The Swiss Psychologist and former Freud disciple Carl Gustav Jung was interested in the teachings of alchemy and astrology, especially in the later phases of his working life. The resulting insights can be found in his Analytical Psychology. This theory goes far beyond the teachings of Freud.

Freud assumes that a child is born as a "tabula rasa", and the character begins to form from birth onwards. Jung, on the contrary, states in his book Psychological Types: The individual disposition is already a factor in childhood; it is innate, and not acquired in the course of life.

The whole theory of astrology is based on this principle. Liz Greene, a Jungian psychotherapist and astrologer, is convinced that astrology can help to discover the nature of this innate seed. Astrology can not only tell us about the self we know, but also about the one we do not know, she writes in Relating. The horoscope, being a "map of the psyche", can point to character traits which have not yet become conscious. With its help we may get to know ourselves better and come to a more complete understanding of our true nature. Jung's Analytical Psychology attempts something very similar: individuation and arrival at one's true self.

Some of the Jungian principles reflected in astrology will be described on the following pages. We will look at the concepts of "Synchronicity", "Archetypes", and the "Psychological Types".

In 1952 Jung published an article called "Synchronizität als Prinzip akausaler Zusammenhänge" ("Synchronicity as the Principle of Acausal Connections"). The concept of synchronicity goes beyond purely causal explanations of the world - which is still the domain of our natural sciences. Jung argues that incidents which occur synchronously (i.e. at the same time) do not necessarily need to be causally related. There may, however, be a meaningful connection between them.

Anthony Stevens describes an experience Jung had. In a dream he met a figure with the wings of a kingfisher. Jung wanted to draw the figure in order to remember the image. While drawing, he found in his garden the dead body of a kingfisher. These birds are extremely rare in the area around Zürich. This extraordinary situation coincided with strong inner emotions.

You are probably familiar with situations which cause you to think: "This cannot be a co-incidence!" Maybe you have finished reading a book which communicates unusual ideas. All of a sudden people in your environment talk to you about these ideas, there are reports on TV, and on the internet you keep coming across similar concepts. Such incidents occur simultaneously, but obviously one does not cause the other. They seem to be connected in a different way.

Brigitte Hamann, a German astrologer, sums up this phenomenon in her article "Gedanken über Astrologie, Synchronizität und Prognose" (thoughts on astrology, synchronicity and prediction):

A certain incident occurs to a certain person at a certain time in such a way that it gains a special meaning to him in that it reveals important meaningful connections in this persons life. Any other observer of the same incident would consider it a random occurance without any meaning whatsoever. For him, there is no synchronistic connection to the event, and therefore it means nothing to him.

Astrology is based on the principle of synchronicity. The "influence of the stars" does not exist in a causal sense. There is no causal influence at all. Astrology "works" - if this is the right word - in the way inscribed on the tabula smaragdina:

What is below is like what is above.
And what is above is like what is below,
so that the miracle of the One may be accomplished.

One could say that the universal is reflected in the specific. It should therefore be possible to draw conclusions regarding earthly events from planetary constellations.

Liz Greene: The positions of the heavens at a particular moment in time, by reflecting the qualities of that moment, also reflect the qualities of anything born at that moment. [...] One does not cause the other; they are synchronous, and mirror each other.

This is no doubt an extended notion of synchronicity, because it does not simply refer to an individual and his relationship with his direct environment. In fact, it sees everything in the universe as being interconnected in a meaningful way. This attitude of assuming meaningful connections between phenomena which occur simultaneously is common to astrology and Jung's synchronicity.

Sigmund Freud is often considered to have "discovered" the unconscious as being that part of the psyche which contains unpleasant or traumatic experiences suppressed by the conscious mind. Jung goes a step further: He is of the opinion that there is not only an individual but also a collective unconscious which contains the immense psychic inheritance of human evolution. According to Jung, this inheritance is reborn in the structure of every individual.

Dreams can be considered as a possible gateway to both the personal and collective unconscious. Dream figures like the dark persecutor or the innocent child are symbols which represent a connection with dimensions we are not aware of. These can awaken certain associations within us which we could not perceive with the rational mind alone.

Jung discovered that many of these symbols are of a universal nature. They can be found in the myths and fairy tales of all peoples. They show a "knowledge" or "wisdom" common to all of humanity. Jung therefore called these symbols primordial images or archetypes. The primordial images themselves cannot be accurately described. Liz Greene sees them as energy patterns which express themselves in our whole environment. Although they themselves have no clear form, they express themselves in the symbols of the world around us.

In this sense, the solar system may be seen as the symbol of a living energy pattern, reflecting at any moment the smaller forms of life which are contained in it. The individual horoscope is a symbolic representation of these energy patterns. In these symbols we can see the seeds of the individual's potential personality. Jung describes the planets as "gods", symbols or powers of the Unconscious. However, these "gods" work differently within different individuals.

Viewed astrologically the symbol of the sun represents the core, the center, the figure of the king or boss as well as the creative life force found in each individual. These interpretations can be drawn from this one symbol without being arbitrary. Liz Greene describes the symbol as the primary mode of expression of the Unconscious. In Relating she writes:

A symbol suggests or infers an aspect of life which is inexhaustible in interpretation and ultimately eludes all the intellect's efforts to fix or contain it. One cannot ever fully plumb the depths of its manifold meanings.

A central archetypal symbol in astrology is the circle of the horoscope. In all cultures the circle is considered to be a symbol of wholeness. In the same way the horoscope represents the wholeness of the individual and the archetype of the "Self".