Thomas Ring
The German astrologer Thomas Ring (born on 28th November 1892 at 18:02 in Nuremberg, Germany, died on 24th August 1983 in Schaerding, Austria) greatly contributed to the Psychological Astrology movement. He established "revised" or modern astrology in Germany. Although little of Ring's work has been translated into English, his influence in German-language astrology is significant.
Thomas Ring initially became known as a painter. He spent his youth in Berlin where he began an arts degree in 1911, and although he concentrated on astrology from about the 1920s he never lost his keen interest in the arts. Before then he had rejected astrology and concentrated instead on art, philosophy and psychology. His interest in astrology grew during his time as a prisoner of war.
Life
Ring was a vociferous opponent of National Socialism and he and his family left Berlin for Austria shortly before its annexation in 1938. There National Socialism caught up with him and he was forbidden to publish his paintings or writings.
After the Second World War in which Ring lost his wife, he took an active role in developments in astrology. Since the 1930s he had been an active astrologer and painter until the time of his death.
Astrology
With his four volume work Astrological Anthropology Ring laid the foudations for a thoroughly new approach to astrological interpretation. He rejected Determinism and the idea that the influence of the celestial bodies might have a physical basis. He also emphasised the limits of astrological interpretation and did not believe a horoscope could predict an individual's time of death, their sex, or their level of development of intelligence. Ring developed his own pithy terms to describe the planets, signs and houses; he has been called Germany's Dane Rudhyar and understood astrology as an art of interpretation.
See also
Weblinks
- Thomas Ring: an Astrological Portrait (by Karin Hoffmann)