In this episode, we trace how the Romantic era still shapes inner life and culture, moving from Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley to Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro’s new film to ask what they reveal about technology, AI, and the rejected “other.” We follow the radical lives and charts of Wollstonecraft and Shelley, reading Frankenstein as a warning from a mechanistic worldview that exiles feeling, relationship, and the feminine. Along the way we track Saturn–Neptune cycles and Pluto in Aquarius from the French Revolution and the steam engine to today’s AI moment, draw on Liz Greene’s view of artists as Saturn–Neptune mediators of the imaginal, and weave in works that speak to this moment including del Toro’s Frankenstein, and Rosalía’s orchestral track Berghain. We consider whether we may again be at a threshold when any new renaissance of consciousness will hinge on bringing feeling, imagination, and the feminine principle back into both psyche and culture.

Books and other material mentioned in the episode:

1. Andrea Wulf, “Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self”

2. Charlotte Gordon, “Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley”

3. Thomas Elsner, “A Flash of Golden Fire: The Birth, Death, and Rebirth of the Modern Soul in Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’”

4. Liz Greene, “Neptune and the Quest for Redemption”

5. Neil Howe, “The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End”

Film and television 6) Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein”

1. Simon Schama, “The Romantics and Us” (BBC series on Romantic art, politics, and the modern self):

Music 8) Rosalía, “Berghain” (single with Björk and Yves Tumor, from the album Lux) Official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TKYd-pHo1A

Podcasts and online resources

10) Chasing Consciousness podcast episode with Jungian analyst Monica Wikman on dreams of the dying and the death process [September 24, 2025]

In this episode of Archetypes and the Planets, we follow Hermes’ trail through history to rethink what Uranus in Gemini (c. 2025–2033) might signal. Instead of focusing on geopolitics, we track Mercurial patterns: dialogue, translation, dispersal of knowledge, trickster authorship, and sudden cross-pollination between disciplines.

Stops on the journey include Plato’s formative years amid the Peloponnesian aftermath; Pythagorean/Egyptian influences; the Renaissance return of Plato via Cosimo de’ Medici, Marsilio Ficino, and the Corpus Hermeticum; the printing press and the Council of Florence (a Gemini-style East/West bridge); Paracelsus’ iconoclastic blend of alchemy, medicine, and folk knowledge; Rosicrucian pamphlets and networked secrecy; Shakespeare’s alchemical imagination (with a nod to The Winter’s Tale). The hour culminates with Isaac Casaubon’s linguistic redating of the Corpus (1614) and a reflection on our present: AI, translation at scale, cybersecurity, and the perennial need to converse with a living cosmos (à la Richard Tarnas). Part 2 will pick up with Jung’s late works and the 19th–20th-century occult revivals.

• Richard Tarnas — Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View

• Thomas Moore — The Planets Within: The Astrological Psychology of Marsilio Ficino

• Thomas Moore — The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

• Frances Yates — Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition

• “Three Initiates” — The Kybalion

• C. G. Jung — Psychology and Alchemy

• C. G. Jung — Answer to Job

• C. G. Jung — Mysterium Coniunctionis

• Priscilla Costello — Shakespeare and the Stars

• Corpus Hermeticum (classical Hermetic texts; frequently published in book form)

NOTE: Some spaces are still available in Jenny's course on family dynamics! Here is the info:

Here is the link: https://caeli.institute/event/three-deep/

This six-week Zoom lab for those with a basic grasp of astrological synthesis explores the compelling presence of ancestors’ lives in the natal chart. We will survey ancient and modern techniques for identifying uncanny patterns within family lines. Chart your genogram, work in cozy breakout sessions, and consider rituals and remediations for working with genealogical sludge. Limited to 16 students.

In this episode, we explore James Hillman's book The Soul's Code, focusing on Hillman's "acorn theory," which posits that individuals are born with the full potential for their unique gifts—much like an acorn contains the pattern of an oak tree. We contrast this with compensatory psychological theories and argue that Hillman offers a more empowering perspective on adversity. The conversation also touches on astrological concepts as metaphors for understanding fate, destiny, and the human psyche, examining how Hillman's work challenges traditional empirical psychology by emphasizing meaning and purpose over causality. Finally, we look at Hillman's chart to see how it aligns with his revolutionary ideas.

Information about Jenny's course at the CAELI Institute:

Here is the link: https://caeli.institute/event/three-deep/

This six-week Zoom lab for those with a basic grasp of astrological synthesis explores the compelling presence of ancestors’ lives in the natal chart. We will survey ancient and modern techniques for identifying uncanny patterns within family lines. Chart your genogram, work in cozy breakout sessions, and consider rituals and remediations for working with genealogical sludge. Limited to 16 students.