Cosmos and Pysche (astrology-related)

Brandon Pilcher · #1 (**permalink**) 20-February-2006, 01:49 PM

Richard Tarnas, historian of Passion of the Western Mind fame, has released a new book, Cosmos and Psyche. You can buy it at Amazon.

One of the editorial reviews on the Amazon page summarizes the book:

Quote:

Richard Tarnas’s The Passion of the Western Mind—acclaimed by leading voices in philosophy, religion, psychology, and history—sets the stage for this major work, thirty years in the making, that dramatically reframes our understanding of the universe in the light of extraordinary new evidence.
Cosmos and Psyche is the first book by a widely respected scholar to demonstrate the existence of a consistent correspondence between planetary movements and the unfolding drama of human history. A vast and impressive body of evidence illuminates patterns of meaning and precise correlations between the universe and the world of human endeavor. With meticulous detail, Richard Tarnas takes us on a journey that begins with the ancient Greeks and culminates in our own era and its transformative potential, putting into perspective these chaotic, tumultuous times—from the sixties to September 11, 2001—and pointing the way towards the future.

In terms of planetary cycles, our present moment in history is most comparable to the period five hundred years ago—that era of "extraordinary turbulence and creativity," the High Renaissance. Not since Copernicus conceived the heliocentric theory has the human community faced such a profound realignment of the way we think. Readers of every persuasion will be impressed by the vast canvas here, the wealth of research and analysis, and the profound conclusions that may be drawn—conclusions that reunite religion and science, and restore a transcendent dimension to the universe.

So far, all the reviews have praised Tarnas's book, but although I admit to have not read it, I am skeptical. I recall that the Bad Astronomer here demonstrated the fallacy of planets having anything to do with human behavior. Still, has anyone here read the book? Do you guys find it convincing, or are we dealing with more woo?

Fram · #2 (**permalink**) 20-February-2006, 03:20 PM

Well, he is a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, which doesn't give a lot of confidence to me (when looking at their introducition, mission statement, ...). For the rest, it looks to me like pure astrological bunk: if you look at hist list of 20th century disasters happening under a Saturn-Pluto conjunction, I notice the absence of the whole of WWII, and the very bizarre inclusion of the birth of the Columbine shooting students and so on. This is typical; when something happens, it is because of the conjunction. If no conjunction is near, it is because the guilty ones were born at the time of one. Seeing that this was the 6th (at least: 1914-15, 1929-30, 1946-48, 1964-1967, 1981-1984, 2001-...) such conjunction of the last hundred years, and they all last a few years, then it would be tough not to find a match.
Another example is this:

Quote:

25) The galvanizing of the will, a sense of stern purposefulness, grim determination.

The man of steel., the archetypal mother in the throes of the birth labor—the superhuman effort of contraction and determination in the service of a life-and-death cause. Cf. the firefighters and police entering the towers and climbing to their deaths out of duty and service to others. "The iron will of the ironworkers laboring at Ground Zero" (NBC News).

Now it isn't when you are born that is important: you just get an iron (or steel, all the same) will by doing something during such a conjunction. Easy, isn't it?
In fact, when looking at that article, we notice events related to Saturn-Pluto in 1914-1916, 1921-1924, 1929-1932, 1939-1941, 1943, 1946-1948, 1956, 1961, 1964-1967, 1973, 1981-1984, 1989, 1992-1994, 2001-2003: this makes for 36 of 90 years, or more than a third. It would be hard not to find matches with such a wealth to choose from...

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