. But they can maintain it only by studying what troubles them. - C.G. Jung to Father Victor White
He also wrote this:
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There are also the fluctuations of proton radiation, which have been proved to exert a considerable influence on human life. These are all causally explicable influences and argue in favour of astrological correlations that conform to law. To that extent, therefore, I would be inclined to rank astrology among the natural sciences.
Proton radiation? Even if I wanted to embrace Jung's version of astrology I'd have problems figuring out what to believe.

Natal astrology, whether using Jung's ideas regarding the significance of a particular time or the more well-known concept of planetary position at birth still has the fatal flaw of proposing undetectable external influences as a mechanism to produce and predict life-long traits at the moment of birth.