Inscapes: Introducing a New Term to Cultural Astronomy

Abstract

Within the field of cultural astronomy, the terms ‘skyscape’, ‘spacescape’ and ‘landscape’ are in common usage. Whilst all may contain psychological or phenomenological aspects, all are also strongly related to the physical environment. This paper proposes the addition of a new ‘scape’ to the current pantheon, one which prioritises the inner environment and thereby adds to the list of ‘scapes’ under consideration. This is the ‘inscape’, or ‘inner landscape’. The paper gives examples of how this term may usefully be employed to describe certain phenomena of interest within the field, particularly those relating to psychological astrology. It begins by examining the limitation of the existing scapes, before going on to consider the use of the term by archetypal psychologist James Hillman, whose references to inscape inspired this paper. It goes on to consider Carl Jung’s exploration of what I call his inscape as a precursor to the development of his key ideas. It then considers inscape as a way of referring to parts of Corbin’s mundus imaginalis. It then proceeds to examine the idea of planetary inscapes within psychological astrology before considering the meeting place or horizon between inscape and landscape through other practices within cultural astronomy.