Being in the World podcast 067: Anya Kaats--Astrology for Rationalists

Tao and Anya, host of A Millennial's guide to Saving The World, discuss astrology and whether it's possible to find meaning in it in a similar way we find meaning in fictions and mythological tales. They discuss archetypes and the collective unconscious and stories that can help guide us through this life without a need to "believe" in something supernatural or anti-scientific.   

Many people assume, for instance, that astrology is all nonsense. It is true that astrology has nothing to do with the stars. The horoscope may say that you were born in Taurus, but the constellations today have moved and horoscopes no longer correspond to the actual positions of the stars. … But people criticize astrology as though it had something to do with the stars.

– C. G. Jung in 1929

We see that menstruation has a moon period, yet it does not coincide with the phases of the moon; otherwise all women would menstruate at the same time, and they don’t. It simply means that there is a moon-law in every woman and likewise the laws of the stars in every human being but not in the relation of cause and effect.

• C.G. Jung, December 11, 1929

The fact that it is possible to reconstruct a person’s character fairly accurately from his birth data shows the relative validity of astrology. It must be remembered, however, that the birth data are in no way dependent on the actual astronomical constellations, but are based on an arbitrary, purely conceptual time system. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the spring-point has long since moved out of the constellation of Aries into Pisces, so that the astrological zodiac on which horoscopes are calculated no longer corresponds to the heavenly one. If there are any astrological diagnoses of character that are in fact correct, this is due not to the influence of the stars but to our own hypothetical time qualities. In other words, whatever is born or done at this particular moment of time has the quality of this moment of time.

• C.G. Jung