Sky and Symbol
Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Sophia Centre Conference, 2011
Edited by Nicholas Campion & Liz Greene
ISBN: 978-1-907767-03-6
£24.99
17 Oct 2013
Paperback, ebook; 362 pages
Human beings in all cultures have long used the sky to tell stories and weave myths that impart meaning to life on earth. The key to all such systems is symbolism, in which one thing is used to signify, imply, represent, or embody another. The papers included in this volume are all concerned, in one way or another, with various perceptions of the world of celestial phenomena as symbols. These explorations range from art history and analytical psychology to critiques and accounts of astrology, and roam from western to non-western cultures, as well as from the ancient world to the modern. The papers, most of which were given at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David Sophia Centre Conference in Bath, UK, in 2011, provide a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on our understanding of the origins, function, and nature of symbols, especially their use in relation to cultural applications of astronomy, astrology, and the sky.
Categories
Astrology, Conference, History
Tags
Celestial Symbolism, Culture, Society, Astronomy
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Table of Contents
Reviews
Table of Contents
Contents
Images
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Sky and Symbol
~ Nicholas Campion & Liz Greene
Part One
The Nature of Symbols
Is Astrology a Symbolic Language?
~ Nicholas Campion
Art, Astronomy and Symbolism in the Age of Science
~ Gary Wells
Part Two
Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Expressions
The Burning Sun and the Killing Resheph: Proto-Astrological Symbolism and Ugaritic Epic
~ Ola Wikander
From Babylon to Jerusalem: The Roots of Jewish Astrological Symbolism
~ Andrea D. Lobel
The Perugia Fountain: An Encyclopaedia of Sky, Culture and Society
~ Darrelyn Gunzberg
Theosis, Vision, and the Astral Body in Medieval German Pietism and the Spanish Kabbalah
~ Elliot Wolfson
‘Chemistry, That Starry Science’: Early Modern Conjunctions of Astrology and Alchemy
~ Peter Forshaw
Part Three
Celestial Symbolism in the Contemporary World
Katherine Maltwood, H.P. Blavatsky, and the Origins of the Glastonbury Landscape Zodiac
~ Anthony Thorley
Reading the Future in the Landscape: Astrology in Zanadroandrena land, Central East Madagascar
~ Christel Mattheeuws
The Celestial Imaginary in Weimar Cinema
~ Jennifer Zahrt
Receiving the ‘Messengers’: The Astrology of Jung’s Liber Novus
~ Liz Greene
Contributors
The Sophia Centre
Bibliography
Index
Reviews
About the Editors
Dr Nicholas Campion is Principal Lecturer, Institute of Education and Humanities, and Associate Professor in Cosmology and Culture. He is the director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, the only academic Centre in the world to deal with cultural relationships with the sky and the cosmos. He is responsible for taking forward the Centre’s research and teaching activities, through supervising PhD students, sponsoring research projects, organising conferences and other events, and publishing research via the peer-reviewed journal Culture and Cosmos. He also serves as Programme Director of the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology.
Liz Greene is held in high esteem by astrologers all over the world, professional and non-professional alike. She is a prolific author of books and various publications and has been instrumental in shaping modern psychological astrology. She holds doctorate degrees in psychology and (as of 2010) in history and is a qualified Jungian analyst. She also holds a diploma in counselling from the Centre for Transpersonal Psychology in London, and a diploma from the Faculty of Astrological Studies, of which she is a lifetime Patron.