Twentieth-Century Psychological Astrology and Legitimisation

Twentieth century psychological astrology was the dominant strand in the English-speaking world. It has been argued that this form of astrology attempted to become more psychological as a strategy for legitimisation in the modern world. This paper argues that an examination of the astrological texts of three key twentieth-century astrologers – Alan Leo (1860–1917), Dane Rudhyar (1895–1985) and Liz Greene (1946– ) – suggests that psychology was embraced not for reasons of legitimisation. Instead, psychology was adopted primarily for philosophical reasons, that is to increase the freedom of the individual and because, for Greene in particular, astrology is regarded as fundamentally psychological in nature.