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Volume 18 - 2
Trystes Cosmologiques: When Lévi-Strauss Met the Astrologers
Graham Douglas
Abstract
In October 1969 the famous anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss gave an interview to the well-known French astrologers André Barbault and Dr Jean-Paul Nicola for the astrology magazine L'Astrologue. To the author's knowledge this interview has never been discussed in academic journals, and is here published for the first time in English translation. It is considered in the context of its time, and of the issues discussed: the Surrealist movement, which had an important influence on Lévi-Strauss's early work; the structure of the unconscious mind; and the question of causation in astrology.
At the end of the interview Lévi-Strauss suggested a joint project with his interviewers to study the interpretations of serious astrologers as a way of understanding how their minds work. According to Dr Nicola, the suggestion was never developed because in his opinion there was no chance of getting astrologers to agree on how to go about it. In the last 20 years however, several theses have been devoted to similar projects.
Citation
Graham Douglas, 'Trystes Cosmologiques: When Lévi-Strauss met the astrologers', Culture and Cosmos, Vol. 18, no. 2, Spring/Summer 2014, pp. 143-166.
