A Revolutionary Perspective - December 18, 2005
Amazon.com Reviewer: Gerry Goddard (British Columbia, Canada)

If an eminent scholar and acclaimed cultural historian were to publish a major study of human history insightfully analyzing and interpreting various notable epochs and their formative figures, then the intellectual community would be entirely open to, and interested in, what this person had to say. If this person were at the same time to present a variety of parallel phenomena — geographic, political, biological etc. — demonstrating correlations between these two lines of phenomena, then the intellectual community would be moved to seriously consider and engage this new knowledge. But what if, most boldly, the phenomena being demonstrated as parallel with the mosaic of cultural history were to be the major alignments of the outermost planets — what then?

Richard Tarnas, author of the acclaimed cultural history, Passion of the Western Mind, has presented us with just such a paradigmatically challenging and mind-expanding account of a human-cosmic connection. With Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, he has produced a penetrating analysis of the complex thematic character of a number of generally recognized significant historical moments and epochs, revealing how the peaks and valleys of the earthly course of human unfolding demonstrate a rhythmic concordance with the peaks and valleys of the outer-planetary dance. As the church fathers were invited to look through Galileo's telescope we are invited to examine certain newly discovered phenomena. Are we to cling to our old dogma and refuse to look, or are we to open our minds — indeed without putting aside our critical faculties — to see what this obviously credible historian and new paradigmatic thinker has to say?

By revealing the very architecture of the evolving collective psyche in resonance with a 're-enchanted' cosmos, Cosmos and Psyche points us toward a greater coherence beyond postmodern fragmentation. Rather than our universe being solely dead matter and rocks banging around according to the laws of physics, as Tarnas explains, it is the confirmation of the cosmological dimension as meaningful that provides the missing dimension of all new paradigm strategies which, especially after Jung, deal very well with psyche but leave cosmos out of the picture.

Tarnas's opus does not require a previous knowledge of astrology or even a general prior acceptance of it. The astrological configurations that Tarnas engages in his account are necessarily basic both in order to be accessible for the non-astrological public and also to provide clear and verifiable evidence rather than esoteric complexification. In full accordance with astrological consensus, the author provides a lucid yet profound introduction to the archetypal meanings of the relevant astrological principles.

In order to attempt in good faith to refute this book, one would need the scholarship necessary to argue extensively against the characterization of the essentials of a certain period or event, against the interpretations of various works of art, or against the significance of numerous discoveries. One would have to be able to demonstrate convincingly — with many counter examples — either how there are in fact no real historical peaks, or that the peaks which Tarnas identifies are questionably chosen simply to fit the theory, or that in each specified period in which relevant works and events are cited that there are just as many events and works of the same essential quality that can be found equally distributed across other times bearing no astro-archetypal resonance to them. A rejection based on anything less than such a meticulous scholarly counter-argument would be cavalier and intellectually disingenuous. But intellectually honest critique and interpretative differences promoting constructive dialogue in the field are entirely appropriate and even required by a work of this magnitude.

 I'm Convinced - January 26, 2006
Amazon.com Reviewer: Grant Orsborn (New York, NY)

When I read Tarnas' first book, The Passion of The Western Mind, I was incredibly impressed by the depth of his insight, especially in the Epilogue, which expressed a whole constellation of profound ideas concerning the dialectical progression of world views and the relationship of self and world that I (and probably many others) had been blindly groping towards but had neither the breadth of knowledge nor the integrative power to articulate. In those thirty pages, Tarnas managed to formulate not only a tenable, but a rigorously convincing theory of how the subject-object dichotomy and the disenchantment of the cosmos (which he renders intelligible as the necessary price that we have paid for the individuation of the modern human subject) can be overcome. Since then, through years of study and thought, I have gone back to that Epilogue many times, always impressed, not only by the unique depth and clarity of the insights expressed therein, but by those insights' applicability to a vast number of unresolved intellectual and practical issues that constellate our current, postmodern world view.

After reading Passion, I did some research on Tarnas and I discovered that he was interested in astrology. At first, I was disappointed that the man who had written Passion could believe in something as obviously naive and ridiculous as astrology. However, after reading several elegant and rigorously reasoned essays Tarnas had written about archetypal astrology, I was forced to reconsider my position. Over the next few years, I bought several books on astrology, and I found them to be interesting, though I remained unconvinced since the philosophical arguments contained in the books that I read (when they bothered at all) were generally cursory and unsophisticated.

Over the last few months, I have been waiting for Cosmos and Psyche with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, hoping that it would live up to the enormous promise of Passion while fearing that Tarnas might have gone a way that I could not follow. However, I have just finished reading Cosmos and Psyche and it surpasses all of my expectations. I think it can be safely said, without exaggeration, that this book could initiate a global transformation of world views on the level of the transformations initiated by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud. Not only is the argument the clearest, the most rigorous, and the most inspired feat of sustained philosophical inquiry I have ever read, but the sheer volume of the evidence that Tarnas presents blasted away the last lingering shreds of skepticism I had been holding onto. Anyone who reads this book will be stunned by the synchronistic (not mechanistically causal) correlations of events in human history with the movements of the planets. There are too many of these incredible revelations to list here. Just read the book. Even if you're ultimately unconvinced, which I find highly unlikely assuming that you're willing to question all of your most basic assumptions (the primary philosophical task), you will still be impressed by the consistently high level of discourse that Tarnas has brought to bear on this "outsider" (at least academically speaking) subject. It's impossible to say whether this book will have an immediate catalyzing effect or whether it will take decades for it to come to popular consciousness, but I sincerely hope that its genius is recognized sooner rather than later.

 A Scientific Triumph - January 22, 2006
Amazon.com Reviewer: Renn Butler

With its open-minded spirit of hypothesis, empirical observation and ongoing theoretical refinement, this book is a scientific triumph, scientific in the highest sense of the word: Here is the evidence and here is a possible theory to explain the evidence. Most importantly, the correlations in Tarnas' methodology are replicable. Anyone with a knowledge of the basic tools of this method of analysis, which he carefully introduces, can investigate the patterning of archetypal principles in his or her own life. To preemptively criticize this body of research without actually investigating it, to refuse to look through the telescope for oneself, might, I believe, be symptomatic of a vested emotional position rather than a genuinely scientific attitude toward the evolution of knowledge.

Tarnas recognizes and even celebrates the virtue of skepticism, as Santayana did when he referred to skepticism as "the chastity of the intellect." Yet Tarnas goes further, reminding us that while "the mind that seeks the deepest intellectual fulfillment does not give itself up to every passing idea," what is sometimes forgotten is that the purpose of skepticism is not to be an end in itself but to prepare us to be ready when a new and deeper truth finally arrives.

 Complexly Beautiful—A Masterpiece - January 27, 2006
Amazon.com Reviewer: Callie Cardamon "Callie" (Los Angeles, CA)

This book will be (already is) one of the favorite books of my life. Tarnas writes non-fiction as powerfully moving and illuminating as the works of Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Marquez, Flaubert, to name only a few "stars" of our human galaxy. Cosmos and Psyche is as complexly beautiful as the world Tarnas describes with such love and understanding. A masterpiece.

 Deserves a constellation of stars - January 27, 2006
Amazon.com Reviewer: Jeff Jawer "Professional Astrologer" (Redmond, Washington)

This is the most important book about astrology in decades (maybe centuries). It's no exaggeration to describe this as a breakthrough that will surely heighten awareness of humanity's connection with the cosmos. Richard Tarnas' protean intellect and lucid prose rewards the reader on every page. This is a shot across the bow of academics who have failed to include astrology in their understanding of our culture.

 Revisioning history, reconstructing astrology: the Tarnas archetypal synthesis - February 20, 2006
Amazon.com Reviewer: Ted Denmark (Avery, CA USA)

Having finished a highly engaging and much anticipated reading of Cosmos and Psyche, I can, as a semi-professional astrologer with an academic background in philosophy, testify wholeheartedly that this is truly one of the most exciting and amazing books to reach publication in our time, a richly elaborated, generous-spirited, comprehensive and scholarly work, illustrating that astrology, when used in the informed and intelligent way this author understands so well, offers the most coherent and persuasive perspective for the interpretation of the broad sweep of history yet achieved. It is difficult to overstate the value of this effort spanning more than three decades of deep investigation and research, resulting in so radical and profound a conclusion for the fields of history, philosophy of history, philosophy of science, and perhaps especially, for astrology itself which has badly needed a critical, thorough and authoritative philosophical grounding since its rapid rise to (sometimes questionable) fame and fortune in the modern world. This is another product that is "truly a noble effort" to echo the memorable rave review given Tarnas' previous one-volume history of early philosophy, The Passion of the Western Mind, by mythologist Joseph Campbell--where there was no hint that astrology would be elevated to so high a position in its sequel. And since the prequel has been so extensively used across the country as an introductory text for the history of ancient philosophy, we can reasonably expect many within the halls of academe (as well as outside) to be somewhat-or greatly-surprised by this follow-on offering.

Tarnas cites the "hard" alignment aspects used by astrologers (conjunction, opposition and square) of the outer planets (Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter) in a matched correlation with sequences and patterns of meaningful simultaneous historical events, called "synchronicities", the term of art borrowed from the ruminations of the late C.G. Jung, an alternative concept of non-mechanical causality gaining currency for some decades now in esoteric studies circles. The skeptical mind of standard science would, of course, reflexively refer to these as "mere coincidences" if they were to acknowledge any pattern of coincidence at all. Astrologers have previously attempted to present correlations of historical evidence with the astrological aspects, but Tarnas, with his extraordinary erudition, historical awareness and cultural appreciation, takes this approach to an unprecedented level with a richly detailed analysis and interpretation for most of the combinations of aspects made by the outer planets during historical times. In one of the most telling correlations cited--the only historical triple conjunction of all three outer planets--occurred during the early decades of the 6th Century BCE when so many great traditions originated all over the world (Greek and Western science and philosophy generally, life and times of Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzse, etc.) in a kind of big bang of cultural origins (which will not occur again for more than a thousand years).

Even for someone like myself already convinced of the book's main thesis--having been working on these and similar ideas during the same time as the author--there was a great deal to learn and appreciate throughout. The explication becomes increasingly persuasive as Tarnas continues to show the match between various astrological aspect combinations and the corresponding simultaneous historical events, particularly for the modern era, with the extraordinary circumstances of the 1960's when the once-per-century Pluto-Uranus conjunction was tightly in orb with all the well-known revolutionary events including the Viet Nam War and its counterculture (which many of us still remember so vividly). Similarly during the 1990's a rare once-per-century Uranus-Neptune conjunction brought us the contrasting soft dissolution of the Soviet Union and the bubble burst of the "high tech" markets-all in nearly perfect metaphoric casting for the astrological timing. There are similar persuasively detailed correlations for the events of the early Twentieth Century and previous ones back to the early period of the Enlightenment with some remarks concerning the ancient period, including that of the New Testament.

Tarnas calls his conditional acceptance of astrology "archetypal astrology" (to be distinguished from a more traditional "predictive astrology"), a seeming appropriate and evocative term, reaching back to ancient philosophy and bringing the issues into the modern period in the lineage of depth psychology which Tarnas regards as the natural predecessor of this effort, particularly as advanced by James Hillman, who is credited for his "archetypal psychology" and is also a well-known interpreter of Jung (see his seminal Revisioning Psychology).

There are fascinating juxtapositions and polished arguments on every page of this blockbuster book knowledgably articulating numerous connections between astrological aspects and historical events with the roles the scientists, artists, statesmen, and other famous and infamous personages played, whose individual astrology Tarnas is often also familiar with, weaving natal astrology together with "world astrology" in a unique and masterful way. Tarnas makes a contribution here to the field of astrology itself because no one has yet shown so effectively how the symbolism of natal astrology fits into the pattern of historical events even among the many worthy contemporary astrological publications. There is an abundance of brilliant and original ideas seen unfolding within this astrological approach to the historical drama and virtually no "filler" or apologies to wade through to get to the action--intellectual rocket fuel propelling us into outer space now symbolically just as the first era of space exploration did at its culmination in 1969 during a once again rare (and different) triple configuration of Pluto, Uranus and Jupiter. It is these rare triple configurations that make the case so powerfully at the most significant historical times which has never been demonstrated so clearly before.

The comparison that comes most readily to mind for Cosmos and Psyche is Darwin's Origin of Species, which had also been a labor of many years that eventually became and still remains one of the most innovative and controversial works of recent centuries, particularly at present (intelligent design, etc.), which went so much against the grain of the conventional wisdom and traditional beliefs of its time. We have only to recall the document signed by more than one hundred Nobel laureates back in the late 1980's which affirmed that astrology should only be considered as the most dangerous and superstitious nonsense to be avoided by all rational modern people, particularly scientists, who regard themselves as properly educated.

What will some of these eminent scientists do, when they are called on to look through Tarnas' "archetypal telescope"? Will they refuse the opportunity, like the bishops who refused to view the Moons of Jupiter through Galileo's refractor? Or will they demur and defer the call to a future generation? Will any become engaged in this dialogue? Clearly there will be many different responses, but this "new world view" presented by Tarnas will strike a powerful chord and resonate for quite some time-I feel almost assured it will actually become a very important new opening for science, history and culture, primarily because of its brilliance and because of the recognition accorded the earlier volume (Passion of the Western Mind). We have had so much reductionist "deconstruction" in the name of critical thinking; soon it will be time for "reconstruction" and synthesis-using a similar kind of analytical understanding but not as code for always following the narrow materialist-reductionist program, which Tarnas shows so engagingly to be related to the Saturn-Pluto archetypal combination now still so dominant in the early years of the current century.

For those who may not bring a critical mass of cultural knowledge and historical interest to Tarnas' examples for full appreciation, this book could easily become an outline for an extended reading program of great historical works as well as many more influential contemporary ones. They will also be prompted for hearing some of the great music (not only Beethoven and Mahler but Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones). And they might also learn enough astrology in the process to be drawn into the next great transformation in the passion of the Western mind as it recovers one of its lost keys, the great astrological one, a complex method and metaphor that sums up the collective wisdom of the ancient world, as Jung put it in his memorable phrase, eventually bringing it to a fuller mindfulness in the new era of synthesized quantum awareness to come later in this century. This book is a major milestone for navigation along that course. Tarnas doesn't attempt to show why or how astrology "works" and even notes the lack of force of statistical approaches to the astrology question thus far while offering his fully empirical case going towards proof of its value as an analytical tool in the laboratory of history.

If this sounds interesting, then prepare yourself for a very exciting, mind-expanding, movie-like experience. You won't regret it even if you can't follow all of the twists and turns along the way-reviewers have noted it is somewhat demanding albeit an intellectual tour de force not to be missed (even if you hate astrology). I can hardly wait to re-read it and mark it up for the group discussions I am already planning.

Posted on ScientificAmerican.com
Customer Reviews


  A Magnificent Book - April 4, 2006

This is a magnificent book that has made me again proud to call myself an astrologer. The quality of his original scholarship, and the sheer volume of detail included in the correlation, separates this book from almost everything else written in the field. But this book is much more than some scholarly data dump. Tarnas penetrates to the core of each of the archetypes that he describes, to such an extraordinary degree that I came to better understand several critical themes in my own life - and I've been an astrologer, actively involved in counseling and mundane/financial studies, for nearly twenty years.

This book represents the beachhead in the coming battle to restore soul to the cosmos. The hardened skeptic, as wed to his or her belief as the most zealous religious fundamentalist, will likely not be persuaded by Tarnas' presentation. But anyone who is truly open to the honest pursuit of knowledge is likely to come away persuaded that there are indeed more things in heaven and earth than have been dreamt of in our current mechanistic philosophy.


  Sensing the animation of the cosmos - May 14, 2006

I use this book in the graduate courses I teach (theories of depth psych, qualitative research) and am glad to recommend it as an exciting look at an emerging paradigm, one in which human beings use quantitative AND qualitative tools to listen in on our living surroundings.

For people who feel drawn to astrology but put off by its vulgar forms, particularly the pre-Enlightenment notion that the stars exert some kind of causal force on human doings, this book offers a synchronistic way of holding the entire topic, one that connects world transits (those of the slow-moving outer planets) and historical events in stunning patterns of significance too important to overlook. For a contemporary example, think of the Saturn-Pluto alignment just ending: rigidity, contraction, and Saturn's cannibalistic appetite for innocence given extra punch by the Plutonic underworld. This alignment occurred during the start of both World Wars, the start of the Cold War, the rise of fascist movements all over the world, and the bombing of the World Trade Center and the subsequent paranoia and militarization.

Professor Tarnas piles on the parallels, but he must to make his point: that such correlations must be seen interpretively, symbolically, and metaphorically. This is a qualitative approach, and yes, it is scientific: science as hermeneutics and participatory inquiry. As Abraham Maslow remarked, if the given data don't fit a type of science that only counts and measures, then so much the worse for that view of science.

Tarnas's idea of diachrony is particularly powerful: the idea that events occurring during one world transit develop during all the following ones. The implication is that something at the archetypal level of being is evolving--but evolving in ways discernible in human culture.


  An amazing book - May 19, 2006

Richard Tarnas is a very special author. He has an open and original approach to his subject matter, and the reader is richly rewarded.

I have to admit that I have long been skeptical of astrology as a serious discipline, and felt it had too many inconsistencies, lacked a collegial agreement on the various meanings and interpretations of natal charts and transits, and was inadequately predictive.

Tarnas, however, shows with a series of cases, that there seems to be "something going on" with the hard aspects of certain outer planets, specifically Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, when compared to the lives and contributions of individuals, and the patterns of history. This overlay of astrological data upon human history is what has been needed to help make the case that there is some kind of relationship that animates the old expression, "as above, as below."

I think Tarnas is incredibly brave and innovative to present this thesis of astrological influence. Naturally, much more needs to be considered to explore the nature of this phenomenon. Tarnas has, however, given us a compellingly rational framework for this exploration. I look forward to more from him, and others, on this intriguing subject.