Was Adorno Right (and Wrong) About Astrology? Irrationality, Imagination, and Epistemic Flight from Normalizing Power

Is astrology a harmless distraction or a pseudo-science opening a path to fascism? Or can it help us reclaim an imagination lost to the hyper-rationalism of modernity? In this episode, Sereptie and Emma trace the gendered and racialized dynamics behind astrology’s reputation as frivolous, unpacking why interest in the occult so often gets coded as feminine, queer, or "unserious". Drawing on Adorno’s essay “The Stars Down to Earth,” we examine astrology’s function as pseudo-rationality under capitalism, then push back against Adorno’s faith in pure reason as itself a political liability for the left. The conversation ranges from yoga and secular meditation to the historical purge of mythologist Karl Kerényi, ultimately arguing that the irrational and imaginal are not distractions from politics but resources the left urgently needs to reclaim.

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