C.G. Jung's letter to B.V. Raman

[Jim Eshelman]

I finally got a copy of this letter, which I'd heard mentioned apocryphally over the years. On September 6, 1947, Carl Jung wrote the following to Prof. Raman, India's most eminent astrologer even then and editor of The Astrological Mazgazine.

Dear Prof. Raman,

I haven't yet received THE ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE, but I will answer your letter nevertheless.

Since you want to know my opinion about astrology I can tell you that I've been interested in this particular activity of the human mind since more than 30 years. As I am a psychologist I'm chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character. In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from a entirely different angle. I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand. From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call "projected" - this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations. This originally gave rise to the idea that these factors derive from the stars, whereas they are merely in a relation of synchronicity with them. I admit that this is a very curious fact which throws a peculiar light on the structure of the human mind.

What I miss in astrological literature is chiefly the statistical method by which certain fundamental facts could be scientifically established.

Hoping that this answer meets your request

I remain
Yours sincerely
C.G. Jung

[Lance]

Well, yeah… I figured that he would go with synchronicity. Cool to see it quoted though.

[SteveS]