The Infinity of the Cosmos and the Depth of Psyche

This is an excerpt from one of the presentations featured in the Pari Center’s event Psyche and Time, in Pari from June 14 to 20, 2022.

with Frédérique Dambreville

Participants will be invited to consider the relationship between the cosmic dance and the psyche. We shall look into such themes as :

  • The Sacred Wheel of Time and the 12 signs of the Zodiac; the difference between linear time and cyclical
  • The Astrological cycles; the timing of evolution and changes within the planetary cycles.
  • The mythological background of astrology, and the naming of the planets after the gods.
  • Astrology as an integrated symbolic system, and the meaning and reading of the chart.
  • The notion of kaïros, continuity and discontinuity.
  • The contribution of the astrological chart to the analytical work, showing the rhythm and timing of the deep processes at work in the individual psyche.

Frédérique Dambreville is a Jungian Analyst and professional astrologer in private practice in Paris. She began her professional life as a registered nurse in several specialized wards, and completed her qualifications with training in emergency procedures and first aid in times of disaster. She was a journalist, writing for a professional nursing journal published by the French Red Cross, and contributed articles in the medical press. She also graduated in philosophy at the Sorbonne, and trained in yoga teaching and practice.

Since her early twenties, following a deep inner search for meaning, she started to study astrology and analytical psychology. From the beginning, these two fields were the red thread guiding her way, and a frame of reference where everything she learned and experienced had its place and function.

She studied astrology with several astrologers belonging to different orientations: traditional, transpersonal and humanistic (Rudhyar, Ruperti…), and psychological (Liz Greene, Howard Sasportas, Richard Idemon, Stephen Arroyo…). In the mid-80s, she started consultations with clients, reading charts and teaching students.

Her engagement with psyche is expressed through theoretical studies and analytical experience, both Freudian and Jungian. She participated in study groups and lectures at the Jungian Center in Paris, and some years later attended intensive seminars and became a matriculated auditor at the C.G. Jung Institut in Küsnacht. She completed her analyst training at ISAPZURICH, from where she graduated in 2009 and is now emerita.

It is through both the theory and practice of astrology and depth psychology that she discovered how much the astrological symbols and the archetypes of the psyche were mirroring each other, sparking fundamental questions from these two perspectives.