The Astrological Symbolism in the Novels of Phillip Pullman
To read Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" is to feel you are reading a story that is, in a profound sense, true. It’s a fantasy, but it resonates with a symbolic weight that feels less like invention and more like a half-remembered history. This is no accident. Pullman has stated his epic is a conscious "retelling and inversion" of John Milton's "Paradise Lost".
But the symbolic language he uses to build his new mythology—a "Republic of Heaven"—is not just literary. It is a precise and deeply researched tapestry of Gnosticism, Jungian psychology, and classical astrology. As a clinic that practices at the intersection of these ancient and modern wisdoms, we find Pullman's work a remarkable case study in how these systems map the human psyche.
A Gnostic Universe: Blake, Milton, and the War on Heaven
Pullman's core philosophical influence is Gnosticism, a mystical tradition that ran parallel to early Christianity. The Gnostic heresy, as it was called, proposed a radical idea: that the god of the material world (the "Authority" in Pullman's books) was not the true, ultimate creator, but a lesser, false god known as the Demiurge.
In this system, the "fall" in the Garden of Eden was not a sin. It was the first act of liberation. The serpent, by offering the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, was a heroic figure, and Eve became the first human to seek Gnosis—a special, liberating, experiential knowledge.
This is the exact premise of "His Dark Materials". The Church fears "Dust" as "Original Sin". But Pullman reveals Dust is, in fact, consciousness itself. The story is a direct inversion of Milton, framed through the visionary, heretical lens of one of Pullman's other great influences, the poet William Blake. Blake, who famously wrote that Milton was "of the Devil's party without knowing it," also created his own complex mythology to "create a system" rather than be "enslav'd by another man's" —a perfect summary of Lord Asriel's entire motivation.
The Alethiometer: An Astrological Computer
The most explicit link between Pullman's world and classical cosmology is the alethiometer, or "symbol-reader". This "truth-measuring" device is not a magical fancy. Its construction is a direct map of an astrological system.
The alethiometer has 36 symbols on its dial. This number is not random. The astrological zodiac, a 360-degree circle, has been divided since ancient Egyptian times into 36 "decans" (or "faces") of 10 degrees each.
This system of 36 decans, each with a specific planetary ruler and symbolic image, was the bedrock of Hellenistic astrology and astro-magic. It was later adopted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, who famously used the 36 decans as the primary structure for the 36 numbered Minor Arcana cards (the 2s through 10s) in a modern Tarot deck.
Pullman himself hints at this, stating the device was invented by combining "classical astrology with the memory-theater system" , specifically referencing real-world occultists and Gnostics like Giordano Bruno.
Decoding the Decans
When you place the alethiometer's symbols alongside the astrological decans, the parallels are astonishing. The device works by pointing to three symbols, and the reader must weave them together. This is identical to how an astrologer might synthesize the decan ruler, the sign, and the planet in that decan. The meanings match perfectly:
- The Serpent: The alethiometer meaning is "Evil, Guile, Natural Wisdom". This corresponds to the 3rd Decan of Scorpio, ruled by Venus. The associated Tarot card is the 7 of Cups, which represents illusion, fantasy, and the "guile" of earthly temptation (Venus) in the sign of secrets (Scorpio).
- The Helmet: The alethiometer meaning is "War, Protection, Narrow Vision". This corresponds to the 1st Decan of Leo, ruled by Saturn. Its Tarot card is the 5 of Wands, the "Lord of Strife." This perfectly captures the "war" (Saturn) and "narrow," defensive ego-state (Saturn in fixed, fiery Leo).
- The Anchor: The alethiometer meaning is "Hope, Steadfastness, Prevention". This corresponds to the 1st Decan of Capricorn, ruled by Jupiter. The 2 of Pentacles, its card, shows a figure balancing (Jupiter's expansion) within the "steadfast" and "preventive" structure of earthly Capricorn.
The alethiometer is, in short, an astrological computer, and Lyra is its intuitive reader.
A Cosmic Cast: Psychological and Planetary Archetypes
If the alethiometer is the astrological hardware, the characters are its living psychological software. The story's central figures map perfectly onto the planetary and psychological archetypes that form the basis of Jungian and Psychological Astrology.
The most obvious, of course, are the dæmons. They are the externalized soul , and the concept is a direct illustration of Carl Jung's anima (for men) and animus (for women)—the "soulful companions" of the opposite gender that live in our unconscious. The dæmon's "settling" at puberty is a powerful metaphor for the fixing of one's adult identity, the end of pure, mutable potential.
Lyra "Silvertongue" as Mercurius and Sophia
Lyra's archetypal identity is twofold. Her nickname, "Silvertongue," links her to the alchemical god Mercurius, the Roman Hermes. Mercurius is the "silvery" trickster, the messenger, and the only guide who can travel between worlds. He is the psychopomp, the guide of souls, which is Lyra's literal function when she descends to the land of the dead.
But she is also the Gnostic Sophia (Wisdom). She is the "new Eve" who must consciously "fall" (gain knowledge and experience) to save humanity. Her very name, Belacqua, even alludes to the "intuitive properties of water," setting her feeling-based wisdom against the Magisterium's rigid dogma.
Lord Asriel as the Martial-Jupiterian Rebel
Lord Asriel is a complex composite of planetary energies. He is "fierce" and "possessed of enormous determination," and his entire purpose is to wage "war on God". This is the pure, unfiltered archetype of Mars, the planet of war, severing, and rebellion.
His name, Asriel, is a variant of Azrael, the Angel of Death in Hebrew and Islamic lore. The Angel of Death's function is to sever the soul from the body —an act Asriel performs literally on Lyra's friend Roger to power his bridge to the stars.
Simultaneously, Asriel is an expression of Jupiter, the planet of kings, exploration, and dogma. He is a "charismatic leader," an "explorer" , and an "experimental theologian" who seeks to establish his own authority, his own "Republic." He is the negative Jupiterian archetype: the dogmatic tyrant whose grand, ambitious vision justifies his immense cruelty.
Marisa Coulter as the Shadow Feminine (Lilith)
If Lyra is the "new Eve" (Sophia), her mother, Marisa Coulter, is one of modern literature's most compelling "dark feminine" archetypes. She is a perfect embodiment of the Jungian Shadow , the part of ourselves we repress, deny, and project.
More specifically, she maps onto the mythological and astrological archetype of Lilith. In Jewish folklore, Lilith is the "forgotten bride of Adam," exiled from the Garden for refusing to be subservient. She becomes the "feminine Shadow".
This perfectly describes Mrs. Coulter's position: she is the exiled lover of Lord Asriel (the "Adam" figure) and the mother of Lyra (the "Eve" figure). A psychological profile of the Lilith archetype reads like a character summary for Mrs. Coulter: she is "manic, chaotic," "feels excluded," "obsessed with information... but never attains wisdom," and "wants to obtain the creative energy and power of the masculine for herself".
Her cruel golden monkey dæmon is her externalized, grasping, and un-integrated Shadow, a soul made destructive because it has been repressed and denied by the masculine-coded power structure of the Magisterium.
Conclusion: Reading the Symbols of Your Own Life
Philip Pullman's epic resonates so deeply because it is built from the actual symbolic language of our collective unconscious. It is a story told using the timeless vocabulary of Gnosticism, the archetypes of Jung's psychology, and the cosmic framework of classical and Hellenistic astrology.
The alethiometer, the dæmons, and the planetary archetypes are not just literary devices. They are maps of the human psyche. Like Lyra, we are all on a journey to learn how to read the "symbol-reader" of our own lives. We must all learn to communicate with our "dæmon" (our anima or animus), to confront and integrate our "shadow" (our inner Lilith), and to choose gnosis (consciousness) over unexamined dogma.
At the Wilfred Hazelwood Clinic, we do not see astrology and psychology as separate fields. We see them as Philip Pullman does: as "ancient wisdom" and "modern understanding." Our work, guided by the synthesized principles of Jungian studies, Psychological Astrology, and Hellenistic wisdom, is to help provide the "reference books" and the expert guidance to help you read the symbols of your own life with clarity, insight, and courage.
