Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View

In 1991, Richard Tarnas published The Passion of the Western Mind, regarded by many scholars such as Joseph Campbell and Huston Smith as one of the finest histories of Western thought ever written. What most of its readers did not know was that this work was written as a preparatory foundation for a second book containing a more revolutionary perspective. Cosmos and Psyche, published this past year and recipient of the Book of the Year Prize from the Scientific and Medical Network in England, challenges the basic assumptions of the modern world view and points towards a profound new understanding of the human role in the cosmos. Based on thirty years of research, the new book sets out a remarkable body of evidence that suggests the existence of a systematic correspondence between planetary movements and the archetypal patterns of human experience.

This research began at Esalen Institute in 1976, when Tarnas and Stanislav Grof, then Esalen’s scholar-in-residence, discovered to their astonishment a consistent correlation between the timing of major psychological transformations and planetary transits to individuals’ natal charts. In subsequent years, Tarnas expanded the compass of the research to include the biographies of hundreds of prominent cultural figures, as well as the dynamics of the collective psyche evident in major historical events and cultural epochs.

Join Richard Tarnas in this all-day seminar to explore the nature of this evidence, the new light it sheds on the human psyche and the unfolding drama of history, and the new horizon of possibility this cosmological perspective opens up at this critical moment in our quest to co-create the future. The afternoon presentation will include illustrations from representative works of art, particularly music, to provide a more profound experience of the archetypal meanings relevant to the planetary correlations.

Recommended reading: Richard Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche (Viking, 2006; Plume paperback, 2007).

Richard Tarnas is a professor of philosophy and cultural history at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he founded the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He also teaches archetypal studies and depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. Born in 1950 in Geneva, Switzerland of American parents, he is a graduate of Harvard University and Saybrook Institute. From 1974 he lived and worked for ten years at Esalen Institute, serving as its director of programs and education. He is the author of The Passion of the Western Mind, a history of the Western world view from the ancient Greek to the postmodern that became both a best seller and a required text in many universities. His most recent book, Cosmos ] and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, received the Book of the Year Prize from the Scientific and Medical Network in England.