Carl Gustav Jung on Astrology

I personally am not a full-fledged believer in astrology, but like Carl Jung I find the ideas behind it interesting. Here is a quote from him on the subject:

"We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more."

-Carl Gustav Jung

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

I talk a little bit about astrology in relation to a drawing of mine in this post: Neptune Angel, (from my personal blog). As a young person especially; one cannot help but absorb one's surroundings. From the dialect and accent in your speech, to your family, friends, neighbors teachers, to the native plant-life and animals, on and on. Anyways, I always enjoy reading Jung and he is by far one of my all-time favorite thinkers. Check out this link for more information about his life and work: Carl Jung.

Carl Jung Quote on Vision

Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud were contemporaries of each other, but the ego-maniacal Freud's ruthless self-promotion won him a seemingly greater place in history. Today most people agree that Jung's theories have far more credence and influence than anything Freud ever wrote.

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside awakes."

-Carl Jung

There's a lot to see in the outside world, but nothing more than what is inside you already. You can look out at what could be, what you want, what you think you need; but also know that everything you truly need is inside you. Realize that truth resides in the self of all people and to seek it will result in understanding and growth. For me this also ties in with that old saying, 'be careful what you wish for you just might get it'. If you spend too much time wishing for something different you have less time to explore what you do have. Trust your inner self, trust your instinct and your intuition.

Andy Warhol On Accusations of Being Evil

I find this quote a fascinating insight into the life of Andy Warhol. The heyday of his famous Factory studio was quite an amazing scene, with Warhol filming and recording the whole thing. He redefined what it meant to be an artist, and the criticism that he used people for his own ends, is a valid one, but I think he answers that well here:

"Now and then someone would accuse me of being evil--of letting people destroy themselves while I watched, just so I could film them and tape record them, but I don't think of myself as evil--just realistic. I learned when I was little that whenever I got aggressive and tried to tell someone what to do, nothing happened--I just couldn't carry it off. I learned that you actually have more power when you shut up, because at least that way people will start maybe to doubt themselves. When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it..."

(Andy Warhol, POPism, p.269 Basquiat, A Quick Killing In Art.)

He wasn't preaching to or pushing anyone, just letting them be themselves. The fact does remain though that there were more than a few life and death incidents indirectly and directly related to Andy Warhol and his involvement with other artists.