Archetypal Astrology and the Evolution of Consciousness: from Anima Mundi to the Great Turning

Traditional astrology looked to the fully determined and eternally recurring cycles of the planets (and stars) for insight into the meaning of terrestrial events. Contemporary archetypal astrology, for its part, sets these cycles within a larger evolutionary context, which, if not strictly linear, can nevertheless be characterized by a singular, unrepeatable, and teleologically guided trajectory. Grounded in the paradigmatic research of Richard Tarnas, and drawing as well from his own integration of Hegel, Jung, and related integral streams of thought, Sean Kelly will explore some of the implications of the recasting of astrological categories in an evolutionary context. Particular attention will be brought to bear on the question of how archetypal astrology might assist us in understanding our unique, and critical, moment in what Joanna Macy and others describe as the Great Turning towards the possibility, at least, of a life-sustaining society. Filmed at the California Institute of Integral Studies April 30th, 2014

Sean Kelly, Ph.D., is professor of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies.. He is the author of Coming Home: The Birth and Transformation of the Planetary Era and Individuation and the Absolute: Hegel, Jung, and the Path toward Wholeness. Sean is also co-editor, with Donald Rothberg, of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers and co-translator, with Roger Lapointe, of French thinker Edgar Morin's book, Homeland Earth: A manifesto for the New Millennium. Along with his academic work, Sean has trained intensively in the Chinese internal arts (taiji, bagua, and xingyi) and has been teaching taiji since 1990. His current interests focus on the intersection of consciousness and ecology in the Planetary Era.