Astrology, modernity and the project of self-identity

This speculative and interdisciplinary article about Western and UK astrology recognises a fluid craft steeped in pre-modern ‘magical’ symbolism accommodating to differing degrees the modern, linear and literal. It embraces an open framework and employs personal experience that highlights the proble...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Culture and religion
Main Author: Clements, Paul (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor and Francis Group 2020
In: Culture and religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 21, Issue: 3, Pages: 259-279
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B England / Astrology / Divination / Self-reflection / Cognitive dissonance / Modernity / History
RelBib Classification:AE Psychology of religion
AG Religious life; material religion
AZ New religious movements
KBF British Isles
TA History
Further subjects:B trans-rational
B Spirituality
B Divination
B Legitimacy
B Self-reflexivity
B Dissonance
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:This speculative and interdisciplinary article about Western and UK astrology recognises a fluid craft steeped in pre-modern ‘magical’ symbolism accommodating to differing degrees the modern, linear and literal. It embraces an open framework and employs personal experience that highlights the problems with self-understanding. Astrology may appear detached from its traditional religious foundation and has struggled for cultural legitimacy, but it offers a spiritual understanding, self-knowledge and self-determination. It divines a range of symbolic possibilities that encourages elective biography and instructs the project of self-identity. This in part assuages the existential need to find meaning, questioning established thinking and ‘rational’ cultural practices. Astrology embeds a spiritual outlook that co-exists with profane individualism and materiality highlighting dissonant modernity.
ISSN:1475-5629
Contains:Enthalten in: Culture and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2022.2093234