Carl Jung’s letter about astrology

I was recently talking to a colleague about the views of psychoanalyst Carl Jung regarding astrology and thought it might be timely to post a letter he wrote in 1947 to  B.V. Raman, a Hindu astrologer who was editor of THE ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE, a Vedic astrology journal in India.  An original copy of this letter can be found at the site Carl Jung Depth Psychology.

Here is the text of the letter:

Kusnacht-Zch., September 6^th, 1947.

To: Prof. B.V. Raman, Raman Publications, P.O. Malleswaram, Bangalore, India.

Dear Prof. Raman,

I haven’t yet received THE ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE, but I will answer your letter nevertheless.

Since you want to know my opinion about astrology I can tell you that I’ve been interested in this particular activity of the human mind for more than 30 years.  As I am a psychologist I’m chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character.

In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle.  I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand.  From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call “projected” -this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations.

This originally gave rise to the idea that these factors derive from the stars, whereas they are merely in a relation of synchronicity with them.  I admit that this is a very curious fact which throws a peculiar light on the structure of the human mind.

What I miss in astrological literature is chiefly the statistical method by which certain fundamental facts could be scientifically established.

Hoping that this answer meets your request, I remain

yours sincerely,

C.G. Jung

[Letters Volume 1, Page 475-476.]