Book Description

Using the works and theories of Carl Gustav Jung and the astrologers Alan Leo, Dane Rudhyar and Liz Greene, this volume provides a cultural history of psychological astrology in the twentieth century, demonstrating the prevalence of ‘magic’ in modern culture through its presence in astrology. Astrology’s links to psychology are akin to those in wider culture, such as the exploration of the unconscious by writers and artists. The dominant form of astrology in the twentieth century was psychological astrology, a form principally influenced by the work of the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. Through in-depth exploration of the three major astrologers of the period (Alan Leo, Dane Rudhyar and Liz Greene) and their psychological innovations, this volume considers whether psychology was used by astrology as a survival strategy to legitimise magic in the modern world and whether the result was ‘an astrology that has lost its magic’. Chapters consider the survival of magic in the modern world, the history of astrology as a psychological subject and astrology’s relationship to modernity, as well as a fundamental exploration of the nature of astrology. Ultimately arguing that the existence of psychological astrology represents a form of living magic, this book will be of interest to researchers, scholars and postgraduate students studying Jung and analytical psychology, magic, astrology and alchemy, and culture in the twentieth century more broadly.