Welcome to
The Sophia Centre Press is a spinout company from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), established in 2009. It publishes and promotes scholarly work, sponsors and organises conferences and courses related to the work of the University’s Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology and Culture, in partnership with the University.
Our work is based in the Humanities and crosses history, anthropology, philosophy and archaeology. We examine the role of cosmological, astronomical and astrological beliefs, models and ideas in human culture, including the theory and practice of myth, magic, divination, religion, spirituality, architecture, politics and the arts in any time period or culture.
Our Staff
Dr. Nick Campion
Dr Nicholas Campion is Associate Professor in Cosmology and Culture, Principal Lecturer in the Institute of Education and Humanities and Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Dr. Jenn Zahrt
Dr Jenn Zarht is co-director of the press and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She is also Director of the CAELi Institute and Revelore Press.
Kim Farnell
Kim Farnell is a copy-editor and currently pursuing a Ph.D. focused on the relationship between women’s media and the horoscope column. Kim’s primary interest is the history of astrology and the occult, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
(Forthcoming in August 2022)
Astrology claims that meaning can be identified in the nature and movements of the celestial bodies. It exists is most human cultures and thrives in the modern world as a feature of popular culture. Modern western astrology has its roots in the classical Greek world and, before then, in the ancient Near East, and its popularity represents a remarkable survival of a world view which held that all things are interconnected and interrelated.
Skylights breaks new scholarly ground with its analyses of the diverse theoretical assumptions and practices of modern astrology. Beginning with three chapters on aspects of astrology in the classical Greek, Islamic and Medieval European worlds, the book moves into eight chapters on topics which, together, have never been the focus of academic attention. They consider the nature of astrology as a language, it’s approach to history, application of the classical concept of the daimon, theory of the soul, adaption of psychology, and popularisation in the media.
The book will appeal to those interested in the background and intellectual contexts of astrology, the history of ideas and esotericism, alternative and New Age spiritualities, popular culture and the study of astronomy and culture in the modern world.
