SKY AND PSYCHE
Held in July 2005

Obtain a recording of the lectures from Conference Cassettes

The relationship between the soul and the stars, between the psyche and the possibility of a cosmic destiny, is pivotal to the spiritual and esoteric traditions of Western thought – and those of many other cultures. This conference will explore ideas, beliefs and practices which meet at the boundary of psychology and cosmology, the universe and the human imagination.

Chaired by:
Dr Nicholas Campion (Bath Spa University College)
Dr Patrick Curry (Bath Spa University College)
Dr Liz Greene
Darby Costello

Speakers Abstracts and Biographies:

Bernadette Brady ( Bath Spa University College)
Chartres Cathedral and the Sun

Chartres Cathedral is a treasury of esoteric and spiritual western knowledge. Given the scale of its encyclopaedic structure, this lecture focuses on a small fraction of the religious and sacred significance contained within its stone, glass and orientation. In particular it focuses on the combination of Gothic architectural dimensions and the nature of twelfth century stained glass as a desire to created a sacred space which was not only in keeping with the Gothic themes of Christian Platonism but was - and still is - evocative of the experience of Platonistic mysticism. This lecture also presents an argument for the unusual alignment of the cathedral which appears to incorporate the annual movement of the sun in a manner which enhances the mystical experience via the placement of key doorways and the location of particular windows in important solar positions.

Bernadette Brady is a Faculty member of the Astrological Guild of Astrologers International, and is co-principal of Astro Logos. Her publications in astrological software packages are: Starlight, (Zyntara Publications) and JigSaw ( Astrolabe, USA). Her books are: The Eagle and the Lark: a Textbook of Predictive Astrology (Weisers USA, 1992 & 1998) and Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars (Weisers, USA 1998). In 1999 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spica Award from the UK for her book Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and the Lark. She is currently living in Bristol, UK and has just completed her MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology at Bath Spa University College.

Neville Brown
Life Across the Cosmos?  

The essential nature of life as we know it.  Life’s amazing tenacity and adaptiveness.  Must life always be carbon based?  The Advent of life on planet Earth.  Subsequent evolution.  The cosmic distribution of similar locales.  The possibility of locales quite different in character.  The notion of Panspermia.  The patterns it might assume.  Arguments for and against its occurrence.  The likely prevalence of life cosmically.  Profiling what may be the dominant forms.  The cult of intelligent life.  The Fermi paradox.  The Fermi paradox.  The Anthropic principles.  Could the spread of life be induced by higher forces?

Professor Neville Brown is a Senior Member of Mansfield College, Oxford University .  He served (1957-60) as a meteorologist with the Fleet Air Arm.  Subsequently specialising in defence studies, he became a professor at Birmingham University in 1980.  He was an accredited Defence Correspondent (1966-73) in the Middle East and Southeast Asia .  At Mansfield , he served (1994-7) as the academic consultant to an MOD task force reviewing policy towards Ballistic Missile Defence.  Generally, his interests have evolved more towards sky science.  His books include History and Climate Change (Routledge, 2001) and Engaging the Cosmos: Astronomy, Philosophy and Faith (Sussex Academic Press, 2006).

Jules Cashford
Imagining Eternity: weaving ‘the heavens’ embroidered cloths

Jules Cashford is co-author of The Myth of the Goddess: the evolution of an image, The Myth of Isis Osiris and The Moon: Myth and Image.

Barth Chkwuezi ( University of Nigeria, Nsukka)
The Relationship between human destiny and the Cosmic forces a study of the Igbo world View

The Igbo society in Nigeria ha a complex relationship between their destiny and the cosmic forces which are reflected in their various ontological word view and cultural configuration the moon star and other hearing bodies have a loot of import on the socio-cultural activities of the Igbo people. The paper will seek to examine how this leavening bodies influence and even direct various socio-cultural organization of the people. These are quite evident in the various life cycles and beyond such as at birth/ death and even life after. The paper is situated in the ream of cultural astronomic which will examine the various cosmological belief that affect the Igbo cultural organization. The paper is quite necessary since some of these beliefs are being lot and not articulate due to the impart of Christianity and modernization

Noel Cobb
What Has the Soul to do with the Sky? Or, Human Hubris and the Heavens

As one of “the fathers of archetypal psychology” (Thomas Moore) and its earliest champion in England, Noel Cobb has been addressing our neglect of anima mundi awareness since the late 1980s, when he taught Ficino’s ‘therapy’ of “attuning one’s life to the heavens”. In this talk, Cobb will explore the difference of living with a sense of a sky ensouled to living with a secularized world-view of sky.

After degrees in philosophy and clinical psychology, Noel Cobb joined R D Laing’s Kingsley Hall project in London’s East End; later, he made expeditions in the Sahara and Afghanistan and studied tantra with Drugpa lamas in North India. In 1988, together with the late Eva Loewe, he founded the London Convivium for Archetypal Studies, and the annual publication, Sphinx: A Journal for Archetypal Psychology and the Arts. He has published seven books of poetry and translated, with Eva Loewe, Rilke, Trakl, Neruda and Lorca. His book, Prospero’s Island: the Secret Alchemy at the Heart of The Tempest is considered the definitive statement on that play. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy and an accredited (U KCP) psychotherapist. He is the author of Archetypal Imagination: Glimpses of the Gods in Life and Art, and is about to publish a work calling for psychotherapy to re-found itself on a recognition and a love of the intricate manifestations of anima mundi.

Keith Critchlow
The Inner and Outer Worlds, or the Gross and the Subtle’

Most traditional teachings based on Revelation talk of our having a subtle body (or more than one) which is a counterpart to our sensory or gross body.  In a similar way we are reminded that we can only know of the outer world if we have within us corresponding realities.  In this visual presentation we will explore the correspondences between the traditional subtle centres, ‘wheels’ in the body, and their counterparts in the planetary movements.  These visual analogies offer a way in which we can appreciate how the microcosmos is the macrocosmos and the mystery of the unifying correspondence.  The source material will come from the Vedanta and the work of some European mystical philosophers such as Gichtel (student of Jacob Boehme), Athanasius Kircher, Vitruvius (Cesariano edition) and Robert Fludd, among others.  The recent research on the scientifically accurate motions of the planets has come from the Rudolf Steiner Research Centre in Dornach , Switzerland .  Geocentricity is normal to human perception.  Heliocentricity is an abstraction for us, albeit mechanically verifiable.

Professor Emeritus Keith B. Critchlow the author of (among others) Order in Space, Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach, Markings: Aerial Views of Sacred Landscapes, Soul as Sphere and Androgyne, and Time Stands Still. Trained as a painter, he discovered geometry intuitively. A period of intensive geometric practice (and work with Buckminster Fuller) led him to the recognition that the universal principles of geometry are revealed and confirmed both by the area of design where art and mathematics meet and in the study of nature and ancient and medieval sacred cosmological Stone, Temple, Cathedral, and Mosque architectures. He has been a senior lecturer at the Architectural Association in London , and has taught Islamic Art at the Royal College of Art. He has also participated as geometer in various sacred architectural projects, and is a co-founder of Temenos: A Review Devoted to the Arts of the Imagination, and of Kairos, a society whose object is "to investigate, study and promote traditional val­ues of art and science". Professor Critchlow was the founder of the Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Department at the Royal College of Art postgraduate Basic Courses, MA and PhD programmes.  He still supervises the doctoral programme at what is now the Princes School of Traditional Arts in London .  The University of Wales is the awarding authority to the academic degrees.

Cherry Gilchrist
Feather of the Firebird: The Russian spirit of place  

How do Russians view the spirits of land and sky? In this vast country, there is a rich heritage of belief in the living forces of nature, the elements and the heavens. Drawing on study, research and personal journeys this talk will show how the spirits of forest, river, frost, snow, sun and wind are colourfully depicted, how they may be revered or feared, tricked or negotiated with, but always respected. This also plays a part in shaping artistic heritage, with the belief that new artistic inspiration can literally float down from the sky on a feather of the Firebird. Myth, art, soul and ideas of beauty are all tied into the Russian view of their land and sky. Moving from European Russia to Siberia, where animism and shamanism are still the prominent, the life of the landscape and sky is revealed as a coherent cosmology. Different spheres of life interact, explaining the link between human life, the sky and the spirit world. Personal experience of shamanic ritual in Siberia sheds light on this, and on possible ways of viewing our own landscape to re-ensoul it. The talk is illustrated with a remarkable and unique collection of slides from Russia and Siberia.

Cherry Gilchrist has written over twenty books on alchemy, astrology, mythology and culture. She is the author of the acclaimed Elements of Alchemy, The Circle of Nine, and the award-winning A Calendar of Festivals. Many of her books have been translated into other languages. She has made a personal study of the Western esoteric tradition for the last thirty-five years and for the last twelve has also been studying Russian traditional life, art and culture. She is on the register of NADFAS (arts) lecturers and has lectured for many other societies, museums and institutions including the Royal Academy, the Astrological Association, the Exeter Festival, and the British Council in Florence. She holds the Diploma of the Faculty of Astrological Studies with Distinction, and lives and works in Bath.

Robert Hand ( Catholic University, Virginia)
A Dimensional Model for the Relationship of Consciousness and Cosmos

In the Sepher Yetzirah, an early Kaballistic work, there is a description of the relationship among a group of ten polarities: North-South, East-West, Up-Down, Good-Evil, Beginning-End. This talk will examine the apparently dimensional nature of this framework and how it reveals a difference between our mathematical/abstractive approach to such matters and an ancient Pythagorean/qualitative approach. In our mathematical/abstractive we may have lost the ability to visualize and model the relationship among various levels of consciousness.

Rob Hand is an author of numerous seminal works in astrology and is founder of the Archive for the Retrieval of Historical Astrological Texts (ARHAT)

Jarita Holbrook ( University of Arizona, Tucson)
Sun Gods and Moon Deities in Africa

The belief that celestial bodies such as the Sun and Moon influence and rule the lives of humans is present in several African cultures. The level of regard that people hold for celestial bodies in the selected cases range from believing that they are deities, sentient beings, ancestors, or cultural heroes. All these indicate a belief that these celestial bodies are alive and aware. Their prayers and rituals are one of the indicators of how much they believe that celestial bodies affect their lives, protect them, and keep the world in balance. In some African cultures, the fate of individuals is determined by the position of celestial bodies at their birth. This presentation explores the following two aspects of celestial bodies and humans: 1) that celestial bodies are active and can be appealed to through various forms of worship and 2) that celestial bodies determine ones destiny and are otherwise inactive.

Jarita C Holbrook, B.S. Physics, Caltech; M.S. Astronomy, SDSU; Ph.D. Astronomy & Astrophysics, UC Santa Cruz. As an astronomer, Jarita gazed longingly at the research being done in archaeoastronomy but stuck fast to her career path until receiving her Ph.D. in 1997. Then off she went to Africa to begin work in cultural astronomy in Tunisia. Since then she has become an expert on African cultural astronomy and has dedicated herself to expanding the number of scholars and current research projects in this sub field. She has recently completed a manuscript on why people continue to use the stars for night navigation, and is initiating a project to study the links between astronomy and ritual dance in Africa. She is mother to two daughters and married to computational cosmologist Romeel Dave.

Warren Kenton
Kabbalistic Astrology and Psyche

This slide lecture will set out the Kabbalistic universe of four worlds and integrate the birth chart with the anatomy of the psyche. The dispositions of the celestial bodies on the Kabbalistic Tree will reveal the configuration of the mind that generates temperament and its result in fate. The mechanism of interaction between macrocosm and microcosm can be clearly seen through the inter-penetration of body, psyche, spirit and Divine as demonstrated by Jacob's Ladder of four worlds. This Kabbalistic Chain of Being illustrates the levels of humanity and the function of destiny.

Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi is the Hebrew name of Warren Kenton. He has practised and taught Astrology and Kabbalah for 40 years and is the author of 14 books on these subjects, which have been translated into as many languages. He has run groups and courses all over the world including the Wrekin Trust and the Temenos Academy. He is Principal Tutor for the international Kabbalah Society. His aim is to relate KabbaIah and Astrology to modern psychology and make these systems intelligible to our time.

Mick 0 ’Neill
Libra Lottery Psi Experiment

This session will begin with a brief description of the Libra Lottery research project, an attempt to predict Lottery numbers while testing a combination of Psi/ESP and astrological timing, followed by a short experiment in which the entire audience is invited to participate.  Today, we will attempt the experiment under a powerful formation of nine quintiles. This is based on my findings published in The Eureka Effect (co-authored with Nick Kollerstrom) and good lottery success under last year's Grand Quintile.  It is free to participate, and nearly £100 of tickets will be purchased.  Winnings will be shared between the participants and the conference organisers.  Further details will be available in a leaflet on each seat in the auditorium.

Mick 0’Neill is a computer programmer with a BSc in computer science, meteorology and statistics. On hearing of the Gauquelins’ work in 1981, he started astrological research involving most facets of natal astrology, transits and especially synastry. His book, The Eureka Effect, co-authored with Nick Kollerstrom, showed how the charts of inventive people and their ‘eureka’ moments included many quintiles and septiles. He has been a consulting editor of Correlation since 1994. Since Spottiswoode’s 1997 discovery linking a Libra midheaven with successful psi/ESP, his work has involved astrology and psi, most notably the Libra Lottery Project, attempting to win the Lottery using psi and astrological timing.  To take part in free twice-weekly attempts, contact Mick at m.on@virgin.net     

Sir Nicholas Pearson (Chairman of the Temenos Academy)
Where the Heavens Meet the Earth: Inspirations from the lives of Carl Jung, Jalal-u-din Rumi and Mahatma Ghandi

A personal odyssey using the insights, inspirations and teachings of these three great men to examine where heaven might have gone.

Nick Pearson was born in India and grew up on family farm in the Lake District before being educated at Radley College Oxford after which he joined the Army. As a soldier he saw active service in Cyprus, Borneo and Central Africa. He has been a Director of Virgin Atlantic Airlines and a Cultural and Business advisor to one of the great dynastic families of Japan. He has served as a local District Councillor and was chosen as the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Oldham, Manchester in the 1970s. He has served as a Trustee of the Ruskin Foundation and is currently a Trustee of the Temenos Academy. He has recently trained as a psychotherapist. Nick is married and lives in London and Spain.

Richard Tarnas (California Institute of Integral Studies)
Understanding the Modern Disenchantment of the Cosmos

In the lecture I would, like the conference, be moving towards the emerging re-enchantment of the cosmos and the recognition of a psyche-pervaded world that contemporary astrology, archetypal psychology, and many other disciplines are pointing to.  But a reconsideration of the modern cosmological situation--historically, epistemologically, and psychologically--might be a helpful point of departure for the conference. 

Richard Tarnas, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy and religionat the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he founded the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He also serves on the faculty of the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. Formerly the director of programs at Esalen Institute, he is the author of The Passion of the Western Mind, a history of the Western world view from the Greek to the postmodern that is used as a text in many universities. Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, will be published by Viking in the fall of 2005.

Angela Voss
The Secret Life of Statues

 The ritual art of telestike or the animation of statues depends on a mode of perception in which cosmos, psyche and matter are united.  This paper will explore the power of images as magical baits, to attract the life of the cosmos and awaken the active imagination of the human soul through the erotic desire for union with beauty.  I will suggest that in losing the ability to trust our innate perception of images as alive, we deprive Psyche of her sensuality, and buy in to both the ambivalence of orthodox religion towards human sexual response and the modern rationalist distrust of the imagination as a valid mode of knowing reality.

Dr Angela Voss is an astrologer and musician, currently convening courses in Cosmology and Divination at the University of Kent, sponsored by the Sophia Trust.