Astrología
Astrology as a Symbolic Language: Remedios Varo and the Books That Think Her
The exhibition bringing together astrology and the work of Remedios Varo at the Museum of Modern Art invites us to read the astrological tradition as a symbolic language that has fertilised literature and art.
By Pedro J. Pérez ·
Introduction: Astrology Enters the Museum
The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura has announced that astrology and the work of Remedios Varo will meet at the Museo de Arte Moderno. The news, dated July 2026, confirms that interest in the symbolic languages of the sky is not a marginal curiosity, but a vein that leading cultural institutions consider worthy of being exhibited and thought about seriously.
For the reader, the announcement is an invitation to return to the books that have accompanied this conversation between art and the stars. Varo's painting, populated with clocks, alchemists and impossible architectures, is better understood when placed in dialogue with a library that ranges from classical treatises to contemporary essays on symbolic imagination.
Context: A Tradition That Is Read
Astrology possesses an extensive textual history: medieval manuals, Renaissance summae, almanacs, correspondences and commentaries that circulated for centuries alongside medicine, navigation and poetry. That tradition is not exhausted in prediction; it constitutes a repertoire of images with which generations of artists and writers have thought about time, character and destiny.
Remedios Varo belongs to that lineage of creators who read the world as a fabric of correspondences. Her work, now exhibited alongside astrological materials, reminds us that the astrological library has also been an aesthetic library: a way of naming the invisible and giving form to what does not yet have a word.
Explanation: What Astrology Books Contribute
Astrology books offer, above all, a symbolic vocabulary. Planets, houses and aspects function as characters and settings of an inner narrative; reading them attentively trains the capacity to interpret nuances, tensions and cycles. That narrative competence explains why so many writers have turned to them in search of structures for their plots and portraits.
Moreover, astrological literature preserves a knowledge about time that contemporary culture tends to forget: the idea that processes mature in stages, that there are propitious moments and moments of waiting. Read freely, that tradition does not impose destinies, but it does propose fertile images for thinking about one's own biography.
Relevance: Varo, the Symbol and Reading
The exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno underlines the cultural relevance of this crossing. Varo did not illustrate astrological manuals: she built a universe of her own where the observation of the sky becomes a metaphor for inner search. Seeing her work alongside astrology allows us to appreciate to what extent the symbol is a tool of knowledge and not an ornament.
For the reader, the lesson is twofold. On the one hand, it confirms that astrology has been a legitimate source of artistic imagination. On the other, it suggests that approaching it through well-chosen books—historical, essayistic or poetic—enriches the experience of the work of art and expands the repertoire of questions with which we look at the world.
Useful Information: How to Read Astrology Today
Those who wish to begin can start with works that explain the symbolic foundations rather than with prediction manuals. It is advisable to distinguish between historical texts, which document how astrology was practised in different eras, and contemporary essays that approach it as a cultural phenomenon. That distinction avoids confusion and allows one to read with judgement.
It is also useful to accompany reading with visits to exhibitions such as the one at the Museo de Arte Moderno, where the symbol becomes visible. Astrology, like literature, is better understood when frequented with patience: comparing sources, noting images and accepting that its value does not lie in absolute certainties, but in the richness of its language.
Conclusion: Read the Sky, Read Art
The encounter between astrology and the work of Remedios Varo at the Museo de Arte Moderno is a privileged occasion to remember that books about the stars belong to the history of culture. They are not a curious appendix, but a tradition that has nourished painting, poetry and reflection on meaning.
To read those books attentively and without prejudice is a way of expanding our sensibility. Astrology, like Varo's art, invites us to look at the everyday as a fabric of signs. That invitation, formulated from a museum and sustained by a library, remains one of the most generous that culture can offer us.
Sources and references
- LA ASTROLOGÍA Y LA OBRA DE REMEDIOS VARO SE ENCONTRARÁN EN EL MUSEO DE ARTE MODERNO - Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura — Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura