A Transdisciplinary Approach to Science and

Astrology
by Alain Ngre

Summary : In the present state of contemporary knowledge, one recognizes a certain "astrological
phenomenon". Apparently, an order exists which underlies the world and may be experienced through
the perusal of our birth chart, the latter reflecting the fathomless structures of our interiority.
Nonetheless, with the emergence of scientific thought three centuries ago, astrology was met with new
difficulties as it tried to coexist with novel approaches to apprehending the "real". In fact, the very
validity of astrology is repudiated by those who conceive of a sole level to reality (which they believe
science to reveal) even though physics has recently proved the existence of at least two levels to reality.
As a reaction, astrology closes itself off to scientific discourse, or, conversely, dresses itself up as a
science. In an attempt to sort through the conflicts between science and astrology, this article explores
the unconscious foundations which gave birth to astrology. It draws from what C.G. Jung called the
symbolic function and originates in the "place" of the soul where mind and matter may potentially
reunite.
The impasse over scientific astrology
Surveys conducted over the past several years prove that the belief in astrology is increasing [1]
despite repeated attempts on the part of skeptical movements to show the inconsistency of astrological
thought as opposed to scientific experience. From the perspective of physics or biology, such
inconsistencies are easily detected. The principal anti-astrological arguments have not fundamentally
changed since Ptolemy and are regularly trotted out today. However, without rehashing these eternal
arguments like that of the equinox precession, it is child's play to reveal the absurdity of the astrological
word next to the laws that science has illuminated. Thus, one may easily conclude that if people
continue to believe in the effect of the planets or zodiac signs on their character, qualities, flaws,
behavior, and even future, it must be that the concerns of astrology are situated outside the field of
science.

Before trying to clarify the ways in which astrology may be considered today, it is essential to
emphasize its origin. Astrology emerged from a most ancient and harmonious model which dominated
occidental culture for centuries up to the inception of modern times. This global vision governed all
universal phenomena by several simple and rational principles. In particular, the planets, or "wandering
stars", the moon, and the sun were animated, even divine beings, whose movements inscribed
concentric, interlocking spheres that formed a protective shell around the earth. Everything between
the Earth and the stars' fixed limit constituted a living being based on a system of correspondence,
sympathy and harmony. The visible phenomena of nature were entangled with invisible forces. Reality
included both the natural and the supernatural. The inner order of an individual mirrored that of the sky
while being subjected to the restrictions of the sublunar realm of generation and corruption. The moral
and physical constitution of a given individual, as well as the pathological predisposition of his
temperament, depended on the state of the sky and the mutual relations between the planets at the
moment of his birth.

At the beginning of the XVII century, this system of thought was contradicted by new phenomena
which could not be integrated into the previous vision of the world. A novel mode of thinking emerged,
defined with a mechanistic conception of knowledge and symbolized by the clock and automaton.
Nature became an immense machine - a notion which would influence all areas of thought. The brilliant
success of mechanistic science relegated astrology to oblivion until the end of the XIX century. Today,
regardless of renewed popularity and attacks by skeptics, astrology barely interests scientists beyond
historical curiosity about another of science's errors.

However, with the emergence of a new physics which has called into question the mechanistic
conception of a universal machine, the limits of rationality have suddenly burst. Today, we are
witnessing an intellectual revolution in which the old dualities of body vs. mind and soul vs. matter no
longer have the same meaning. In particular, quantum physics has found evidence of a mysterious
indivisibility of matter - better known as non-locality. The enigmatic nature of non-locality stems from its
opposition to classical physics by which the world may be understood through its division into minuscule
parts such as molecules, atoms, and nuclei. This latter approach reaps results when one ignores the
intimate texture of things, turning a blind eye to a particle's level of reality as translated in the infinitely
small figure of Planck's constant. At this minuscule level, one must use a new form of physics, namely
quantum physics. Quantum physics reveals the non-separable nature of matter and thereby presents its
ultimate indivisibility. As a conclusive experiment has shown, the separation in space of two previously
united particles fails to truly divide the particles, for they remain in instantaneous correlation with each
other. In fact, the measurement of one particle significantly affects the other, as if unity perseveres even
at great distances. Since this correlation is instantaneous, it cannot be explained by an interaction
propagated at the speed of light which, at 300,000 km/s, still takes a certain amount of time.

The above-mentioned experiment leads to the conclusion that each point in the universe is
connected to all other points at the quantum level. Such a phenomenon seems reminiscent of the
universal interdependence described by the ancients and by which all parts of the universe are in
sympathy - a concept mirrored in astrology's insistence on universal interdependence. Some, ignoring
the conditions of validity of this non-locality, have unfortunately used the experiment to affirm that the
new data brought forward by modern science grants astrology a scientific dimension. Leaping at this
opportunity, others have even tried to show that astrology is a science and elaborate on theories
inspired by physics or biology. As with the proponents of any new scientific theory, one might ask them:
"do you have proof of what you advance?" "Have you observed phenomena or conducted experiments
to verify your theory?" If such is the case, these studies should be published in specialized reviews and
subjected to the analysis and criticism of scientists. Micro and macro cultural and natural rhythms have
undergone this process and are now recognized as examples of veritable scientific research.[2] The
submission of its theories to experimentation and observation, has also allowed the recent discipline of
chronobiology to become a science which accounts for the cyclical determinism of geocosmic
phenomena. In the same spirit, recent conferences were presented with works that demonstrate the
influence of the lunar and solar cycles on humans.[3] The belated interest in this type of phenomenon
on the part of the scientific community is partially due to a perceived relationship with astrology which
casts studies in a negative light. Here, the great scientist Galileo may serve as an example to skeptics. In
the XVII century, Galileo refused to consider any possible effect of the moon on the earth's tides,
relegating such speculation to the realm of astrology as opposed to that of science. Today, of course, no
one would deny the effect of the moon on tides and numerous other earthly phenomena.

To the extent that they respect the scientific method, works which aim to elucidate correlation or
causal links between the cosmos and human beings are valuable, even if they are inspired by
astrological motivations. But by no means should they be confused with astrology. What then may they
prove? Quite simply that the laws of physics, chemistry and biology function when applied to geocosmic
phenomena. This approach stands in great contrast to the attitude of astrology's defenders who
champion their theories with an absolute lack of proof. Such apologists only serve to further confuse a
world so adrift in fragmented knowledge that it has become extremely difficult to reflect on the
conditions of validity and the significance of one's own discipline.

Those who are inclined to believe in astrology are, to some extent, comforted by the proof-less
theories peddled by many of its adherents. In fact, their tactics are far from limited to the astrological
milieu. Faced with a public that is fond of fascinating theories which push the limits of space, matter,
and time farther and farther, certain researchers go spinning out of control. Their theories introduce
notions like the soul and the psyche which science did away with in the course of its development. Of
course, such reintroductions into the modern scientific method explain everything relating to mind and
matter. While these scientists are ignored or upbraided by their colleagues, their aura is celebrated
among astrology's amateur public. Science has been burdened with a negative connotation since the
Second World War. Thus, being an object of reproach in the scientific world may reward one with a
certain amount of sympathy. Take, for example, the physicist Jean Charon who is esteemed for his
writings [4] and whose work on relativity was revered by his peers. Later, Charon came to endow the
electron with a soul. In the same vein and with a greater connection to astrology, the biologist Etienne
Guill began by the observation and scientific analysis of metal traces susceptible to fixation on DNA.
These same metals were traditionally linked to the seven planets. Subsequently, Guill defined
"vibratory energies" with frequencies that are measured by a pendulum.[5] Regrettably, no scientific
publication mentions Guill's theories nor any associated experiments or observations by which they
might have been proven. Moreover, it is questionable that experimental protocols could ever be
conceived of allowing for the objective observation of an electron's spiritual properties or the vibratory
energies of DNA. Objection might also be raised over falsifiability or the economy principle by which
arbitrary and useless entities must not be introduced in a theoretical model. In any case, it is clear that
such theories may be those of philosophy or metaphysics, but certainly not of science.

Other attempts to prove astrology have adopted a different tactic. Abandoning the research of
celestial influence and causality, some use statistics to show a correlation between the state of the sky
on an individual's chart and his comportment. The skeptical movements, sometimes in collaboration
with astrological associations, are especially fond of this approach. In every case, the results have
invalidated any astral influence on human personality or destiny. Numerous examples of this type of
experimentation may be found in "The Skeptical Inquirer".[6] Astrological journals and conferences
include a plethora of works which attempt to link a case of alcoholism with the configurations of the
planet Neptune or an example of genius and aspects of the planet Uranus. As these studies are rarely
based on more than fifteen cases, they have no statistical value. Furthermore, they are never placed in
the hands of experts for a first and second assessment. While lacking in depth, such works manage to
cloud the issues and furnish astrology with a falsely scientific dimension.

At this point, we might turn to two recently scrutinized studies that seem to move towards the
verification of astrology. Madame Suzel Fuzeau-Braesch, research director at France's National Center
for Scientific Research, has demonstrated that 238 pairs of twins with nearly identical charts, but for
their ascendants, display behavioral differences which correspond to the meanings of their ascendants.
Out of 238 responses, these studies reveal 153 which are favorable to astrology.[7] Henri Broch, physics
professor at the University of Nice, has exposed myriad deficiencies in Fuzeau-Braesh's work, such as a
dearth of numerous parameters, a refusal on the part of the researcher to communicate precise
information on the procedures and statistical methods used, hypothetical births, and so on.[8]

An analogous attempt, albeit on a larger scale, was the work of Michel and Francoise Gauquelin. In
1955, these two researchers attempted to show the link between the position of the planets at the
moment of birth and certain human traits. The most striking link studied was the "Mars Effect" by which
the position of the planet Mars at the moment of birth would have an effect on athletic prowess. Almost
thirty years later, in 1981, The French Committee for the Study of Paranormal Phenomena, created,
among others, by Nobel laureate Alfred Kastler, worked with the Gauquelins on the same problem.[9]
This succeeding study expanded on the original by enlarging the sample. It was hence revealed that, by
weeding their sample, the Gauquelins had managed to find significant deviations from the standard.
However, when the sample was augmented by the CFEPP, the standard deviations vastly diminished,
tending towards zero. Once again, the polemic over the Gauquelins' work is not resolved and studies
continue to be carried out. For instance, Suitbert Ertel, psychology professor at the University of
Gttingen, has shown that the Mars Effect increases with an athlete's eminence.[10]

In the anticipation of further studies based on the above mentioned works, one might concede that
they seem to corroborate a particular relationship between celestial phenomena and the personalities
of certain human beings. Nonetheless, one cannot fail to note the weak results in favor of astrology:
only 153 affirmative responses out of 238 in the twins study. Those who have truly contemplated
astrology and examined their birth map will recognize that, in the deepest regions of their interiority,
astrology is "true." The sensation of psychic coincidence experienced with regard to the universe has
been present since the dawn of time and has failed to be eradicated by three centuries of scientific
materialism. An astrological phenomenon does exist and the birth chart reflects the deepest fathoms of
the human soul. Why then does this phenomenon not find substance in statistical studies?

The Reality of the Symbol

It must be concluded that astrology is not easily captured by statistic's coarse nets but rather should
be perceived in relation to our interiority. Astrology moves in the realm of a more subtle reality, far from
that studied by natural science. The latter refuses ambiguity - a rejection which is patent in classical
physics. But, as will later be discussed, even as quantum physics reveals dualities such as that of the
wave and the particle, the act of measurement leads to the manifestation of a unique, well defined
event. Modern science finds its roots in the rupture with the use of ambivalent logic like that manifested
in astrology and in the myths of archaic thought. However, in the most profound core of our psyche, we
feel the presence of contradicting forces. Most of the astrological texts underline this ambivalence in the
interpretation of symbols. To take an example from Sun sign astrology, Valry Giscard d'Estaing, former
president of the republic, well embodied the qualities associated with his sign, Aquarius. From the
moment he took office, he was an innovator, walking down the Champs-Elyses, visiting prisoners,
meeting with refuse collectors, and spending time with ordinary people in their homes. But the values of
his opposing sign, that of Leo, were also very apparent in Giscard d'Estaing. For example, he admired
Louis XV and the tradition of the royal hunt. He reintroduced the ancient custom of the kings of France,
insisting that no one sit opposite him during meals. And of course, one might refer to the former
president's admiration for Bokassa's diamonds. Such contradictory aspects of an individual cannot be
rendered by statistics which separate opposing terms and refuses to include the aspects of one term in
another. The science of statistics allows the unveiling of real phenomena but remains limited to the
objects of natural science in which the notion of the soul has disappeared. If it were to be proven
beyond the shadow of a doubt that the stars tend to determine the destinies of high level athletes or
the distinct characteristics of twins, scientists would be obliged to take these phenomena into account
and integrate them into an already existing or new discipline. In any case, it would be wise to avoid a
new anti-astrology a priori like that once mounted against Kepler's idea that the Moon influenced tides
or Newton's theory of remote forces which was reminiscent of alchemy. If, as with Kepler and Newton,
the studies of Fuzeau-Braesh and Ertel were confirmed, entire sections of the scientific corpus would be
cast in doubt, thus making way for progress. However, in no way would such discoveries give astrology a
scientific label. At best, astrology would renew science. I will return to this last possibility in an ensuing
discussion of Kepler. Fortunately, the long refined methodology of science allows us to see our world
more and more clearly, even permitting us to withdraw our projections. Whatever may evolve, astrology
will remain astrology, constantly returning to that subtle and infinite reality even if the Mars Effect and
the twin studies fall into the realm of science.

In fact, the fine-spun reality of astrology is that of the symbol. The proponents of a scientific
astrology often decry such an affirmation, declaring: "What? You say that astrology is merely symbolic?"
An inherent scorn for the symbol is revealed in their offended protest. And so, something which, in the
history of our own culture and in many contemporary non-western cultures, constitutes a reality as real
as material reality, is downgraded to a blatantly inferior standing. It is this rejection of the symbol which
explains the current exclusion of astrology by universities and cultured circles. If, in today's word,
astrology gains no acceptance as an authentic field of study, this resistance is not simply due to the
shameless exploitation of astrology which can be observed throughout the media. Astrology's low
standing is more likely a result of the devaluation of the symbol over the past two centuries. Obscured
and diluted, the science of the symbol has become so very enigmatic that it has lost its original sense
and finds itself applied to myriad elements such as traffic lights, logos, mathematical signs and dream
images. Hence today's difficulty in differentiating between the aspects of astrology which fall into the
field of natural science and the true nature of astrology which is that of the symbol, existing on a
transcendental and metaphysical plane of essences.

Unfortunately, the social sciences disparage astrology and limit their study to the perspectives of
sociology, history and ethnology. Nonetheless, rather than abandoning astrology to horoscope
charlatans, it is of interest to examine the causes for the field's current resurgence. In other words,
instead of letting astrology become a belief and feeding the sterile debates between science and
parascience, it seems of greater interest to explore astrology's own reality. While astrology cannot be a
natural science, it can no better be a science like psychology. The false conception of astrology as the
equivalent of psychology is abetted by the insistence on psychology which pervades contemporary
culture. Fundamental examples of such a tendency may be found in seminal works like The Astrology of
the Personality [11] and From Psychoanalysis to Astrology.[12] Astrologers are thus led to the false
belief that astrology supplies conceptual or practical tools that may be used in "astrotherapy". In reality,
astrology provides no conceptual tool like that generated, for example, by the founders of
psychoanalysis.
Astrology and Depth Psychology
To sum up, one might say that astrology belongs to neither social science nor to natural science but,
on the other hand, may be the object of a science: a science of symbolic forms, of religion or of the
psyche. Today, an individual who looks into his astrological chart or solicits its interpretation commits a
psychological act. For his part, Freud cast aside astrology and other "occult" disciplines, banishing them
to what he called "the black sludge of occultism". Jung, on the other hand, believed that no element of
human invention may be scorned, for everything has a meaning in the overall schema of things. Today,
what was once seen as originating in the stars is now understood as a projection of the unconscious, and
astrology may be interpreted only from this psychological perspective. Jung affirmed that the greater
part of things considered psychic resided in the animated matter of the universe: "Since the stars have
fallen from heaven and our highest symbols have paled, a secret life holds sway in the unconscious. That
is why we have a psychology today, and why we speak of the unconscious. All this would be quite
superfluous in an age or culture that possessed symbols." [13]

Jung awarded a distinct and separate reality to this interior world which he saw as having been
projected onto the outside world. He deserves credit for having empirically rediscovered the soul of the
world, comprised of the multiple gods of nature which he called the collective unconscious or the
objective psyche. For delving into astrology and other "ghosts of centuries of imagination", Jung was
suspected of mysticism and even magic. However, he acted as a true scientist, describing his
methodology in the following manner: "I observe, I classify, I establish relationships and sequential
organization between observed events, and I even show that prediction is possible. When I speak of the
collective unconscious, I do not present it as a principle, but rather give a name to the totality of
observable events, that is to say, archetypes." [14]

As Michel Cazenave explains [15] , the clearest definition of the archetype is not that of an original
image nor of the condensation of archaic residues of some unconscious substance. Instead, it is an
empty form, an a priori form of perception, a structure of the unconscious which emerges in the world
of the senses and remains hidden while taking form in archetypal images or symbols. Cazenave
mentions the objective kinship between archetypes and the forms of Lacan's collective field as well as
the empty but formative unconscious of Lvi-Strauss and contemporary anthropology's works on
kinship.

Like Freud, Jung solicited the empirical method while rejecting an exclusively causal interpretation of
psychic phenomena. The latter are even more clearly oriented towards an end or path to be followed
which Jung called individuation or the fulfillment of the "Self ": the archetype of human totality. With his
bold hypothesis of Synchronicity [16] , Jung suggested that certain aspects of reality which remain
outside the causal description of nature may be understood as synchronistic phenomena without
regressing towards archaic forms of magical causal thought.

Thus, by the light of Jung's work, the planets and the zodiac signs are not archetypes, but rather
archetypal images or symbols. In astrology, Mars, Mercury, and Venus represent the potentials of
aggression, of initiative (Mars), of communication (Mercury), and of love (Venus), inherent in us and
which we project onto those planets which seem to best incarnate these qualities. And the feeling of
psychic coincidence that we may have in relation to the universe of our birth is not due to the physical
influence of the planets, but instead to the fact that we are born in synchronicity with the universe of
our birth. As Jung contended, "we are born at a given moment, in a given place, and we have, like
celebrated vintages the same qualities of the year and of the season which saw our birth." [17]

Astrology and the potential unity of the world
Through his collaboration with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, Jung came to the conclusion that the
unconscious is not limited to the domain of psychology, but rather is related to the structures of matter.
Thus, matter and psyche are no longer two separate, antinomic spheres. Their roots originate in a
common original structure which Jung, echoing the philosophers of the Middle Ages, called the unus
mundus. Astrology draws from this source. And science, through its roots, shares the same soil. For, the
real history of science reveals how its founders worked from symbolic forms that rose from the
unconscious.[18] Kepler, father of new astronomy in the XVII century, was a devotee of astrology - an
aspect of his personality tagged by science's XIX century historians as the "bad part". Nonetheless, new
translations of Kepler's works [19] reveal the integration of astrological symbols with his scientific
research. They were, in fact, intermingled. They guided Kepler towards groundbreaking hypotheses
which are the foundation of modern science. Newton, Kepler, and all the great innovators of science
needed the symbolism of alchemy and astrology, or other elements, in order to invent. In any case, the
roots of science always originate outside of its own field. Thus, as they are built upon a similitude
between the unconscious psyche and the exterior world, one might say that all scientific or religious
attempts to order chaos and mold reality are projections of the unconscious. Of course, science does
not confine itself to the level of vision. Instead, it puts into place a process of discrimination and
organization which, in physics, results in laws that are expressed by mathematical language. The human
mind tends to seize these visions as if they were eternal truths, but the moment comes when observed
events no longer coincide with a given vision or hypothesis and no longer correspond with the relevant
scientific theory or model. At this moment, we recognize them as projections and the hypothesis in
question must be abandoned for new approaches.

So science, like astrology, is a projection by the unconscious onto the unknown. The knowledge of
the unconscious is an unknowing knowledge which Jung described as a "cloud of knowledge" and
named "absolute knowledge". Only at this level of the unconscious' absolute knowledge, where the
potential unity of the universe lies, are science and astrology one and the same thing. It is when man or
mankind become aware of the knowledge of the unconscious, that symbolic forms, scientific concepts
and physical laws can be generated. But, at this stage, a new level of reality emerges - that of developed
manifestation. Here, religious systems find their uniqueness and scientific disciplines are defined. Here
appears the distinction between archetypal forms and the empty forms of archetypes. According to
Jung, archetypes, the nuclei of the unconscious, cannot be perceived by the conscious but rather are
empty matrices which the conscious fills with the particulars of a dream or the elements of a distinct
culture. Hence the absurdity of debates about the validity of such and such an astrological system and
especially about the equinoctial precession. For roughly 2000 years, the Western world has used the
mobile zodiac of signs because it best incarnates the constantly changing occidental way of life. At this
level of manifestation, it is therefore an illusion to seek unity between the different systems of astrology
or to seek a relation between science and astrology. Hence, the need to have a vertical vision of reality.

Recognizing the existence of different levels of reality

Today's scientific spirit is slowly abandoning a strictly materialistic conception of the world and
accepting the reality of a world outside immediate reality. Aside from Jung and the physicist Pauli,
numerous researchers, physicists, and philosophers of science have come to the hypothesis of a
transcendental field, such as that in the implicate order of David Bohm [20] , the veiled real of Bernard
d'Espagnat [21] , and the subquantum field of Ervin Laszlo.[22] The paradox is that physics, which in the
positivist XIX century wanted to explain everything on a sole and unique level, has been obliged to
consider at least two different levels of reality:

- The reality of macroscopic objects of every day life, governed by the Aristotelian view of identity,
non-contradiction and of the excluded middle. In other words, a table is a table and not a chair.

- The reality of quantum objects, already evoked in regards to the phenomenon of non-locality,
which is the expression of the universe as a certain, indivisible totality. If we try to understand the
behavior of these objects by the means of classical logic, we find ourselves in a labyrinth of paradox.
Such is the case of light which was first interpreted as a corpuscle and then, with the XIX century wave
theory as a wave, until the emergence of quanta theory in 1930. Since then, we have envisioned light as
being made up of novel entities that are both wave and particle. Thus, classical logic, based on the
principle of identity, non-contradiction and the excluded middle, must cede its place to the logic of the
included middle. This included middle reveals another level of reality where that which appears
disunited and contradictory (wave or particle) is perceived as united and non-contradictory. Certain
physicists cannot make room for this concept. Jean-Marc Lvy-Leblond compares the situation to that of
the first explorers who, once disembarked in Australia, "perceived in the streams where they sought
gold, strange beasts with beaks and fur which they baptized 'duckmoles.' The Aborigines already had a
name for the animal: 'mallingong' (or boondaburra). Unfortunately, this name was replaced by the
heavy and scholarly 'ornithorhynchus' (or 'platypus' for the Anglo-Saxons) since the creature was not the
combination of a duck and mole, but rather a newly discovered being. Similarly, the physicist who
manipulates light with his instruments and describes it in equations sees that in neither case is light
wave or particle nor sometimes one and sometimes the other, as is too often said ".[23] We therefore
move to a new level of deeper reality where identity, non-contradiction and the excluded middle
simultaneously disappear.

It is in the framework of these new epistemological landscapes opened by quantum physics that one
may situate astrology and determine its eventual connection to science. For this, a new rationality must
come into effect - an open rationality which permits dialogue between differing sciences and inner
experience. This new approach is taking form under the name transdisciplinarity. The name touches
upon the two meanings of the prefix trans: that which is beyond all disciplines and that which traverses
all possible disciplines. Article 3 of the Transdisciplinarity Charter specifies that "transdisciplinarity
complements the disciplinary approach. Out of the dialogue between disciplines it produces new results
and new interactions between them. It offers a new vision of nature and reality. Transdisciplinarity does
not seek a mastery in several disciplines but aims to open all disciplines to what they have in common
and to what lies beyond their boundaries." [24]

Science, with its protocols, demands, and specific means of existence, operates on a completely
different level than that of the mind-inspired quest for innerness embodied by astrology. Each decode
the same potential unity of the real while working from differing levels of being. In his vast inquiry into
the relationship between science and the soul, Michel Cazenave distinguished a hierarchy of four levels
of existence between ourselves and Being, helping to demonstrate where and how science and
astrology are profoundly united yet totally distinct.

1- The beings or entities : level of the psychology of the conscious and of phenomena that are
relatively separate, and studied by classical macroscopic physics. Here dwells the excluded middle (a is a
and not b). For example, Mars is the planet Mars and not the planet Venus.
2- The Totality of being : level of the total psyche personified in an individual, of phenomenal
relativist physics and phenomenal quantum physics. Particular entities originate from these actual
globalities.
3- The plane of Being: realm of the potential totality of the objective transcendental psyche, of the
unus mundus, of the real at the roots of quantum physics where paradoxes and complementary pairs
are found (conscious-unconscious, wave-particle). The associated logic is that of the included middle (a
is at the same time a and b). It is also the place of archetypes and astrological symbols which may signify
one thing as well as its opposite. For example, the symbol Mars may be manifest both in the destructive
behavior of a serial killer and in the healing hands of a surgeon.
4- The Being: unknowable and imparticipable, beyond all contradiction and all identity as a is neither
a nor b.[25]

Astrology, like any symbolic art, draws on the last two levels of the above structure where the
objective psyche and matter coincide in their potential unity. Science, for its part, only deals in separate,
multiple and actualized objects from the first two levels. But, as Cazenave insists, these four levels are
mirrored in each other, the last referring to the first.

The Zodiac as a mirror of the Being and as a reading grid

Thus, while neither astrology nor archetypes can be explained by science, we may perceive
reflections of astrology in science. Some contend that the future may therein be deciphered. However,
with the exception of certain works in mundane astrology, one might safely say that most astrological
predictions would come out false if exhaustive studies were conducted. The supposed accuracy of
certain predictions thus lies in simple statistical odds. If isolated national and world events, such as the
changing of a government majority or the fall of the soviet block, have been successfully predicted, this
accuracy most likely stems from the predictor's sense of history and geopolitics. Astrology does play its
part, but only as a resonance on the grid of possibilities that makes up the infinite game of "astrological
aspects".

Apparently, the solitude which often accompanies power leads certain heads of state to surround
themselves with astrologers. We may only hope that their official advisors adopt the scientific methods
of futurology which, while less poetic and spectacular, are better adapted to the modern world. For
everything dealing with projections on the future prior to the astrology/astronomy split may be found
today in scientific predictions. In fact, one of science's roles is to predict the future while specifying the
limits of this predictive power. Astrology should no longer attempt to assume such a role. In fact, one
might note that neither the founders of psychoanalysis nor contemporary therapists have encouraged
predictive practices. The unconscious knowledge of absolute knowledge that resides in the deepest
layers of the psyche allows one to "fly over time". In fact, this knowledge is out of time or moreover, it is
distributed throughout all dimensions of time including the past and the future. Nonetheless, it is a
diffuse knowledge, not allowing for the precise and exact description of a future event. One may simply
obtain the more or less beclouded image of emerging possibilities which Marie-Louise von Franz calls
the "quality of possible events".[26] The use of astrology to meditate on the unconnected events of the
past in order to stitch them together and invest them with meaning remains valuable. However, too
much speculation about the future, can become detrimental for it turns one's attention away from the
here and now. This distances astrology from its only possible meaning at the dawn of the XXI century: to
present us with the contradictions arising from the non-integrated aspects of our personalities as
reflected in the birth chart, and to permit a dialogue with these contradictions, ultimately leading to the
awareness of the Self - the essential wholeness of our psyche.

On another plane, astrology is called the "mother of the sciences". One might imagine that
astrology's rich symbolic structure could inspire science to elaborate new tools, aimed at the exploration
of the constantly elusive aspects of the real. As Jung contended, archetypes carry out an overall
movement known as circumambulatio.[27] By this, he means that they rotate around the central
archetype, the Self - orchestrator of the overall organization. The zodiac of the 12 signs is a mandala
(symbol of the totality) which perfectly illustrates the wheel of archetypes. It is harmoniously structured
by the numbers and principally by the numbers four (the elements of fire, earth, air and water) and
three (the qualities which are cardinal, fixed and mutable). In fact, it can be considered as a rich reading
grid that uses a potential conceptual language, a sort of "qualitative mathematics". Thanks to its square
and opposition features, the circular structure of the zodiac allows for both a diachronic and synchronic
reading. Well before it permitted the delineation of an individual or collective narrative, astrology was
perceived by the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, and Islamic traditions as the reflection of creation
and the evolution of the world. Before anything else, astrology is therefore cosmogony. Today, scientific
cosmology brandishes proof to show that the universe has a history. The universe had a beginning, will
have an end, and by certain interpretations, is susceptible to cyclical evolution. Remarkably, the
different stages of this history match the meanings behind the twelve signs of the zodiac.[28] As new
cosmological theories lose footing in the approach towards time zero, the zodiacal structure may clarify
certain relationships, perhaps leading to a new scientific approach to the singularity of the universe's
origin. Of course, this use of astrology must not confuse the manifested totalities studied by science
with the potential totality illustrated by the zodiac.

The truth of astrology
Those who attempt to prove astrology through science perpetuate the early century belief of
Bertrand Russell for whom "the only truth is science". This scientific vision of truth is a prolongation of
the traditional conception of truth which has dominated occidental thought since Aristotle. For this
philosopher, "true discourse is similar to things" (De Interpretatione). The same concept then returned
during the Middle-Ages when Aquinas insisted that truth is adequacy and in Descartes' conception that
truth equals certitude because it guarantees rectitude, an accord with the represented object. More
recently, Kant mirrored Aristotle when he wrote that "it is only by judgment, in other words, by the
relationship of an object to our understanding, that one finds truth and error".[29]

Astrology's truth cannot be defined by these philosophers' terms. The individual who meditates on
his planetary blueprint does find adequacy between the representation of the universe at his moment of
birth and his inner life. But, as far as astrology is concerned, this remains a correspondence of symbolic
proportions. And no symbolic system of interpretation is absolutely true, the symbol being characterized
by its polysemy and multivocal abundance. The symbol's opaque language opens to infinite
interpretations. Unlike scientific language which seeks to explain and give account of natural
phenomena, symbolic language such as that of astrology demands interpretation and guides us towards
the core of our interiority. The natal chart is not a conventional representation. It is a path of a hidden
meaning, the meaning of a new unity through which we merge with the archetypal structure of our very
being.

The truth of astrology is thus the truth of the symbol. While another truth assumes adequacy of the
thing, astrology's truth belongs to the essence of Being. This is not a truth of agreement but of unveiling,
like that in Plato's cave. Plato and the neoplatonic tradition gave truth this status and, during the Middle
Ages, Saint Bonaventure reflected a similar vision, meditating that truth "does not come from existing
matter, for matter is contingent, nor from its existence in the mind, as this would be mere fiction if the
thing were not truly present. Rather, it ensues from the exemplary nature of the divine archetype which
decides the properties and the mutual sequence of all things based on the sketches of eternal
wisdom".[30] This notion of an essential truth is found in Jung's process of individuation through which
man perceives his own, singular verity. And so unfolds the truth of the Self which is also that found
through meditating on one's birth chart.



[1] La Pense Scientifique et les Parasciences, Albin Michel, 1993, Paris Text
[2] Jean-Jacques Wunenberger, Les Rythmes, Lectures et Thories, Centre Culturel International de
Cerisy, L'Harmattan, 1992, Paris Text
[3] Chronobiology and its Roots in Cosmos, Bratislava 1997. See also Kosice 1993 and Bratislava 1994,
Moon and Living Matter, Professor M. Mikulecky, Slovak Medical Society, Institute of Preventive and
Clinical Medecine, Limbova 14, SK 83301 Bratislava, Slovakia Text
[4] Jean Charon, Unknown Spirit: the Unity of Matter and Spirit in Space and Time, Sigo Press, 1991
Text
[5] Etienne Guill, Le Langage Vibratoire de la Vie, Le Rocher, 1990, Paris Text
[6] The Skeptical Inquirer, Box 703, Buffalo, NY 14226-0703 USA Text
[7] Suzel Fuzeau-Braesch, Astrologie : la Preuve par Deux, Robert Laffont, 1992, Paris Text
[8] Henri Broch, L'Extravagante " Manip " des Jumeaux, in Science et Vie n 916, 1994, Paris Text
[9] Claude Benski and al., The "Mars Effect", Prometheus Books, 1995 Text
[10] Suitbert Ertel, Kenneth Irving, The Tenacious Mars Effect, The Urania Trust, London, 1996 Text
[11] Dane Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality, Lucis Publishing Co., New-York, 1936 Text
[12] Andr Barbault, De la Psychanalyse l'Astrologie, Editions du Seuil, 1961, Paris Text
[13] Carl Gustav Jung, Collected Works, Vol. 9-1, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1959 (p.23) Text
[14] Carl Gustav Jung, Letters, 1951-1961, Vol. 9 , Princeton University Press, 1992 Text
[15] Michel Cazenave, Jung et la Modernit, une Introduction, in Cahiers Jungiens de Psychanalyse,
numro 80 (1, place de l'cole militaire), Paris, 1996 Text
[16] Carl Gustav Jung, Synchronicity : an Acausal Connecting Principle, Princeton University Press, 1972
Text
[17] Carl Gustav Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Hartcourt Brace & Company, 1976 Text
[18] Michel Cazenave, La Science et les Figures de l'me, Le Rocher, 1996, Paris Text
[19] Johannes Kepler, The Secret of the Universe, Abaris Books, 1981 Text
[20] David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge, 1996 Text
[21] Bernard d'Espagnat, In Search of Reality, Springer Verlag, 1983 Text
[22] Ervin Laszlo, Interconnected Universe : Conceptual Foundations of Transdisciplinary Unified Theory,
World Scientific Pub Co., 1995 Text
[23] Jean-Marc Lvy-Leblond, Aux Contraires, Gallimard, 1996, Paris (p. 32) Text
[24] Basarab Nicolescu, Transdisciplinarity : a Manifesto, Watersign Press, Lexington, Kentucky, 1998
Text
[25] Michel Cazenave, La Science et l'me du monde, Albin Michel, 1996, Paris Text
[26] Marie-Louise von Franz, On Divination and Synchronicity, the Psychology of Meaningful Chance,
Inner City Books, 1980, Toronto Text
[27] Carl Gustav Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1970 Text
[28] Alain Ngre, Entre Science et Astrologie, S.P.M. (34 rue Jacques Louvel Tessier 75010), Paris Text
[29] Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, New Ed. Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1992 Text
[30] Saint Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, Hackett Publishing Company, 1993 Text