structure of the person about to be born was “meaningfully paralleled” in the positions
of the planets at that time.When looking for a way to test the hypothesis of synchronicity, Jung set up an
astrological experiment that correlated planetary configurations, or cross aspects,
between the charts of marital partners. He hypothesized that certain cross aspects
would appear with greater frequency between the charts of marital partners than
between charts of people who had no relationship. “The meaningful coincidence we
are looking for is immediately apparent in astrology,” said Jung, “since the astrological
data ... correspond to individual traits of character; and from the remotest times the
various planets, houses, zodiacal signs, and aspects have all had meanings that serve as
a basis for a character study.”
Although Jung never developed any systematic theory of astrology, it appears
that his own theory of analytical psychology was heavily influenced by it. There are so
many parallels that one is almost forced to conclude that at least some of his major con-
cepts were borrowed directly from astrology. In addition to his explicit endorsement of
planets as archetypes and his theory of synchronicity as a means for explaining astro-
logical coincidences, Jung’s notion of two attitude types—extrovert and introvert—is
readily recognizable by astrologers as the bipolar division of the zodiac into two polari-
ties—positive/masculine (extrovert) and negative/feminine (introvert) signs.
Likewise, his four function types—intuition, sensation, thinking, and feel-
ing—are roughly paralleled in astrology by the four elements—fire, earth, air, and
water. In addition to these more obvious analogues, there are additional correlations
that have been explored by astrologers. These include ego/Sun, persona/ascendant,
shadow/Pluto, anima/Venus, animus/Mars, and collective unconscious/Neptune. Diffi-
cult astrological configurations, especially those involving hard aspects from the outer
planets to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Moon, or Sun, have been observed by astrologers to
represent trouble spots in the personality similar to what Jung described as psychic
complexes, i.e., unconscious, emotionally charged memories, images, and thoughts
clustered around a central core.
In the 1930s, Dane Rudhyar began to reformulate modern astrology in terms
of Jung’s analytical psychology. He especially focused on Jung’s idea that the psyche
was a dynamic compound of opposing forces in equilibrium, and that the psyche was
intrinsically motivated to evolve in the direction of psychic wholeness, a process
Jung called individuation.Jung believed that the process of personality transformation
was innate, or teleologically motivated. Personality was not merely the product of
external forces, but strove purposefully towards a final goal of self-realization. As the
individual learned from self-created experience, the archetypal structuring of the psy-
che became increasingly differentiated, integrated, and whole. In Rudhyar’s 1936
book The Astrology of Personality,he recognized that these ideas were readily adapt-
able to astrology. The chart, too, was a dynamic compound of opposing forces (signs)
in equilibrium. And the various parts of astrology with their myriad aspects and
interrelations were symbolic of archetypal forces struggling to transform themselves
into an integrated whole. Rudhyar realized that “the process of individuation was
implicit in every horoscope.”Psychological Astrology
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