Jordan Peterson, the controversial Canadian psychology professor who became a love-hate figure for his anti-political correctness views, condemnation of academic “safe spaces” and his refusal to use transgender preferred pronouns, has a new book out with the unlikely title of We Who Wrestle With God.
According to the Times review it is is “unreadable, rambling, hectoring and mad” – “a bizarre study of the Bible featuring Jiminy Cricket, Harry Potter and Tinkerbell the porn fairy.”
In contrast to the book which has been fairly universally slammed this review is a chuckle and worth reading, though behind a paywall. “If We Who Wrestle with God offers the reader any relief at all it derives from the inadvertent comedy of Peterson’s attempts to combine humourless Biblical analysis, pop culture fandom and conservative polemic in the space of a single misbegotten sentence.” https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/we-who-wrestle-god-perceptions-divine-jordan-peterson-review-cn3hk3bdz.
Recently he tried to persuade the scientist Richard Dawkins of the “biological reality” of dragons.
Bron 12 June 1962 2.49am Edmonton, Alberta, three weeks before Tom Cruise, Peterson has the same Saturn in Aquarius opposition North Node square Neptune – though in Peterson’s case it is further emphasized with Neptune opposition Mars in Taurus. Saturn in Aquarius will give him a leaning towards scientific precision while Neptune pulls in exactly the opposite direction into mystical, idealistic or plain delusional beliefs.
His Mercury in Gemini (conjunct his Sun) are trine a Libra Moon trine Saturn South Node in his 10th – so he is a thinker, an ideologue (= firm believer), inclined to hang onto his views even in the face of evidence to the contrary. And having a Fixed Grand Cross he won’t budge easily. His confident/over-confident Pluto opposition Jupiter square Mercury will compel him to trumpet his views at high volume. Plus he has a dominating Mars trine an audience-seeking 5th house Pluto which added to his publicity-seeking Mars Neptune means he won’t stay out of the public arena for long. He’s an attention junkie.
He may get even more extreme and eccentric with tr Uranus now crossing his Ascendant and moving through his 1st house for the next few years. He won’t care how unorthodox his views sound. What will slow him down is his Solar Arc Pluto opposition his Mars and then square his Saturn in 2027/28 at the same time as his Solar Arc Mars squares his Moon. That will test his theories.
All that Gemini explains his (pop) verbosity and the Uranus and north node in Leo (with all that Gemini/ mercury biz) explains his exceptional communication skills and performance flair (he likes dandy suits) .
There is something very zeitgeist about the Gemini sign (mercury moves so very quickly) .
The amount of generational game changer Gemini north nodes is insane … Parton, Bowie, bjork, eilish and that’s just in music .
So yeah , his clever Gemininess and then Leo north node seem to have conspired to make a “star” (he even had a much publicised addiction with wacky alt therapies like a pop star) .
He is the half baked, narcissistic intellectual our soundbite culture deserves .
The best review of his new book is the one by rowan Williams in the guardian .
He very accurately explains the gaps in petersons knowledge, theories and interpretations … Williams is also a clever Gemini (but speaks 7 languages including Hebrew which means he can actually read the bible in its original text) … north node Aries and pluto in leo .
A theological debate between them would be absolutely epic (Peterson would be scared to take him on I think) .
Wikipedia says, and there is a footnote for the citation, that “Williams speaks three languages and reads at least nine”.
I am always in disbelief whenever people say they speak or know several languages. I always need more detail for that.
For example, I was always interested and fascinated by the English Turkologist Geoffrey Lewis Lewis. He “taught himself Turkish”. He then authored a grammar of the language. And I want to know in detail how that self-teaching went. I think he then also learnt Ottoman Turkish and Farsi, and I wonder what that knowledge looked like and how he did it, especially at the time when he lived.
Geoffrey Lewis Lewis (born 1920) … I reckon much easier to do such a thing like learn multiple languages then … way less distractions .
Re the why … I imagine, in the case of historians, theologists and people interested in literature and poetry, it must be the passion to fully comprehend their subject that neutralises the difficulty factor .
Williams review of the Peterson book is so well written, it makes me want to read one of HIS books :))
Has it always been the case that we seem to have a glut of self-styled gurus, or is there something about these times that explains the ubiquity of them? I know the turmoil and societal changes of the 1960s produced quite a few. It reminds me of the medieval prophetae who preached the end times as well as the religious movements such as the 14th century Flagellants which arose during periods of plague, famine, financial instability and social upheaval.
Partly Neptune in Pisces. Mutable signs are the communicators – 1960s was Uranus/Pluto in Virgo; 1970s was Neptune in Sag. Things started taking off again particularly mid-2000s when Uranus was in Pisces with Pluto in Sag with The Secret and all that stuff.
It seems like there’s more due to Uranus in Aries giving us the smartphone and from that all the Youtube/Tiktok/Insta platforms where gurus can spout their nonsense to much larger audiences. I would expect over time as Uranus moves on there will be a ‘streamlining’ of these gurus until only a few more convincing ones are left.
Thanks GD, that makes a lot of sense. I long for Neptune in Pisces to be over. The rise of the YouTubeTikTok anti-logic guru is concerning because none of them have any expertise whatsoever and what comes across more than anything to me is their egotism. There’s also a ton of projection going on and one of the patterns in these charts is the number of oppositions. David Icke also has this across his Ascendant/Descendant with Neptune powerful in the 12th, its own house.
David Icke was probably one of the few gurus I could think of from the 90s when I was writing that. And Tony Robbins (who I recall is Pisces Sun and 60s Virgo) – think Marjorie did a post on him a couple of years ago, possibly facing sexual harasment claims. I recall buying one of his books in 1997 (when I was working my way along the self-help kick) and feeling I’d stumbled on some gamechanger. It’s useful to get different perspective/ideas but I don’t think I ever got anything from it.
In the end, how did that go? The self-help kick? Have you had any successes? Has anything helped? Has anything changed your life?
When Saturn entered my Aries 12th, it triggered a need for self-help I hadn’t been interested in before. Spent about a year going through the self-help shelf and then eased off but still looking to learn over the next twenty years to the point where I now rarely feel any of these books is telling me anything I don’t already know. No material success from it but great peace of mind.
Was an extremely popular professor when he was at Harvard.
He used to be good now he’s become d.angerous
@Pam, from cultural studies viewpoint, he was always a scam. But he really got hold of certain audience circa 2017-18. Going to Russia and being put to coma to cure an addiction early 2020 definitely did something to his brain. He became very erratic.
He’d be perfect for the Drompf cabinet. Poor Mary Martin…and Tinkerbell. Hell of a way to be written up, as a porn fairy.
And yet Peterson is profoundly influenced by Jung who was no enemy of astrology …
Fixed Star Rigel on his IC as the Moon is setting…”The metaphysician, or
one who is drawn to alternative or hidden wisdoms.”
Metaphysician defined…”Philosophy that addresses questions about the
the ultimate composition of reality.”
Peterson has a Righteiousness Rectangle pattern in his chart. It is a red/blue figure with fixed motivation. The blue aspects give an impression
of calm, serenity and harmoniy. In contrast, the tension created by the red
oppositions is like being caught by the cross-fire between 2 opposing factions. Some people with this configuration deny having any problems,
because they do not want to look inside and resolve their own problems.
Others however, are willing to do this and work, with awareness, on
overcoming them.
Peterson releases the tension with the rectangle, thru’ the 2 focal
points in his t-squares, namely Mercury, r6, thru’ his work, and thru’
scientic views of his Saturn in Aquarius, in his 9th of religious views.
The oppositions, Jupiter/Pluto, and Mars/Neptune, feed his righteiousness.
https://ibb.co/YyKsKCJ