Taught online via Zoom

July 9 - 30, 2024
7pm - 9pm
$140 Paid Patreon Members / $150 General Admission

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will be recorded for those who cannot attend live

"Quite apart from the very subtle means of evaluation that astrology uses and its predictive abilities," said the surrealist artist Andre Breton, "I consider its capacity for stretching and exercising the mind to be second to none." Astrology and art have much to learn from each other, and unexpected, mind-bending things happen when we place them in conversation. 

This class will explore intersections of art and astrology and ways artists have utilized astrology in their works and lives, with examples from the poets W.B. Yeats and H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), and surrealists Andre Breton and Remedios Varo. We'll explore astrological symbolism and language to discuss the ways astrology "stretches and exercises" the mind of the artist. Classes will feature in-depth illustrated slide presentations and excerpts from supporting astrological, psychoanalytic, and philosophical sources. 

Students need not have any familiarity with astrology to attend this class, just an openness to astrology as a way of seeing. In the instructor’s private astrology practice, she often works with artists, exploring current planetary transits and their own natal charts in order to find celestial insight and fodder for creative praxis. During the first class, she’ll spend some time discussing her own experiences as a writer and astrologer, along with an overview of astrology, presenting various definitions of this so-called threshold knowledge. 

Students will come away with more expansive and nuanced ways of thinking about both astrology and art through examining how the two may enliven and trouble each other, as well as knowledge about the astrological and occult undercurrents of the work of specific artists discussed in the course. Students may find new routes forward with regards to working with astrological symbolism in creative work, and likewise, for viewing astrology as an art. 

Class 1: Cosmic Rigor and Threshold Knowledge: Astrology and Art
Dane Rudhyar called astrology ‘threshold knowledge.’ Using the notion of threshold as a jumping off point, we’ll begin with definitions of astrology and the ways astrology might help us see and/or derange our vision, offering other ways into artistic work. We’ll look at astrological charts and maps of the cosmos in order to get a feel for this language, and be introduced to C.G. Jung’s concept of ‘synchronicity’ as a way to connect artistic practice and astrological study, citing examples from the instructor’s own artistic and astrological work.

Class 2: Vision: Poetry and Astrology
We’ll discuss and look at images of Hermes/Mercury (the messenger god, planet, psychopomp, and ruler of both astrology and poetry) in order to think about points of intersection between poetry and astrology. From there, we’ll discuss the life and work of W.B. Yeats, a poet and astrologer, looking for astrological influence and residue in his poems and in his astrology-infused philosophical tome, A Vision. 

Class 3: Hermeticism: Poetry and Astrology Part 2
We’ll discuss the work and life of modernist poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), especially her astrological and psychoanalytic interests/influences. We’ll look at excerpts from Visions and Ecstasies, Trilogy, Tribute to Freud, and Hermetic Definition.

Class 4: The Stretched Mind: Surrealism, Psychoanalysis, and Astrology
In our final class, we’ll trace connections between surrealism, psychoanalysis, and astrological praxis. We’ll discuss the work and lives of Remedios Varo, Salvador Dalí, André Breton, and others.

Emmalea Russo is a writer, astrologer, and teacher. Her books of poetry are G (2018), Wave Archive (2019), Confetti (2022), and Magenta (2023). Recent poems and essays have appeared in Artforum, BOMB, Spike Art Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Compact, Granta, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She has taught courses on poetry, philosophy, and art at various institutions including Saint Peter's University, Northeastern University, The Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, and GCAS. Her books have been reviewed in The Chicago Review, The Yale Review, Publishers Weekly, and elsewhere. She has a substack newsletter, Cosmic Edges and teaches independent classes on writing, astrology, and philosophy in addition to working with astrology clients. Her first novel, Vivienne, is forthcoming in September. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Images:

1. The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, Frontispiece, 1967

2. W.B. Yeats's Diary (the angel drawing)

3. Star Catcher by Remedios Varo