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And now, for the first time, Stan and Rick are distilling their mind-expanding explorations into a cohesive, online course — highlighted by video sessions
Stanislav Grof, MD – Psyche & Cosmos
Access the wisdom of archetypal astrology to deepen your self-understanding and saturate your life with greater beauty, meaning and purpose.
Open to the hidden, sacred forces within your own psyche and strengthen your sense of belonging in a loving, ensouled universe.
Astrology holds a unique place in our culture. It’s one of the oldest integrated systems of knowledge in the world — with 5,000+ years of history — and has been championed by some of history’s greatest scholars and philosophers from Ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire to the Renaissance and beyond.
And yet, astrology is almost universally rejected by scientists and intellectuals as a gateway to magical thinking, devoid of predictive value.
If astrology is pure fantasy, why would it endure for millennia?
And if it’s grounded in predictable planetary patterns, why does science not connect the dots between the cause and its effects?
According to Rick Tarnas, a Harvard-trained philosopher and former “skeptic,” archetypal astrology explores the connection between planetary patterns in the solar system and archetypal patterns in human experience and holds remarkable predictive value for the essence of each period in history.
When he shared his findings with Stan Grof, the eminent founder of transpersonal psychology and one of the foremost thinkers of our day, they came to see that each of us is born as an individual expression of the archetypal energies that are saturating the collective at the time.
Archetypal astrology is the bridge that connects your individual psyche to the cosmos…
It not only provides predictive information about your life, it gives you a better understanding of the character of the era we’re living in… and enables you to reconcile the two.
As you begin to view challenges in your life through this lens, you begin to see your experience as unfolding in the larger context of an “ensouled universe” — a depth of intelligent, sacred presence that permeates all that is. And rather than feel victimized or disoriented, you become empowered to meet these challenges consciously and with confidence.
In short, archetypal astrology allows us to perceive a sacred and synchronistic universe, as opposed to the cold, soulless void that much of science regards as the ultimate truth.
Over the course of Rick and Stan’s 30 years of collaboration, the evidence of archetypal astrology’s role in understanding the depths of one’s personal psyche and the collective psyche became so convincing that, despite professional risks and intellectual ridicule, these two pioneers simply had to share the truth of their journey.
And now, for the first time, Stan and Rick are distilling their mind-expanding explorations into a cohesive, online course — highlighted by video sessions — in which you’ll expand your understanding of yourself and the nature of the cosmos.
Astrological Underpinnings
When you join Stan and Rick for the 8-part Psyche & Cosmos program, you’ll have a unique opportunity to explore this new paradigm and its implications.
You’ll discover how archetypal astrology is founded on the principle that planets have a fundamental, cosmically based influence on human existence.
Each planet corresponds to an archetypal dimension of consciousness — a deep pattern that “tilts” reality in a particular direction.
For instance, Saturn governs structure and connotes responsibility but also a form of constriction. Mars correlates with the movement of masculine energy and the impulse toward forceful activity, aggression and war.
In his research, Rick tracked patterns of upheaval that corresponded without fail to the movement of Uranus, which governs breakthroughs and periods of rapid change. And the last time we experienced the Pluto Transit that started in 2007 and will end in 2020 was from 1960 to 1972, also a time of radical change, destructive energies, and abuse of political power.
On a collective basis, archetypal astrology reveals why certain periods are marked by crisis and others by great breakthroughs — and how the times we live in correlate with specific individual psychological qualities in a person’s natal chart.
The legendary Carl Jung told a friend that he had come to use astrology with every patient because there was no other means to provide that level of precision for understanding the archetypal dynamics of a given individual’s experience.
It’s been said that psychology textbooks of the future will look back on modern psychologists working without the aid of astrology as being like medieval astronomers working without the aid of the telescope.
Fate vs. Free Will
Consulting your birth chart is akin to finding out which way the wind will be blowing on a particular day before you go out sailing. It’s valuable information, but how your astrological predispositions and potentialities play out depends on how much consciousness, intelligence, courage and compassion you bring to each moment.
Ultimately, it’s the exercise of your free will that determines how the day — and your life — unfolds.
As Rick and Stan will illuminate in the program, you can express archetypal energies in a range of ways, from the most life-enhancing to the most destructive. It is how you choose to think and act that will determine how they are brought forth and expressed.
So, no, we are not the helpless subject of an unknowable force beyond our control. While each individual’s potential destiny may be written in the stars, astrology is by no means deterministic. Understanding the energies operating inside you can help you manifest them in the most constructive and life-supporting ways possible.
Astrology is archetypally predictive, not concretely predictive. We can determine the “experiential flavor” of a given planetary energy but can never know exactly how the Universal Mind will ultimately be expressed through human free will.
To the exact extent that we are conscious of the archetypes, we can respond with greater autonomy and self-awareness.
Astrology’s great merit, which Stan and Rick will help you discover, is that it seems to reveal very precisely which archetypes are especially important for each person, how they interact with each other, and when and how they are most likely to be expressed in the course of each life.
Two Brilliant Pioneers to Guide You
If Carl Jung himself were offering an online program — highlighted by video teaching sessions — would you register for it?
Of course you would.
Jung is a legendary figure who revolutionized his field with brilliant insights, uncommon wisdom, and powerful methods of self-exploration.
And just as we revere Jung today and wish we could step back into the mists of time to learn directly from him, so will future generations regret they never had the chance to take a course with the “father of transpersonal psychology” himself, Stan Grof.
Stan’s six decades of research into non-ordinary states of consciousness — overlaid with his vast knowledge of archetypal astrology — has produced a new “cartography” of the human psyche.
By exploring this new map of reality through the lens of archetypal astrology — through this first-ever online course — you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your potential and a more profound vision for your life… and be liberated from limited ideas of who you truly are.
Together, Stan and Rick will illuminate archetypal astrology in a way that makes sense to your mind, heart and soul, leading to a deeper understanding of life, new awareness of the underlying forces at work in your depths, and a healing recognition that we live in an “ensouled” universe.
During this 8-module video training with Stan Grof, a modern-day Jung; and Rick Tarnas, a globally respected authority on archetypal astrology, you’ll:
- Deepen your understanding of your own nature and the nature of the cosmos
- Be better able to navigate through times of great personal challenges such as spiritual emergencies and “dark nights of the soul”
- Understand how to tap into hidden resources within your own psyche
- Gain a deeper understanding of your potential and your purpose
- Emerge with a more profound vision for your life
- Recognize that all of creation is governed by an intelligent, sacred presence
- Understand the larger cycles and patterns of your life
- Shift your perception of the universe from random and capricious to intelligent and orderly
- Perceive clues into the deeper nature of reality
- Know how to identify the most auspicious times to make key decisions
- Gain a unique and precise tool for exploring the depths of your psyche
- Free yourself from the limited view of who you are and what you’re capable of
- Be able to perceive deep meaning in what seems to be chaotic and dysfunctional social and political environments
- Appreciate why astrology is an invaluable tool to support your deepest explorations with non-ordinary states of consciousness
What You’ll Discover in These 8 Modules
In this 8-part transformational intensive, Stan and Rick will guide you through the fundamental skills and competencies you’ll need to successfully experience a deepening of the beauty, meaning and purpose in your life through tapping into the wisdom of archetypal astrology.
Each contemplation and training session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools and principles you’ll need to sustain your felt connection to life and your sense of belonging in a loving universe. In addition to the teachings, three of the eight sessions features Q&A with one or both faculty.
Module 1: Introduction & Course Overview
We’ll present an overview of the course and of our research as we sought to understand the archetypal dynamics of human experience and non-ordinary states of consciousness. We’ll recount the clinical effort in the 1960s and early 1970s to find a reliable way to predict the nature and outcome of psychedelic sessions, experimenting with a wide range of standard psychological tests. This effort, which proved futile with such tests, eventually resulted in a profoundly unexpected discovery, in which both the timing and the character of psychedelic states, as well as other non-ordinary states of consciousness such as spontaneous mystical awakenings or spiritual emergencies, consistently correlated with specific planetary alignments in relation to the birth chart of the individual.
In this opening module, you’ll:
- Be introduced to a particularly rigorous form of astrological analysis, informed by Jungian psychology and its archetypal perspective, which has emerged as a kind of Rosetta stone of the human psyche
- Hear the inside story of the beginnings of our research at Esalen Institute in the 1970s, and how it expanded to include larger and larger areas of inquiry and application
- Examine the remarkable support from various forms of consciousness research for the worldview that underlies astrology (such as the interconnected and ensouled universe, the psychological reality and potency of archetypes, synchronicity, the importance of birth, the relationship of the individual psyche to collective psyche and to the historical unconscious)
- Be given a preview of the rest of the course
Module 2: New Cartography of the Unconscious
Bridge to Archetypal Astrology
We’ll explore the vastly expanded cartography of the psyche that has emerged from psychedelic therapy and Holotropic Breathwork. It includes not only the biographical-recollective level (which mainstream psychiatry sees as the totality of the psyche), but also two large transbiographical regions of the unconscious, the perinatal and the transpersonal domains.
Quite unexpectedly, two features of this cartography turned out to provide an important bridge between psychology and archetypal astrology. Emotionally strongly charged (cathected) experiences do not exist in the unconscious as a mosaic of disjointed elements, but form complex dynamic constellations — COEX systems (systems of condensed experience) and Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs).
In this module, you’ll:
- Explore holotropic states of consciousness and the vastly extended cartography of the psyche that has emerged from the research of these states
- Hear about two newly discovered transbiographical regions of the unconscious — the perinatal and transpersonal domains — and important specific features of the new cartography — COEX systems and Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs)
- Examine the dynamics of COEX systems, including the review of clinical examples, and their influence throughout this course
- Understand how the discovery of COEXes and BPMs paved the way for bridging between psychology and archetypal astrology
- Connect the dots between the anatomical and physiological underpinning of the perinatal matrices and biology and archetypal symbolism (this will serve as theoretical preparation for detailed exploration of the perinatal symbolism in the next module)
- Participate in a Q&A period at the end of the session
Module 3: Basic Perinatal Matrices & the Death-Rebirth Process
A Visionary Journey
The work with holotropic states of consciousness revealed the paramount role that birth plays in the human psyche, thus confirming an important basic tenet of archetypal astrology. We’ll use powerful paintings from psychedelic and Holotropic Breathwork sessions to explore the perinatal domain of the unconscious, the existence and importance of which has not yet been recognized by mainstream psychiatry and psychology. We’ll pay special attention to its relevance for archetypal astrology.
We’ll discuss the archetypal symbolism of the Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs), experiential patterns associated with the reliving of the four stages of childbirth, and their connections with the anatomy and physiology of birth and with archetypal dynamics. Knowledge of the phenomenology of the perinatal domain is essential for understanding the process of psychospiritual death and rebirth and for any serious approach to the ritual and spiritual history of humanity.
In this module, you’ll:
- Discover the importance of biological birth trauma for psychiatry, psychology and archetypal astrology
- Explore the phenomenology and symbolic language of the Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs) and of the transpersonal realm through the art of people who experienced them
- See the importance of these realms for the ritual and spiritual history of humanity, art and emotional and psychosomatic disorders
- Examine how BPMs provide important guidelines for people involved in systematic self-exploration and spiritual quest
- Recognize the role that the trauma of birth and the archetypal realm have as sources of human violence
Module 4: Archetypal Astrology & Cosmology
We’ll set forth a brief overview of the evolution of cosmology and the history of astrology as these have unfolded from prehistoric times to the present. The gradual disenchantment of the cosmos brought about by the complex cultural and scientific developments of the modern era simultaneously eclipsed the status and plausibility of astrology, and helped catalyze the emergence of depth psychology. As Jung, who carefully studied astrology for decades and used it in his work with many patients, wrote: “Since the stars have fallen from heaven and our highest symbols have paled, a secret life holds sway in the unconscious. That is why we have a psychology today, and why we speak of the unconscious. All this would be quite superfluous in an age or culture that possessed symbols.”
In this module, you’ll:
- Examine the basics of archetypal astrological analysis through the discussion of natal charts, planetary alignments, world transits, and personal transits
- Explore how astrology makes possible an understanding of one’s life — its cycles, its ups and downs, the crises and the breakthroughs, the periods of major change and transformation — through the study of transits. Transits occur when the planets currently in the sky form certain geometrical patterns with respect to the planetary positions at one’s birth. The nature of those patterns — which planets are involved and how they are positioned — appears to correlate in a strikingly consistent way with the archetypal character of the experiences one tends to have at that time
- Delve into two issues fundamental to any discussion of astrology: the issue of causality, or how does astrology “work”; and the issue of determinism, or fate and free will, and the nature of our co-creative participation in an archetypal cosmos
Module 5: The Planetary Archetypes
In this module, we will set forth in a systematic way the ten archetypal principles that astrological research has determined are associated with each of the planets, as well as the two luminaries, the Sun and Moon.
In this module, you’ll:
- Examine the nature of archetypes, and how the understanding of archetypes has evolved from their original ground in the mythological traditions, as gods and goddesses, to Platonic metaphysical and cosmic principles, to Jungian psychological archetypes
- Study the specific qualities, traits and tendencies for each planet and luminary — beginning with the Sun and Moon, then the inner planets Mercury, Venus and Mars, then Jupiter and Saturn, the furthest away planets known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye, and finally the outer three planetary bodies discovered in the modern era, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto; it is these 10 astronomical bodies for which we have both the greatest amount of research and a very strong consensus among astrologers concerning their meanings
- Interpret examples for each planetary archetype, so that you’ll receive a clear sense of the basic qualities and potentials related to each principle
Module 6: Q&A
This entire module will be devoted to responding to participants’ questions concerning the content of the two preceding modules in which we covered the fundamentals of archetypal astrology and the basic meanings of the planetary principles.
Module 7: Psychedelic Sessions & Archetypal Astrological Analysis
We’ll present an in-depth analysis of a dramatic case history from LSD therapy — the case of Flora, who in 1968 was treated for multiple severe psychopathological and somatic conditions in three powerful LSD sessions. The third was an extremely powerful experience with enduring therapeutic results that can serve as an unusually illustrative case example, demonstrating a number of essential principles for understanding and facilitating such sessions.
We’ll then present the archetypal astrological analysis in terms of the birth chart of the patient, and the particular once-in-a-lifetime convergence of transits that she was undergoing at that particular time. The case history is rich in its many dimensions and provides a very useful paradigm case for assessing the relevance and value of the archetypal astrological understanding of psychotherapeutic process and non-ordinary states of consciousness.
Module 8: Q&A
In our final module, we’ll address participants’ questions concerning the case history set forth in the preceding module as well as the overall course content.
The Psyche & Cosmos Bonus Collection
In addition to Stan and Rick’s transformative 8-part virtual course, you’ll receive these powerful training sessions with leading visionaries and teachers. These bonus sessions complement the course — and promise to take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
A Discussion With Albert Hofmann
Video Dialogue With Stan Grof, Albert Hofmann and Tav Sparks
With an Appearance by Hans Ruedi Giger
This rarely seen footage was filmed four months before Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday on October 4, 2005 in H.R. Giger’s Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland during a training module for Holotropic Breathwork facilitators. Hofmann, the creator of lysergic acid diethylamide-25, more commonly referred to as LSD, recounts the story of how “LSD came to me,” and not the other way around, which in turn inspired Stan Grof to spend 50+ years researching its many potential healing benefits and its use in increasing consciousness.
Albert Hofmann (1906-2008) was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofmann was also the first person to isolate, synthesize and name the principal psychedelic mushroom compounds psilocybin and psilocin. He authored more than 100 scientific articles and numerous books, including LSD: Mein Sorgenkind (LSD: My Problem Child). In 2007, he shared first place, alongside Tim Berners-Lee, in a list of the 100 greatest living geniuses, published by The Telegraph newspaper.
Cosmos & Psyche
Set of 2 Audio Dialogues With Rick Tarnas and Caroline Casey
This special bonus includes two interviews with Rick Tarnas from the archives of Caroline Casey’s The Visionary Activist Radio Show on the subject of his book, Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. The interviews aired on the eve of the publication of this seminal work, about which Mary Hynes of CBC Tapestry said, “This is the closest my head has been to exploding while reading a book.”
Caroline Casey is known for her unique art of astro* mythological* political* guiding* meta-storytelling — which is presented in myriad multimedia venues. For more than 22 years, she has been the weaver of context for The Visionary Activist Show (on KPFA and KPFK, Pacifica Network). Caroline is dedicated to astrology as one of the great meta-languages of antiquity, uniting everything of consequence: personal and collective change, ritual magic and esoteric philosophy. She’s also a rousing and frequent keynote speaker at political, environmental, spiritual, psychological and astrological conferences, as well as an MC at global music and activism festivals — including emceeing the spoken-word stage at the Symbiosis Eclipse Festival in Oregon.
The Value of Non-ordinary States of Consciousness for Individuals & Human Society
Audio Interview With Stan Grof Hosted by Lori Schwanbeck, MFT, CHT
Join one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology, Stan Grof, as he sheds light on how expanded states of consciousness, and connecting to the transpersonal, are essential for our happiness, fulfillment and wellbeing.
During this thought-provoking session, you’ll discover:
- What expanded states of consciousness are and how to access them
- How common these states of consciousness are across cultures
- Why western cultures don’t have to be cautious of these expanded states
Lori Schwanbeck is co-founder of Mindfulness Therapy Associates, a psychotherapy and coaching practice in San Francisco. Lori is an expert in the conditions that enable people to thrive in personal and professional life. She brings her passion in creating lives of meaning and aliveness to her clients as a licensed psychotherapist, leadership development consultant and mindfulness teacher. As a certified lead trainer in the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), Lori has taught leadership development and mindfulness-based emotional intelligence internationally. She also created and led SIYLI’s “Joy on Demand” program based on the book by Google’s Chade Meng Tan.
The Use of Archetypal Astrology in Psychedelic Therapy & Holotropic Breathwork
Video With Stan Grof and Rick Tarnas
In this video interview, Stan Grof and Rick Tarnas explore the extraordinary value of archetypal astrology for work with non-ordinary (holotropic) states of consciousness induced by psychedelics and various non-drug means. They share observations and experiences from their joint research that began more than 30 years ago at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. To their great surprise, archetypal astrology proved to be what Stan called “the Rosetta Stone for consciousness research” after all conventional tools of psychiatry and psychology proved essentially useless for this purpose.
Read more: https://archive.ph/WuD7k
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