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Prometheus the Awakener: an Essay on the Archetypal Meaning of the Planet Uranus
Prometheus the Awakener is considered by many to be one of the finest astrological essaysever written. It has also been much praised by depth psychologists for its precise linking ofan archetypal perspective in biography and history to the macrocosm of planetary movements,providing an invaluable new bridge between astrology and psychology.Widely referred to in other astrological writings, earlier partial versions of the essay havebeen published in numerous journals in both Europe and the U.S. Spring offers here the fullmonograph in a single volume, including a new preface as well as an afterword.
149 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1995
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About the author
Richard Tarnas
16 books161 followersRichard Theodore Tarnas (born February 21, 1950) is a cultural historian known for his books The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View and Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. Tarnas is professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is the founding director of its graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 24, 2020
Favorite excerpts:
“The clear consensus among contemporary astrologers is that the planet Uranus is empirically associated with the principle of change, rebellion, freedom, liberation, reform, revolution, and the unexpected breakup of structures; with excitement, sudden surprises, lightening-like flashes of insight, revelations, and awakenings; and with intellectual brilliance, invention, creativity, originality, and individualism.” – Page 17
“More recent astrological sources suggested that the historical period of the planet’s discovery in the late 18th century was relevant to its archetypal meaning – using the reasoning that the discovery of the physical planet in some sense represented an emergence of the planet’s corresponding archetype into the conscious awareness of the collective psyche. In this regard the parallels with Uranus’s astrological meaning were certainly clear: the planet’s discovery in 1781 occurred at the culmination of the Enlightenment, in the extraordinary era that brought forth the American and French Revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, and the age of Romanticism. In all these I could see as well the figure of Prometheus: the championing of human reason and individual autonomy; the challenge to traditional beliefs and customs; the revolt against royalty, aristocracy, established religion, social privilege, and political oppression; the Declaration of Independence and the Rights of Man, liberte and egalite; the beginning of feminism; the widespread interest in radical ideas; the rapidity of change; the embrace of novelty…” – Page 19
“I first looked into the chief protagonists of the Scientific Revolution – Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton… Upon checking their planetary positions at birth, I found that every one of the five was born with Uranus in major aspect to the Sun well within conventional orbs.” – Page 21
“That a given natal aspect can express itself in a virtually limitless variety of ways and yet consistently reflect the underlying nature of the relevant archetypes is, of course, not only characteristic of all astrological correspondence but essential to it. Astrology is not concretely predictive. It is archetypally predictive.” – Page 23
“Niels Bohr, whose principle of complementarity remains the paradigm of scientific paradox, was born with this configuration as well [Uranus-Mercury] (compare Bohr’s dictum, “The opposite of a great truth is another great truth”…” – Page 47
“The extreme intensity of Pluto seems to compel the Mercury principle of intellect into its most forceful manifestation, creating an overwhelming mental drive to penetrate below the superficial to get to the root of the matter.
…Mercury-Pluto also appears to be associated with a pronounced intellectual concern with the underworld, both criminal and unconscious – the intensive study of the mysterious, of the depths, of the instincts, of crime and sin, of murderous emotions, of the dark and hidden recesses of human nature…” – Pages 58-59
“Appropriate to its own theory, quantum physics did not progress in continuous fashion but rather developed with two major quantum leaps: one at its birth in 1900 with Planck; and the second, its coming to maturity, in 1927-28. Jupiter and Uranus were again conjunct during the extraordinary period in 1927-28 when Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and their colleagues culminated the quantum physics revolution begun by Planck, working both individually and then in interaction at the historic October 1927 Solvay congress in Brussels. The resulting synthesis was, in the words of the intellectual leader of the congress, Bohr, the result of “a singularly fruitful cooperation of a whole generation of physicists,” including Erwin Schrodinger, Max Born, Louis de Broglie, Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Dirac, as well as Planck and Heisenberg. It has been said that in 1927 the pace of discovery in theoretical physics was probably greater than in any other year in the history of science. During the period of this conjunction, from March 1927 through April 1928, both of the two major revolutionary axioms of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg’s Principle of Complementarity, were formulated and made public. In addition, it was during this same conjunction in 1927 that the Belgian astrophysicist Georges Lemaitre first proposed the Big-Bang theory of the origin of the universe.” – Pages 63-64
“…Emerson and Thoreau (1837) Marx and Engels (1844)…Freud and Jung (1907), and Einstein and Bohr (1920)…” – Page 67
“The clear consensus among contemporary astrologers is that the planet Uranus is empirically associated with the principle of change, rebellion, freedom, liberation, reform, revolution, and the unexpected breakup of structures; with excitement, sudden surprises, lightening-like flashes of insight, revelations, and awakenings; and with intellectual brilliance, invention, creativity, originality, and individualism.” – Page 17
“More recent astrological sources suggested that the historical period of the planet’s discovery in the late 18th century was relevant to its archetypal meaning – using the reasoning that the discovery of the physical planet in some sense represented an emergence of the planet’s corresponding archetype into the conscious awareness of the collective psyche. In this regard the parallels with Uranus’s astrological meaning were certainly clear: the planet’s discovery in 1781 occurred at the culmination of the Enlightenment, in the extraordinary era that brought forth the American and French Revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, and the age of Romanticism. In all these I could see as well the figure of Prometheus: the championing of human reason and individual autonomy; the challenge to traditional beliefs and customs; the revolt against royalty, aristocracy, established religion, social privilege, and political oppression; the Declaration of Independence and the Rights of Man, liberte and egalite; the beginning of feminism; the widespread interest in radical ideas; the rapidity of change; the embrace of novelty…” – Page 19
“I first looked into the chief protagonists of the Scientific Revolution – Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton… Upon checking their planetary positions at birth, I found that every one of the five was born with Uranus in major aspect to the Sun well within conventional orbs.” – Page 21
“That a given natal aspect can express itself in a virtually limitless variety of ways and yet consistently reflect the underlying nature of the relevant archetypes is, of course, not only characteristic of all astrological correspondence but essential to it. Astrology is not concretely predictive. It is archetypally predictive.” – Page 23
“Niels Bohr, whose principle of complementarity remains the paradigm of scientific paradox, was born with this configuration as well [Uranus-Mercury] (compare Bohr’s dictum, “The opposite of a great truth is another great truth”…” – Page 47
“The extreme intensity of Pluto seems to compel the Mercury principle of intellect into its most forceful manifestation, creating an overwhelming mental drive to penetrate below the superficial to get to the root of the matter.
…Mercury-Pluto also appears to be associated with a pronounced intellectual concern with the underworld, both criminal and unconscious – the intensive study of the mysterious, of the depths, of the instincts, of crime and sin, of murderous emotions, of the dark and hidden recesses of human nature…” – Pages 58-59
“Appropriate to its own theory, quantum physics did not progress in continuous fashion but rather developed with two major quantum leaps: one at its birth in 1900 with Planck; and the second, its coming to maturity, in 1927-28. Jupiter and Uranus were again conjunct during the extraordinary period in 1927-28 when Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and their colleagues culminated the quantum physics revolution begun by Planck, working both individually and then in interaction at the historic October 1927 Solvay congress in Brussels. The resulting synthesis was, in the words of the intellectual leader of the congress, Bohr, the result of “a singularly fruitful cooperation of a whole generation of physicists,” including Erwin Schrodinger, Max Born, Louis de Broglie, Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Dirac, as well as Planck and Heisenberg. It has been said that in 1927 the pace of discovery in theoretical physics was probably greater than in any other year in the history of science. During the period of this conjunction, from March 1927 through April 1928, both of the two major revolutionary axioms of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg’s Principle of Complementarity, were formulated and made public. In addition, it was during this same conjunction in 1927 that the Belgian astrophysicist Georges Lemaitre first proposed the Big-Bang theory of the origin of the universe.” – Pages 63-64
“…Emerson and Thoreau (1837) Marx and Engels (1844)…Freud and Jung (1907), and Einstein and Bohr (1920)…” – Page 67
Read
December 2, 2021Skip COSMOS AND PSYCHE and read this. It's about 80 pages and sums up the whole thing. You get it all, in many fewer, much fresher words.
December 18, 2013
Fantastic consideration of Uranus aspected greats in history being connected to Promethean archetype. And the work they left us being 'fire' of sorts.
For the astrologers interested in history, Uranus heavy people and/or considering the planetary pantheon.
For the astrologers interested in history, Uranus heavy people and/or considering the planetary pantheon.
October 14, 2018
This book whets my appetite to re-read Cupid and Psyche, Tarnas's book-length tome about archetypal readings of history and culture. It is easy and pleasurable to follow Tarnas's arguments and stimulating to find so many examples set out by the author of how ornately archetypes find their expression in the collective story of humanity. As I was reading, I found myself making mental notes to pursue reading/surveying many works of literature and assembling an epic playlist of the musical milestones that accompanied them. This essay would be a fantastic travel read; it makes a good companion to our current 2018 'political' and cultural era because it will help illuminate 'what's going on' with a longer-scope lens than is standardly used in modern mainstream media. Those who are looking for proof of the correspondence of archetypal and planetary forces in our communal and personal lives will find lists--exquisitely long lists--convincingly charting this 'reality.' It is satisfying on other levels for those who are already convinced; this much praised work of cultural humanistic scholarship is to be read and enjoyed again and again and belongs on your bookshelf if you are open to this sort of thing. Even if you aren't, this book belongs on your bookshelf while you wait for the kind of personal transformation that will make it so. History buffs, Jungians, people bored with their uni-demensional thinking, and biography enthusiasts will also find it appealing. Richard Tarnas's "Passion of the Western Mind" might appeal to history buffs as an entree to the author's vast grasp of straight-ahead history.
January 5, 2025
My milkshake brings all the boys to the world,
and they're like an archetypical meaning of the planet Uranus
damn right, an archetypical meaning of the planet Uranus
I can teach you but I have to change
and they're like an archetypical meaning of the planet Uranus
damn right, an archetypical meaning of the planet Uranus
I can teach you but I have to change
August 11, 2020
If you haven't read Cosmos and Psyche, this is a good started book at only 100 pages. It focuses on Uranus but discusses all the other planets too.
December 9, 2024
the perfect articulation of the disconnect between modern and ancient astronomers
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews