The Archetypal Cosmos: Rediscovering the Gods in Myth, Science and Astrology

by Keiron Le Grice

Overview

A new understanding of the role of myth and archetypal principles in our lives, based on the insights of a new cosmology.

The modern world is passing through a time of critical change on many levels: cultural, political, ecological and spiritual. We are witnessing the decline and dissolution of the old order, the tumult and uncertainty of a new birth. Against this background, there is an urgent need for a coherent framework of meaning to lead us beyond the growing fragmentation of culture, belief and personal identity.

Keiron Le Grice argues that the developing insights of a new cosmology could provide this framework, helping us to discover an underlying order shaping our life experiences. In a compelling synthesis of the ideas of seminal thinkers from depth psychology and the new paradigm sciences, Le Grice positions the new discipline of archetypal astrology at the center of an emerging world view that reunifies psyche and cosmos, spirituality and science, mythology and metaphysics, and enables us to see mythic gods, heroes and themes in a fresh light. He draws especially on the work of C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, Richard Tarnas, Fritjof Capra, David Bohm and Brian Swimme.

Heralding a 'rediscovery of the gods' and the passage into a new spiritual era, The Archetypal Cosmos presents a new understanding of the role of myth and archetypal principles in our lives, one that could give a cosmic perspective and deeper meaning to our personal experiences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780863157752
Publisher:	Floris Books
Publication date:	01/15/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Keiron Le Grice is a professor of depth psychology and chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Studies specialization at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California, where he teaches courses on archetypes, alchemy, synchronicity, and the history of depth psychology. He was educated at the Universityof Leeds (B.A. honours, Philosophy and Psychology) and the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco (M.A., Ph.D., Philosophy and Religion). He is the author of four books The Archetypal Cosmos, Discovering Eris, The Rebirth of the Hero, and Archetypal Reflections and the co-editor of Jung on Astrology (Routledge, 2017). The founder and a former editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology, Keiron now serves as senior editorial advisor. In 2016, he co-founded the Institute of Transpersonal and Archetypal Studies (www.itas-psychology.com) with colleagues in the UK and US. He also teaches in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS and for Grof Transpersonal Training.

Table of Contents

List of Figures 12

Acknowledgments 13

Introduction: Parallel Frontiers 17

Part 1 Archetypal Astrology: A New Mythic Perspective 23

1 World Views and Mythology 25

The significance of a world view

Mythology and modernity.

2 In Search of a New Myth 4

Transpersonal psychology, ecology, and the new paradigm

The functions of mythology

The changing mythological situation.

3 Archetypal Astrology and the Monomyth 55

Astrology and the ground of myth

Fundamental principles of archetypal astrology

The planetary pantheon

The recovery of meaning

The monomyth of the hero's journey

The evolutionary significance of the hero myth

Individuation and the monomyth

Towards an individual mythology.

Part 2 Formulating an Archetypal Cosmology 95

4 The Underlying Cosmic Pattern 97

New paradigms: holism and organicism

The systems view of the cosmos: pattern, structure, process

Pattern and the planetary order

Causality and acausality

Meaning and purpose

Symbolic correspondences

Numerical and geometric patterns

Synchronicity: the revelation of a deeper order.

5 Self-Organization and the Cosmic Mind 130

The modern understanding of the nature of mind

Mind in evolutionary context

The anthropic principle

The systems view of mind

The cosmic Mind.

6 The Archetypal Order 152

Consciousness and transpersonal psychology

The archetypes and the collective unconscious

Archetypal psychology and the systems model

Self-organization in the psyche

The nature of the planetary archetypes

The underlying identity of psyche and cosmos

Astrology and the cosmic psyche.

7 The Dynamic Ground 179

Bohm's theory of the implicate order

The unity of mind and matter

Energy: a unified conception

Meaning and the super-implicate order

Science and spirituality; Outer space and inner space

The symbolic universe: the significance of the planetary positions

Historical synchronicities with the discovery of the outer planets.

8 Archetypal Resonance and the Birth Pattern 206

The significance of the birth moment

Morphic fields and formative causation

Cosmic memory

The 'habits' of the cosmos

A multi-levelled reality

The persistence of the birth pattern

Morphic fields and the super-implicate order.

9 Individuation and Evolution 223

Comparing Jung and Teilhard de Chardin

The ego and the birth of thought

The psychological dimension of evolution

Alchemy and hominization

Convergence, personalization, and the whole

Religion: East and West

Swimme's theory of cosmological powers

Cosmological powers and planetary archetypes

The cosmological dynamics of individuation

Self-realization and cosmological identity.

Part 3 The Archetypal Matrix and the Spiritual Transformation of Our Time 261

10 The Return of the Gods 263

Gebser and integral philosophy

The origin and the archaic consciousness

From the magic to the mythical structure

The mental structure and modernity

Beyond modernity: the integral structure

Contemporary interpretations of myth: Myth as fact, myth as history

Myth as falsehood

Myth as metaphor

Myth and archetypal astrology

The nature of a mythology to come.

Epilogue: The Opening of a New Spiritual Era 289

The synchronistic significance of the Moon landing

The archetypal meaning of the Moon

The unio mystica and the birth of the Self

Endnotes 301

References and Further Reading 315

Index 324

Editorial Reviews

'A fantastic achievement, combining complex theories from leading figures in psychology and the physical sciences... With both the excellence of the writing and the high-powered nature of the ideas, The Archetypal Cosmos is destined to be an essential element in the contemporary planetary canon.'
– Brian Swimme, Professor of Cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies

'... reflects a paradigm shift of enormous relevance for the future of psychology and psychotherapy. Le Grice has performed an invaluable service in carefully thinking through and articulating a spiritually informed view of the cosmos that integrates these developments... A lucid and groundbreaking synthesis.'
– Stanislav Grof, author of Psychology of the Future and When the Impossible Happens

'Le Grice has a gift, perhaps even a genius, for extremely clear assessments, expositions, and formulations of complex ideas – all grounded in a deeper vision of things, which makes this clarity possible.'
– Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche

'Humanity has much to gain from this synthesis between planetary cycles and the dynamics and patterns of human experience.'
–Ruth Parnell, Nexus

'The book is a brilliant synthesis of new ideas.'
–David Lorimer, Scientific Medical Network Review

'This is a book of considerable importance and relevance to the times we live in... it heralds a new age which its author believes has already begun.[The book] has an immense amount to offer, having given this reviewer much food for thought.'
–Jack Herbert, Temenos Academy

From the Publisher