Our modern science began with astronomy.
I find no questions today, so I assume that everything is clear and understood.
You remember that we were discussing energy and time, and I suppose you must have wondered why I talked about such abstruse matters in connection with the cross and crescent symbols.
It would be quite understandable to me if some of you had asked today why I had pushed that question so far, to fundamentals-as far as the stars, one could say.
There were certain reasons.
I found as I was thinking over the material for the next seminar, that my thoughts were developing towards the stars and the problem of the identity of time and energy or libido, and then I asked myself what the justification was for enlarging the scope of our problem to such an extent.
I became curious to know what the patient’s subsequent dreams said on the subject.
I looked into my records and found that the very next was one that we could not deal with without this preparation.
It contains this particular problem, as you will soon see.
So you can believe me, that I am not just losing myself in idle speculation when I talk about time and energy.
It is not a metaphysical problem, it is psychological, even astrological, for astrology was the first form of psychology, which is an extremely young science, dating from the end of the nineteenth century only.
Of course, there was a beginning of psychological technique at about the time of the decay of Christianity and the period of the French enlightenment.
Voltaire would be one of the first psychologists, and La Rochefoucauld, and Fenelon.
But it was not yet science.
It consisted more of intellectual aphorisms.
But inasmuch as the human soul has always existed, there must have been at all times an equivalent of psychology.
Philosophy would be such an equivalent, but it is merely intellectual, or a metaphysical projection.
Religion would be an equivalent also, one could say, yet it is metaphysical concretism.
Then there was astrology, which was legitimate up to the seventeenth century and was used by doctors in universities, together with dreams, as aids in diagnosing disease.
Palmistry also was so used.
I have a little text-book of medicine written by a famous Wurzburg professor towards the end of the sixteenth century.
It deals with astrology, phrenology, palmistry, and physiognomy, and was especially for the use of doctors.
The author was practically the last of the official professors of astrology, which was a sort of psychology but with the qualities and peculiar character of projection.
It was our psychology in its oldest form.
Our modern science began with astronomy.
Instead of saying that a man was led by psychological motives, they formerly said he was led by his stars. ~Carl Jung, Dream Analysis Seminar, Page 413-414
