Archetypal Astrology: The Spiritual Dimension
Dr. Keiron Le Grice
Winter 2025
Navigating a spiritually informed way through life in the modern secular age can be bewilderingly confusing. Archetypal astrology offers a pluralistic perspective and cosmological framework to help us map and better understand the varieties of religious experience that we might encounter—such as epiphanies and spiritual awakenings, Dionysian intoxication and Devil possession, existential estrangement and disillusionment, synchronicities and paranormal phenomena, and underworld labors and alchemical transformations. Through an exploration of a range of archetypal themes, as manifest in the lives and work of prominent individuals, this course shows how we can use astrology as a form of orientation and guidance for our own spiritual paths, and as aid to the process of realization that C. G. Jung called individuation.
Focusing especially on the planetary archetypes Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, in this course we will examine the astrological birth charts of a selection of figures who have been influential on the modern understanding of spirituality and psychological transformation, or who have explored religious/mythic themes in their creative work—including depth psychologists, mythologists, mystics and spiritual teachers, philosophers, poets, composers, and more. Using transit analysis, we will also consider the archetypal themes and patterns that define historical periods and effect changes in collective consciousness (world transits) and that impact us individually (personal transits), moving us towards psychological transformation and spiritual realization.
Nine Saturdays Live on Zoom
10 AM — 11:30 AM PST
January 4 — March 1, 2025
Recordings will be made available.
Suitable for all levels of students.
Keiron Le Grice is a professor of depth psychology and co-chair in the Jungian and Archetypal Studies specialization at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California where he also designed and co-founded the online doctoral program in Psychology, Religion, and Consciousness. He serves as an honorary lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, and was the 2023 Zürich Lecture Series speaker at the International School of Analytical Psychology. He is the author of several books including The Archetypal Cosmos, The Rebirth of the Hero, and The Lion Will Become Man. He is also co-editor of Jung on Astrology, a compilation of Jung’s writings on this topic, and founder and former co-editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology, now serving as senior editorial advisor.
Dr. Le Grice defines the course:
Syllabus at a Glance:
Week One: Astrology, Individuation, and the Transpersonal
In this module, we will explore the ten major planetary archetypes in astrology and their significance for spirituality and for understanding the transpersonal dimension of existence.
Week Two: Saturn as Spiritual Authority
This session will explore the place of the planetary archetype Saturn in human life, focusing on its association with the great inevitables that we must all face, including death, time, aging, suffering, solitude, alienation, and fear.
Week Three: Uranus: Birth, Awakening, and Liberation
This week we will explore the place of the planetary archetype Uranus in human life.
Week Four: Neptune: Myth and Mysticism, Unity and Enchantment
We will next consider the place of the planetary archetype Neptune in human life.
Week Five: Pluto: Dionysus and the Devil, Descent and Transformation
This week we will explore the place of the planetary archetype Pluto in human life.
Week Six: From Disenchantment to Re-enchantment: The Saturn-Neptune Complex
In this session, we will explore the major archetypal themes and experiences associated with the combination of the Saturn and Neptune principles, indicated by aspects between these planets in birth charts and world transits.
Week Seven: Alchemy and the Apocalypse: Saturn-Pluto
This session we will focus on the Saturn-Pluto complex, indicated by aspects between the two planets in birth charts and in world transits.
Week Eight: Individual Spirituality and Religious Revelation: Uranus-Neptune
Focusing again on birth chart aspects and world transits, this week we turn our attention to the Uranus-Neptune complex.
Week Nine: The Rebirth of the Gods: Neptune-Pluto
We will end the course with an exploration of the combination of the archetypes associated with two outer planets, Neptune and Pluto,