The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #89208   Message #1718740
Posted By: *daylia*
15-Apr-06 - 11:05 AM
Thread Name: BS: zodiac/star signs.. do you believe?
Subject: RE: BS: zodiac/star signs.. do you believe?
That depends on how rigid, or 'fundamentalist' a scientist's belief system happens to be, TIA. Those who put less blind faith in the hallowed scientific concepts of materialism, reductionism, empiricism, nilihism etc enjoy the benefits of a much more holistic, comprehensive world-view. Here are more insights, from one such 'unfettered' scientist ---

"The truth is that astrology flourishes as never before. There is a regular library of astrological books and magazines that sell for far better than the best scientific works. The Europeans and Americans who have horoscopes cast for them may be counted not by the hundred thousand but by the million. Astrology is a flourishing industry. ...

If such a large percentage of the population has an insatiable need for this counter pole to the scientific spirit, we can be sure that the collective psyche in every individual - be he never so scientific - has this psychological requirement in equally high degree. A certain kind of "scientific" scepticism and criticism in our time is nothing but a misplaced compensation of the powerful and deep-rooted superstitious impulses of the collective psyche."

- C.G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology

"While studying astrology I have applied it to concrete cases many times. ... The experiment is most suggestive to a versatile mind, unreliable in the hands of the unimaginative, and dangerous in the hands of a fool, as those intuitive methods always are. If intelligently used the experiment is useful in cases where it is a matter of an opaque structure. It often provides surprising insights. The most definite limit of the experiment is lack of intelligence and literal-mindedness of the observer. ...

Undoubtedly astrology today is flourishing as never before in the past, but it is still most unsatisfactorily explored despite very frequent use. It is an apt tool only when used intelligently. It is not at all foolproof and when used by a rationalistic and narrow mind it is a definite nuisance."

- C. G. Jung: Letters, volume 2, 1951-1961, pages 463-464, letter to Robert L. Kroon, 15 November 1958