Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View [Paperback]

Richard Tarnas, author of the acclaimed cultural history, 'Passion of the Western Mind', has presented us with just such a paradigmatically challenging and mind-expanding account of a human-cosmic connection. With 'Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View', he has produced a penetrating analysis of the complex thematic character of a number of generally recognized significant historical moments and epochs, revealing how the peaks and valleys of the earthly course of human unfolding demonstrate a rhythmic concordance with the peaks and valleys of the outer-planetary dance. As the church fathers were invited to look through Galileo's telescope we are invited to examine certain newly discovered phenomena. Are we to cling to our old dogma and refuse to look, or are we to open our minds -- indeed without putting aside our critical faculties -- to see what this obviously credible historian and new paradigmatic thinker has to say?

By revealing the very architecture of the evolving collective psyche in resonance with a 're-enchanted' cosmos, Cosmos and Psyche points us toward a greater coherence beyond postmodern fragmentation. Rather than our universe being solely dead matter and rocks banging around according to the laws of physics, as Tarnas explains, it is the confirmation of the cosmological dimension as meaningful that provides the missing dimension of all new paradigm strategies which, especially after Jung, deal very well with psyche but leave cosmos out of the picture.

Tarnas's opus does not require a previous knowledge of astrology or even a general prior acceptance of it. The astrological configurations that Tarnas engages in his account are necessarily basic both in order to be accessible for the non-astrological public and also to provide clear and verifiable evidence rather than esoteric complexification. In full accordance with astrological consensus, the author provides a lucid yet profound introduction to the archetypal meanings of the relevant astrological principles.

In order to attempt in good faith to refute this book, one would need the scholarship necessary to argue extensively against the characterization of the essentials of a certain period or event, against the interpretations of various works of art, or against the significance of numerous discoveries. One would have to be able to demonstrate convincingly -- with many counter examples -- either how there are in fact no real historical peaks, or that the peaks which Tarnas identifies are questionably chosen simply to fit the theory, or that in each specified period in which relevant works and events are cited that there are just as many events and works of the same essential quality that can be found equally distributed across other times bearing no astro-archetypal resonance to them. A rejection based on anything less than such a meticulous scholarly counter-argument would be cavalier and intellectually disingenuous. But intellectually honest critique and interpretative differences promoting constructive dialogue in the field are entirely appropriate and even required by a work of this magnitude.