Jung’s Studies in Astrology

A wealth of information in a very readable presentation. Full of external references on a wide range of topics. The Kindle version is very good - shows what a Kindle book can be like when properly done with attention to usability. Now on to The Astrological World of Jung’s Liber Novus...

Was expecting more insight into Jung’s actual studies but instead this is kind of a long, boring research paper where the writer just reiterates Jung’s work and influences with lots of dense jargon.

Yes the font is small but the content is outstanding. Fuller review to follow.UPDATE:Eleven years ago, after reading a short book by Richard Tarnas (Prometheus the Awakener), I chided Liz Greene and Robert Hand towards the end of my book review for what I perceived was their cookbook approach to Astrology. Tarnas had captured something seminal. Uranus, as named by astronomers, didn’t fit the mythology of Uranus the god, but instead reflected the Prometheus myth. This was attributable in large part to the loss of mythic perspective in Western Culture by the time Uranus was discovered on March 13 1781.Turns out I was not aware of everything that was going on the background for Greene and Hand. Fast forward 11 years and I can now see the evolution of the events much more clearly.Tarnas , who already had a rich history at the Esalen Institute, has helped create a new interdisciplinary curriculum of study at CIIS in San Francisco [PHILOSOPHY COSMOLOGY AND CONSCIOUSNESS] and will soon co-host a new Ascona program for scholars, taking the Eranos lecture legacy, instituted by Jung (and others), to the next level.Fortunate for us, it turns out that Robert Hand and Liz Greene also had both been assiduously working towards deepening their and our understanding of astrology already by the time I had read Tarnas’ Prometheus.Robert Hand, along with Robert Schmidt, Ellen Black, and Robert Zoller had begun Project Hindsight in 1992-93, the purpose of which was to translate old astrological works into English. Hand in fact “re-discovered’ the concept of Sect as a result of that work (I.e. the importance of night versus days births in determining the qualitative aspects of Benefic and Malefic planets in the natal horoscope chart). He also helped to found Kepler College, the only college in the US currently to focus on astrology.Nowadays, the discipline of Traditional Astrology is pretty well established and promises to grow further as additional astrological texts are translated, helping to bring astrology back into the philosophic conversation after being neglected/rejected by the Western Academy for centuries, along with it’s sister disciplines of Alchemy and Magic.Meanwhile, Liz Greene seemed to have gone “underground” and I hadn’t found any new written astrology material in popular or esoteric/‘occult’ bookstores for quite some time now. There were occasional interviews I found, but not much else. Fortunately, it turns out that she has been quite busy pursuing further academic studies on esotericism. (I recently scooped up a copy of Magi & Maggidim!) Apart from being a Jungian analyst, I believe she now has TWO PhDs, none of which are mentioned with her name in this Routledge work. Interesting... titles aren’t important. Knowledge is. And that’s what she provides here, in spades. Having unprecedented access to Jung’s library, following Sonu Shamdasani’s publication of Jung’s Red Book in 2009, she provides us with the first look into Jung’s influences on his work based on his personal notes and library.The text is academic (which is fine with me but will not appeal to everyone— nonetheless this is where the battle needs to take place) and I would have preferred larger font with footnotes on the bottom of each page rather than at the end of each chapter, but this is no fault of Dr Greene. The same thing is apparent on the recently published Jung on Astrology, also by Routledge, and edited by Safron Rossi and Kieron Le Grice. It is quite hopeful to see these works under an academic publisher as it heralds the beginning of a real conversation within the Academy about exactly what went on as a result of the schism which gradually occurred between the general areas of Science/“Physics”, Philosophy, and Magic beginning in late antiquity and into the Common Era. A conversation about all those “wretched subjects” which have been cast aside by The Academy for far too long.That there is persistent derision of these subjects is currently well exemplified, IMO, by the perspective of the scholar Wouter Hanegraaff. In one of his recent articles, he questions the veracity of one of Jung’s visions about the impending outbreak of the World War. In his opinion, Jung , like anyone else at the time must have read the papers and been informed as to the imminent risk of war:“Of course, in the autumn of 1913 one hardly needed powers of precognition to see the risk of a major European conflict – reading the newspapers would have been more than sufficient. Nevertheless, Jung would later insist that the thought of war never occurred to him.” (From The Great War of the Soul: Divine and Human Madness in Carl Gustav Jung’s Liber Novus (2017)) It remains to be seen whether Hanegraaff will help to elucidate “ what implications the forgotten history of exclusion has for established textbook narratives of religion, philosophy, and science.’ [quoted from the back of his ESOTERICISM AND THE ACADEMY]. It seems to me, at this point anyway, that he has just found the material to cover himself and stay relevant in the publish or perish environment of academia. Let’s join the Spirit of the Time shall we, and continue to deride the rest of us who look beyond the purely bipolar view of reality! Time will tell. The Spirit of the Depths will undoubtedly catch up with him, as it does for all of us.But I digress... Apologies.About the book:In this first volume, the foundational materials which Jung utilized in the creation of his black books and Liber Novus are evaluated within the context of Jung’s worldview.In dealing with the influence of Astrology, we see how Jung fused his understanding of Traditional authors of astrology, like Ptolemy, Firmicus Maternus, and Abu Ma’shar, with late 19th and early 20th century astrologers (such Alan Leo and Max Heindel) who had a decidedly more Theosophical, i.e “spiritual”, bent. The important influence and friendship with GRS Mead is mentioned as well. That alone would be a great topic for a separate book given that Mead has been marginalized to a great extent due to his Theosophical connections no doubt. (See Goodrick-Clarke’s GRS Mead and The Gnostic Quest). There’s a lot here that is relevant to the current climate of Astrology. The complexity and richness of the foundational texts are extremely important, but so is the question of how to keep our spirits alive. For all those new astrologers out there, fired up about on Traditional Astrology, let’s take a page from Jung here (and he had his own views on the spiritualist movements during his time) and not treat all those Spiritual astrologers like crap just yet OK? Everyone has a lot to learn from each other going forward.As far as Alchemy is concerned, there is some material discussed in this first volume, but it is the area of Magic which is most deeply addressed. Jung’s concepts of Active Imagination and Synchronicity are thoroughly discussed as they evolved from his understanding of Gnostic, Neoplatonic, and Hermetic writings and Greene shows how they are directly related to Theurgy and Cosmic Sympathy, just presented in new clothes, watered down by Jung for academic presentation. Dr Greene does an outstanding job of demonstrating how Jung was primarily concerned with fusing those elements of Philosophy, Religion, and Science/Magic back together again as they had been for the ancients. In this sense, he was truly a prophet. And like so many prophets, not everyone has heard the news. (For those interested, Peter Kingsley’s ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY, MYSTERY, AND MAGIC is highly recommended). We’ve become too specialized and it’s being recognized more and more. I see it in the varied multidisciplinary approaches that are being instituted in medicine, religion, and history over the past decade. What was torn asunder needs to be put back again, and integrated with what we know now if we, as a collective, are to have any legacy for the future.It’s like Major Kusanagi says in the anime Ghost In The Shell: “If we all reacted the same way, we’d be predictable, and there’s always more than one way to view a situation. What’s true for the group is also true for the individual. It’s simple: Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It’s slow death.”I’ll post a review of Volume 2 when I’m done. Focuses more on Jung’s use of symbols using active imagination. So far, it’s equally outstanding.

I am having a very hard time reading this book as the type is so TINY. It must be 9 pt type which is unheard of for a book. I will add to my review of the book when I get through it but as of now I am having a difficult time even reading one page nightly. My eyes hurt.

As one would expect from Liz Greene, this work seems a compilation of a lifetime's work. She brings together in a well knit synthesis both the world of Jung and Astrology, substantiating the foundation of her unique and transformational perspective of psychological astrology.What is more, as always, the book delivers in language, material that is simply a joy to read. It's like ice skating on the smoothest of surfaces. This is not to say that the content is in anyway superficial, but simply that Liz's command of vocabulary, sentence structure and metaphor is absolutely joyful to experience.

Neither Jung, nor Greene, write particularly well. In Greene's case I suspect it's because she is having to defer and refer to Jung. I found the work both terse and hard work in places.On the other hand there is much to be gained through reading it. I learned lots about Jung (and I have read his collected works in full) as a result of Greene's diligent sorting of quotes and facts. She was given access to Jung's private papers and this matters.Essential for researchers in astrology but too expensive for general interest.

Well written and researched. Treasure-trove of end notes. Used for my own personal research into the Soul/Self. Cannot praise this book enough. Please pass this on to Liz Greene.

I am reading this slowly to make sure I dont miss any nuances and to check out the notes. I am so excited by this book. Its a long time coming. Thanks Liz. Helen