In the earliest stages of humanity, it is unlikely that people across the world shared a belief in a distant, fear-based god hidden above the skies. What we do know is that ancient civilizations worked closely with the stars—using astronomy not only to mark time, but to guide movement across the land and in relationship with the Earth itself. But what if there was more to this connection than navigation alone?
It is possible that the rise of organized religion gradually clouded older, relational truths about the world we live in. Through the work of scholars such as Carl Jung, we have come to understand that the energetic makeup of the celestial world mirrors the psychological and symbolic structures of the human mind. When we look across ancient and modern cultures, a reoccurring pattern emerges between them; spiritual teachings designed to support healing, growth, and enlightenment often follow the same underlying framework.
Repeatedly, these teachings correspond to seven core principles or stages of development. Examples like the Seven Grandfathers (Indigenous), Seven Hermetic Principles (Egyptian & Greek), Seven Planetary Spheres (Gnostics), and even the Seven Chakras (Hindu). Although they’re expressed through different languages, symbols, and cosmologies, they are ultimately pointing in the same direction—toward unity, love, and understanding among the people.
These teachings were never rooted in sin or punishment, but in relationships between human beings, the Earth, and the cosmos.
As Above, So Within: The Cosmic Mirror of Human Growth
When ancient peoples looked to the sky, they were not searching for a distant god. They were reading the sky, using it as a mirror.
Long before modern psychology existed, civilizations understood that the movements of the heavens reflected patterns within the natural world around us, and the patterns within us. Astronomy was not separate from spirituality, and astrology was not a form of superstition. It was a language used to understand cycles of growth, timing, and transformation.
Jung later articulated this same understanding through psychology. He observed that celestial symbols, myths, and planetary archetypes throughout ancient cultures consistently mirrored structures within the human psyche. Jung did not see astrology as causation, but as synchronicity—a meaningful correspondence between inner experience and outer pattern.
In other words:
The cosmos do not control us but we’re merely a reflection of it.
The Planets as Archetypes of Human Development
Across cultures, the visible planets were understood as stages or principles of consciousness. Each planet symbolized a specific aspect of human experience, maturation, and responsibility:
- Moon — instinct, emotion, memory, and belonging
- Mercury — communication, perception, learning, and meaning
- Venus — relationship, value, love, and harmony
- Sun — identity, vitality, purpose, and self-awareness
- Mars — will, courage, action, and boundaries
- Jupiter — wisdom, expansion, belief, and growth
- Saturn — structure, accountability, time, and integration
These were not external rulers judging humanity from above. They were cosmic symbols of inner processes—the same processes described in Indigenous teachings, chakra systems, and other spiritual paths.
Blended Together
When we place all these ancient cultures’ knowledge and wisdom alongside planetary archetypes, there’s the same pattern that emerges throughout them.
Human beings grow through relational stages, each mirrored in the cosmos.
- Learning safety, belonging, and emotional regulation
- Developing voice, desire, and personal power
- Opening the heart and learning love
- Speaking truth and cultivating wisdom
- Acting with courage and responsibility
- Expanding consciousness and meaning
- Integrating experience into maturity and wholeness
This is why the same virtues exist across the world—not because cultures borrowed from one another, but because they were observing the same reality from different angles.
Jung observed that spiritual symbols are meant to function as living guides for inner growth. When these symbols are no longer understood symbolically, they lose their purpose and become literalized. What was once meant to guide inner growth gets taken literally, turned into rules, hierarchies, and fear. That is when we start looking at the sky as something to obey rather than read and relate to.
Remembering these teachings isn’t about rejecting religion, psychology, or science. It’s about reconnecting them. The stars, the Earth, and the human psyche were never separate systems. They were different ways of describing the same thing: how humans grow, heal, and learn to live in relationship with themselves and one another.
