Archetypes, Gods and Astrology
In the following short, very informal essay, I want to explore
the development of polytheism in modern culture.
Polytheistic, or Henotheistic religions are characterized by
pantheons of deities, spirits, demigods, angels, demons, archons,
deified heroes, deceased ancestors, and nature spirits.
In primal cultures, these appear to be closely connected to
local traditions, kin, and day-to-day activities like farming
or hunting. In modern societies, these gods take
on new and strange forms.
The processes of expansionist warfare, commerce, urbanization
and concentration of power seem to correspond with the development
of ever more abstract conceptions of deities. Exactly
when and where the first ideas of monotheism were developed
is impossible to tell. Concentration of people, laws and
architecture around a central authority are perhaps essential
co-requisites for the development of single deities that were
supreme to the others (in order to unite diverse groups).
As these societies developed and urbanized, it would appear
that in most cases there was a strong tendency to abandon the
many gods, and opt instead for religions that emphasize secular/political
life (as we see in Greece, Rome an China), or a form of religion
that emphasizes simple worship services like we see among Protestants,
Muslims, Jews and other mainstream religious peoples in the
West. The idea seems to be to create religions that appeal
to a broader cross section of society. For example, a
rural agricultural fertility religion would not appeal to an
urban merchant, even in Classical Rome, or Sixteenth Century
Europe. The more abstract, formless and omnipotent the
deity, the easier it is to market that religion to a wide audience.
However, abstraction also makes it more difficult for the rural,
uneducated people to understand, especially when literacy is
so central to many of these more abstract religions.
Christians were persecuted in ancient Rome because they wouldn't
do the equivalent of the Roman Pledge of Allegiance to the Emperor,
thus making them subversive non-citizens. As I suggest
on the Burning Times page,
the persecution of pagans by Christians took hold when the majority
of people had abandoned the old natural perspective of pagan
religion, and switched to the more abstract, austere and pragmatic
monotheism that Martin Luther pioneered. Historical documents
show that the peak of the anti-pagan movement occurred between
the XVIth and XVIIIth Centuries.
Polytheism presents a variety of political problems because
the specific, local nature of the deities means that it is difficult
to herd large numbers of people in to the Church. This
process of merging deities into one great deity, and then to
a civic-pragmatic religion is one that we can see repeated in
history and around the world. Looking for cyclical patterns
in history, this phase is followed by a "loss of nerve"
in which the spiritual roots are recovered in a more experiential
and multicultural way. Rome at around 300 AD is
an excellent example. The Renaissance was another such
period. We saw a surge in this Romantic spirituality in
the early Nineteenth Century, the early Twentieth Century, and
then these New Age phases have been accelerating in popularity
during the past ten years.
Most Christians are aware of a mandate against Astrology, paralleling
the arguments and condemnations we hear from the skeptic scientists:
superstitious nonsense. Previous to the Witch Craze of
the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, many Catholic Churches
were actually built with astrological zodiacs in the stained
glass, in their floor mosaics, in their illuminated manuscripts.
Astrology was an intimate part of life at that time. Oddly,
the fear and suppression of Astrology are probably stronger
now than they ever were, but at the same time, the number of
people who know enough Astrology to discuss their natal charts
has been increasing dramatically. This suppression comes
from both the religious and scientific communities.
It is easy to imagine that we are more civilized, more rational
and less superstitious than our "primitive" counterparts.
However, what does it mean that modern Americans will pay enormous
sums of money for a home run baseball, or a sweaty towel used
by Elvis, or the fact that Dorothy's ruby slippers are in the
Smithsonian Institution? We too have our own religious
fetishes. Beanie Babies. Autographs. Good
luck charms. WWF Wrestling. Indeed, these are primitive
forms of festishistic religion, and they have deep, atavistic
connection to ancient polytheistic-animstic culture.
While scientists have criticized astrology on astronomical
terms, there is a general lack of understanding of a certain
value that astrology and kabbalah have: namely, they teach a
different mode of critical thinking than is taught by mathematics,
logic and scientific method. That form of thinking is
based on influences, and the harmonization of those complex
influences. Suffice it to say that in a complex, multicultural
society, "influential thinking" may offer useful skills.
That's not to say that Astrology will solve any important urban
problems, but rather that it can teach us to think in new ways.
I don't propose to expand on this theme in the present short
essay. A brief illustrative example: a novelist deals
with combinations of characters in various contexts with various
resources and in relation to other characters. The ability
to understand how a certain personality will react to these
complex influences is an example of the sort of thing I am referring
to. The ability to do this is not effectively taught by
traditional approaches to logic and critical thinking.
More important and interesting for the purpose of this essay
is the manner in which astrology portrays human and natural
ideas attached to pagan mythological figures. Further,
as it has developed, it has become increasingly abstract and
psychologized--a new variation on psychotherapy, which itself
has been described as a variation on Catholic Confession. Perhaps
it is not coincidental that insurance companies and pharmaceutical
companies have been attempting to discredit psychoanalysis--the
treatment of mental illness through extensive, expensive and
time consuming conversation with a professional. Astrology
and Tarot reading are very similar in that the "patient"
uses the birth chart or Tarot "spread" as a sort of
screen upon which s/he will project their deeper thoughts and
feelings.
Modern divination techniques like astrology and tarot are
definitely moving toward a more psychologized and therapeutic
mode in which the emphasis on absolute, esoteric ideas about
the stars are being replaced with archetypal therapy.
In short, many modern astrologers and tarot readers are really
doing something more akin to psychoanalysis, and it would also
appear that this is a welcome and popular development among
their customers who ignore irrelevant criticisms from astronomers. In
light of the legal and economic suppression of the "talking
cure" of psychoanalysis, perhaps the surge in popularity
of astrology represents both a metaphysical turn in our society
as well as a lower cost source of something resembling psychoanalysis,
which is also being attacked and suppressed by the scientific
community and insurance industry.
A very similar set of archetypes is found in the standard,
modern Tarot deck. It has been suggested that the Tarot
deck was originally used to teach Christian moral principles
to the illiterate. Recent study has examined both the Tarot
and Astrology in terms of Jungian depth psychology. Joseph
Campbell wrote an essay on the Tarot, and there is even a book
of Christian contemplative mysticism based on the Tarot.
Actual practices of fortune telling with these tools do indeed
involve highly questionable scientific assumptions. Yet,
Astrology and Tarot attract increasing attention--both negative
and positive. Some people study the Tarot as a method of divination.
Others see it as a way to investigate deep psychological/spiritual/social
abstracts like "death" or "leadership" or
"fortune." These more abstract treatments of
astrology and tarot (and alchemy too) generally do not have
pragmatic ends, but rather something more akin to the aims of
psychoanalysis--self-actualization, self-exploration, etc.
Many modern approaches to Tarot symbolism rely upon the archetypes
of Astrology, Aristotelian physics and the Hebrew Kabbalah as
the keys for understanding the Tarot. This fusion
of symbolisms was executed in the late Nineteenth Century, and
has been further developed in the ensuing century and a half.
On the asceticism page,
I discussed a scheme of concepts that could be understood as
a scheme for categorizing experiences and activities.
The archetypes mentioned above provide yet another scheme that
can be used to interpret and categorize experiences.
Seven planets represent energies or powers. Twelve Zodiac
signs represent modes of manifestation of the energy.
This also interacts with Aristotle's and Empedocles' physics
of four elements--fire, water, air and earth. The ten
sefiroth of the Jewish Kabbalah were added to the mix, producing
an interesting set of fundamental archetypes--like a periodic
table of elements of the spiritual/psychic life of humans.
Discussing extensively the details of this connection is far
beyond the scope of the present short essay. Recent popularity
of Astrology has led to further development of the literature
and resources available to those who are interested. Keep
in mind that the interesting concepts of Astrology, Tarot and
Alchemy can refer to psycho-spiritual development, and not to
simple fortune-telling. Furthermore, neither of these
techniques actually depends upon a belief in the actual influence
of stars or cards on the events of our lives. Newspaper
Astrology based on sun signs is extremely superficial even in
terms of traditional Astrology.
