From a modern point of view, astrology and alchemy are early
forms of our scientific thinking that are limited by
superstition. To the historian they appear as partial spheres of
a uniform or holistic take on the world. In recent times, it is
surprising to note an aestheticizing return to the era of "Kunst
- und Wunderkammern" [editor's note: a curious way in which art
- often displayed from floor to ceiling - was exhibited
alongside odd objects, scientific instruments, archeological
findings and anatomical models] of early modern times. The
exhibition, which was staged at great cost (around $15 million)
and labor under the mystical title "7 Hills" at Berlin's
Gropiusbau-Museum, entertains the thought of an encyclopedic sum
within which the knowledge of our times is contained. It is true
that while doing so, one risks losing one's level-headedness,
but via a more artistic approach one might also gain a better
understanding of the cosmos on a micro- as well as a macro-
level. In view of the euphoria of natural