A Spectacular Journey into the Past

Astrology of the Famed is a gripping tour de force through the fasci-

nating lives of Cleopatra, St. Francis of Assisi, Dracula, Leonardo da
Vinci, and Beethoven—five of the most startling people in history.
Each of these extraordinary people takes on exciting new dimensions
as their lives unfold in this masterful blend of astrology and histori-
cal fact. Delivered in a charming and engaging style, Astrology of the
Famed is a fast-paced narrative, sweeping you up in the passion and
adventure lived by these phenomenal people, each of whom has
shaped the world.
Noel Ty skillfully uses astrology to flesh-out the lives and times of
these legendary people, filling in the gaps in each of their histories.
With keen insight into the psychology and personality of these
remarkable individuals, ‘Tyl reconstructs their lives and uncovers the
astrological influences behind their motivations, mind-sets, and cir-
cumstances—establishing their birth charts at last.
Find yourself transported back in time to experience the unique
drama that shaped the lives of five people who changed the world.
The author guides you through the ages, bringing the facts of his-
tory to life to reveal the hidden influences that made each of these
people the stuff of legend.
Relive the greatest lives of all in this exciting book that blends the
detective work of a mystery with the wealth of detail found only in
a tell-all biography—there’s never before been an astrology book
like this!
 About the Author
For over twenty years, Noel Tyl has been one of the most prom-
nent astrologers in the western world. His seventeen textbooks, built
around the twelve-volume Principles and Practice ofAstrology, were extraor-
dinaily popular throughout the 1970s. He also founded and edited Astro/-
ogy Now magazine.
He is one of astrology’s most sought-after lecturers in the United
States, and internationally in Denmark, Norway, Germany, South Africa,
and Switzerland, where for the first three World Congresses of Astrology
he was a keynote speaker.
Noel wrote Prediction in Astrology (Llewellyn Publications), a master
volume of technique and practice, and edited Books 9 through 16 of the
Llewellyn New World Astrology Series, How to Use Vocational Astrology,
How to Personalize the Outer Planets, How to Manage the Astrology of Crisis,
Exploring Consciousness in the Horoscope, Astrology’s Special Measurements, Sex-
uality in the Horoscope, Communicating the Horoscope, and Astrology Looks at
History. In the spring of 1994, his master opus, Synthesis and Counseling in
Astrology—The Professional Manual (almost 1,000 pages of analytical tech-
nique in practice), was published. Noel is a graduate of Harvard University
in psychology and lives in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

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 Llewellyn's Modern Astrology Library

ASTROLOGY
OFTHE FAMED

+ Noel Tyl +

1996
Llewellyn Publications
St. Paul, Minnesota, 55164-0383, U.S.A.
Astrology of the Famed. Copyright © 1996 by Noel Tyl. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used
or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from
Llewellyn Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews.

FIRST EDITION, 1996

First Printing

Cover Design by Maria Mazzara

Editing and Interior Design by Connie Hill

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Astrology of the famed /Noel Tyl. — Ist ed.
p- cm. — (Llewellyn's modern astrology library series)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-56718-735-8 (alk. paper)
1. Gifted persons—Miscellanea. 2. Horoscopes. 3. Astrology.
I. Tyl, Noel, 1936- . IL. Series.
BF1728.2.G54A88 1996
133.5—dc20 96-0000
CIP

Llewellyn Publications
A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.
St. Paul, Minnesota 55164-0383, U.S.A.
 Llewellyn’s Modern Astrology Library

This series contains books for the Leading Edge of practical and
applied astrology, as we move toward the culmination of the
twentieth century.
This is not speculative astrology, nor astrology so esoteric as to
have little practical application in meeting the needs of people in
these critical times. Yet, these books go far beyond the meaning of
“practicality” as seen prior to the 1990s. Our needs are spiritual as
well as mundane, planetary as well as particular, evolutionary as well
as progressive. Astrology grows with the times, and our times make
heavy demands upon Intelligence and Wisdom.
The authors are all professional astrologers drawing from their
own practice and knowledge of historical persons and events,
demonstrating proof of their conclusions with the horoscopes of real
people in real situations.
Modern astrology relates the individual person to the Universe
in which he/she lives, not as a passive victim of alien forces but as
an active participant in an environment expanded to the breadth
and depth of the Cosmos. We are not alone, and our responsibilities
are infinite.
The horoscope is both a measure and a guide to personal move-
ment—seeing every act undertaken, every decision made, every
event, as time dynamic: with effects that move through the many
dimensions of space and levels of consciousness in fulfillment of Will
and Purpose. Every act becomes an act of Will, for we extend our
awareness to consequences reaching to the ends of time and space.
This is astrology supremely important to this unique period in
human history, as Pluto transits Sagittarius, and Neptune and
Uranus move out of Capricorn into Aquarius. The books in this
series are intended to provide insight into the critical needs and the
critical decisions that must be made.
These books, too, are “active agents,” bringing to the reader
knowledge that will liberate the higher forces inside each person, to
the end that we may fulfill that for which we were intended.

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke

Other Books by the Author
The Horoscope as Identity
The Principles and Practice ofAstrology
I. Horoscope Construction
Il. The Houses: Their Signs and Planets
Ill. The Planets: Their Signs and Aspects
IV. Aspects and Houses in Analysis
V. Astrology and Personality
VI. The Expanded Present
VII. Integrated Transits
VII. Analysis and Prediction
IX. Special Horoscope Dimensions: Success, Sex and Illness
X. Astrological Counsel
XI. Astrology: Mundane, Astral and Occult
XII. Times to Come
Teaching Guide to the Principles and Practice ofAstrology
The Missing Moon
Holistic Astrology—the Analysis ofInner and Outer Environments
Prediction in Astrology
Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology: The Professional Manual
Edited by the Author
How to Use Vocational Astrology for Success in the Workplace
How to Personalize the Outer Planets:
The Astrology of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
How to Manage the Astrology of Crisis:
Resolution through Astrology
Exploring Consciousness in the Horoscope
Astrology’s Special Measurements
Sexuality in the Horoscope
Communicating the Horoscope
Astrology Looks at History
Forthcoming by the Author
Predictions for a New Millennium
 Contents

Introduction: Rectification — Finding the Correct Fit

by Basil Fearrington

Cleopatra — The Queen of Kings

Bibliography
Index

Francis of Assisi — Most Humbled of Men

Bibliography
Index 165

Dracula — The Life of Legend 167

Bibliography
Index 227

Leonardo da Vinci — The Mind as Master 229

Bibliography
Index yh hs

Beethoven—
Da Da Da p, oT,
Bibliography 365
Index 366
 Rectification
Finding the Correct Fit

| n this engrossing book, Noel Tyl Introduction

merges the technique of rectification ,
with the adventure, genius, drama, by Basil T.
pomp, and circumstance of five of the Fearrington
most unique and interesting lives in all of +
history. There never has been a book like
this in all our astrological literature!
Cleopatra, Dracula, St. Francis of Assisi, Beethoven, and Leonar-
do da Vinci were all distinct and different individuals who
impressed themselves upon our history emphatically. Tyl’s work
details, through astrology, the personal development of each
unique life. You’ll find definite stylistic differences in the treatment
given to each chapter, adding to the fresh excitement and adven-
ture of learning you will get from reading about each personage.
Rectification in astrology is a rigorous technique and an art
form of detail. It demands and requires facility with many astrolog-
ical measurement techniques, an ability to translate characterologi-
cal dimensions into the astrological language, and a sharp sense of
intuition. The process is the opposite of astrology as it is normally
practiced: instead of using full data as a starting point for analysis,
we work backward and allow life events to determine the time of
birth. We make the assumption that we can define the occurrence
of events in a person’s life through astrological measurements and
so we work to find the right “fit” through an endless series of “what
if’ statements, experiments, and personality characterizations. In

ix
x @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

the hands of a master like Tyl, the process works like magic. He
finds the perfect fit and he shows us all how it’s done.
The degree of difficulty within the rectification process is
defined by the information that the astrologer has to work with. For
example, if your subject were born between 10 A.M. and 10:30 A.M.,
it will not be very difficult to pinpoint a time of birth within the
span of that thirty minutes. Much of the work will already have
been done. However, if the time of birth is unknown, the challenge
is quite formidable, sometimes to the point of mental exhaustion.
The degree of difficulty that the author faced in the rectifica-
tion of these famous people’s lives was as tough as can be. There is
obviously the complication of not having a birth time, but in many
cases here, the year of birth was also in question; and in order to
even begin working with this problem (using individuals in history),
an enormous amount of history must be learned and absorbed. For
example, in “Cleopatra—The Queen of Kings,” you will read that
historians are basically in agreement with the year of Cleopatra’s
birth, but that the month of birth is only approximated. In order to
find the right fit, Tyl had to transport himself back to the time peri-
od in which Cleopatra lived and walk in her footsteps with the per-
spective of the eyes of a master astrologer. He had to see what she
saw, think what she thought, anticipate behavior through her histo-
ry first, and then translate this into a horoscope that symbolizes her
life’s events and her character. To make it all fit right is a harrowing
task of grand proportions. Noel does it to perfection in his inim-
itable “Moon in Leo in the 3rd House” dramatic fashion.
If you have any sensitivities at all, you will weep at his religious
intensity when you read the life story of the very humble St. Fran-
cis of Assisi. I have never had an emotional impact from an astro-
logical text in the way Idid when reading the portion of St. Francis’
story called, “The Seraph, The Stigmata, and Death.” You will mar-
vel at the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, for which chapter I provid-
ed the rectification of Cesare Borgia’s horoscope. Noel uncovers an
amazing measurement in relationship to the date that the Mona
Lisa was stolen. You will learn the origin of the legend of Dracula
and you will come face to face with the madness of Beethoven. Each
chapter in the book paints a vivid historical picture with rich
imagery, depth, and intrigue, all explained masterfully through Tyl’s
astrology. You will not only learn about astrology but will also gain
in your knowledge of history.
 INTRODUCTION @ xi

There will be a time in future centuries when an astrologer will

write a book, perhaps similar to this one, and he or she will focus
upon an eccentric genius of the twentieth century in the same way
that Leonardo and Beethoven come to light in these pages during
our times now. Michael Jackson would definitely qualify as such a
famed person with artistic/entertainment genius and eccentricities.
It is easy and reasonable to visualize him being the subject of an
astrologer’s book on famed people centuries from nov; his contri-
bution to popular music is just that important. His is one of the most
recognizable faces and names on the entire planet and he single-
handedly opened the MTV age for all African/American recording
artists. He is definitely a person among the famed.
In order to familiarize you with Noel’s rectification style, I have
selected Michael Jackson as a model to rectify in quick, concise,
short steps, with logic that is easy to follow. It serves as a quick pre-
view of what’s ahead for you in this book.
Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary,
Indiana. The time of birth is unknown.! Of his birth, Michael
states,” “I was born in Gary, Indiana, on a late summer night in
1958 ....” It is my opinion that “on a late summer night” means
after 10:30 P.M. Since we know for sure that he was born on August
29 and that the birth took place late in the night, we can be com-
fortable with this ninety-minute span of time from 10:30 to mid-
night. The trick now is to define an Ascendant so that we can test
angularity. Measurements to the angles are the most important
consideration in the rectification process.
Figure 1 (page xii) shows a horoscope set for 10:30 P.M. There
is a Taurus Ascendant with Mars rising upon the Ascendant. Venus
is the chart ruler and is in conjunction with Uranus. The 5th House
is very strong with the Sun-Pluto conjunction, symbolic of his
entertainment prowess, talent, and creativity. It would be very easy,
without the test of measurements, to accept this horoscope as a
starting point, working forward to refine the Ascendant degree in
Taurus. The Taurean symbolization linking the throat to singing is
an easy deduction to begin and end with. But does Mars rising in
Taurus fit the image that Michael Jackson projects?

1 The state of Indiana will not release birth certificate information. That is why we have yet
to see a published horoscope of Michael Jackson or David Letterman, for example.
2 Michael Jackson and Jackie Onassis, Moonwalk (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 6.
xii @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Taurean energy strives to keep things as they are. A person with

Mars rising in Taurus needs to project himself ideally in terms of
structure and organization; energy works for the securing of the
status quo and perhaps lacks innovation in the process. That is not
who Michael Jackson is. If anything, as an artist, he has striven to
buck the organization of others by not having control factors
placed on his need to innovate and stay ahead of current trends.
Michael led the parade against Motown Records when he and his

Figure 1
Michael Jackson
Aug. 29, 1958, 10:30 p.m. CDT
Gary, Indiana
87W20 41N36
Placidus Houses
 INTRODUCTION @ xiii

brothers decided that they wanted to leave the company (during

the mid-70s). This is definitely a quality of a 12th House Mars,
bucking the organization, but not necessarily a Taurus Ascendent.
Think about it. You never really know what Michael is going
to look like, do you? He seems constantly to retool and change his
image like a chameleon. The same can be said of his music. Inter-
views abound where people talk about Michael’s insatiable curios-
ity and untiring desire to learn new things. For those of us like

Figure 2
Michael Jackson
Aug. 29, 1958, 11:53 P.M. CDT
Gary, Indiana
87W20 41N36
-Placidus Houses
xiv @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

me,? who have been close enough to observe him, the wit and
quickness of mind are easily seen. Those who know him well speak
of him as a prankster. All of these things, as well as his diversity as
an artist, suggest a Gemini Ascendant, not a Taurus Ascendant.
Figure 2 (page xiii) shows another orientation horoscope set for
11:53 pM. CDT in Gary, Indiana. It has 16 degrees Gemini upon
the Ascendant. The Sun/Moon blend suggests that the mind is used
to fuel idealism. There is great sensitivity here; a dedication to
ideals. Jackson’s personality form has been so sensitive and gentle as
to suggest homosexuality within the stereotype that links those sev-
eral attributes. The angular Sun-Pluto conjunction suggests power
and prominence.’ The very sensitive Moon permeates his personal-
ity form and, in square to Saturn from the 7th House symbolizes
the powerful public ambition, sensitively displayed for all to see.
This professional push is corroborated through the Mars square to
the changed Midheaven.
Mercury, ruler of the horoscope, is retrograde and in the 4th
House, squared by Mars. He is definitely preoccupied in thoughts
about his early home life, about the family, and about one parent in
particular, and we know that this parental focus is his father. This is
all corroborated by the lower hemisphere emphasis, suggesting
“unfinished business in the early home” (Tyl), and is also symbol-
ized by the tight Sun/Pluto conjunction in the 4th House. Michael
clearly has the need to think dramatically and with a king complex
(he is called The King of Pop), but the early home situation is run-
ning counterpoint in his mind at the same time. There is little ques-
tion that his early homelife and childhood are on his mind, and with
Mercury (squared by Mars) also ruling the 5th House, we can antic-
ipate sexual difficulties in giving of the Self, probably as a result of
self-worth considerations that are directly tied to relationships
(Moon, ruler of the 2nd square Saturn in the 7th).
Jackson’s latest release, “History—Past, Present and Future—
Book I,”* contains a self-portrait by Jackson. The drawing depicts a

3 Ihave been a professional musician for twenty-three years and once toured with an act
that opened for The Jacksons. I had many opportunities to observe Michael in action, but
could not get close enough to him to ask him about his time of birth.
4 Please see Noel Tyl’s study of the Profile of Prominence in Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling In
Astrology, Llewellyn Publications, 1994.
5 Released on June 20, 1995.
 INTRODUCTION # xv

young child sitting in a corner, clutching his microphone under-

neath him and looking very sad. The caption with it says:

Before you judge me

‘Try hard to love me
Look within your heart
Then ask have you seen my childhood

There is simply no doubt that his childhood and early homelife

tensions are on his mind constantly, working in counterpoint to the
need to think and communicate dramatically.
Saturn in Sagittarius in the 7th House suggests a delay in rela-
tionship fulfillment, probably because of late emotional maturation.
It is also symbolic of his innate caution with others, as well as an
ethical idealism in relationships. These capsule descriptions let us
know that the overall orientation seems to fit. It is workable. It
makes sense. We are headed in the right direction!
These initial deductions must now be confirmed by angular
transits, Solar Arcs, and Secondary Progressions, with tight refine-
ments made through tertiary progressions. We never trust person-
ality and character dynamics alone because they are based upon
subjective dimensions, like one’s opinion of a photograph. That is
why you must confirm the rectification with measurements, not per-
sonality factors.
The first major event in the life of Michael Jackson was in
October of 1969. It was the release of the debut record of the Jack-
son 5 entitled, “I Want You Back.” We do not know the actual date
of release in October. I am using October 15. Solar Arc Midheaven
is in exact opposition to Pluto (Figure 3, page xvi), suggesting
recognition and publicity. This song sold two million copies within
six weeks of its release, paving the way for a succession of million
sellers. The Jackson 5 had #1 smash records in 1970, 1971, and
1972, and it is easy to anticipate the Solar Arc Midheaven moving
toward glory in the opposition with the Sun within all of this early
success. The group’s sales outdistanced The Beatles! This is a good
start for us in the rectification.
Michael’s first solo album, titled “Got To Be There,” was
released in January of 1972, followed by his motion picture ode to a
rodent in the film, “Ben.” Transiting Saturn was upon his Ascen-
dant throughout the year, establishing a peak for him.
xvi @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

In November 1978, Jackson made his acting debut as a scare-

crow in “The Wiz.” In Figure 4 (page xvii) we see the Secondary
Progressed Moon, a superb timing device in astrology, exactly upon
the Descendant, with transiting Neptune upon the Descendant as
well! He showed a new face to the public and began his extremely
successful creative partnership with Quincy Jones.
In August 1979, the Jones/Jackson collaboration produced the
first of Michael’s two best albums. It was called “Off The Wall,”and
was released on the exact day that Jupiter transited in exact opposition
with to bis Midheaven. It went on to sell eight million copies!

Figure 3
Solar Arc—Debut Record
Oct. 15, 1969
 INTRODUCTION # xvii

The album “Thriller” was released on December 1, 1982. It

was followed by two years of the most amazing success that any
performer in the music business has ever had. This album has sold
close to fifty million copies to date and was initiated, not so much
by its actual release, but by a Michael Jackson appearance on a tele-
vision show called “Motown 25,” celebrating the twenty-fifth
anniversary of Motown Records. The show aired on May 16, 1983
with a viewing audience of forty-seven million people around the
world. Michael unveiled a new dance called “The Moonwalk” and
from that point on, his career and “Thriller” skyrocketed. On May

Figure 4
Secondary—“The Wiz”
. Nov. 15, 1978
xviii # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

21, 1982, Jackson had Solar Arc Sun=Jupiter/Pluto (and SP MC

conjunct Moon), which is very significant in his horoscope because
of the natal picture Aries Point=Jupiter/Pluto! This is mega-success
for someone with Jackson’s potential. The SP Moon crossed his
Midheaven in October 1983. Jackson was at a peak!
Tertiary progressions enable the astrologer to make predictions
that are often exact to the date, often-times amazingly so. In Figure
5 (below) we see the day of his marriage. Please note the exact con-
junctions of TP Jupiter with the Descendant, TP Moon to Pluto,
and TP Pluto to the Sun! TP Uranus is less than one degree of arc
from exact conjunction with the nadir, and will correspond to the

Figure 5
Tertiary—Marriage
May 26, 1994
 INTRODUCTION # xix

next years of Michael’s life, promising many new starts, breaks,

upsets, and innovative developments. And please note: transiting
Uranus in late Capricorn is approaching the square to Michael’s
Jupiter, ruler of his Descendant (December 1995, January 1996).
Jackson experienced the most trying time of his life in 1993 as
the Los Angeles police department opened a criminal investigation
of him based on charges that he sexually abused a thirteen-year-old
boy. A civil suit was filed on September 14, 1993. The publicity and

Figure 6
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Michael Jackson Lunar Eclipse
Aug. 29, 1958, 11:53P.M.CDT June 4, 1993, 6:00 a.m. PDT
Gary, Indiana Los Angeles, California
87W20 41N36 118W15 34N04
_ Placidus Houses
xx # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

stress of the charge reached their apex in November of 1993 with

transiting Neptune square Michael’s MC/Asc midpoint. Jackson can-
celed a tour to seek treatment for pain killers. There was a Lunar
Eclipse on June 4 of that year at 14 Sagittarius (see Figure 6, page
xix), conjunct Jackson’s horizon (with his SP Moon crossing the
Ascendant)! Eclipse Mars opposed his Midheaven; the eclipse
Ascendant in Los Angeles was less than one degree from partile
with his natal Ascendant!
Over and over again through the many years of Michael Jack-
son’s life, we can see repeated confirmation of these rectified angles.
There is just no doubt about it!
These are the kinds of things that you expect to see when the
time of birth is accurate. As you read this book, you will grow to
appreciate the details of the rectification technique displayed at its
finest, and I want to share a personal note of gratitude to the
author. I met Noel in 1976 when I went to him as a client. I was just
beyond the novice level as an astrologer and had been completely
turned around by his twelve-volume series, The Principles & Practice
ofAstrology. At the time, I had just come back from a music tour of
Japan and China and needed to talk to him about my career and its
direction. Our relationship since then has become one of the most
cherished in my life.
Now, as a professional astrologer myself, that I have come far
enough from that September in 1976 to be the first person ever
invited to write an introduction to a Noel Tyl book is a testimony to
him and all that he has shared with me.
One of the strongest synastric bonds in astrology is when a
planet or angle of one chart is in conjunction or square the nodal
axis of the other chart. Noel’s Sun is in conjunction with my nodal
axis! My Mars is in conjunction with his nodal axis, and every
planet and angle in my horoscope makes a close synastric tie with
his, perhaps highlighted by his Moon (conjunct my Pluto) exactly
at my Sun/Moon midpoint! I can think of no higher honor for me
at this time in my career than to have been asked to write this
introduction. Noel, how I thank you! You are an Astrologer Among
the Famed.

Basil T. Fearrington
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August, 1995
 Cleopatra
The Queen of Kings

leopatra is the most famous An astrological

woman the world has ever . .
known. She was a Ptolemy, a rectification of
Macedonian, tracing her monarchy the birth date
directly to Alexander the Great who .
established his rule of Egypt after con- BU AHEE ION,
quering the Persians there in 332 B.c. Cleopatra VII,
The city he founded—one of seventy
Alexandrias he founded throughout his Queen of ERY EE
realms of conquest—was to become *
within a century the greatest city in the
known world, with gleaming white buildings reflecting the light
of a burning god, with magnificent study centers preserving the
arts and sciences, with the three-tiered 400-foot tall, wonder-of-
the-world, Pharos lighthouse, presiding over a harbor that could
host 1,200 ships at one time. Alexandria headed a sweeping desert
plain that sustained over twelve million people inspired by the
longest and, to them, holiest river on earth.!
Alexander died in 323, on June 10,’ and gave over rule of
Egypt to one of his staff-officers, Ptolemy, who declared himself
king in 304 B.c. This first Ptolemy took the Egyptian title of Soter

1. Grant, The Ancient Mediterranean, 214-216.

2 Green, 475; Tyl rectification of Alexander’s birth: July 22, 356 B.C. at 7:27 P.M. LMT in
Pella Macedonia (21E45, 42N00); see Tyl: Prediction in Astrology.
2 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

I (Saviour), and the deified line began. Twelve more Ptolemies

followed until Cleopatra ended the line and ended all Egyptian
dynastic history at the close of her reign in 30 B.C.
It seems somehow appropriate that all the monumental history
of dynastic Egypt from its first pharaoh, Menes, early in the fourth
millennium B.c.—the Archaic Period beginning approximately
3168—was protectively enshrined in the secrecy of hieroglyphs.
The achievements were wondrous, ancient, and arcane. It is some-
how appropriate as well that these hieroglyphic records, when they
were finally unlocked between 1822-1829, revealed first the very
letters that spelled the names Cleopatra and Ptolemy.
Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion, masters of
ancient languages, studied the famed Rosetta Stone in parallel for
fourteen years.’ The Englishman isolated the cartouche, the oval
pictogram organization of rulers’ names in hieroglyphic practice;
and the Frenchman, who garnered most of the credit, discovered
the names that were to be Cleopatra and Ptolemy. He aligned a
“Cleopatra” cartouche on an obelisk in London with a “Ptolemy”
cartouche, the only name on the Rosetta stone, and decoded the
key letters P, O, and L shared between them. Extending this tech-
nique to the names of other Pharaohs, like Ramesses, the name
given to eleven monarchs, Champillion began to establish the pho-
netic symbols and meanings of the glyphs, the written form of a
real, working language.
We see Egypt, all of Egypt, through Cleopatra. She is Egypt.
She is our key to that enormous era. Besides the pyramids and
Sphinx (which were 2,000 years or more old in Cleopatra’s time),
most of us know no more about this extraordinary epoch. Cleopa-
tra is herself a monument.
The queen’s tentacled outreach to foreign lands through the
most powerful Roman leaders of history (Julius Caesar and Mark

3 After Napoleon’s forces began their expedition to Egypt in the Summer of 1798, the
study of Egyptian monuments and their hieroglyphics (Greek: sacred glyphs) was intense
among numerous scholars in Europe. In the summer of 1799, an engineer-officer work-
ing near the Rosetta fortification some forty miles from Alexandria, found a “tabletop”-
sized (the fragment measures 3'9" x 2'4" x 11") basalt stone with three obviously
“copied” sections of text engraved on it in different languages: the top portion was in
enigmatic hieroglyphics, the middle was demotic Egyptian (the cursive text of the priests
and court), and the bottom was readable Greek.
The inscription communicated a decree of the priesthood assembled at Memphis in
honor of Ptolemy V, Epiphanes (Manifestation), reigning 205-181 B.c. The black stone
is now in the British Museum.
 CLEOPATRA # 3

Antony, and through Antony, dealings with Octavian who would

become Caesar Augustus, as we shall see) rebuilt Egypt to its great-
est glory. Her rule eventually included almost the entire known
world, and her treasury became the richest on earth. In every way,
she was the “Queen of Kings.”
Eventually, Rome stood up to her directly; actually declared
war against her—and we will study the deciding battle at Actium in
detail. In Roman perspective, to be foreign was to be unrefined and
inferior. To be female as well, and powerful, and fabulously rich,
and, specifically, Greek, comprised the ultimate profile of the ulti-
mate enemy. That Cleopatra was favored by Julius Caesar and,
indeed, bore his son (Caesarion, “little Caesar,” who would become
Ptolemy Caesar) made her politically tolerable at first, before her
international power began to accumulate, but then her involvement
with Antony in his division of the world with Octavian, Caesar’s
successor, was simply too much to face. In one sense, she compro-
mised Antony and the plans of Rome; in another, Antony himself
turned his back on Rome for this despised foreigner. Rome had to
regain its honor and its lands. Octavian would win over Antony, and
through him Rome would conquer Cleopatra.
All of this was then shaped into historical detail through
extraordinary, vilifying propaganda created by Rome—its politi-
cians, warriors, poets, and historians—against their inscrutable,
intolerably female, foreign enemy. The image created was one of
ambition, debauch, and power the likes of which history has not
known again. Of course, the greater the demonic dimension, the
threatening force, the greater then would be/was the victory over
it by Rome.
The retelling of all this into countless histories, plays, operas,
ballets, the classic dramas by Shakespeare and Shaw, classical paint-
ings, and several Hollywood film extravaganzas has established
Cleopatra as the archetype of the sexual temptress, the omnipotent
female force that put Eve to shame, the wanton seductress who did
in the world’s greatest men, the murderess of brother and sister and
countless others, the epitome of alluring danger, and an incompa-
rable magnetic presence.
And then there is the nose. Ptolemy I Soter, the father of the
dynasty, had the nose; undeniable, carved prominently into the face
of coins; a monarch unflattered by engraver’s grace; a genetic trait
that could not be chiseled away. Ptolemy XII Auletes (the Flute
4 ¢ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Player or Piper) had it too, and he fathered Cleopatra, early in 69

B.C. She too had the nose.*
Coinages in honor of Cleopatra (and others in the line
throughout Ptolemaic history) all show the pronounced nose. Pas-
cal, the seventeenth-century French mathematician and philoso-
pher, is quoted as observing wryly, “Cleopatra’s nose, if it had been
shorter, the face of the whole world would have been changed!”°
Yes, the nose was there, and we start almost begrudgingly to sepa-
rate in our imaginations the reality of Cleopatra’s appearance from
the lush rumor about it.
Frequent intermarrying among all Pharaonic dynasties tended
to stagnate the genetic pool. Certain traits became pronounced:
bony facial structures, sometimes obesity, complexion, hair quality,
vulnerability to certain diseases, dementia, and perhaps even the
propensity to unique ways of thinking, even to the murder of fami-
ly in the name of personal ascendancy. Born and living as a god
rationalized extremes of concept and behavior. Each progenitor
established a dramatic example for successive generations.
For Cleopatra, the nose was such an inheritance, and perhaps so
was her murdering way throughout her reign:° her sister Arsinoe IV
(exiled first and then executed at Cleopatra’s insistence, by order of
Antony); the poisoning of her brother and child-husband, Ptolemy

4 Auletes was formally Ptolemy XII Theos Philopater Philadelphus Neos Dionysos
(respectively, the God, Lover of his Father, Lover of his Sister (or brother), the New
Dionysus). These names tell a story for every Pharaoh: Ptolemy XII was a god, he got
along well with his father (there was no murderous intrigue between son and father in
succession), he married his sister, and he was the incarnation of another god, Dionysus.
Dionysus was the Roman Bacchus, but also the god of a great wave of religious emotion,
of mystical, escapist themes, that practically eclipsed the old Olympian cult. This Ptole-
my wanted Dionysus to be “the unifying force of his whole empire, the heavenly repre-
sentative and guarantor of the Ptolemaic house” (see Grant, Cleopatra, 24-25).
It is not determined who Cleopatra’s mother was, but Grant deduces very carefully
that it was Cleopatra V, Auletes’ sister-wife: she birthed Cleopatra and died or vanished
shortly thereafter. Auletes remarried a woman unknown who birthed two sons, brothers
of Cleopatra, both of whom were to co-rule with Cleopatra, one of whom she married
and murdered, as we shall see.
5 Quoted in Seldes anthology, page 323; from Pascal’s Pensees (London 1950). Pascal was
talking about the intangible power of love, its absurdity and danger, its influence upon
world change. He could not have known of the coins depicting Cleopatra’s profile; he
stumbled onto a truth and unknowingly and ironically twisted it to suggest that love was
an enormous part of Cleopatra’s success, but if her nose [of all things!] had been shorter
she would have been even more successful! The ridiculousness of truth.
6 Cleopatra’s grandfather, Ptolemy XI was forced by Rome (Sulla) to marry his own elder-
ly stepmother (who was also his cousin!); nineteen days later he killed her, the people
rose up and murdered him. His son Auletes (Ptolemy XII) gained the throne (named
Philopater: he loved his father; he didn’t do the killing).
 CLEOPATRA # 5

XIV (this act proved by astrology, as we shall see); the former gov-
ernor of Cyprus (Serapion) executed; a Phoenician pretender to a
brother-relationship with Cleopatra; and the plan to murder others,
including Herod of Judea, which was aborted by entreaty or wiser
political strategy. The murders were always part of strategic gam-
bits, most of them done after Cleopatra and Mark Antony became
lovers; Antony wanted Egypt’s money and navy, and Cleopatra
extracted land dominion and enemy removal in return. This is how
she negotiated. And all of this was bewitchingly beautiful? The
power-demands, the strongly hooked nose, the bony face, the
swarthy complexion?’
The Roman historian Plutarch describes Cleopatra (writing
around A.D. 100, i.e., about 160-170 years after Cleopatra’s time)
this way: “For her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so
remarkable that none could be compared with her, or that no one
could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her
presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of
her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the
character that attended all she said or did, was something
bewitching. It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her
voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could
pass from one language to another.”®
The study presented in the Oxford Classical Dictionary agrees:
Cleopatra was attractive rather than beautiful, of lively tempera-
ment and great charm of speech. She was well-educated and could
speak Egyptian and numerous other languages.
Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities also
echoes these descriptions: even at twenty, “Cleopatra was distin-
guished by extraordinary personal charms and surrounded with all the
graces which give to those charms their greatest power. Her voice was
extremely sweet, and she spoke a variety of languages with propriety
and ease. She could, it is said, assume all characters at will, while all
alike became her, and the impression that was made by her beauty was
confirmed by the fascinating brilliance of her conversation.”

7 Grant quotes a Robert Greene source, Ciceronis Amor, 1589, VII, 142, ed. Grosart:
“Cleopatra was a black Egyptian.” We know that “Egyptian” is wrong, because Cleopa-
tra was Macedonian, Greek. Perhaps “black” is overstated. Perhaps “swarthy” is best.
Shakespeare makes reference to this theme in Romeo and Juliet (II, 4), describing Cleopa-
tra as a “gipsy.”
8 Plutarch, Antony, 497.
6 ¢ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Cleopatra had style. Poet and love-historian Diane Ackerman

describes Cleopatra as “a one-woman pageant.” Indeed, the dra-
matic packaging of this monarch was formidable, and it all had a
purpose. In all the descriptions of her public presentations, we see
grandeur, opulence, splendor, and over-kill, excess beyond belief.
We read depictions of her receiving Antony in a room the floor of
which was strewn knee-deep with roses; of dinner served with gold
and bejeweled goblets, all given to the dinner guests as gifts. Pearls
were inextricably linked with Cleopatra; they were the symbol of
ultra-opulence to the Romans. She was always with an Amethyst;
white was her favorite color.’
At the same time, biographer Hughes-Hallett is careful to
establish that Cleopatra was a tactful and efficient ruler. She over-
came the enormous financial debts incurred by her father, suffered
depressed times in her own reign (when the Nile was uncoopera-
tive), but successfully rebuilt Egypt to a grandeur that commanded
world attention.!° She was able financially and in deployment of
resources to support Antony’s wars of conquest throughout many
lands as far off as Parthia (Persia) and in his east-west empire show-
down with Octavian. She consciously designed her image as the
goddess Isis to arouse loyalty among her people, to whom religion
was everything. Isis was the Moon goddess, the mother goddess of
remarkable magical powers who was closely identified with the
royal throne. She was “the mistress of every land ... taught by Her-
mes, and with Hermes I devised letters, both the sacred (hiero-
glyphs) and the demotic.”!!
Plutarch also tells us that Cleopatra was extremely skilled with
languages. She spoke Egyptian, Ethiopian, Trogodyte, Hebrew,
Aramaic, Syriac, Median, and Parthian. This might be open to
doubt, but many sources concur (as we have seen). Language skill
was definitely a dimension of Cleopatra’s style that was well known.
It reinforced her international poise and effectiveness considerably,
especially since her Greek predecessors rarely even bothered to
learn Egyptian!

9 According to the Latin author, Pliny, “the two pearls, the largest of all time both
belonged to Cleopatra.” Hughes-Hallett, 66-68, 97.
10 One of her management maneuvers was to manipulate the silver and bronze content in
national coinage to create treasury savings. Grant attributes this to her great financial
acumen (Grant, Cleopatra, 40).
11 Meyer, 158, 173 (see the fifty-seven-line identity statement inscribed tele in Mem- |
phis, before the temple of Hephaistos). 2 oh aioe
 CLEOPATRA # 7

Additionally, all historical sources mention that Cleopatra wrote

treatises on cosmetics, gynecology, weights and measures, and
alchemy, and was very active with Alexandria’s Medical School. Al-
Masudi, a tenth-century historian, wrote that she was “well versed
in the sciences, disposed to the study of philosophy and counted
scholars among her intimate friends. She was the author of works on
medicine, charms, and other divisions of the natural sciences. These
books bear her name and are well known among men conversant
with art and medicine.”!?
The Latin poet Cicero—who disliked Cleopatra and her arro-
gance intensely (“I hate the queen!” Letters to Atticus XV, 15, 2)—
deigned to recognize her bookish interests. In the first century A.D.,
it was said that the sage Comarius had taught Cleopatra the mys-
teries of the philosopher's stone; and an unknown author then cre-
ated the fictitious Dialogue Between Cleopatra and the Philosophers,
and Flavius Philostratus described her as “deriving a positively sen-
suous pleasure from literature.”!?
Every inference about Cleopatra’s sense of style suggests her
genius as a propagandist. She was elegant and cultivated, extremely
poised and powerful. She was most serious and anything but capri-
cious, Bernard Shaw’s recreation of her not withstanding. In every
plan, we can not doubt that she was decidedly international in ori-
entation: in the outreach of her ambition, through her interests and
language skills, and in her monarchical instincts. She was deeply
caught up with ritual and religion and claimed to be the incarnation
of Isis, the Moon goddess, which she thoroughly and continuously
exploited—with Antony as Osiris, with their twin children (Alexan-
der and Cleopatra) as re-reincarnations of the gods as well. We see
Isis as the mother goddess of all, depicted in sculpture and on coins
as a suckling mother seated on a throne, promising new life and
royal continuity. This spiritual (theological) dimension was very
important: it fulfilled the needs of the Egyptian people for Divine
attention and identified Cleopatra with the energies that controlled
life and death and life again.'*

12 Ackerman, 5-6; Grant, 40: her alchemy text concluded “with a boast that she could even
manufacture gold.”
13 Hughes-Hallett, 73; Grant, Cleopatra, 181; Flavius Philostratus (b. ca. A.D. 170), Lives of
the Sophists, 1, 4. 486.
14 Grant opines that “if the worship of Jesus Christ had not eventually dominated the
Mediterranean, then Isis was the only divinity who might have done the same.” Cleopa-
tra, 118.
8 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Cleopatra was an epic. She defined an era with immense impact

and she established its end.

The Astrology
I can find no exception to the historical statement that Cleopatra
was born in 69 B.c. I have searched every book I can and consulted
with three renowned Egyptologists and one Hellenic scholar. The
birth year is 69 B.c. However, the eminent classical scholar Michael
Grant begins his engrossing biography of Cleopatra with one extra
sliver of information: “Cleopatra was born at the end of 70 or the
beginning of 69 B.c.” This gives us tighter focus indeed.
In correspondence with Professor Grant, I learned his frustra-
tion with not knowing exactly, but it is clear that his thorough study
of her life suggests early 69 B.C. rather than any other time as prime
for our consideration. He’s right, and astrology proves it exactly.
Let us review the concepts and details of Cleopatra’s historical
profile as we have seen them developed so far:

+ Cleopatra was born to an insecure throne. Her father’s father,

Ptolemy XI Lathyrus incurred an enormous debt with financiers
in Rome. After he was murdered by his people, his son Auletes,
Cleopatra’s father, incurred still more debt to Rome for its sup-
port for his tottering throne. In her reign, in her personality,
Cleopatra would need security above all, at any price. She would
need to collect, hoard, and be sure of possessions and power.
+ From a very early age, Cleopatra was privy to Auletes’ diffi-
cult negotiations in Rome. She could not have helped but
learn an international view of the world very early on: her vast
language study; the history of the kingdom that was her
birthright, taught to her at every turn; her kingdom that was
pressing for growth again to enormous proportions.!°

15 The people were in a revolt about paying back so much money to Rome. Auletes went
again to Rome to lobby for support and, in exchange, incurred still more debt. History
does not specifically record that the twelve-thirteen-year old Cleopatra accompanied
Auletes to Rome (Astrology will prove that she did!), but, because of his enemies, it
would have been unwise for him to leave her behind in Egypt with his other two daugh-
ters, i.e., the other immediate heirs to the throne. As it happened, in his absence, the peo-
ple gave the throne over to the eldest daughter (Cleopatra’s half-sister), Cleopatra VI -
‘Tryphaena, to co-rule with her father in absentia for a short time. In certain circles,
Cleopatra’s second sister Berenice IV, was regarded as queen. It was an unstable time.
Grant, Cleopatra, 15-16.
 CLEOPATRA #% 9

+ After a transitional co-rule period with her father and after

his death in March 51 B.c., the young Queen, Cleopatra VII,
had to fight ingeniously against a revolt engineered by Poth-
inus the high-priest on behalf of her co-ruler brother, Ptole-
my XIII. When Cleopatra was hiding in southern Palestine,
Caesar came to Alexandria to demand payments of Egypt’s
debt. She bravely and secretly returned, stole back into the
palace to meet mighty Caesar and persuade him to arbitrate
between her and her thirteen-year old brother. Caesar was
dazzled by Cleopatra, and craftily helped reinstall her as sole
ruler. (As we shall see, this brother drowned in the Nile in full
battle armor, fleeing Caesar’s forces.)!°
+ Cleopatra became known as a purposeful, persuasive communi-
cator, a propagandist. Her voice was beautiful. She wrote books
and adored philosophy. She had style and charisma. She was an
extremely efficient and resourceful administrator. She engineered
the murder of her sister and a very young brother (Ptolemy
XIV) and others. Cleopatra meant business!
+ Cleopatra never shied from a fight: she supported Antony in
excursions throughout Asia Minor to the borders of Parthia
(Persia) and, of course, in the historic final battle with Octa-
vian of Rome. She understood the deployment offorce and the
assertion ofpower.
+ Cleopatra indulged her personal presence lavishly, purposefully,
strategically. She created sexual-emotional ties with Julius
Caesar (he was fifty-two and she was twenty-one) and later
with Mark Antony (he was forty-one and she was twenty-
eight). The young Queen was dealing with the most powerful
men in the world. She went to the singularly most extrava-
gant lengths to impress them and shape them to her bidding
for personal glory and Egypt’s growth.
+ Cleopatra identified with sacred ritual and theological self-ani-
mation. She portrayed herself as Isis, the mother archetype,
suckling Horus. Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony (and
Octavian Caesar too, Antony’s rival), all had personalities split

16 Egyptian law did not permit a female monarch to rule alone, except in very special cir-
cumstances. Ptolemy XIII, co-ruler with her, was pushed into ascendancy over Cleopa-
tra gradually and carefully by Pothinus, his high-priest regent, but Caesar obviously saw
a better future with the courageous, captivating Cleopatra than with the young boy.
10 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

into self-proclaimed godliness. The psychodynamic gambits

within world politics and on the battlefield were simply for-
midable. Cleopatra’s armor was her indomitable self-confi-
dence, and her chief weapons were her alluring personality
and creative resourcefulness.
+ Pearls cover her image; the Amethyst is always present.
+ Cleopatra appears in history as the agent to change an epoch, to
define the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.

The sense of Capricorn (administrative power) and Cancer (the

need for security, for self-protection and stabilization of her rule
and family line) dominate. The feeling is reinforced by the sugges-
tions of her saturnine strategies, her self-imaging as Isis, the Moon
goddess, the mother-goddess, the emphasis on pearls, the color
white, and the struggle between administration and emotions or
their exploitation, one negotiating for the other.
The sense of internationalism is undeniable: Jupiter and Mer-
cury and the 9th House must be in high relief in her horoscope;
reinforced by language study and a beautiful voice, and extraordi-
nary communication power: the 3rd House. And, as well, the
tremendous emphasis on brothers and sisters: all of this indeed
emphasizing the 3rd—9th House axis dramatically. In Cleopatra’s
horoscope, this axis must be key.
The sense of ritual and religion, the capacity to make hard or
harsh or passionate judgments all bring Scorpio to the foreground,
as well as another echo of 9th House significances, even the 8th.
The sensual, the self-indulgent, the lush persona all suggest a
powerfully positioned Venus. Her boundless imagination for
pageantry and lethal subtlety suggests a reinforced Neptune
dimension.
ot es

Now, look at the ephemeris (opposite) for January 69 B.C. Of course,

we find the Sun in Capricorn for most of the month, separating
from a square with Mars early in January. In late Capricorn and into
Aquarius beginning December 23, the Sun is conjunct Saturn for
the rest of the month. Our expectations of Capricorn strength will
be corroborated. If she were born in mid-January 69 B.c., her Sun.
probably would be wnaspected, peregrine (no dignity in Capricorn):
 CLEOPATRA # 11

ee
Stee ae
+ 0:00 UT Geocentric Tropical Longitudes for JAN 069 BC

SaSéEE2
-

Copyright (C) 1987 Matrix Software, Eig Rapids MI 49307

Ephemeris for January 69 B.C.

its Capricorn essence would dominate the horoscope, ran away with behav-
iors, unless there were mitigating, controlling circumstances.!’
The pronounced need for security and the other Cancerian
dimensions should be shown clearly, but no planet—Mercury
through Pluto—is in Cancer during January. However, the Moon
itselfis in Cancer(!) during the period December 11 to just past mid-
night UT on December 13. It is the perfect symbolism to depict
Isis, the suckling mother goddess!'®
Note the positions of Uranus and Pluto. Here could be a clinch-
er for our search: Uranus and Pluto are almost in exact conjunction in
Taurus, which suggests extraordinary power, upset, enforcement,

17 Please see Tyl, Synthesis &* Counseling in Astrology, “Peregrination,” 155-190.

18 The Ephemeris time is for Midnight UT. Alexandria, Egypt is at 29 East 54, about two
hours of time eastward, later.
12 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

and individuation when/if it is integrated into the rest of an indi-

vidual’s horoscope. Here the conjunction is disposed of by Venus in
Aquarius (which itself makes a trine with Neptune, and then a square
with Uranus, and a square with Pluto). The big conjunction is trine
Saturn in its own sign, 00 Aquarius (the Sign linked with the
Amethyst), with the Sun nearby.
Reading the ephemeris line across the page for January 13, in
the heart of these measurements we are bringing into focus, we see
that Saturn would be opposing the Moon in Cancer, the extreme con-
sciousness of the father—for a queen, the patrilineal line of inheri-
tance—discipline, organization, seriousness. The Moon and Saturn
are in their own sign, at their best, in full awareness of each other, a
control-conditioning that affects personal thrusts for recognition.
There’s a seriousness of purpose, a mature, determined approach to
things mingled with a potentially depressive, self-isolating, even
plotting strategic thrust. The peregrine Sun in Capricorn floods the
axis as well and may even be brought into the Saturn-Moon oppo-
sition, transcending the wide orb.
It is not difficult to picture a birth just after midnight on the
13th, with the Sun in 20 Capricorn positioned with Saturn in the
3rd House (Capricorn on the third cusp, Aquarius on the fourth;
picture it in your mind’s eye), opposed the Moon in Cancer in the
9th, ruling the 9th! This would fit so much of our growing profile
for Cleopatra.
We can picture as well, then, that with Capricorn on the 3rd,
Aquarius would be on the 4th, ruled by Saturn (and Uranus); and
Leo would be on the Midheaven. What would be on the Ascendant?
Probably Scorpio, with Pluto, its ruler, conjunct Uranus in Taurus,
in the 7th House of the public. Undeniably, this is an exciting set of
deductions!
We can see all of these deduced positions in our mind’s eye
from just the midnight positions noted on the ephemeris page. All
of our profile-keys listed above have been taken care of! Our next
step will be to use Arcs, Progressions, and Transits to test the angles
of the conjectured horoscope. The Ascendant and the Midheaven
specify the place and time of birth and the base for the major devel-
opments within life time. We may be very, very close now to deter-
mining through astrology a missing part of Cleopatra’s history!
 CLEOPATRA # 13

Special Note
The conjunction of Uranus and Pluto (Figure 1, page 14) is
extremely rare. It occurs in an alternating cycle of approximately
112-114 years and then 140-144 years, then 112+, 140+, 112, etc.
Such conjunctions signal a new epoch, a change in the course of
human history and in conditions of a living earth. With Uranus as
the archetype of rebellion, invention, and change, and Pluto the
archetype of empowerment and perspective, their conjunction sig-
nifies epic alteration of perspective, the arousal of new powers, and
innovation that changes the status quo most significantly.!? The
chart drawn for the first exact conjunction of the two planets from
the perspective of any national capital speaks for the times to come
for that nation, that area (see page 22). The quake of history gains
specific reference most strongly through nations whose capital city
is located so that the moment of first conjunction is directly over-
head or upon the eastern horizon (conventionally, a 5-degree orb is
used), and/or through a particular generation sub-group or individ-
ual leader who assimilates the conjunction sharply within the aspect struc-
ture of his (or her) identifying horoscope.”°
The Uranus-Pluto conjunction of June 26, A.D. 1850 occurred
at 2:40 A.M. UT in 29 Aries 40 (not over or on the horizon of any
capital city, so no single country can be singled out as the core-
focus of the significances). The world began to change powerfully
during the following five years: there was the massive Taiping
rebellion in China, killing over twenty million people; war between

19 Itis established archaeological fact that the known world underwent colossal change, quite
suddenly, circa 1200 B.c., the end of the Bronze Age. (See Drews, 48-55; Aldred, 151-155;
Grant, Mediterranean, 78-80.) There were severe climatic changes, imbalancing migra-
tions, and the application of new schemes of warfare, so that whole cities and national areas
were defeated, erased, or changed forever. The Uranus-Pluto conjunction of December 2,
1205 B.c. occurred in 21 Scorpio 58 at about noon directly overhead in the Middle East. At the
same time—most rare—there was a conjunction of Saturn and Neptune still in orb, exact
on July 9, 1205 B.c., just five months earlier. Catastrophe. It is an exception duly noted that
Egypt, under its powerful, war-Pharaoh Merenptah, was least affected by this epochal
change: the king just barely staved off the onslaught of “The Sea Peoples” (hordes of
migrant mercenary tribes from Shekelesh, Shardana, and Tursha (probably Sicily, Sardinia,
and the Tyrrhenian west coast of Italy, with Lybians and with Phillistines from southwest
Caanan). There is confusion among historians as well about this period; it was chaotic.
20 Ofcourse this applies to the occurrence of a// major conjunctions. History is dramatical-
ly etched into time by occurrences of the Mars-Saturn conjunction that forms approxi-
mately every twenty-two months, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction that forms every
twenty to twenty-one years (See Tyl, Prediction), Saturn-Pluto (thirty-three to thirty-four
years), Saturn-Neptune, etc.
14 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Turkey and Russia leading to the Crimean War with French and
British involvement; the “Great War” in Uruguay; Louis
Napoleon managed a coup d’état and was crown Emperor
Napoleon II; the Republic of South Africa was formed out of
great rebellion; there was war in Burma, slave revolts in the
United States Midwest, a new constitution for New Zealand, etc.,
all actions of rebellion and change and empowerment of the
underprivileged.

x 27° & 58'

27° 258 TW
Figure 1
Uranus-Pluto Conjunction
Aug. 26, 70 B.c., 00:58 a.M. UT
Alexandria, Egypt
29E54. 31N12
Placidus Houses
 CLEOPATRA # 15

The next Uranus-Pluto conjunction occurred 115 years later on

October 9, 1965 at 8:27 PM. UT at 17 Virgo 10.7! The world con-
certedly went into change: the Vietnam explosion began; the begin-
ning of the cultural revolution in China was proclaimed; India and
Pakistan began war; there was the eruption of Israel’s six-day War
with Arab nations; there was a revolt in the Dominican Republic, a
coup in Algeria; the great reforms of Vatican Council II took place,
dealing with prejudice and human rights; the “Hippie Revolution”
left its mark upon the mores of the United States and much of the
western world. There was the first walk in space and enormous
leaps of technology—and, one month after the conjunction
occurred, the most extensive technological breakdown and power
failure in history struck much of the northeastern United States and
Ontario Canada, affecting 80,000 square miles and some thirty mil-
lion people for over thirteen hours.
The Uranus-Pluto conjunction we see on the ephemeris for 69
B.C. (page 11), which could be in Cleopatra’s horoscope, had formed
for the first time five months earlier on August 26, 70 B.C. at 00:58
A.M. UT at 1 Gemini 46. The planets then became retrograde, and
Uranus, retrograding more quickly, passed Pluto to present the
ephemeris listing we see for January 69.
The horoscope drawn for the moment when this “Cleopatra
Conjunction” formed for the first time, perceived from Alexandria,
the capital of Egypt, is shown in Figure 1 (page 14).”?
The conjunction was in the 12th House in Gemini (to divide
and conquer, to split up for reorganization), square the Sun-Venus
conjunction in Leo and Mercury (ruler of the Ascendant and dis-
positor of the Conjunction) in the 4th, signifying lands, the home-
land (and, through the Sun’s presence, the monarch). Uranus rules
the Midheaven. The signal for the years ahead suggests great ten-
sion within the monarchy, the break up of lands, and subterfugal
rebellion (12th House). Note that Neptune, rising at the Ascen-
dant, is peregrine and will threaten to invade the entire horoscope.

21 A personal note: This conjunction occurred exactly upon my natal Neptune, ruler of my
10th: my career changed from advertising and public relations to opera, as a singer, and,
within two years of this occurrence, also to the study of astrology.
22 B.c. dates require a special turn of mind that is essential for correct computation: since
there is no zero year, 69 B.C. is actually -68, which is the date we enter into the comput-
er. In reading any table of time data for the past, it is important to ascertain the exact ref-
erence of notation: “minus” is always 1 unit-year less than the “B.C.” calendar reference;
the “minus 1” date-difference is key to the mechanics of computation.
16 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Uranus is also ruler of the international 9th, i.e., Egypt’s

international relations. With the Conjunction’s pressure on the
Moon, also in the 12th, ruling the financial 2nd, the synthesis is
developed easily that there will be extreme power-tension (Uranus-
Pluto square with Sun-Venus) with foreign countries with regard to
monies, to debts. The Sun always symbolizes the ruler, the head of
government, and with the presence of Venus with the Sun and the
prominent position of the Moon we can begin to expect the femi-
nine element, a queen.
Saturn is in its own sign and is opposed by Mars, accentuating
the financial/values axis (Houses 2 and 8). Saturn also rules the Mid-
heaven, and this opposition from Mars echoes the Uranus-Pluto
square with the Sun and Mercury. Additionally, Saturn is retro-
grade: forces financial and military can devastate the rule of Egypt,
drive Egypt into withdrawal to an inferior position.
Overall, we see an enormous amount of tension and haggling,
of coming to blows, of behind-the-scenes intrigue, Egypt and other
countries. Note that the Sun rules the communications 3rd and
Uranus rules the international diplomacy 9th. These are the signs
of scandals and wars. The epochal rifts between Egypt (its queen:
the Moon and Venus positions in the 12th and 4th Houses, respec-
tively) and other countries will involve violent communications and
warring travels or wars elsewhere as well as at home.
Central to all is that the massive conjunction of Uranus and Pluto
attacks the monarch ofEgypt: through Pluto “on” Uranus, their square
to the Sun and the Midheaven, and the Mars attack on Saturn.
Mercury is in its own sign but retrograde, ruling the Ascendant
and Virgo in the 4th, the people and the homeland. It is the dispos-
itor of the Cleopatra Conjunction and of Neptune rising. Mercury
is reinforced by the sextile with Jupiter and cramped through the
sesquiquadrate with Saturn. The people are left behind, abandoned
within the siege on the monarchy. The counterpoint (retrograda-
tion of Mercury and Saturn) within this analysis could also suggest
a pervasive desertion factor that undoes national force.?3

23 It is astounding then to read the history: that the armies of Antony and the navy of
Cleopatra suffered enormous desertions when things got tough. To the embarrassment
of many historians, Antony and Cleopatra even planned their own desertion from the
massive battle of Actium, as we shall see. At the very end, under siege in Alexandria,
Antony would tie bribery notes to the shafts of arrows and have them shot from inside
the palace over the walls to Octavian’s troops to entice them to desert!
 CLEOPATRA # 17

Jupiter in Scorpio always carries with it an intense sense of mis-

sion and religious rationale. Here it links that sense to Egypt’s pub-
lic presentation, conceivably through the relationships of the
monarch on a personal level, especially through the sextile with the
Sun and Jupiter’s rulership of the 7th. There is an apparently con-
tradictory grandness about relationships, personal ones and those
with other countries. There is prosperity and solid gain, also a con-
tradiction within the overall analysis, but possibly it tells us about

18°
2 22'

18°
4M 22'

Figure 2
Cleopatra VII
Jan. 13, 69 B.C., 2:08 A.M. LMT
Alexandria, Egypt
29E54 31N12
_ Placidus Houses
18 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

great prosperity and then the fall through international financial

problems and wars, of blind rationalization of losing programs.
This mundane reading of this phenomenological conjunction
chart fits history extraordinarily well as we are uncovering it. Now
we must see how this conjunction could have been tied in to
Cleopatra’s horoscope—personalized—so that its signal, epochal
energy could be focused within the life of Egypt’s Queen. The tie is
clear: Uranus and Pluto can be trine to Saturn and sextile to the
Moon, early in the morning of January 13. If the birth zs in the very
first hours of the morning, the Sun (and Saturn) will indeed be in
the 3rd House, the Moon will indeed be in the 9th, and Scorpio will
almost assuredly be on the Ascendant. This fits our profile, as we
have developed it. The test horoscope for Cleopatra VII (Figure 2,
page 17) is set for January 13, 69 B.c., at 2:08 A.M. LMT in Alexan-
dria, Egypt. [Please reread footnote 22 on page 15.]

Personality Analysis
The horoscope picture makes dramatically clear what we have visu-
alized from the ephemeris page: the 3rd and 9th House axis is high-
ly emphasized with the Sun’s presence there along with Saturn, the
Sun’s dispositor, in its own sign of Aquarius and ruling the 3rd; Sat-
urn is in strong opposition with the Moon, also in its own sign,
placed in and ruling the international 9th! This is a dramatic state-
ment of skills in communications and polemics, all within an
international purview, with dimensions of philosophy, publishing,
and religion all fed strongly into the process. Additionally, there is
the emphasis on brothers and sisters in the 3rd, all related to the
focal point of the ambition, Saturn, and to the throne, the Sun sym-
bolism and its rulership of the 10th.
The Sun and the Moon in a blend together are the heart of any
horoscope. Here in Capricorn and Cancer we can expect practicality
(Capricorn) and the emotions (Cancer) to compete constantly for the
center of the stage, so to speak. Cleopatra’s ambition and needs for
emotional security are inextricably intertwined. The gambits to
administer security into the life (into the kingdom; Sun rules the
10th) are always edgy, risky, precarious. We can infer that Cleopatra
was dominated in her life expression by the need to establish personal
security upon the throne and national security through her reign.
 CLEOPATRA @ 19

The Scorpio Ascendant reinforces the depth of this drive for

security and authority; it adds tenacity. It also brings into consid-
eration dimensions of a deep religious sense, power through it, the
ritualization of it, the sense of mission, and the determinedness of
the personal position (Fixed signs on all angles). There is a depth
given to all the 9th House spiritual dimensions keyed by the
Moon’s position.
The Scorpio Ascendant keys us through its ruler Pluto to the
epochal Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the 7th, the “Cleopatra Con-
junction” now retrograded over the sign-line into Taurus. This is
power, rebellion, and enormous change potential to be achieved
through ambitious and international relations. This is clearly tied in
to Cleopatra’s core motivations through the trine with Saturn and
the sextile with the Moon.
The retrogradation here is an important signal: such powerful-
ly accented retrogradation in the 7th sets up an anticipation that
Cleopatra was somehow a clearly identifiable loner. We can see
this observation easily as an echo of the demanding Moon-Saturn
opposition. There is emotional hurt, withdrawal, fear, and insecu-
rity here, which are extraordinarily overcompensated by epically
embellished public presentation: Venus is the dispositor of the
conjunction, rules the 7th and is strongly conjunct the fourth
cusp, angular, and opposed the Leo Midheaven. Additionally, and
very importantly, Venus is trine Neptune and in mutual reception
with Uranus!
Here was this Queen without a king (with brother Ptolemy
XIII, a child-puppet who drowned and then, as her child-husband,
another brother, Ptolemy XIV, whom she poisoned), placed upon
an insecure throne over a country with a shaky, debt-ridden econo-
my, surrounded by high-priest intrigue designed to unseat her. The
threat to security personally and nationally was enormous. Not
unusually, Cleopatra’s personal needs became inextricably tied to
the needs of her country. Who she was became who Egypt was.”*
24 An aphorism in Mundane Astrology is that there is a tendency for the president or king
of a country to lose his identity to the country in terms of its horoscope. In other words,
the country’s horoscope may take the place of the leader’s horoscope. Renowned British
astrologer C. E. O. Carter called this the “Law of Subsumption.” I see the reciprocal of
this law as valid as well: the nation loses its identity, so to speak, to its ae. the sey
horoscope standing forthe identity ofthe country. There are extraordinary corroborations for
this hypothesis cect nh involving Roosevelt and Hitler during World War
Il, for example, and many tyrannical regimes throughout history. In short, leader and
nation, nation and leader become each other. See Carter, 12-13.
20 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Cleopatra wielded her strategies to fulfill her personal needs in

the guise of forwarding her country. The retrogradation dimension,
the withdrawal and aloneness, and contrasting showiness and pomp
seen through Venus and its mutual reception with Uranus all show
her double agenda.
Process—a particularly apt Capricorn trait—probably ruled
Cleopatra’s life: how to improve security, how to exploit interna-
tional resources, how to have persuasive impact, how to fulfill her
mission. There is no mention of feelings or emotional caring in any
of the histories about Cleopatra. She made things happen, appar-
ently coldly and dispassionately, to establish national security; she
proceeded to cover over her weaknesses, her aloneness, her emo-
tional world, her fears, by relating to established monarchs who
would benefit her throne, her nation, and herself. The seasoned
Caesar and then the ambitious Antony became her “kings.” We
may say that the Queen was her country and that Cleopatra—the
human being—got caught up and lost in the process.
The Venus factor in Aquarius probably clarifies that Cleopatra
was a people-orientated ruler. She learned her people’s language,
she identified herself with their religion, and there is no record of
her hurting her citizenry. Hughes-Hallett cites several sources that
establish Cleopatra as a public benefactor, designing and commis-
sioning many of the great engineering projects which had enabled
Alexandria to prosper. (Saturn in Aquarius: humanitarian/social ori-
entation for ambition.)**
Venus makes the rare sextile with Mercury, in Sagittarius,
adding the dimension of beauty and social effectiveness to Cleopa-
tra’s communications, specifically to her voice. With the Capricorn
and Saturn focus in the 3rd, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that
Cleopatra’s voice was dark, low in pitch, and lustrous.
But this Venus is also the target of enemy propaganda about her
public image (Venus rules the 7th): all histories depict her from the
Roman point of view as the wanton sensualist, the opportunistic
whore, the depraved animal, who destroyed men’s lives to appease
her personal lust, having her sexual partners killed after coitus, etc.
This international propaganda was established by Octavian’s Rome
to define Cleopatra as an enemy. It was anti-monarch, anti-foreign-
er (barbarian, animalistic), and, very importantly here, anti-woman.

25 Hughes-Hallett, 73-74.
 CLEOPATRA # 21

While the Greeks’ experience with Helen of Troy could be remem-

bered, when was the last time that mighty Rome faced a world ruler
who was a woman? When would be the next time? As Hughes-Hal-
lett points out, this enemy chose her sexual partners, rather than
commandeering them with the sword as was the way in those days.
The more vile she was made out to be, the more necessary was the
campaign to defeat her.
After Caesar’s assassination, Octavian and Antony and a high
Minister named Lepidus formed a Triumvirate. They divided
among them (Uranus-Pluto Conjunction in Gemini; see page 14)
most of the known world. Through her relationship with Antony,
Cleopatra would come to be seen as upsetting to this three-way
rule, the balance of world leadership power.
Cleopatra’s Venus was sesquiquadrate her Mars, which itself is
in Libra (in its fall, disposed by Venus) receiving a supportive sextile
with Jupiter in its own sign. This Mars is weak, less than strident,
tending to blandness, seeing both sides of every issue. But this Mars
is extraordinarily positioned in midpoint pictures linking Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the Midheaven, and Venus in powerful
structures of behavior, as we shall see. And, of course, Mars is drive:
for power and for sexuality; one fueling the other.
Was Cleopatra a sensualist? She probably was, with Venus trine
Neptune retrograde (imagination), with Neptune ruling the 5th
and placed in the 8th, the Houses relating to sexuality. This dimen-
sion was surely reinforced by the Scorpio Ascendant, dramatized
spiritually and ritualistically. It is not hard to see all of this swoon-
ing, innovative (Venus-Uranus mutual reception, Aquarius) dimen-
sion of her personality piped directly into the pageantry of her rule
and self-presentation. Venus is the most angularly placed planet and
dramatically opposes the Leo Midheaven and rules the 7th.
We can feel the young woman within the Queen facing such
enormous responsibilities, with no one to whom to turn; the high-
priest did not have her best interests at heart, her brothers were
children, her sister Arsinoe was a threat. There was the tradition
and the record among the princesses of the house of the Ptolemies
that had “always apparently been very much averse to taking casu-
al lovers, especially from outside the royal house. They were not,
like later Roman imperial ladies, both murderous and adulterous.
They were murderous and chaste. The same extreme pride in their
families which caused these royal Ptolemaic women to enter into
22 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

brother-and-sister marriages deterred them from promiscuous

associations.””°
As we will see corroborated by Mars within midpoint struc-
tures, this Venus contact with Neptune, the latter’s rulership and
placement, and the Scorpio Ascendant do define a strong, sensuous,
and passionate sexual profile, but there is also the suggestion of sub-
limation here, of these sexual energies being put second in her life
after administrative concerns. Or, we could say that the sexual ener-
gies became part of the way she did business, so dominating are the
Sun and the Moon-Saturn opposition.
The Neptune dimension is very important: it signifies her vul-
nerability to the covert motives ascribed to her by enemy (and his-
torical) propaganda and, probably to a lesser extent, it signifies her
penchant for the covert processes in international negotiations and
intrigue, her use of her wily ways as tools for administration. For
example, beyond the negotiation with Antony to have her sister and
others murdered, when Antony drew the line with eliminating
Herod in Judea, she did her best to stir up an underground, sepa-
ratist, anti-Jewish movement in Idumaea, in the South of his coun-
try. It failed, and Antony ignored it; Cleopatra was “doing her thing.”
Cleopatra was alone, starkly alone in terms of personal interac-
tion, private or not, for most of her life. She was together with Cae-
sar for perhaps one year in Alexandria, fresh from hiding out against
the high-priest insurrection, when she got Caesar to support her over
her co-ruling brother. She became pregnant, and then Caesar
returned to Rome when things were relatively secure in Alexandria.
Cleopatra then went to Rome a year later.?” Caesar feted her
but kept her at a distance. Three months after her arrival (with
Caesarion, their son), Caesar went off to Spain. When he returned
months later, he was ailing and busy for seven months before he
was assassinated. ‘hey could not have had much time together, nor
much more reason to.
Three years later, Cleopatra teamed up with Antony, for the
same motives as had fired her relationship with Caesar: Antony
needed her money, and Cleopatra needed his support and the

26 Grant, Cleopatra, 84.

27 There is no record of letters between Caesar and Cleopatra. Caesar was married and had
many mistresses. Their relationship appears very much the “deal,” his and hers: to get
Alexandria settled to pay its debt and not cause any more trouble; to get Rome on her
side, regain and build the security of her rule.
 CLEOPATRA # 23

expansion of her realm as he promised her. They were together one

year, in which she became pregnant with twins (Alexander and
Cleopatra); he went off then for a/most four years, waging a disas-
trous campaign with far-off Parthia and facing up to extremely
problematic affairs with Octavian in Rome. He then re-summoned
her for financial help. They were together for one year, she became
pregnant again with Ptolemy Philadelphus, and then they met on-
again off-again (the war campaigns taking place in the Spring and
Summer; with planning and funding accomplished during the Fall
and Winter) they were together at different locations until their
deaths in Alexandria in 30 B.c.
The point is that from age seventeen when she became queen
until her death at almost thirty-nine, she is known to have been with
only two men: Caesar, basically for one year, and Antony for one
year and then for a span of seven years with frequent interruptions.
We can be sure that, if there had been any other man in her
life, he would have made news, so to speak. This liaison would
have entered the propaganda mill to sully Cleopatra’s image even
more, quite specifically with names, definitely to embarrass
Antony. Birth control was extremely unreliable, and Cleopatra
appears to have been most fertile; it is probable that another child
would have been conceived and become part of the royal record.
And, finally, I think we must remember that other men undoubt-
edly came to fear Cleopatra. In image and in person, Cleopatra was
almost certainly unapproachable, stand-offish. This is borne out
astrologically with our analysis of her aloneness, her preoccupation
with strategy, and the withdrawal from relationships (the retrogra-
dation of the 7th House structure) into wily inveiglement (the
Neptune retrograde complex; Venus ruling the 12th) to fulfill ber
needs, her nation’s needs.
Cleopatra’s extreme identification with Isis, the fertility goddess
of Egypt, meant a profile of “the Great Virgin,” as Isis is hailed in
the ancient Hymn to Osiris. The Greeks associated her with
Artemis, the chaste goddess of childbirth. Hughes-Hallett points
out how figures of Isis (Cleopatra) seated on a bench or small
throne suckling the babe Horus are indistinguishable in content
from representations of the Madonna and child.”8

28 Hughes-Hallett, 83. Additionally, Oxford Classical states without attribution that “Cleopatra
was ruthless toward her family in true Ptolemaic tradition. She was not sexually lax,” 251-252.
24 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

I believe that the historical record and the horoscope do indeed

suggest that Cleopatra was a virgin queen of twenty-one when she
worked her way out of the take-over plan engineered on her co-
ruler brother’s behalf (aged twelve-thirteen). I think the virginity
factor was a point of captivation for the world-wise and weary Cae-
sar at fifty-two, and for Antony to know that he was indeed only her
second man, following the great Caesar, the beguilement again
would have been extraordinary and effective. Cleopatra undoubted-
ly relished the international rumors—they gave her stature and
power—and she reinforced them knowingly with her exorbitant,
sensual pageantry. But for this lone lady of power, arch-discrimina-
tion was part of her earliest strategy and it would have been contin-
ued. Her pride, her tradition, and her success could not have let her
relate to anyone less than a monarch.”?

Midpoint Pictures
Midpoint pictures depict another level of synthesis: three planets—
symbols of needs, of behavioral faculties—are brought together and
blended. Using the fourth harmonic within Midpoint pictures, we
can glean reinforcement for the classical measurements made in
initial analysis.*°
Key to zodiacal conceptualization is the point of zero-Aries, of
course, but this awareness relates as well to 0 Libra by opposition

29 The usually circumspect and objective historian Josephus (Jewish-born general, favored
by Vespacian, privileged in Rome) was caught up with anti-Cleopatra propaganda. In The
Antiquities ofthe Jews, XV, 4, he vilifies Cleopatra, and specifically in 4, 2, he tells how she
endeavored to entrap Herod (whom she despised and wanted dead so she could rule
Judea) through “criminal conversation with the king,” that she tried to lay a “treacherous
snare for him by aiming to obtain such adulterous conversation from him.” He adds:
“however, upon the whole, she seemed overcome with love to him.” Herod thought of
having her killed but decided better of it, for fear of Antony. Grant says this story can not
be true (Cleopatra, 159-160), that it came from Herod’s personal diary/memoirs. Herod
hated Cleopatra, feared Antony, and diabolically was aggrandizing his own position with-
in the swirl of propaganda.
30 ‘The family of fourth harmonic aspects is based upon the square (90 degrees; 360 divided
by 4), its subset (45 degrees, the semisquare, really the 8th harmonic), the sesquiquadrate
(135 degrees; a square plus a semisquare), the conjunction and opposition. These so-
called “hard aspects” suggest action and change, that which propels life development.
Midpoint pictures show one planet or point in fourth harmonic relationship (any of the
hard aspects) to the midpoint axis of any other two planets (and/or points). The equals
sign (=) denotes the synthesis: Mercury=Mars/Uranus means that natal (or arced) Mer-
cury is at (or has come to) a fourth harmonic aspect position in relation to the midpoint
axis between Mars and Uranus (you can just feel that tension!). See Tyl: Synthesis ¢* Coun-
seling, Section Two C.
 CLEOPATRA # 25

CLEOPATRA VII JAN 13,-0068 (69 B.c.)

h/P 000711" "| Me 048°22'| D/gt 063°33'| D/A 081°07'|

Me/ Asc 000°52'| 24/Mc 013°17'| Q/M: 049°21') 4/P 064°03'| B/W 081°18!
Q/dc 001°51'| Q/ 014°15' Q —050°20'| G/F 064°20'| f/An 081°55'
D/% 003°32'| Y/Me 017°42' "| Hi/Ac 050°43'| B/Ac 064°28'| C/K 084°11'
O/W 003°39'| 9/Y 018°40' / 050°44'| Hi/y 067°33'| ©/P 085°06'
Y/h 004919'}Q = 020°18' 7 051°31'| &% = ~—-:068°11'| g/Q_-085°24'
Ov¥ 007°56'| H/Q 020°20" P/Ac 051°38'| W/P 068°28'| ¥ 085°35'
Diy 007°57'| P/Q 021°15' "| p/dc 055°46'| B/H 071°50'| D/HI 088°29'
co! = -008°12'| B/Me 021°59' 058°04'| 9 072°35' 4% 089°14'
el
YY
H/Me 008°13'| 8/9 022°57' H/B 059°00'| 4/\W 072°36'| f/H 089°16'
h/Y 008°44'| D/O 024°36' O/g 059°15'| 8/P 072°45'| DvP 089°24'
Bis oos0s'| Q/h 025°23' PB _059°55'| gt/Me 073°17'
/f 009°12'| 4/Q Wide 060°11'|] 9/gt 07416!
Q/P 010°07'| gt 060°29' |©/ Ac 076°50'
Di¥ 012°14'
/hoc 012°58'

Figure 3
Cleopatra’s Midpoint Structure

(the same axis) and to 0 Cancer and 0 Capricorn by square. In

short, “O-Cardinals” is our orientation to the world around us.
Any natal planet or point at 0 degree of any Cardinal sign is by
definition configurated with “the Aries Point;” the planet’s or
point’s symbolism will be given a push out into the world, a pub-
lic boost, exposure.
Cleopatra’s midpoint structure is shown in Figure 3 (above).;!
We see that her midpoints Sun/Jupiter (at 89 Mutable 14, which is
29 Mutable, within 1 degree orb of “90”, which is 0 Cardinal, the
square of the Aries Point), Saturn/Uranus, Moon/Pluto, Saturn/
Pluto, and MC/Asc are all in touch with the Aries Point! This is
extraordinary public projection. The pictures suggest good fortune
and, for her, internationalism through AP=Sun/Jupiter; and,
respectively thereafter, being known for rebellious ways, for zeal-
ous plans, the use of great force and/or the threat of public self-
destruction, and her keen self-awareness of her public image
through the midpoint of both her angular axes configurated with
the Aries Point.
Cleopatra’s Pluto (59 degrees 55, i.e., 29 Fixed 55) on this con-
jectured birthdate and time was at the midpoint of her Sun/Mars,
which suggests a ruthless application of energy and a warring way

31 Inthe Table, 0 degrees = the beginning of Cardinal sign positions; 30+=0 of Fixed signs
and further; 60=0 Mutable and further.
26 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

in relationships. Pluto=Neptune/Asc: the apprehension of an

oppressive or threatening environment; and Node/MC, leadership
and success.
The Sun=Uranus/Node: High tension with others, intense
leadership style. Node=Jupiter/Neptune and Mercury/Pluto:
group-spirited activity and recognition by others for persuasiveness
and communication skills!
Mercury=Mars/Node and Sun/Pluto: promotion through part-
nership and publicity; extraordinary mental projections, “lording it
over” others, great salesmanship!

Mental Profile
With all the indications of personal power and public exposure,
with language skills and international point of view, with salesman-
ship, and enormous persuasiveness, we must assume that Cleopatra
had the mental capacities to back it all up, to seize opportunities,
innovate, and make conspicuous gains. She had to be very, very
smart. The horoscope tells us much about this.
I have found that the diurnal speed of the Moon on the day of
birth correlates strongly with observable intelligence: the faster the
Moon’s speed, over 13 degrees 45, for example (my arbitrary bench-
mark), is toward conspicuous brightness and below that is toward
the average.” Cleopatra’s Moon speed on the day of her birth was
14 degrees 27 minutes. If something didn’t short-circuit her mental
capacities—and the horoscope suggests just the opposite, i.e., a
bright freedom, through the sextile with Venus and no other aspect,
though a distant influence from Neptune—I feel that she would
appear very bright, inventive, quick, thrusting with opinion, sharp.
Mercury with its sextile from Venus of course suggests a beau-
tiful voice, as we have seen. In Sagittarius, we know Mercury has
the need to express opinions, make verbal thrusts, dart in and out
of concepts, and that it needs an anchor. Jupiter, as well, in its own
sign of Sagittarius, increases this opinionation dimension very

32 The fastest diurnal speed for the Moon is just in excess of 15 degrees, and the slowest is
just above 11 degrees. Of course, the condition of Mercury is very important within this
profile as well, but the Moon’s diurnal speed is a signal that shouldn’t be overlooked.
33 The opposition with Saturn is not a labor for the mind here, since Saturn and the Moon
rule the sign each is in, i.e., have utmost dignity, and the Moon is well supported by the
Uranus-Pluto sextile.
 CLEOPATRA # 27

strongly, especially with the support from Mars. Cleopatra was

impressively bright, highly opinionated, exceedingly articulate,
and, I think, quite capable of seeing the other side to every issue
(Mars in Libra) and could strategize according to her needs and
plans, very effectively. With all her awareness of other tongues,
other lands, philosophies, and histories, she certainly had a world
view of things.
Cleopatra probably had a superb memory, suggested by Moon in
Cancer (hoarding, retaining) and a strong anchor to perceptions (and
wisdom) denoted by Saturn. All of this is reinforced so strongly by
this major axis occurring in the the 3rd—9th House mental axis.
The Mercury midpoint pictures (see page 25) suggest that she
knew how bright she was. She let people around her know too.
The midpoint picture of Saturn=Neptune/Node suggests emo-
tional hurt, fear of deception, and jealousy. Here is a reminder of
the lone position we have seen for the private Cleopatra.
As we have noted, Mars is not obviously in the power position
we would expect for Cleopatra’s aggressiveness. But, through six
midpoint structures, linking Mars to all planets except Jupiter, this
Mars becomes titanic, linking together all the key concepts of her
power profile: Mars=Sun/Mercury, excitement, nervous energy, and
drive; Moon/Neptune, personal magic; Uranus/MC, temperamen-
tal rash action for ego recognition; preoccupation with and the fear
of attack; Pluto/MC, striving for power, a drive for dominance; and
Venus/Uranus, strong love excitement and creativity!
And finally: Neptune=Mercury/Jupiter, beguiling fantasy and
magnetism.**
These midpoint pictures synthesize every observation we have
made about Cleopatra’s personality. As a final note, we must recog-
nize that classically, Mars is the planet denoting sexual energy and
its application as well as aggressive behavior (for a monarch: armed
force). This sense is certainly captured within the insight that
power is sexual; as strategy and conquest, power is an aphrodisiac.
Now, we must take Cleopatra’s horoscope and test it carefully
through time and history within her life. Her story will be told and
her horoscope will be rectified simultaneously. Our attention must
be chiefly directed to the angles of the horoscope and to the Moon,

34 These phrases describing the midpoint pictures are almost verbatim from the midpoint
directory presented in both Tyl, Prediction and Synthesis & Counseling.
28 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

the measurement references that are most sensitively affected by a

change of birth time, even within the span of four minutes.”
Seven event-periods of vital significance marked Cleopatra’s
life. They will test the horoscope we have created for her at many
levels. The first is her father’s death and her assumption of the
throne of Egypt on March 13, 51 B.C.
This time period begins significantly six years before, when she
was just twelve. We can presume that Cleopatra was deeply influ-
enced by her father, Auletes, since her Capricorn Sun, symbolizing
her father (ruler of the 10th) and his/her monarchy, is all-pervasive
in her horoscope. Cleopatra had already seen much that would
found her own administrative posture, structured through her per-
sonal predispositions, her personal “style.”
Rome’s imperialism was focused within its “First Triumvirate” of
rulers (Julius Caesar, the great military hero and world conqueror
Pompey, and Marcus Licinius Crassus). She saw her father Auletes
seek help from the Triumvir to restore and ensure his tottering
throne. The price for Rome’s support was six thousand talents,
equivalent to seventeen million dollars, or to the entire revenues of
Egypt for six months, or perhaps even for a whole year.*°
When the Egyptians began to revolt at being entirely subjected
to the will of Rome and at paying so much extra to replenish the
royal treasury, Auletes again fled to Rome for help, in the late Spring
57 B.C. History is not sure, but astrology shows that it was most
probable that Cleopatra went with him: transiting Uranus was exactly
conjunct her Moon in the 9th for the extremely important interna-
tional trip, and transiting Saturn was not far behind. This would be
a critical time for her personality development. Additionally, Solar
Arc (SA) Mercury was exactly square her Mars, ruler of the 6th, her
father’s ninth! They traveled together. She absorbed it all. She began
her intensive study of languages. Her intrigue with international out-
reach and political strategy was awakened to dominate her life.
In Rome, the twelve-year-old saw Auletes wheel and deal.
When his enemies from Alexandria sent a group of 100 men to

35 Normally, one degree of the zodiac passes overhead at the Medius Coeli (MC, Midheav-
en) every four minutes of clock time. Indeed, this one degree can represent a change of
one year in timing projections made through Solar Arcs or one month through the Sec-
ondary Progressed Moon or one Lunar month through Tertiary movement of the Sun
and Midheaven (and usually Ascendant).
36 Grant, Cleopatra, 13.
 CLEOPATRA # 29

Rome to confront Auletes with their charges, Auletes had their

leaders murdered as their ships landed. He distributed huge bribes
throughout Rome to enlist support. Rome made another demand
for payment in return for re-enstating Auletes on his throne. This
time the amount was almost twice what had been asked before—
now the cost was 10,000 talents! It was a shaming and frightening
burden, but it did mean that Rome and its businessmen had a pow-
erful vested interest to preserve a secure Egyptian monarchy.?’

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Cleopatra VII SA Father’s Death
Jan. 13, 68 B.C. Mar: 13;51 B.G.

37 Ibid., 16-17.
30 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

In Cleopatra’s horoscope at that time as well (see page 17), SA

Saturn was at 13 Aquarius (add 12 years/degrees of arc to natal Sat-
urn as Solar Arc abbreviation) and 4 months (20'; average rate per
month is 5') just 34' away from exact square to her Ascendant. We
can see this as a warning sign, and it certainly was in order: in
Auletes’ absence, the Egyptians gave the throne over to Cleopatra’s
elder sister, Cleopatra VI Tryphaena. Fighting her for that honor
was another sister, Berenice IV. Loyalties in the kingdom were
divided, and indeed so was the house of Ptolemy.
The formal investiture of Tryphaena took place on December
5, 57 B.c. Exactly when this SA Saturn (ruler of Cleopatra’s 3rd)
squared her Ascendant as transiting Saturn simultaneously con-
joined her Moon. Transiting Uranus had advanced off the Moon
and was opposing Saturn in the 3rd and ruling it! This is extraordinary
corroboration of the event and the horoscope.
When Auletes and Cleopatra returned to Egypt, Tryphaena was
somehow out of the picture and Berenice IV, who was on the
throne, was executed by her father’s order. The tensions had taken
their toll on Auletes; he was in his early fifties, and he was ailing.
He dictated his will, defining the line of succession to the throne,
and our Cleopatra was specified as heir-apparent. Since by law a
queen could not rule alone, Cleopatra was to co-rule with her
brother, Ptolemy XIII, who was eight years younger than she. And,
also by law, she would be in second place to his prominence.

Cleopatra VII becomes Queen

In March 51 B.c., Auletes, Ptolemy XII, died. Cleopatra VII, who
was eighteen and Ptolemy XIII, who was ten, assumed the throne.
Figure 4 (page 29) shows Cleopatra’s birth horoscope with the Solar
Arc positions for mid-March 51 B.c. The measurements capture
the events most dramatically: SA Moon was conjunct her rectified
Midheaven, showing a tremendous career focus; SA Ascendant at 1
Sagittarius was exactly opposite her Pluto (personal power), SA Sat-
urn was just 23 minutes of arc past precise opposition to her Mid-
heaven (“major change in the family or in the profession; possible
death concerns within the extended family; the father figure; an
extremely important time of life development”?8), and the mighty

38 See Solar Arc Directory, Tyl, Prediction or Synthesis & Counseling, Appendices.
 CLEOPATRA # 31

Uranus-Pluto conjunction itself—the signal of her age, of her

fate—had arced to conjunction with her Neptune in the 8th House.
Additionally, Secondary Progressed (SP) Venus (not shown
here) was exactly upon the Nodal axis (popularity) and her SP
Ascendant was at 28 Scorpio, exactly opposed Uranus, an extraordi-
nary happening to recognize her being!
Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII took to themselves as well the
title of Philopater, lover of the father, to respect the memory of
Auletes and acknowledge the proper transition. Cleopatra’s own
name meant “glory to the father” in Greek. Indeed, Cleopatra’s Sun
in Capricorn belonged symbolically to her father as well.
Josephus gives us an acid glimpse into the Roman analysis of
Cleopatra’s administrative drive: “... for if there were but any hopes
of getting money, she would violate both temples and sepulchres.
Nor was there any holy place that was esteemed the most invio-
lable, from which she would not fetch the ornaments it had in it;
nor any place so profane ... if it could but contribute somewhat to
the covetous humor of this wicked creature.”? He continues in this
vein and begins to betray the propagandist thrusts to show Cleopa-
tra enslaved by extravagance and lusts.
Certainly Cleopatra was extremely ambitious. The astrology
has revealed so much of that to us, and as she got older and grander
and more involved with intrigues and power plays in the world, her
strengths became more pronounced and more vilified by those who
feared her. But upon assumption of the throne, Cleopatra was car-
rying the enormous burden of her father’s debts to Rome and a crit-
ical food shortage, since the Nile had failed to rise high enough to
flood the banks and support crop growth and harvest.*?
Additionally, Cleopatra agreed to send troops to help the
Roman governor of Syria against the Parthians (Persia). Her sol-
diers mutinied and refused to go—recalling the promise we saw in
the Uranus-Pluto conjunction chart. This mutiny was an eruption
of nationalist feelings against being vassal to Rome. These feelings

39 Josephus, Antiquities, XV, 4, 1 (90).

40 The farming economy of Egypt was totally dependent upon hydraulic engineering to
provide water in a rainless land. The regular seasonal flooding of the Nile was close to a
life and death matter. It entered the consciousness and religion of the people deeply. The
Pharaoh was thought to command the Nile in league with the heliacal rising of the star
Sirius. This was how the world began. This was how one of Egypt’s three calendars was
established. See Aldred, 69-72; Whitrow, 24-29; Grant, The Ancient Mediterranean,
38-43; all sources of ancient Egypt.
32 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

were everywhere in Egypt, and they played into the hands of a

eunuch named Pothinus who had become Cleopatra’s brother’s
counsel, Ptolemy XIII’s Regent. Pothinus was completely hostile to
things Roman.*!
Two and one-half years into her co-rule, all these pressures
threatened Cleopatra crucially. The press was on, and the young
queen left Alexandria—or was ousted—into exile between June and
September 49 B.c. It is thought she went south into the hinterlands
of Upper Egypt (South); it is thought that she went just across
Egypt’s borders into southern Palestine, over which Egypt had had
relations from war to peace for over 1,500 years, and while strong-
ly under Roman rule at the time was not threatening to her.”
We can see this oppressive time in the “Father’s Death” horo-
scope (Figure 4, page 29) for her assumption of the throne, by just
moving the Solar Arc positions forward a little more than one
degree (March 50 B.c. to June 49). Most significantly we see SA Sat-
um conjoining Cleopatra’s Venus, which opposes her Midheaven
and rules her 7th, the House of the Public. Additionally, seeing the
queen’s horoscope as the horoscope of the people, this Saturn
depression of the Venus symbolism corresponds to the bad times in
the kingdom, in the farmlands, the dryness. As well, the 4th House
in the horoscope of a country or a monarch represents the opposition
party, those against one’s rule; here is the clear suggestion of the high
priest pushing forward the best interests of Ptolemy XIII, her broth-
er (Venus in the 4th is Venus in the second of her brother’s derived
Ascendant, which is Cleopatra’s 3rd).
We can see that the SA MC nearing 8 Virgo at the time of exile
is entering the square with natal Jupiter: this is a marvelous time for

41 Hughes-Hallett, 17.
42 Celebrated Egyptian campaigns into Canaan, well up to Syria, are commemorated in the
names of ‘Thutmose IIT (the Battle of Megiddo in northwest Palestine) ca. 1460, Ramess-
es II (the Battle of Kadesh just northwest of the Dead Sea) ca. 1275, Merenptha ca. 1208,
and Ramesses III ca. 1182 (one of the latter two against the Sea Peoples, involving
Phillistines). Egypt long maintained fortified bases in Gaza on the southwest coast. See
Drews, 120-121, 129; Grant, The Ancient Mediterranean, 72.
43 Derivative Houses is the adjustment of a new Ascendant to any House of focus in any
horoscope and then seeing the Houses issuing in conventional symbolism from that new
starting point. For example, here the 4th House is the second of Cleopatra’s 3rd, her
brothers and sisters. The 9th House is the 12th House derived from the 10th, as anoth-
er example, suggesting here that international concerns, on the one hand important for
Egypt’s security with the Moon in its own sign there, but on the other hand the poten-
tial source for her undoing, the twelfth dynamic and the opposition from Saturn.
 CLEOPATRA # 33

success, professional gains, internationalism, and legal issues. This

is the silver lining within the cloud, which will mature with the
arrival of Caesar from Rome!
Studying this period of time in Cleopatra’s life extremely
closely, astrology is able to suggest to history that Cleopatra left
Alexandra in response to the pressure from the people throughout
Egypt, the economy that was affected by Nile conditions and near-
famine, and to the ambitious collusion within the Palace. We can
suggest strongly that she left on May 20, 49 B.c.4

The Siege, Caesar, and Security

Cnaius Pompeius Magnus (106-48 B.C.) was a great Roman general
and statesman, part of the first Triumvir with Caesar and Crassus.
This three-way rule of the Roman world broke down into civil war
[recall the “Cleopatra Conjunction” in Gemini, page 15], just as we
shall see happen within the second Triumvir involving Octavian,
Antony, and Lepidus, to be created upon the assassination of Caesar.
In the warring among them, Pompey and Caesar clashed at
Pharsalus in central Greece, and Pompey, in defeat, fled to Egypt ©
for protection. Pothinus, young Ptolemy’s Regent, did not want to
receive Pompey and have it appear to Caesar’s Rome that Egypt was
allying itself with the losing side in the Roman strife, so he con-
trived to have Pompey the Great murdered. ‘This is one of the most
celebrated assassinations in history. It was accomplished in the sight
of his wife, Cornelia, as Pompey was being helped from the small
boat that had brought him from his ship in Alexandria harbor to the
shore. He was alone, defeated, and hoping for rescue by Egypt. The
date was September 28, 48 B.c. Pompey was stabbed and beheaded,
and his body was thrown into the sea.*
Grant opines that, in the view of much of Rome, “the murder of
Pompey earned the fifteen-year-old Ptolemy XIII a place in Dante’s
Inferno, in company with Judas and Cain. Cicero, on the other

44 Transiting Pluto was exactly opposed her Mercury during this time and transiting
Uranus was exactly opposed her Saturn. Then, Mars as trigger was transiting late Gem-
ini conjoining her Neptune and opposing her Mercury. Finally, the Tertiary Progressed
Ascendant was precisely conjunct her rectified natal Midheaven and, simultaneously, the
Tertiary Midheaven was precisely upon her rectified Descendant!
45 This murder is vividly recounted by Plutarch in “Pompey,” 132-135.
34 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

hand, although he had been one of Pompey’s supporters, remarked

that after the defeat at Pharsalus such a conclusion, at some time or
other, was inevitable.”*
The times in Egypt had been terrible that year of 48 B.C., due
to the Nile. Its rise was the smallest on record according to Roman
historians, who were watching the situation carefully indeed, and
Julius Caesar himself, for his expeditions, needed money. He set off
to Egypt with ten warships (brought down from Roman installa-
tions in Rhodes) and a medium-sized force of 3,200 infantry and
800 calvary. He went to collect what he could from Egypt's treasury
against the horrendous debts owed to Rome. He needed money for
his civil wars during the break up of the Triumvir.
Caesar arrived in an anxious and rioting country just four days
after the murder of his onetime friend and recent enemy, Pompey. It
was October 2, 48. When Ptolemy’s “foster-father,” a philosopher in
the court named Theodotus, came to Caesar’s ship to greet him and
assist him to shore, he presented Caesar with Pompey’ signet ring ...
and the general’s severed head, which had been embalmed.*”
Plutarch records this event with horror and poignancy: “when
he [Caesar[ came to Alexandria, where Pompey was already mur-
dered, he would not look upon Theodotus, who presented him with
his head, but taking only his signet, he shed tears.”*8
With no real accompanying force in terms of numbers, Caesar
had walked into a terribly dangerous situation: the riots in Alexan-
dria had taken the lives of several of his soldiers, he was not orga-
nized or strong enough to retaliate against and quell a general
rebellion, the threat of an escalation of hostilities was very real, and
he was confined to the palace for safety. Here was mighty Caesar,
come to Egypt to talk about world issues to an adolescent pharaoh—
who was not even there, who was with his army on the eastern fron-
tier—and all of this was standing in Caesar’s way to get the money
he desperately needed! We can allow ourselves the editorialization
that Caesar was fuming, frustrated, fiercely angry! He knew Pothi-
nus was running everything, that he was ill-feeding the Roman
forces, inciting the people to mayhem, and, as Plutarch continues:
“the eunuch Pothinus, who was the chief favorite and had lately
killed Pompey, who had banished Cleopatra, [and] was now secret-

46 Grant, Cleopatra, 58.

47 Ibid., 61.
48 Plutarch, Caesar, 230.
 CLEOPATRA # 35

ly plotting Caesar’s destruction (to prevent which, Caesar from that

time began to sit up whole nights, under the pretense of drinking,
for the security of his person).” And Caesar could not just forget his
money mission and leave, to return stronger later, since the prevail-
ing winds at the time trapped his ships in the harbor.*?
Caesar hatched a plan which Pothinus perhaps had not antici-
pated: Plutarch wrote, “Caesar did not want Egyptians to be his
counselors [push him around, tell him what to do], and soon after
privately sent for Cleopatra from her retirement.”°° He sent for
young Ptolemy too.
How Cleopatra arrived back in Alexandria, into the palace, to
meet Caesar is told by Plutarch, as he continues: “She was at a loss
how to get in undiscovered, till she thought of putting herself into
the coverlet of a bed and lying at length, whilst Apollodorus [a Sicil-
ian confidant] tied up the bedding and carried it on his back
through the gates to Caesar’s apartment. Caesar was first captivated
by this proof of Cleopatra’s bold wit, and was afterwards so over-
come by the charm of her society that he made a reconciliation
between her and her brother, on the condition that she should rule
as his colleague in the kingdom.”
Cleopatra was twenty-one. Caesar was world-wise and fifty-two.
Obviously, her daring, her poise, her extraordinary mind and,
undoubtedly, her sensual way, magnetically virginal as well, captivat-
ed him. We can also never forget that in Caesar’s awareness also was
the fact that Cleopatra was the crest of a most royal wave that had
begun 400 years earlier with Alexander the Great, the world’s first
unquestioned, famous god-hero. Their liaison developed. Cleopatra
became pregnant with Caesar’s child, to be named Caesarion.
Here’s how Caesar solved the problems of the palace, Cleopa-
tra, and his troops being under siege:

+ Caesar soothed the crowd, promising a suitable settlement to

their national interests and his financial business there.
+ Caesar negotiated to give over Cyprus from Roman rule to the
Ptolemies, specifically to Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoe and the much
younger brother who will become Ptolemy XIV. This would get
them out of the palace, out of Cleopatra’s (and his) way.

49 Hughes-Hallett, 18.
50 Plutarch, Caesar, 231.
36 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

4 Outnumbered five to one (Pothinus had called back from the

eastern front 20,000 Egyptian soldiers, headed by Achillas),
Caesar went into action: he put Ptolemy XIII under arrest in
the palace, staved off Achillas’ first attack, and then himself
attacked by firing all the Egyptian ships, seizing the Pharos
lighthouse, and gaining complete control of the harbor.

Arsinoe got free from the palace and went as turncoat to

Achillas who, with the army, declared her Queen of Egypt! We
know that Cleopatra will remember this and have her executed for
this act seven years later.

+ Pothinus tried to join Arsinoe and Achillas. Caesar learned of

the plan and had Pothinus murdered.
+ Caesar was almost killed in a turn of the siege battle, and
conceived of the final phase of the plan that would save
them: he sent the young Ptolemy XIII, the teenager in his
golden armor, out of the palace and over to Ganymedes
(who had killed Achillas and was now leading the armies).
Grant points out that Caesar’s reasoning was that Ptolemy
was “highly motivated” not to have Arsinoe gain the upper
hand, let alone Ganymedes and the army, i.e., without him!

For months, the siege raged, September-December 48 and

further. In early March 47, rescue troops started to arrive, includ-
ing a considerable number of troops from Judea.*! This influx
awakened the loyalties of many, many Egyptian Jews, an enor-
mous number of whom had populated Alexandria as descendants
from Jacob (Israel) and his extended family (including his son,
Joseph, who came the earliest and rose to administrative power in
Egypt) who arrived in Egypt around 1876 B.c. to escape famine in
ancient Canaan.°*?

51 Josephus, Antiquities, XIV, 8, 1.

52 Free, 74. The number of Jews increased enormously over the centuries. There was the
return to Canaan through the mass Exodus or through many smaller migrations, proba-
bly between the mid-fifteenth and mid-thirteenth centuries. Two centuries before
Cleopatra, seventy-two Jewish translators were organized by Ptolemy IT Philadelphus to
translate the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible; the Pentateuch (pen’-
ay es i s Added
ta-took). This important Greek translation is kn
own to this day as the Septuagint (sep
too’-ub-jint).
 CLEOPATRA # 37

Everything shifted to Caesar’s and Cleopatra’s favor. Young

Ptolemy XIII retreated to the Nile, boarded a boat with his aides,
the boat sank, and, weighed down by his armor, Ptolemy drowned.%3
It was May 47, eight months after Pompey’s murder and
Caesar’s arrival in Egypt. Caesar—and Cleopatra—had prevailed.
Caesar left Egypt in July, leaving the country to its own rule in the
hands of Cleopatra, forgiving an enormous portion of Auletes’
debt. Cleopatra was twenty-two and seven months pregnant with
Caesar’s child. To fulfill the law, Caesar had Cleopatra marry her
youngest brother, Ptolemy XIV, aged twelve.*+
Figure 5 (page 38) is Cleopatra’s horoscope brought forward
to October 13, 48 B.c., within a few days surely of Cleopatra’s
incognito return to the palace and Ptolemy XIII’s return from
the field. It was the time that both monarchs met Caesar for the
first time. It was the time of the siege. It was the time of Cleopa-
tra’s liaison with Caesar and her impregnation. It was the time
that her co-ruling brother drowned. It was the time within the
year of her secure return to the throne and her marriage to her
youngest brother.
Cleopatra came of age.
Again, the astrological correspondence to Cleopatra’s historical
reality is extraordinary, reinforcing again and again the confidence
we should have in her birth date and time.
The preceding Lunar Eclipse takes a position within this chart
also: it occurred on July 15, 48 B.c. at 4:09 a.m. UT, at 19 Cancer/
Capricorn 2 conjunct Cleopatra’s Sun at 20 Capricorn! ‘This is extra-
ordinary emphasis. It is a statement of illumination, of full aware-
ness (Full Moon), of change (eclipse) affecting everything she
stands for. The focus would be triggered in December 48—proba-
bly when she discovered she was pregnant with Caesar’s child—by
transiting Jupiter square the natal Sun, the point of the preceding
eclipse. The accentuation of the Lunar phenomenon is inescapably
the accentuation of female and male, fecundation, Isis and Osiris.

53 Herodotus points out that to drown in the Nile gained the blessing of Osiris, conferring
god status on the victim. To offset this, Caesar located the body and paraded the golden
armor before the people to emphasize the mortal death. Grant, Cleopatra, 77.
54 Intermarriage was not a Greek way, it was an Egyptian tradition. The gods Osiris and
Isis were husband and wife and also brother and sister. This was a rationale, a blessing,
if you will, for many Pharaohs to marry their sisters. They would keep the blood-line
pure, and, Grant adds, intermarriage would diminish the number of pretenders to the
throne outside the family. Grant, Cleopatra, 26.
38 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Would this child, this tie with Caesar, extend the house of Ptolemy
to Rome, to the realm of other gods as well?
The Solar Arc of the Moon opposed Venus is exact. it speaks
of gentle things: love relationship (Venus rules the 7th) with a
foreigner (Moon rules the 9th), impregnation, heir apparent to
the monarchy.
In parallel, this Moon=Venus arc describes the political rela-
tionship with her brother, the marriage that was necessary by law.
SA Neptune square to Mars echoes this coming of age through
liaison with Caesar as well: Neptune rules the 5th and is in the 8th

Figure 5
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Cleopatra VII SA Meet Caesar
Oct. 13, 48 B.c.
 CLEOPATRA # 39

natally (children, sexuality, speculation, values) and it brings its

symbolism forward in the arc of time to a high-tension relation-
ship with Mars in Libra, relationship. This arc also suggests a
change of course of action through something unusual, secretive,
sensual, incredible.
The hard aspect of SA Mars square to natal Saturn is clearly the
combative tension with her brother Ptolemy XIII, his death, and
with her sister Arsinoe and her exile. It is the end of the line (fourth
dynamic) for this brother and this sister; Mars rules Aries on the
6th, the fourth house of Cleopatra’s sibling 3rd.*°
The transits invigorated these powerfully delineated back-
ground measurements: transiting Pluto was exactly opposed
Cleopatra’s Mercury, and transiting Uranus was exactly opposed/
conjunct her Nodal axis during the entire period: a tremendous
adjustment of her life perception, her perspective for development,
public acceptance, her image, her impact through her plans and
communication skills.
‘Two measurements cap all of these into a time capsule of mean-
ing for history: in the period January through April 47, when the
siege was ended, when Cleopatra rose up again and ascended the
throne with her brother, Ptolemy XIV, transiting Saturn (ambition,
symbol of her brother through rulership of the 3rd) was exactly conjunct
the Ascendant we have divined for the queen!
And finally, the Secondary Progressed Moon—a most telling
measurement in its time sensitivity—on October 13, the beginning
of Cleopatra’s adult life, the beginning of her tested and matured
relationship with her people, with Caesar, with her brother-hus-
band, the SP Moon was at 13 Taurus 16, precisely upon her horizon at
the 7th cusp!

55 In the analysis of Solar Arc aspects with natal planets and points, the arcing planet very
often brings into the directed relationship the significance of the natal House the arcing
planet rules; this is combined with the significance of the House holding the natal plan-
et and the House it rules. The Arcs then effect synthesis. Tyl, Prediction in Astrology.
40 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The Ides of March and Caesar’s Death

With one more look at Figure 5 (page 38), we see the pro-
gressed/directed Sun arcing at 12 Aquarius 11 applying to a square
with her Ascendant, precise in November 47. This augurs well for
her reign in its new start and for the birth of Caesar Ptolemy (Cae-
sarion), which occurred in early September 47.°° Coins were issued
to commemorate his birth and show Cleopatra suckling the infant
in the image of Isis suckling Horus.
We have noted the transit of Saturn over the Ascendant during
the culmination of the exacting time with Caesar in Alexandria. It
signalled so strongly the sense of coming of age, a critical focus of
development, involving two brothers and one sister. That transiting
Saturn would now move on and very soon oppose the powerful
Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the 7th. Cleopatra would face up
again to an extraordinary developmental period, undoubtedly
involving her “partner,” her husband/brother co-ruler or Caesar
once again and/or the general public. We can estimate that transit
time for Saturn to be 16 degrees, half a sign (normally two and one-
half years per sign, some thirty months) to be about fifteen months
after October 48. This would be January—February—March 46.
Additionally, we see the SA Midheaven applying to conjunction
with the Nodal axis, an indication of grand public exposure for a
monarch, working with others about a year away as well.
The SP Moon rising over the seventh cusp exactly in October
48 (normally at a rate of 1 degree per month) should conjoin
Uranus and Pluto in 15 or 16 months, January 46, the same time
span as transiting Saturn’s opposition with this same place. An impor-
tant time indeed.
This was certainly the time when Cleopatra was motivated to
go to Rome, to meet again with Caesar, to bring the year-old Cae-
sar Ptolemy out into the open to clarify the child’s mighty parent-
age. In addition, Grant says, “the main purpose of her visit,
however, was to continue her close personal relations with Caesar,
since it was on him, treaty or no treaty, that her whole position
depended. This was a matter about which she had reason to feel
anxious, because Caesar had other mistresses besides Cleopatra.”57

56 Grant, Cleopatra, 83-84.

57 Grant, Cleopatra, 86.
 CLEOPATRA # 41

Here we see Cleopatra’s personal fears coming to the fore-

ground: the jealousy, the insecurity—there had been no letters
exchanged between her and Caesar—and her need to have a partner
to help her with her responsibilities and her ambition. These
dimensions of Cleopatra spoke eloquently from her birth horo-
scope, as we have seen. These dimensions were now clearly and
dramatically emphasized by the transit of Saturn and the progres-
sion of the Moon.
Preparations were made, and, with Caesarion and Ptolemy XIV
(now thirteen) and a grand entourage, Cleopatra and her ships
arrived at Rome in November 46 as the progressed Moon came to
9 Gemini, precisely opposed her Jupiter in Sagittarius!.
When Caesar had left Alexandria, he had gone directly into
other battles, so heated still were Rome’s civil wars. In the year
before being able to settle down in his own capital, he established
three more victories after Alexandria. In October 46, just before
Cleopatra’s arrival, he mounted an extraordinary public pageant in
Rome, complete with floats and parades, to celebrate his four ‘Tri-
umphs. The highlight of the pageant was the parade of Egyptian
prisoner-soldiers from the siege in Alexandria. This parade was led
by Arsinoe IV, in total disgrace.
Caesar seems to have kept Cleopatra in splendid lodgings, but at
a distance. He was immensely busy and his health was failing clearly.
Grant reports that Caesar “appears to have become liable to attacks
of epilepsy, and he suffered from headaches and fainting fits.”
In January 45, Caesar left to do battle again, in Spain. He
returned eight months later, and again was ailing. He made his will
on September 13, 45, adopting as his son his grand-nephew Gaius
Octavius, who would become known as Octavian and then as Augus-
tus Caesar. It will be Octavian, after Caesar’s death, who will be in
league with Mark Antony and another Roman noble in the Second
Triumvirate. It will be Octavian who will defeat Antony and
Cleopatra at Actium and precipitate their deaths —Roman law for-
bade recognizing foreigners in a will as heirs. Therefore, Cleopatra
and their son Caesarion were not mentioned.
This must have jarred Cleopatra deeply into insecurity.
Undoubtedly she knew this stipulation of Roman law, but she also
knew well that anything was possible by the proclamation of Cae-
sar—that was a monarch’s way; it was the experience of her history.

58 Grant, Cleopatra, 91.

42 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Did she feel abandoned? Did she feel that, after all that had
happened, there would be no dream of world power through a mar-
riage between Egypt and Rome, through Caesarion? Why should
she even be in Rome? Even though Caesar surely negotiated some
respite from her anxiety, she certainly became aware of troubled
times ahead, once again.
‘Two months later, on November 7, 45 B.c. at 1:31 A.M. UT,
there was an eclipse of the Moon precisely on Cleopatra’s Ascen-
dant-Descendant axis, 13 Scorpio- Taurus.

06°IT 11'

06°21 11"

Figure 6
Lunar Eclipse — Rome
Nov. 7, 45 B.c., 1:22 A.M. LMT
Rome, Italy
12E29 41N54
Placidus Houses
 CLEOPATRA # 43

Figure 6 (page 42) shows this Lunar Eclipse from the vantage
point of Rome. The eclipse axis was tightly squared by Neptune,
ruler of the 7th House in the mundane chart. This chart becomes
exceedingly personalized, of course, if it ties in to an individual’s
natal horoscope, just as any transit picture does. This chart applies
powerfully to Cleopatra through her Ascendant, i.e., the axis of the
transit eclipse is exactly on her horizon, and transiting Neptune is
square the eclipse axis and her Ascendant. With this transiting Nep-
tune in 14 Leo, it will now apply to Cleopatra’s Midheaven in 18
Leo, usually a time of confusion, dissolution, vagueness, loss.
An eclipse is a powerful point of emphasis wherever it falls. Its
significance is triggered, if you will, by a transit—so often, Mars—
when it later comes to square, conjunct, or opposed the eclipse
point; in Cleopatra’s case, when Mars is between 11 and 15 degrees
of a Fixed sign. This would happen in the time period ahead for
Cleopatra, at the beginning of the second week ofMarch 44 B.C.
In the mundane chart for the eclipse, the power of its accentua-
tion of Cleopatra’s life is increased greatly by the Mars-Mercury
conjunction with the Sun (with her Ascendant at the time of the
eclipse). I feel that it is significant—especially in a monarch’s horo-
scope—that the epochal conjunction of Uranus and Pluto which we
studied in the heavens, in history, and in Cleopatra’s horoscope at
the outset of this rectification is now developed into a very close square
relationship. This configuration is actually a second T-Square, an
angular one of great power (Uranus=Jupiter/Pluto) suggesting a
major upset in the way things go, a time when the tables are turned.
Jupiter here joins Neptune as co-ruler of Pisces on the 7th. This
chart warns of a tremendous change of direction, a twist of fate that
will involve Cleopatra’s relationship with someone, her brother/
husband co-ruler, or indeed, Caesar.
Caesar planned another campaign. He was to leave Rome on
March 17, 44. His aim was to conquer the East, to emulate
Alexander. A meeting of the Senate was called for March 15, the
Ides of March.»*?

59 The Ides in the ancient Roman calendar were the 15th days of March, May, July, and
October, and the 13th days of all the other months. The Ides occurred eight days after the
“Nones.” The complicated Roman system for dividing the month had “Calends” on the
first, the days of new moon, with the Ides marked by the days of full moon. ‘The counting
of days was extremely complicated and pivoted upon the Ides, which were reckoned as days
before the Calends of the succeeding months. This cumbersome (and inaccurate) system
was still in use in western Europe as late as the sixteenth century A.D.! See Whitrow, 68.
44 +# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Plutarch vividly sets the scene and tells the tale: “Many strange
prodigies and apparitions are said to have been observed shortly
before this event. As to the lights in the heavens, the noises heard in
the night, and the wild birds which perched in the forum ... As Cae-
sar was sacrificing [an animal propitiation], the victim’s heart was
missing, a very bad omen ... One finds it also related by many that a
soothsayer bade him prepare for some great danger on the Ides of
March ... As he went to the senate, [Caesar] met this soothsayer, and
said to him by way of raillery, “The Ides of March are come,’ who
answered him calmly, ‘Yes, they are come, but they are not past.’”©°
Plutarch tells us of other omens, about curious turns in Caesar’s
dinner conversation the evening before regarding what sort of
death would be the best. [Caesar’s reply was, “A sudden one.”]
About how during that night, all the doors and windows of his
house had flown open together. In an enormous start, he awoke to
brilliant moonlight and saw his wife, Calpurnia, fast asleep but
groaning indistinct words.
When it was day, Calpurnia—whom he had never seen super-
stitious or so alarmed—begged Caesar not to go to the senate. He
agreed, and sought to send Antony to dismiss the senate, but a close
confidant (whom Caesar had made a second heir) who was himself
involved in the real conspiracy to kill Caesar, “spoke scoffingly and
in mockery of the diviners.” He told Caesar that the senate was
primed “to vote unanimously that he should be declared king of all
the provinces out of Italy.” What would they say, then, if Caesar
cancelled this meeting?!
As Caesar entered the anteroom to the senate, a known
philosopher and teacher who had got wind of the plot approached
Caesar and gave him a note: “Read this, Caesar, alone, and quickly,
for it contains a matter of great importance which dearly concerns
you.” Caesar tried to read it, but he was jostled and hindered by the
crowd of those who had come to speak with him, who were vying
for his attention.
Plutarch continues: “All these things might happen by chance.
But the place which was destined for the scene of this murder, in
which the senate met that day, was the same in which Pompey’s
statue stood ... showing that there was something of a supernatural
influence which guided the action and ordered it to that particular

60 Plutarch, Caesar, 239-242.

 CLEOPATRA # 45

place ... Cassius, just before the act, is said to have looked towards
Pompey’ statue, and silently implored his [Ptolemy’s] assistance.”
When Caesar entered the senate chamber, the senate rose to
greet him. The conspirators gathered closely around Caesar as he
sat down on his bench, which was probably specially large in size
and slightly elevated. One Tillius laid hold of Caesar’s robe with
both his hands and pulled it down from the neck to lower Caesar’s
head and torso. This was the signal.
Casca gave the first cut into Caesar’s neck. Caesar grabbed the
dagger, screamed in surprise, called for help. The astonishment
among the senators not included in the conspiracy (Grant says
there were sixty conspirators and that that was why the secret sure-
ly got out to some) froze them in place. The attackers stabbed Cae-
sar repeatedly as he still clutched the warning note that had been
given him, using it as well to fend off the blows. “It had been agreed
that they should each of them make a thrust at him, and flesh them-
selves with his blood; for which reason Brutus also gave him one
stab in the groin ... when he [Caesar] saw Brutus’s sword drawn, he
covered his face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall.”
Caesar had been stabbed twenty-three times, and in the hysteria of
the moment, many of the conspirators had themselves been wound-
ed by each other. When it was done, Brutus stood forth to give a
reason for the assassination, but the senate would not hear him.
With swords drawn, the conspirators roared out into the streets
to stir up a popular revolt, but the city withdrew in horror and still-
ness. Ptolemy says, strangely, that the people respected Brutus and
pitied Caesar. The senate seized control of the situation and calmed
things. They ordered that Caesar should be worshipped as a divin-
ity and that not one detail of what he had ruled during his tenure
could be revoked. At his cremation, there was much emotion, and
some citizens took flaming brands from the pyre and rushed to fire
the homes of the assassins, but they were gone. The senate had
given them duties out of the country.
Cleopatra was alone.
aig Wide

Figure 7 (page 46) shows Cleopatra’s SA directions to the time of

Caesar’s death. There is the sensitive horizon line we have estab-
lished, which absorbed the Lunar Eclipse four months earlier. Tran-
siting Neptune was applying to conjunction with her Midheaven.
46 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

SA Pluto in the 8th House (matters of death, inheritances)

exactly opposed Mercury in the 2nd (which is the eighth house of
the 7th, i.e., Caesar’s eighth). While this arc usually intensifies com-
munication, discernment, and persuasion abilities, it also demands
an adjustment ofperspective. The House placements here definitely
bring matters of death into consideration.
This deduction is strongly corroborated by SA Mercury exactly
conjunct Cleopatra’s Sun in the 3rd House. This is the press to think
about one’s ego position, to make new plans, to adjust perspective.

Figure 7
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Cleopatra VII SA Caesar’s Death
Mar. 15, 44 B.c.
 CLEOPATRA # 47

In that second week of March, transiting Saturn was in 18

Sagittarius opposed Cleopatra’s Neptune in the 8th House. Transit-
ing Mars had just squared the Lunar eclipse axis and was at 19
Aquarius 14 opposed her Midheaven and within 9 minutes of arc at
the midpoint of Venus/Midheaven, with Venus ruling her 7th and
12th. The midpoint of SA Sun/Sat, obvious to the eye at 20 Aquar-
ius was exactly upon her Venus, giving the midpoint picture of SA
Sun/Saturn=Venus, potential victimization in relationship (or love),
suppressed feelings.
What a shock this event must have been for her. She must have
felt such ominous anticipation for months ahead of time, alone,
stationed to the side of Caesar’s life, her child husband and the baby
about her as well, a country to rule in absentia, dreams to strategize
... and then the assassination of her key to security. The Tertiary
Progression horoscope—an extreme test of her birth time—for that
historical day is shown in Figure 8 (page 48).°!
It is extraordinary to see TP Moon (which advances in Tertiary
Progression about 13-14 degrees per month of life) conjunct TP
Mercury and both tightly opposed the epic Uranus (and Pluto con-
junction)! Here was Cleopatra’s specific power-experience in rela-
tion to her partner, the man in whom she trusted for her security. It
was crucial on that day and for the week thereafter (TP Moon
advances about 3 degrees per week of life). TP Venus is exactly
square to the Midheaven, a strong contact with a key angle, echoing
her natal Venus opposition to her Midheaven. In other words, ‘TP
Venus is square its natal position and the Midheaven, calling
tremendous attention to all things signified by Cleopatra’s Venus:
her partner, the 7th House, particularly.
And finally, remarkably, we see TP Midheaven (a key angle)
exactly opposed Cleopatra’s natal Sun!
And there is more: in this event analysis we have seen repeated
reference to the 7th House as representing her partner, Caesar.
Initially, we included reference to her marriage and governing

61 Tertiary Progressions are similar in principle to Secondary Progressions (one day for
one year) but equate the ephemeris listing of each day after birth to one Lunar month of
life. Tertiaries develop approximately twelve times faster than Secondaries. The key
considerations are the positions of the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, and Midheaven—and
then the planets—in relation to the natal positions. There is importance as well to the
day (month) when the Sun changes sign. Computers now make the computation of Ter-
tiaries lightning fast and accurate. They are powerful tools for specific time analysis in
astrology and in rectification. Contacts with angles are vitally important.
48 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

partner, her brother/husband, Ptolemy XIV, and we must not for-

get this.
Cleopatra is shaken to her depths. She concludes her business
(treaty, reaffirmation, etc.), gathers her entourage and returns to
Alexandria in late June 44. She surely thought constantly with all
her capacity and resourcefulness about how to secure her future,
her country’s future, the extension of the House of Ptolemy. With
Caesar gone, would Ptolemy XIV, now fourteen and one-half, be
advised in Alexandria to push his prerogatives as the male ruler to

Figure 8
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Cleopatra VII TP Caesar’s Death
Mar. 15, 44 B.c.
 CLEOPATRA # 49

usurp Cleopatra’s power; would her position be threatened? She

had no one to help her now.
Ptolemy XIV died suddenly six to eight weeks later in
August 44.
Josephus tells us twice that “she had her brother slain by private
treachery; that she had already poisoned her brother, because she
knew that he was to be king of Egypt.”©* Hughes-Hallett suggests
that there is no proof of this but that Cleopatra “can not be cleared
of suspicion.”°? Grant writes that “There is no reason to believe
that the accusation was untrue. If Cleopatra could demand the
death of her half-sister (as she did three years later), she was also
capable of murdering her half-brother. And his death was too
opportune to be accidental.”
The astrology adds conviction to the charge: Cleopatra surely
murdered her husband/brother/co-ruler. Her history was filled
with this kind of intrigue. She had seen it first hand through the
actions of her father Auletes. She had been continuously privy to
his example of self-preservation strategies. Cleopatra meant busi-
ness. Every fear of insecurity was revived within her. Ptolemy XIII
had been the same age when he was pushed by Pothinus to
demand power, forcing Cleopatra’s exile, instigating the siege.
Ptolemy XIV now was a similar threat. She was alone, but she had
Caesarion Ptolemy. Kill Ptolemy, long live Ptolemy. She poisoned
her brother and elevated her son to co-ruler, at age three, as
Ptolemy XV.
Here is the astrology: In August 44, transiting Neptune was still
squaring her Ascendant exactly and applying to conjunction with
her Midheaven. On July 2, with TP Moon having advanced to con-
join her Saturn in the 3rd, she probably determined her plan. She
then had the murder executed when the TP Moon crossed the
fourth cusp (opposed the Midheaven) and went on to conjoin
Venus, August 18-23, with transiting Mars opposed her Jupiter in
the 2nd, i.e., looking out for her best interests. Neptune, behind it all,
rules subterfuge and poison.
Neptune also rules Cleopatra’s 5th and, after she is freed of the
treacherous activity, becomes the symbol for the coronation of her

62 Josephus, Against Apion, II, 5 (58); Antiquities, XV, 4, 1 (89).

63 Hughes-Hallett, 20.
64 Grant, Cleopatra, 97-98.
50 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

baby as co-ruler: Ptolemy XV Caesar ascended to the monarchy

(10th House) through nefarious means.
With all of this, at the beginning of the new reign, Cleopatra
adjusted her titles and entitled her son/co-ruler. She eliminated her
title “Philadelphus (Brother-Loving) but kept the designations Thea
Philopator (Goddess who Loves her Father). To her son, Ptolemy
XV Caesar, was given the title Theos Philopator Philometor (God
who Loves his Father and Mother). She had these names proclaimed
everywhere and engraved on temple walls. She was the sole ruler and
the goddess Isis. Grant sees these titlings, especially the child’s, as
Cleopatra’s way of confirming that he was the sole son of Julius Cae-
sar and to imply that he was Caesar’s only true heir, diluting Octa-
vian’s—Caesar’s adopted son’s—claim to the power of lineage.
Everything was in its Capricorn place. Cleopatra was restruc-
tured if not secure. For the next three years, Cleopatra ruled
strongly and well, working her way through demanding concerns,
through the continued poor performance by the Nile and the effect
that that had on the people’s spirit and the nation’s productivity. She
was not in the limelight as before and certainly not as she would be
in her future. Out of the murky transit of Neptune over her Mid-
heaven, the Solar Arc development of her Sun to opposition with
her Midheaven in 41-40 would strengthen her monarchy (see Fig-
ure 7, page 46). The SA/SP Sun would then apply to conjunction
with her Venus—a new partnership, a new association—all when
she was twenty-eight to twenty-nine years old, as SA Moon (add 3
degrees for 3 years to the position in Figure 7 for abbreviation)
would square the mighty conjunction in her 7th House. It would
also be the time of her Saturn return and Saturn’s subsequent tran-
sit over her fourth cusp. Definitely, a dramatic, life-changing, new
level of development was soon to come.

65 Ibid., 98-99.
 CLEOPATRA # 51

Antony Enters Cleopatra’s Life

Upon the death of Caesar, Rome was confused. The highly experi-
enced and successful general, Mark Antony, was at odds with Cae-
sar’s heir, Gaius Octavius (Octavian), about rulership, almost to the
point of civil war. Eventually they joined forces with Marcus Lep-
idus, a prominent statesman and soldier: the Second Triumvirate
was established. They were a strong front against Brutus and Cas-
sius, the prime murderers of Caesar.
Both Cassius and Brutus, warring against Rome from separate
locales, solicited Cleopatra’s aid. In the light of what appears to be
callous exploitation—soliciting allegiance from the queen-mistress
of the god-leader they had just assassinated—we can wonder if Cas-
sius and Brutus thought that Cleopatra was indeed pure guile and
ambition, that she would “understand” the political stratagem of
their having killed Caesar. Did Cleopatra in her late middle-twen-
ties give that impression, inviting the overture? Is this the all-per-
vasive Capricorn Sun? Or is this the way monarchs did things then,
and Cleopatra would follow suit?
In 42 B.C., Cassius and Brutus both committed suicide. The Tri-
umvir was master of the world. Antony and Octavian divided the
world between them: Antony took the East (including Egypt); Octa-
vian took the West. Antony was forty and in age and experience had
clearly a superior edge over Octavian who was just twenty.
To recognize Antony’s rule, the Ephesians—keepers of the
Temple to Artemis, the Moon Goddess—recognized him as the
New Dionysus. Antony was now a god. Octavian was the adopted
son of a god. All of this was most serious. From the start, Octavian
was certainly intimidated by everything Antony represented. The
competition between them was extraordinary.
Antony was planning a major conquest of Parthia. He was sta-
tioned in Tarsus. He needed support and money. He summoned
Cleopatra to come to meet with him in Tarsus, on the river Cydnus.%”

66 It was agreed that Antony’s step-daughter would marry Octavian, ratifying their accord
and placing Antony and Octavian closer together within the Triumvir than either one of
them was with Lepidus.
67 Tarsus was a major city of the world, located at the extreme northwestern point of the
Mediterranean, just across the water northeast of Cyprus, in south central Turkey. It was
the meeting place of West and East, of the Greek culture and its oriental counterpart. It
had been under Persian control until Alexander took it over in 333 B.c. Antony gave
Tarsus the status of a free city. Shortly after the lives of Antony and Cleopatra, under the
rule of Octavian (who becomes Augustus Caesar), Tarsus became the intellectual center
of the world, surpassing even Alexandria and Athens.
52 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Cleopatra had met the swash-buckling, bearded, very popular,

burly Antony when she was last in Rome. It is presumed she knew
him reasonably well and liked him. She knew he was married to a
very powerful woman, Fulvia, who herself was a public figure, a
great heiress, previously married to other famous men, and was the
first woman to be on Roman coinage. And Cleopatra knew that
Antony was an unabashed philanderer.®
Knowing his reputation and background so well, Cleopatra had
every reason to plan her grand entrance into Tarsus strategically,
for specific effects. This entrance and her entire stay at Tarsus was
a pageant staged in a style of luxury that approached the unbeliev-
able. Plutarch’s account of her sailing down the Cydnus river has
entered fiction, drama, and cinema and become legend:

She made great preparation for her journey, of money, gifts, and
ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a kingdom might afford,
but she brought with her her surest hopes in her own magic arts
and charms ... She came sailing up the river Cydnus, in a barge
with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of sil-
ver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She her-
self lay all along under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus
in a picture; and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood
on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like sea nymphs
and graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the
ropes. The perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the
shore, which was covered with multitudes, part following the gal-
ley up the river on either bank, part running out of the city to see
the sight ... The word went through all the multitude, that Venus
was come to feast with Bacchus [Dionysus, Antony], for the com-
mon good of Asia.

And so had “The Goddess of Ten thousand Names, Shelter and

Heaven to all Mankind, the House of Life, the Word of God, the
Great Mother of all the Gods and of Nature, the whole of Wisdom
and Philosophy. Her magical powers were incomparable. She was
Victorius over Fate.”’°
The people—and Antony—comprehended what Cleopatra
intended: there was to be an alliance, the beginning of a sacred

68 Grant, Cleopatra, 114.

69 Plutarch, Antony, 496.
70 Grant, Cleopatra, 118; Meyer, 173.
 CLEOPATRA # 53

marriage between two great gods. We see that beginning as well in

her horoscope (Figure 9, page 54).
Shown here are the Secondary Progressed positions, with the
Moon conjunct the Midheaven, and the Sun conjunct the fourth cusp, for
Cleopatra’s arrival in Tarsus! This is a Progressed Full Moon at the
time of her meeting with Antony to capture the world.7!
The Solar Arc Moon had advanced to 28 Leo in the 10th
House, ruling the 9th, exactly square her natal Uranus-Pluto con-
junction in the 7th: all her personal needs were awakened to the power of
partnership with someone foreign in a foreign land!
‘Transiting Neptune had left her Midheaven behind and was
exactly opposite Cleopatra’s spectacular Venus, suggesting a swoon of
luxury, imagination, pageantry, and sensuality; transiting Jupiter at 18
‘Taurus was square that Venus, augmenting it greatly, and transiting
Uranus was at 8 Libra intensifying to an extreme every consideration
of Cleopatra’s Mars and its powerful mid-point structures!
This is simply an epic explosion of potentials. It is fireworks
fired for gods. And for the entire period of her arrival and negotia-
tions and romance with Antony, transiting Saturn was conjunct
Cleopatra’s Sun, crystallizing her life focus of ambition.
Antony asked for Cleopatra’s and Egypt’s personal, material,
and financial support in his grand campaigns. He got that support
in exchange for serving her demands: among them, the execution of
her sister, Arsinoe IV, whom Cleopatra had never forgiven for
establishing a force against her in 48; the execution of the high
priest of Artemis in Ephesus, because he had sided with Arsinoe (an
entreaty on his behalf spared him); the execution of the former gov-
ernor of Cyprus (which Caesar had given over to the Ptolomys);
and the execution of a Phoenician youth who was a brother-pre-
tender to her throne.
Her future had begun. And so had her end.”
pe a

71 The preceding Lunar Eclipse occurred on March 2, 41 B.c. at 3:06 UT in 9 Pisces/Virgo

35, accentuating her 4th and 10th Houses. The Saturn in that chart, at that moment was
at 20 Capricorn 53 exactly conjunct Cleopatra’s Sun.
72 Look back to Figure 7 (page 46) with the Solar Arc positions set for March 15, 44 B.c.
Note Mars on its way to Cleopatra’s Ascendant, in 10 degrees, almost 10 years, 35 B.C.
Measure SA Neptune advancing to oppose Cleopatra’s Sun in 8 degrees, 8 years, 36 B.C.
This will be a very difficult time for Cleopatra, through the Armed Forces (Mars rules
the 6th), in foreign lands (Neptune in the 9th), through her lover and their military gam-
bles together (Neptune rules the 5th). We can anticipate much confrontation and upset.
We shall see.
 ~

54 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Cleopatra and Antony returned together to Egypt in October

41. Four months later, Cleopatra realized that she was pregnant
with Antony’s child.
In March 40, they learned that the powerful and dangerous
Parthians had taken the attack to Antony’s lands on two fronts at
the same time, and Antony’s wife, undoubtedly jealous of Cleopa-
tra’s role in her husband’s life, used her power to mount a military
attack on Octavian in Italy, clearly to set Octavian against Antony,
perhaps as well to get Antony’s attention back to the homefront.
The fighting was savage and Fluvia and her forces were defeated.

SA) 282

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Cleopatra VII SP Antony at Tarsus
Aug. 1, 41 B.c.
 CLEOPATRA # 55

Antony had to leave Alexandria and Cleopatra to regain control

of his military positions and his marriage. He punished Fluvia
severely. She became ill and died. He reconciled with Octavian and
married Octavian’s very young and beautiful sister, Octavia, who
had recently (and conveniently) been widowed.”3
Antony stayed away for three and one-half years, from early 40
until the Autumn of 37. Grant observes, “Obviously, this separation
weakened her [Cleopatra’s] influence over his action.”

The First Defeat and The Donations

In November—December 40, with transiting Saturn precisely on the
fourth cusp—new beginning, new start, childbirth—of the horo-
scope we have created for her, Cleopatra gave birth to twins:
Alexander and Cleopatra. Here were Osiris and Isis reborn of Isis.
Grant makes an interesting note: “Were Antony and Cleopa-
tra—mother of his recently-born children—writing to each other
at this period, apart from official communications? Did the
Egyptian court feel obliged to send him a congratulatory message
on his wedding? All we know is that Cleopatra kept herself
informed of Antony’s doings through an Egyptian astrologer
attached to his entourage. And she gave this man the additional
task of hinting to Antony from time to time that he should win
free play for his own noble personality by detaching himself as far
as possible from Octavian.””*
During this long hiatus, Antony’s new wife became pregnant,
twice. During her second term, he sent her back to Rome and again
summoned Cleopatra to meet him in Antioch (just to the southeast
across the Gulf from Tarsus). He again needed support and money.
Cleopatra joined him. It was around October 37 (transiting Uranus
was exactly square her Saturn, an enormous reintensification of
ambition; SP Ascendant was exactly conjunct her Jupiter in Sagit-
tarius). They wintered together; Cleopatra promised Antony all her

73 All histories. Grant, Cleopatra, 123-124.

74 Grant, Cleopatra, 127. Stories about high-priest astrologers of ancient Egypt are surely
apochryphal. Whitrow, page 28: “the twelve signs of the zodiac did not appear in Egypt
until the Hellenistic period, nor is there any trace of astrological ideas there before
then.” This Hellenic period began in 332 B.c. with Alexander the Great and the House
of Ptolemy that followed. Cleopatra’s informant used Greek knowledge. Astrology’s
Claudius Ptolemy, the astrologer, lived in the early second century A.D. and was not of
the earlier royal line.
56 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

support to rebuild his fleet and to protect his interests in the

Mediterranean, but she struck a hard bargain: she in turn wanted
extensive territories in what is now Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and
southern Turkey.’°
The next years 36-35 B.C., the years we anticipated (see above to
footnote 72) came quickly. Cleopatra was again pregnant. Antony left
in May 36, mightily fortified to fight the huge, high-risk campaign
with Parthia, which had been building for years. This campaign
would be his greatest endeavor ... and begin the failures of his life.
Antony’s rear-guard and supply column of 7,000 men was
ambushed by a horde of some 50,000 horse-archers led by turncoat
allies en route to Parthia. He had to turn back, fighting all the way.
In total, he lost 20,000 men, almost half his soldiers. It was October
36. The snows began in Armenia.’°
Figure 10 (page 57) is our horoscope for Cleopatra directed to
October 30, 36 B.c., Antony’s and her time of defeat. As we antici-
pated “several years ago” (footnote 72), SA Mars came to her
Ascendant, the fighting spirit, military assertion, being in the midst
of challenge and attack. SA Neptune came to exact opposition with
her Sun, loss, disillusionment (as well as another childbirth, with
Neptune ruling the 5th). The loss of a battle or part of a kingdom
is strongly indicated as well through the Sun’s rulership of the
10th, the House of Cleopatra’s reign, authority, and queenship.
She was allied with Antony; her reputation—under extreme attack
throughout the known world—was at stake. A victory would have
stopped the propaganda. The defeat intensified it. She was to
blame for Antony’s defeat; she distracted him; she caused him to
get a late start to the East.
The SP Moon was at 0-2 Scorpio tightly square to Cleopatra’
Saturn. These were trying times.
Antony again sent for Cleopatra to meet him. She was slow in
coming because she was giving birth to their third child, Ptolemy
Philadelphus, and she needed time to put together the huge sums of
money and materiel that were required. She arrived to resurrect
Antony in Syria in January 35. ’The remnants of army reorganized,
reinforcements being gathered, Antony and Cleopatra returned
together to Alexandria in the spring.

75 Hughes-Hallett, 25.
76 Grant, Cleopatra, 147-148.
 CLEOPATRA # 57

Antony was planning yet a new offensive on Parthia but he was

diverted by Sextus Pompey, the younger son of the great dead gen-
eral, who was launching pirate attacks from his base on Sicily and
was also negotiating with the Parthians, threatening to turn with
them and with his legions against Antony. Antony sent men to pur-
sue Sextus and kill him March—August 35. The good weather was
over, and he had lost much time in this diversion.
Recuperation and refurbishment in Alexandria seem to have
taken an entire year.

Figure 10
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Cleopatra VII SA Parthia Defeat
Oct. 30, 36 B.C.
58 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

In Spring 34, Antony launched a new campaign against Arme-

nia. Cleopatra accompanied him half way. He went on and won eas-
ily. Antony plundered much. It was a major success against a
second-class foe.
In September 34, Antony returned to Alexandria, this time hol-
lowly victorious. The score to settle with the Parthians pervaded all
plans. But, in late September, there was a grand Triumphal proces-
sion, parading his prisoners before the public. (The histories tell of the
king of Armenia shackled in gold refusing to bow before Cleopatra.)
Cleopatra and Antony gave the occasion a particularly religious tone.
Antony was dressed as the god Dionysus, in a saffron robe of gold.””
Then a few days later, probably October 1, 34 B.c., there oc-
curred one of the great days of Cleopatra’s life: the Celebration of
the “Donations.” Antony awarded himself and his goddess much of
the world to be theirs forever.
Figure 11 (page 59) is our horoscope for Cleopatra and the Ter-
tiary Progressions and major transits for this grand day. Again, the
astrology is remarkable: TP Venus is exactly conjunct her Descen-
dant, suggesting the wonderful public reception and the apparent
fulfillment of her partnership with Antony. The TP Nodal Axis is
conjunct the Midheaven axis, another major angular contact, telling
us of grand public display in professional terms. The TP Ascen-
dant, Cleopatra’s developed and projected persona that month, was
square to the epochal conjunction in the 7th!
It is simply extraordinary that TP Jupiter is conjunct the Sun,
ruler of the Midheaven, and the TP Midheaven—her monarchy,
her place in the Sun—is precisely conjunct Cleopatra’s magnificent
Jupiter in Sagittarius. Additionally, her TP Moon is exactly con-
junct Saturn, the illumination and crystallization of ambition!
At the level of real time, transiting Uranus, out of the huge con-
junction in her 7th House, had transited to conjunction with Cleopa-
tra’s Ascendant! ‘Transiting Jupiter in that week of her life opposed
the great conjunction exactly! Transiting Venus on that day was
precisely square the conjunction! Transiting Mars was precisely
conjunct the Nodal axis! At exactly mid-day in Alexandria, perhaps
the time of the gala, the Moon in transit was in the first degree of
Aquarius conjunct her Saturn!!

77 Grant, Cleopatra, 161.

 CLEOPATRA # 59

We are not understating the fact that the astrology we have

developed here defines most accurately the essence of Cleopatra the
person, the timed steps of her development, and the dimensions of
her destiny. In this way, astrology can help archeology and ancient
history by providing vital information that is missing in the records
or material finds. There can be no doubt with the evidence we have
developed that Cleopatra was indeed born January 13, 69 B.c. at
2:08 hours in the morning.
Let’s celebrate with Cleopatra and Antony—there will be the
deciding battle soon, and then shortly thereafter they will be dead.

TR) 00 == 51

Figure 11
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Cleopatra VII TP Donations
Oct. 1, 34 B.C.
60 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

In a ceremony of spectacular magnificence he [Antony] declared

Cleopatra ‘Queen of Kings’ and Caesarion, her official co-ruler,
‘King of Kings’. His own children by her, the six-year-old twins
and two-year-old Ptolemy Philadelphus, were proclaimed kings
and queen. To each of these juvenile monarchs Antony granted
vast realms.’®
There, in the Gymnasium, he and Cleopatra took their places
high above the crowd, upon golden thrones set side by side on a
platform shining with silver. It was surely not the first time that
Cleopatra had worn the robes of Isis, but the identification was
particularly noted upon [by Plutarch, see below] upon this occa-
sion. And just as she was hailed as the new Isis-Aphrodite [Venus],
portraits and statues displayed Antony as Osiris-Dionysus, and it
was probably in this capacity that Cleopatra, at some time during
these years, honoured him with a temple.
At this ceremony of the Donations, there were four other thrones
set at a lower level than those of Antony and Cleopatra. One of
them was reserved for her thirteen-year-old son and royal col-
league Ptolemy XV Caesar (Caesarion). On the other thrones
were seated her three children by Antony, the six-year-old
Alexander Helios [Sun] and his twin sister Cleopatra Selene
[Moon], and Ptolemy Philadlephus who was only two. When
everyone had assembled, Antony rose to his feet and delivered an
address. What he proposed to say, he informed them, was in hon-
our of the deified Julius Caesar. Then he announced the confer-
ment of a whole series of titles, territories and overlordships upon
Cleopatra and her children.’?

In the light of Antony’s recent defeat, this would seem a self-

satisfying ceremony, Antony and Cleopatra caught up in a reli-
giously ratified, rarified aloneness. But we know the future. Their
present and their future were preoccupied with upsetting the
Parthians and completing the constant struggle with Octavian.
Now, through the epic delineation of the Donations, for the world
to know, Antony and Cleopatra “possessed” all lands east of Italy,
east of the northeastern shore of the Adriatic, the edge of the
Balkans (now what is left of northeast Yugoslavia, still a line of
division in world conflict).

78 Hughes-Hallett, 26
79 Grant, Cleopatra, 162-163. See also Hughes-Hallett, 26; Plutarch, Antony,
515.
 CLEOPATRA # 61

War with Rome

The Donations of October 1, 34 B.C. was a ceremonial attack upon
Octavian. It had an infuriating impact. Octavian openly criticized
Antony. Antony sent replies. A private one—a fragment of it—has
come down to us through Suetonius (Augustus):

Antony writes, “What’s come over you? Is it because I go to bed

with the queen? But she isn’t my wife, is she. And it isn’t as if it’s
something new, is it? Haven’t I been doing it for nine years now?
And what about you, is Livia the only woman you go to bed with?
I congratulate you, if at the time you read this letter you haven’t
also had Tertulla or Terentilla or Rufilla or Salvia Titisenia or the
whole lot of them. Does it really matter where you get a stand—
or who the woman is?”®?

The real understanding of Octavian’s pique came down to the

significance Octavian put upon Cleopatra’s child by Caesar, that
which had threatened him for eight or nine years: with that holy
name, Cleopatra certainly had designs on Rome, and, with Antony,
she now had extraordinary force at her disposal.
In addition, there were the Sibylline Books, a collection of ora-
cles of mysterious origin, preserved in ancient Rome and consulted
by the Senate in times of emergency or disaster.*! These Books had
the position and impact as would be had by the quatrains of Nos-
tradamus actually used by the National Security Agency on Capitol
Hill in Washington D.C. The verses were basically anti-Roman,

80 This is man-talk, obviously, but from a very experienced veteran of forty-eight to a very
young leader of twenty-eight. Philandering was accepted practice among men in Italy
and in Greece. Wives were kept alone and subservient. The women allowed (accepted)
to be high-spirited and extravertedly expressive were courtesans.
Sex was an exchange of admired resources. The Romans saw promiscuity as virility,
homosexuality among men as role-assertion and status reinforcement (among women,
reinforcement within loneliness). Men dallied with servants and slaves of either gender.
For the Greek mind “innate goodness had to express itself as beauty. When men loved
men, they adored flesh and virtue simultaneously.” See Ackerman, 20, 22. There are
many, many detailed references to Octavian’s bi-sexuality, insults and challenges about
his record, determinations of how much he charged to take the passive role. And much
is recorded similarly about the great Julius Caesar. Here, in Antony’s note to Octavian,
Octavian knew of what and from where Antony wrote. See Cantarella, 158-159.
81 According to Livy, there were originally nine of these books; the remaining three were
preserved in a stone chest underground in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and com-
mitted to the high priests. Octavian, later as Augustus, was to destroy most of the verses
and put the remaining ones in gilt cases under the base of the statue of Apollo. All were
lost in the fire under Nero.
62 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

pro-Greek. They spoke of a woman who would bring salvation,

about the Day of Judgment, the glorious Millennium being at hand.
Details about current battles and politics fit. Cleopatra fit.®?
Octavian communicated earnestly with Antony afterward about
how to defuse the situation. There was an enormous amount of
political intrigue with Antony trying to keep groups of senators on
his side during debate in far-off Rome.
Antony and Cleopatra went eastward to stay in Ephesus and
then in Athens, there throughout the summer of 32 B.c. The
rebuilding had placed all the sea-power of the East under Antony’s
control. Grant reports that there were 300 merchant vessels, 500
warships and in addition, 75,000 legionnaires, 25,000 light-armed
infantry, and 12,000 calvary.*? Antony divorced his wife Octavia,
and except for his hidden political ties—which were loosening
quickly—Antony was severed from Rome.
Grant reports that Cleopatra was constantly beside Antony in
all meetings and war plans. There were delays, almost as if they
didn’t know when enough was enough; or was it insecurity and fear
about what lay ahead; or perhaps it was Cleopatra’s inexperience
undermining Antony’s characteristic sureness and driving capacity
for leadership.
They appeared ready finally to seize the initiative and invade
Rome, but it was May 32. With all the war force, they could not
have reached Italy in that same summer. Antony had missed the best
time! He held up and reinforced his political machinery, instead,
having his bribe money minted in his own mint in Italy and spread
on his behalf among the influential.
In December 32, Octavian severed the Triumval tie with Antony.
This meant that, Antony was just a “private citizen, an ex-official.”
And Octavian “formally and ceremoniously—”with all possible
solemnity”—declared war against Cleopatra. “She was the ideal
national foe, the oriental woman who had ensnared the Roman leader
in her evil lucury, the harlot who had seized Roman territories, until
even Rome itself was not safe from her degenerate alien hordes.”°4

82 See Grant, Cleopatra, 172.

83 Grant, Cleopatra, 193-194.
84 Grant points out that Octavian did this (war against Cleopatra instead of Antony) to give
Antony’s supporters in Rome a chance to change their mind about their allegiance. He
ats
was trying Ba
to discharge the tensions with Antony y into
into thethe vile
vil personage of Cleopatra. See
 CLEOPATRA # 63

Tonian Sea

es, ‘Ancient
® Troy

Actium: The Final Battle

In September—October 32, Antony and Cleopatra moved to the

west to Patrae, which is on the north-northwest coastline of the
Pelopponesian peninsula (see map). They expected Octavian’s naval
force, under the brilliant admiralship of the great Agrippa, to come
directly from the West. Instead, Agrippa brought the fleet far to the
south, to Antonym, and then started to the north, clearing out An-
tony’s outpost installations along the western Pelopponesian coast-
line, which cut off his supply lines from Egypt in the south. At the
same time, Octavian crossed the Ionian Sea and landed much to the
north at Corfu and began his advance south. Antony and Cleopatra
at Patrae were now between Agrippa and Octavian.
Octavian reached Actium, and so did Antony. They were across
the narrow strait from each other. Agrippa had taken over Patrae
and was on the sea to the west.
Many of Antony’s men began to desert. He executed several of
them to dramatize a deterrent. A dysentery epidemic broke out. His
troops were sorely weakened. Antony crossed over to Octavian’s land
side, offered to do battle, but Octavian refused. More men deserted.
Early in August 31, the campaign was seriously threatened.
Antony’s two tries to get out to freedom had been put down. Health
and supplies were terrible. In a war strategy meeting, to determine
64 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

how to conduct the final battle—by land or by sea—Cleopatra pre-

vailed: it would be by sea; her ships, her money. Antony’s tie to
Cleopatra left him no option. In preparation, he gave the order to
take sails on board the craft. His reason ostensibly was to allow his
ships to pursue the Roman ships, but the reason, in fact, was to allow
him and Cleopatra to escape if the opportunity presented itself.
Grant explains that Antony’s plan was to catch the breeze that
came up in the afternoon from the west northwest (called the “Mae-
stro”), ride it to the south, around the peninsula and straight across
the Mediterranean to Egypt (a trip of ten-fourteen days). He told his
land force commander secretly to watch for his break for freedom and
then to retreat with the troops eastward by land, continuing up along
the north coastline of the Aegean into Asia Minor. One ofthe members
ofAntony’s War Council deserted and told Octavian the entire plan.®°
Antony had some 20,000 legionnaires—many ailing—on 230
ships and a plan for escape. Octavian had some 37,000 men on 400
ships and full knowledge of what to expect.
Figure 12 (page 65) is Cleopatra’s horoscope with the Solar Arc
positions for September 2, 31 B.c., the day of the Battle of Actium.
Her chart has now developed signs of terror—with more to come:
SA Pluto, with Uranus, is exactly square her Mars, delineating
extreme force, attack, effort, both hers in application and upon her in
attack (Pluto rules Ascendant, Mars rules her Armed forces). This
violence is to the loss for her Antony (partner) with Mars ruling the
6th and the 6th being the twelfth House derived from the 7th.
Solar Arc Neptune is applying to her Moon—and would increase
its position even after the battle. This is her position within duplicity
and desertion; it is bewilderment, fear, the most intense state of
insecurity. It affects her in terms of her lover and her plans for her
children since Neptune rules the Sth; indeed, it affects every grand
thought she has ever had about herself as goddess (in the 9th).
Cleopatra is distraught. She sees the end.
SA Saturn has just squared Jupiter, normally a conviction of
what is right. She had been/would be dogmatic about it, the issues
and strategies. It was her decision to mount this entire campaign,
now in its seventeenth month. It was her decision to meet Octavian
on the sea instead of on land.

85 Grant, Cleopatra, Chapter 12. (Desertion and duplicity color so much of this
saga,
promised by the Uranus-Pluto conjunction chart analysis; recall pages 13-14.).
 CLEOPATRA # 65

Cleopatra’s Tertiary Progressions (not shown here) on this day of

battle place her Sun precisely upon her Neptune, a severely specific
echo of her sense of ego loss at this moment, the dimensions of
deception surrounding her, and her awareness within her spirit that
all was lost—but not a// would be: TP Jupiter was retrograde upon her
natal Sun. Here was out-and-out luck. On this day, she would escape.
The battle plan was for the ships to come side by side to one
another, with the infantry men marauding over the deck.
Antony’s entire fleet came out from the little gulf and formed a
crescent arc along the west coast. Octavian’s ships lined up similar-
ly facing them a mile or so off shore in the west!

Figure 12
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Cleopatra VII SA Actium
Sept. 2, 31,B.c.
66 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Agrippa held back, wanting to bring Antony’s ships out into the
sea so that he could outflank them, squeeze them in, board and con-
quer. It was “about mid-day” when Antony attacked [remember the
rescue wind expected in the late afternoon]. With great patience,
Agrippa pulled back, luring Antony further out. They met. The
battle raged.
Imagine all those ships, all the noise, the passion, the fear, the
intense summer heat. As Octavian and Agrippa surrounded Antony
and Cleopatra—her ship laden with jewels and gold, all that was left
of the support funds—there was a break in the middle of the col-
lapsing arc-lines of ships. Cleopatra’s “squadron” passed through
first Antony’s center then Octavian’, raised sails, picked up the
anticipated strong breeze and veered south. Antony followed right
behind her, and they had a head start to freedom.
Antony’s naval force could not escape. Many surrendered or
were taken; the remaining suffered through the night and gave up
in the morning. His great land force was overtaken by Octavian
and surrendered.*°

The Suicides of Antony and Cleopatra

Antony delayed his arrival at Alexandria by going first to a Greek
enclave in northern Egypt to allow Cleopatra to enter Alexandria
alone, to calm things if necessary and prepare politically for his
arrival. Their defeat meant the defeat of Egypt. News would not
have reached Egypt before her, but he was thinking well ahead.
Here we get another insight into Cleopatra’s penetrating intelli-
gence, her sense of image, and creative strategy: she decorated her
ships with garlands as if she had been victorious!
As soon as she had things under control, the news did arrive
and, according to historical record (Dio), she slew many important
personages who, disliking her and her adventures, were pleased
with her disaster—before they could work against her. She then
proceeded to gather vast funds to outfit her forces yet once again
and to align allies for her and for Antony.

86 Grant points out that Antony fought the battle not to win but to escape, Cleopatra, 212.
He still had sixty ships out of 230, with him and elsewhere, and there would be another
day to fight.
 CLEOPATRA @ 67

Antony arrived deeply depressed and brooding. He isolated

himself. The sense of death was in the air; it was in his talk; in the
next battle, they might not be so fortunate to escape. Cleopatra
took charge. She sent her co-ruler son, the King of Kings, Ptolemy
XV Caesar, off to India to study.®’ She prepared her own escape to
India, to found a new oriental kingdom. She was not quite thirty-
nine years old. It was probably mid-November 31.
Octavian calmed upheavals in Rome stirred by veteran soldiers
who wanted their pay. Octavian’s treasury was very low because of
the uprisings and Actium, and he determinedly coveted the treasury
of Egypt, the last horde of fortune remaining in the Mediterranean
not under Rome’s control.
Octavian left Italy in January 30 B.C. and went to Syria. Herod
in Judea and many others all turned sides (they were part of
Antony’s “East”) and joined with Octavian. His way was now clear
to the very gates of Egypt.
Cleopatra tried to deal with Octavian. She told him she would
abdicate if her children could inherit the throne. Antony offered
a huge sum of money. A bribe was sent. There was no reaction
from Octavian.*®
Octavian advanced to an eastern suburb of Alexandria. There
was a skirmish with an advanced cavalry force, and Antony won. He
rewarded one of the soldier heroes, and that night, that hero defect-
ed to Octavian! Antony sent bribes tied to arrowshafts shot over the
palace walls into the encampment of Octavian’s men. Antony even
offered to settle everything through single hand-to-hand combat
with Octavian!

On Fuly 26, 30 B.C. at 11:31 A.M. UT there was a Lunar Eclipse.

The eclipse took place at 29 Cancer-Capricorn 35, almost precisely
conjunct Cleopatra’s natal Moon-Saturn axis; her Moon at 28 Can-
cer 53 and her Saturn at 0 Aquarius. Cleopatra would be dead in sev-
enteen days.

87 Plutarch tells us that, on the way to India through Aethiopia, Ptolemy XV Caesar was
persuaded by a turncoat tutor (named Rhodon) to turn back, since Octavian planned to
make him king! When the boy returned to Alexandria, Octavian was advised, “Too many
Caesars are not well.” So afterward, when Cleopatra was dead, Ptolemy XV was killed.
No Caesar’s son threatened any more the new Caesar to be. Antony, 531.
88 Grant, Cleopatra, Chapter 13.
68 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

On August 1, 30 B.c., Antony sent his fleet out to take on Octa-

vian’s. Antony’s men deserted.
Antony sent his ground troops out. Antony’s men deserted.
Octavian occupied the palace and all of Egypt. This was the
“sreat month,” the holiday Rome would observe in times to
come for having been rid of its grimmest peril, the madness cre-
ated by Cleopatra’s whoring strategies. Josephus and all histori-
ans after him report Octavian’s commemoration of this victory
through his choice of this month’s name for his imperial title:
Augustus Caesar.
Cleopatra barricaded herself in her mausoleum with her
treasure, hoping against reality that she still could negotiate
her freedom.*?
Grant records:

A report came to Antony that she had committed suicide. She was
said to have sent the news herself in order to persuade him to do
likewise, but perhaps she had dispatched some other incoherent
message which was misunderstood. At all events Antony believed
that she was dead, and ordered his servant Eros to kill him too.
But Eros turned the blade upon himself: so Antony took another
sword and plunged it into his own body.

Antony’s stomach wound was not immediately mortal. Plutarch

continues:

“... and the flow of blood ceasing when he lay down, presently he
came to himself, and entreated those that were about him to put
him out of his pain; but they all fled out of the chamber, and left
him crying and struggling, until Diomede, Cleopatra’s secretary,
came to him, having orders from her to bring him into the mon-
ument [where Cleopatra was].”
Antony was transported to the mausoleum and had to be hoisted
with “ropes and cords” up to the higher floor since the door was
heavily barricaded.
“Those that were present say that nothing was ever more sad than
this spectacle, to see Antony, covered all over with blood and just
expiring, thus drawn up, still holding up his hands to her, and lift-
ing up his body with the little force he had left.

89 With her were her lady-in-waiting Charmion, Iras her hairdresser, and a eunuch. All
histories.
 CLEOPATRA # 69

“When she [and her attendants] had got him up, she laid him on
the bed, tearing all her clothes which she spread upon him; and,
beating her breast with her hands, lacerating herself, and disfigur-
ing her own face with the blood from his wounds, she called him
her lord, her husband, her emperor.” (Antony, 529.)

Antony was dead.

Octavian’s men entered the mausoleum as Antony had been lift-
ed, using their own ropes, and captured Cleopatra. Plutarch tells us
that Cleopatra was ill with fever from the self-inflicted beating and
scratches incurred during her hysterical agony over the dying
Antony. Octavian went to meet with her to assess the treasury.
[Imagine that meeting, all the currents of anxiety, rumor, lust,
death, money!] She asked for her freedom, her last negotiation; he
said little in return. It is thought he did not know quite how to end
the situation and that he hoped she would kill herself.
On August 12, probably in mid-morning, Cleopatra was given
permission to visit Antony’s tomb. It would surely have taken three
or four hours to make herself presentable, to restore a semblance of
the queen, let alone the poise of Isis, to get her thinking straight
about what she would do that day. The visit to Antony’s tomb would
have been heart wrenching, with oglers studying her every move
and listening to the lamentation of her oratory over his sepulchre,
which Plutarch quotes at length. And, “having made these lamenta-
tions, crowning the tomb with garlands and kissing it,” perhaps two
hours later, Cleopatra repaired to her quarters.
Plutarch records that she bathed and had a sumptuous meal.
We can imagine that meal taking place between 6 and 7 P.M. She
then prepared a letter for Octavian, asking to be buried “in the same
tomb” with Antony. She dispatched the sealed letter to Octavian.
When he read it, he knew the situation was soon to end itself.
We can imagine Cleopatra then, shortly after 9 P.M., retrieving
the vial of poison that almost assuredly was part of her toilette, a
monarch’s safeguard against capture at any time, certainly a threat
at all times within her last two years of constant fear and exposure.
She had poisoned her brother Ptolemy XIV and perhaps others.
She anticipated poison every time she began a meal. Poison was a
woman’s way. Poison is Neptune.
We can imagine her last warm discussions with Iras and Char-
mion. Resigned, less fearful, probably sure in her mind that she was
70 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

going into an eternal time of hymns and light. We can imagine the
loving acknowledgment that her faithful attendants were preparing
to accompany her in death. We can imagine her last attentive assess-
ment of how she would appear when she would be found, lying on a
bed of gold, dressed in a flowing gossamer evening veil, arranged
among her most precious jewels, with her ladies dead at her feet.
Probably some fifteen minutes after ten o’clock that night,
Cleopatra ended an era of 300 years and the House of Ptolemy.
Cleopatra departed history and entered legend.
Figure 13 (page 71) is the chart for the probable time of
Cleopatra’s suicide on the established date of August 12, 30 B.C.
With all the astrology study we have made in parallel with the
major events of her life, we have seen time and time and time again
exactness that is extraordinary, especially involving the Sun, Moon,
the angles, Saturn and Neptune, at levels of Directions, Progres-
sions, and Transits. This chart is similarly startling.
Transiting Moon at 20 Virgo is exactly squaring transiting Sat-
urn, which is conjunct Cleopatra’s natal Neptune. This transiting
Moon has just begun to separate from a conjunction with Neptune
about 14 hours earlier at the beginning of Cleopatra’s final day.
It is intriguing to note that transiting Pluto in this death chart at
23 Cancer is exactly opposed Saturn in the “Cleopatra Conjunction”
chart, the signal of an epoch, analyzed on page 15. Transiting Pluto is
in the 12th of that chart, and Saturn in that chart is in the 8th. And
now at the moment of the end, the significators show the loss of all.
Figure 14 (page 72) is our final chart, Cleopatra’s horoscope
with the Solar Arc positions to her last day. One final time, the sym-
bols speak a validity that challenges belief: her SA SP Sun, within 1
minute of arc(!) is exactly square the dominantly all-powerful Pluto
of the “Cleopatra Conjunction.” SA Neptune, the disappointment,
the lamentations, the martyrdom of suicide, the poison of it all, is
conjunct her all-consuming Moon, her reigning need for personal
and national security.
The Secondary Progressed Moon was at 19 Capricorn 43 con-
junct her natal Sun.
And in her ‘Tertiary chart for this moment, the TP Moon is
exactly opposed her Neptune, and her TP Midheaven—her place in
the sun upon that last day—is exactly opposed her Moon!
sash
t bas
 CLEOPATRA @# 71

Grant believes Cleopatra poisoned herself. He points out that

she and her doctor, named Olympus, were close to the Alexandria
School of Medicine and were well informed about poisons of
every kind.
It is recorded everywhere that the only marks on her body were
two little pricks on her arm. In the light of Plutarch’s extensive
detailing of Cleopatra’s wailing and self-flagellation over Antony’s
body and a tantrum struggle with Octavian, it is interesting that no
other marks were recorded. Perhaps they were but have become

20°V§ 01'

20°6 01"

Figure 13
Cleopatra’s Suicide
Aug. 12, 30B.c., 10:14 P.M. LMT
Alexandria, Egypt
29E54 31N12
Placidus Houses
72 ¢ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

lost in the surrealism that took over portrayal of her death, isolating
the smallish snake (which Isis is sometimes portrayed with, coiled
about her arm) as the tool of her death, ravishing Cleopatra’s lan-
guid body in an opulent boudoir, the final tryst.
While the bite of the Nile asp (a small cobra) was sometimes
used for capital punishment in Alexandria—most painless and
humane—we must appreciate that the archetypal phallic symbolism
of the snake fit in well with the sordid propaganda about Cleopatra
that had become extreme by her death and has continued to this
day throughout dramatists’ and poets’ fancy, painters’ canvas, and

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Cleopatra VII SA Suicide
Aug. 12, 30 B.c.
 CLEOPATRA # 73

movie-makers’ marketing concepts. A story was created about how

the snake was smuggled to her in a basket of figs; but there was no
snake to be found when she was discovered dead.
When Octavian had read her note, he knew what was happen-
ing. He sent messengers to her to see. They arrived just as the deed
had been done. And Plutarch now ends our search for, our study
and discovery of Cleopatra: “but on opening the doors they saw her
stone-dead ... and Charmion, just ready to fall, scarce able to hold
up her head, was adjusting her mistress’s diadem. And when one
that came in said angrily, ‘Was this well done of your lady,
Charmion?’ ‘Extremely well,’ she answered, ‘and as became the
descendant of so many kings;’ and as she said this, she fell down
dead by the bedside.”
74 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Bibliography

Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of Love. New York: Random House,

1994.
Aldred, Cyril. The Egyptians. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987.
Bao-Lin Liu and Fiala, Alan D. Canon of Lunar Eclipses 1500 B.C.—A.D.
3000. Richmond, VA: Willmann-Bell, Inc., 1992.
Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Mummy. New Jersey: Wings Books/Random
House, 1989.
Cantarella, Eva. Bisexuality in the Ancient World. New Haven, CN: Yale
University Press, 1992.
Carter, C. E. O. An Introduction to Political Astrology. London: Camelot
Press, 1951 (1969).
Drews, Robert. The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Cat-
astropbe CA. 1200 B.c. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Free, Joseph P. Archaeology and Bible History. Grand Rapids, MI: Zonder-
van Publishing House, 1969.
Grant, Michael. Cleopatra. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.
. The Ancient Mediterranean. New York: Meridian/Penguin,
1969.
Green, Peter. Alexander ofMacedon. Berkeley, CA: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1991.
Guerber, H. A. Greece and Rome: Myths and Legends. London: Studio Edi-
tions Ltd., 1994
Holroyd, Stuart and Lambert, David. Mysteries of the Past. London:
Bloomsbury Books, 1992.
Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. Cleopatra—Histories, Dreams and Distortions. New
York: Harper Perennial, 1991.
Josephus, The Works, translated by William Whiston. Hendrickson Pub-
lishers, 1944.
Meyer, Marvin W. Editor. The Ancient Mysteries—A Sourcebook. Harper-
SanFrancisco, 1987.
Michelsen, Neil F. The Tables of Planetary Phenomena. San Diego: ACS
Publications, 1990.
Oxford Classical Dictionary, Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1970.
 CLEOPATRA @# 75

Peck. Editor. Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. New

York: Cooper Square Publishing Inc, 1955.
Plutarch. The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Vol I. New York:
The Modern Library, 1992.
Seldes, George, Editor. The Great Thoughts. New York: Ballantine, 1989.
Tyl, Noel. Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn
Publications, 1994.
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1991.
Whitrow, G. J. Time in History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Personal correspondence and conversation with the eminent historian

Michael Grant; Hellenic History Professor Robert A. Hadley; distin-
guished Egyptologist Robert Bianchi; Amid Nuby-Moussa with the
Egyptian Embassy in Washington D.C.; and Dr. Andrea McDowell of
Johns Hopkins University, Middle East Studies.

Specialized references at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chica-

go, the Mullen Library at Catholic University, and the Woodstock
Library at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
76 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Index

Achillas, 36 Cleopatra to Antioch, 55

Actium: the final Battle, 63-66 Cleopatra to Tarsus, 51
Alexander, | Cleopatra with Antony, 51
Alexandria, the city, 1 Cleopatra with Antony in
Aloneness, 22 Alexandria, 57
Ambition, 18 Cleopatra with Caesar, 3, 9, 18,
Amethyst, 6, 9 2224, 35530
Antony as Osiris, 54 Cleopatra’s men, 23
Antony at odds with Octavian, 50 Cleopatra’s suicide, 70-71
Antony deeply depressed, 67 Cleopatra’s twins with Antony, 60
Antony defeated en route to Cydnus, the river, 51
Parthia, 56 Desertion, 16, 32, 63
Antony’s forces, 62, 63-64 Donations Ceremony, 58, 61
Antony’s suicide, 68 Exile, 32-33
Arisnoe, murdered, 54 Grandeur, 6
Arsinoe, sister and rival, 35-36, 40 Hermes, 6
Asp as viper or phallic symbol, 72 Hieroglyphs, 2
Augustus, 67 Ides of March, 43
Auletes (Ptolemy XII), Cleopatra’s Intermarriage, 4, 9, 36
father, 8 Internationalism, 10
Auletes and murder, 29 Isis, 7, 9,235 39959,.60;.69
Auletes, Cleopatra’s father, 3, 8, Jews in Egypt, 36
27, 28-30, 49 Julius Caesar, 34
Auletes’ death, 30, 32 Lunar Eclipse preceding Caesar’s
Auletes’ debt, 26, 28, 36 death, 41
Berenice IV, Cleopatra’s sister, 30 Lunar Eclipse, preceding
Birth Date deductions, 8 suicide, 61
Brutus, assassin, 42, 45 Mental Profile, 26
Brutus, assassin/suicide, 50 Midpoint Pictures, 24
Caesar, Julius, 40 Moon goddess, 6
Caesar, Julius, omens before Moon speed and intelligence, 25
death, 43 Nose, the Ptolemy, 3
Caesar under siege, 35 Octavian as son of a god, 51
Caesar’s assassination, 43 Octavian, attack on, 54
Caesarion, 36, 39, 40, 49-50, 60 Octavian, Caesar’s nephew, 41
Caesarion, not mentioned in Octavian declares war on
Caesar’s will, 41 Cleopatra, 62
Cartouche, 2 Octavian raids Alexandria, 67
Casca, assassin, 44 Octavian severs Triumvir, 62
Cassius, assassin, 44 Octavian’s fear and anger, 61
Cassius, assassin/suicide, 50 Octavian/Agrippa’s strategy at
Champollion, Jean-Francois, 2 Actium, 62, 63
Cleopatra and Antony escape at Osiris, 7
Actium, 65 Parthia, 23,31, 51
Cleopatra becomes Queen, 29 Pearls, 6
 CLEOPATRA @# 77

Pharos Lighthouse, 1, 35 Ritual and religion, 10

Pompey, Sextus, 57 Roman trip, first time, with
Pompey the Great, 33, 44 Auletes, 29
Pothinus, 8, 9, 32, 34, 35, 36, 49 Rome, second trip, as Queen, 40
Propaganda, Roman, 23 56, 69, 72 Rosetta Stone, 2
Ptolemy I, Soter, 1 Second place to brother, by law, 30
Ptolemy XI, and debt, 8 Security needs, 10, 18, 40, 41
Ptolemy XI, murdered, 8 Sensuality, 21
Ptolemy XII, Auletes, 3 Sybylline Books, 61
Ptolemy XIII, brother, 9, 18, 27 Tarsus, 51
Ptolemy XIII drowns, 36 Titles, Pharaonic nicknames, 4,
Ptolemy XIII, her brother, 30, 31, 31, 49
49 Traits, outstanding, 5, 6, 7, 9, 18,
Ptolemy XIV, brother/husband, 19 26
Ptolemy XIV, brother/husband, Triumvirate, the First, 21, 33
co-ruler, 35, 36 ‘Triumvirate, the Second, 41, 50
Ptolemy XIV, dead (poisoned), Tryphaena, Cleopatra VI, her
47, 49, 69 sister, 30
Ptolemy, XIV, her brother, 9, 40 Uranus-Pluto conjunction, 13-15
Ptolemy XV (Caesarion) to Virgin Queen, 23
India, 66 Young, Thomas, 2
Ptolemy XV, Caesarion, 49 Zero Aries Point, 22
 Francis of Assisi
Most Humbled of Men

| n early biographical accounts of An astrological

Francis, there is an insistent compar- : :
ison made between his birthplace, rectification of
Assisi, 150 miles north of Rome, and the birth year,
ancient Babylon. Both cities were cor- date, and time
rupt, politically fractured, and war-torn.
In Assisi, let alone throughout Italy, the of Saint Francis
Church did not help matters: it was a oe
shell of neglected ideals. The papacy had TAS
risen to its apogee of self-indulgent *
material splendor, and its priests, for the
most part, were heretical, self-serving, drunken revelers, and con-
niving, commercial opportunists.
Assisi was a small hill town in Umbria. It was older than Rome
and, for hundreds of years into the early thirteenth century, cer-
tainly due to its central geographic position within the shinbone
of Italy’s bootleg, was continuously at the center of bloodily
exploiting feudalism. War was a condition of life in every city of
Italy, and especially in Umbria and Tuscany where each hill
fortress and municipal fiefdom competed for dominance of trade
routes and for the favors of Rome. Perversely, war was “a sign of
liberty, a joy of living. Even faith in God could not be sustained
without military skill.”!

1 Fortini, 253-255, 244, 53.

79
80 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Francis was born into such times. War was all about him. He
was rich and privileged through his father’s position as a successful
cloth merchant; he had everything he could want, and he was
“proud of spirit, in accordance with the vanity of the world.”” As a
young man, Francis had a great confidence, a broad, uninhibited
swagger. He spent his money recklessly. He was very popular with
his peers: his social poise, musical talents, and persistent cheerful-
ness charmed everyone. He loved revelry and song. His youth was
golden; he was the life of everyone’s party, an inspired troubadour,
a seductive romantic; and he dreamed of becoming a Knight. He
would survive the socio-political oppression; he would be free to
make life meaningful, be would be personally significant. His
clothes would be beautiful and his sword would be noble. In his
own words, “the whole world will someday bow before me and pay
me homage!”
Knighthood—which we associate historically in its pure, chival-
ric form with France—did not develop significantly in Italy. It
remained an intriguing but foreign ideal. While there were few
damsels in distress in Italy, as it were, there were instead treaties
being violated, populations tortured and mutilated, cities sacked
and burned. Abbots of the Church were also caught up in the feu-
dal pattern; they were more often warriors for conquest than sav-
iors of the spirit. For Francis, then, his hero of all heroes was the
French Knight Gautier de Brienne, the conqueror of a kingdom,
the rescuer of a widowed queen and her daughter from a dark
prison, the courageous and ardent lover of a beautiful lady—the
complete heroic ideal. He, Francis, would become such a man of
adventure: “He would leave one day and ¢o forth to find his love in
a far-off land. He would put an all-white ensign on a fine ship. He
would become a Crusader. He would scale mountains covered with

2 Celano, I, #1. Brother Thomas of Celano was an eyewitness of much of Francis’ life,
having become a Brother in the Franciscan Order some seven years after it began.
Thomas was the first biographer of Francis, by commission from Pope Gregory IX upon
canonization of Francis on July 16, 1228, two years after his death. Thomas’ actual
descriptions of Francis in his youth are harsh, quite possibly in hyperbole that was part
of biographers’ style in that day, especially by/of the spiritually aware. Yet, all histories
make the point that Francis was exceedingly cheerful, generous, kindly, creatively poet-
ic, and musical, and indeed lived clearly in the direction of hedonism. Fortini called
Francis “Lord of the Merrymakers,” 129-137.
3 Cristiani, 24. Such pompous statements by Francis—so full of himself, if you will—are
recorded by all biographers of Francis but are excused as tongue-in-cheek, as “a day-
dream of Francis’ poetic soul.” The biographers see these statements as prophetic of his
life to come, when Francis becomes the holiest of men.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 81

perpetual ice, go through seas beyond every known limit. He would

conquer a splendid kingdom.”*
After his military service in Assisi’s war with Perugia and his
painful imprisonment,’ Francis and a companion who shared the
dream of valor began their journey to enlist themselves into the ser-
vice of Count Gautier de Brienne, to win their knighthood within
his ideal. Francis’ “eyes shone with joy ... ‘I know that I’m going to
become a great prince.’”®
Not far along on their trip to France, Francis was stricken with
a severe fever and had a vision, and he began to learn that there was
possibly a different path to fulfillment of his dreams for personal
significance. He turned back to Assisi. Coincidentally, at about the
same time, the good Count Gautier’s own knightly career came to
an end in a besieged castle; he was “transfixed by an incredible
number of arrows.” The dream was gone; a different knighthood
would now present itself to Francis.
40 Apis

Ecco il Santo! Ecco il Santo!! “There’s the saint! Here comes the
saint!!” Children squealed with carnival excitement; their parents
craned their necks out of windows; people scurried out of their
homes to watch, to ogle, to listen, with rapt attention, to the poorest,
dirtiest, most dreadful beggar they had ever seen. This Francis owned
nothing. He spent long times alone in caves. He was known to pray
constantly—for hours or days on end—talking intimately with God.
His joys were deprivation and rebuke. He acknowledged and demon-
strated time and time again that he was more lowly than a leper.’

4 Fortini, 144-145. Francis heard this grand tale about Count Gautier from his merchant
father, Bernardone (big Bernard), who traveled often on the Via Francesca to France to
do business. From the gathering of merchants there, Bernardone learned news of the
world and brought it home to Assisi.
5 This particular bloody clash between Assisi and Perugia (a much larger hill town, seven-
ty miles to the north), two cities continuously at war, lasted approximately eighty-nine
years beginning in approximately 1200, when Francis was nineteen or twenty years old.
Francis was imprisoned by the Pergugini in the Autumn of 1202. The Grand Crusade to
which he had aspired, the Fourth Crusade (1202-04), was taking place at this same time:
the Knights Templar, fighting to recover Christian holy places from the Moslems, laid
bizarre siege upon Constantinople, a city allied to the cause. Out of these many Crusades
from 1095-1290 issued a spiritual insanity that eventually brought about mass suicides
among people walking across Europe, desperately lost, fighting pilgrimage battles, seek-
ing through martyrdom some significance for their lives and a link with the Christ. See
Goodrich, 179.
6 Cristiani, 26.
7 Cristiani, 31, and all histories.
82 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Francis’ strong, beautiful voice was so often raised in song; his

melodies in praise of God would bring people to surround him.
Birds would still their own songs and listen from the rooftops and
from the fountain in the piazza.
Francis wore no sandals, he had no staff; only a miserable gray-
cloth sack-covering cordoned with a piece of rope covered his slight
body, his lean, delicate, pained flesh.®
Francis degraded and humiliated himself and practiced pitiable
self-sacrifice to extremes that defy belief. In the beginning of his
private crusade, Francis was indeed thought insane. He was aber-
rant. He had suddenly become the antithesis of what he had been.
Assisi’s most popular, shining youth was now a madman on the very
streets and among the very friends he had known all his life. He was
an untouchable—wntil he was endorsed extraordinarily by Pope
Innocent III, the greatest prelate of the Middle Ages, until he suc-
cessfully rebuilt churches stone by stone, until his miracles of loving,
faith, and healing became known everywhere, until his following
grew to number many thousands in many lands.
Drawn by Francis’ captivating words, his sermons that
promised God’s eternal love, people gave away all trappings of their
material life to live with Francis, according to his Rule, only for
God and Godliness. They gave up on their miserable mundane life.
They abandoned war. They became embarrassing examples for the
wanton priesthood. The public’s jeers turned to respect and awe.
Francis’ famous greeting of Pax et Bonum, “[May God give you]
Peace and Goodness,” ceased to be laughable, outrageous, or
absurd. People gradually began to understand, to re-find the for-
gotten principles and ideals of the life of Jesus. Spirits rose again,
and, through Francis, the Church was revived. And then ... Assisi
was called the new Jerusalem, “clothed in light.”?
These are two portraits of the same man. One is an identifica-
tion with rich, ribald freedom achieved through Knightly might;
the other is an identification with surreal, spiritual freedom through

8 Thomas of Celano, a writer of great artistry, portrays with words Francis’ appearance in
sharp detail, as vividly as if by painter’s brush. All descriptions of Francis throughout this
study come from Brother Thomas’ portraiture. See Celano, I, #83 particularly; quoted
by Fortini, 325.
9 Fortini, 87, note k. The reference is made from Isaiah 60, Song of Triumph for Zion.
Dante and other authors made these references to Francis’ Assisi. The imagery of the
“light,” the sun, is pervasive in Francis’ life, and culminated in the composition of his
Canticle to the Sun during the days preceding his death.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 83

ascetic humility. Each state is entirely antithetical to the other. And

as we shall see, the change in Francis—the conversion—was “so
incredibly sudden.”
As we have noted, the era into which Francis was born was a
time of arch-suffering, which was given neither explanation, nor
meaning, nor hope by the Church. For the people, their sense of
self was lost. Loneliness, frustration, and supplication were poured
into the records of religious art as the agonies of the spirit embod-
ied in the crucified Corpus Christi. Jesus, the Son of God, had
indeed been sacrificed by God the Father to atone for all the sins of
mankind. In acknowledgment of their suffering and His sacrifice,
mankind identified poignantly with Jesus. Mankind could find
meaning within life. Through the crucified Jesus, mankind could
find salvation with the Father.!°
Francis would pray most of his lifetime for this complete empa-
thy with Christ. His identification with suffering would go to the
ultimate degree, to manifesting (receiving) the wounds of Christ on
the Cross upon his own body, the stigmata, during an ecstatic vision
two years before his death.
The duality of Francis’ identity—the confusion and change—is
evident even in relation to his birth date. There is unanimous
agreement among the hundreds of biographers of Francis that he
was born late in the month of September but no one knows if the
year was 1182 or 1181. Some authors begin their work with one
year and slip into the other in later references.
Francis was born while his hot-headed, hard-working father,
Bernardone Moriconi, was off on his seasonal buying trip to Cham-
pagne in France. Francis’ mother, Pica, portrayed as pious and
“fully attuned to the things of God,” had her newborn son baptized
as Giovanni, in homage to John the Baptist, establishing a power-
ful, conscious link between her son and the life of Jesus.!!

10 Paul Tillich (1886-1965), the eminent German-born theologian, made a strong premise
for the fact that, in times of great terror, such as Francis’ time in the Middle Ages, which
endured the Crusades and so many dynastic wars like the ones between Assisi and Peru-
gia, great religious myths would come to the foreground to suggest something beyond
suffering, something possible through suffering. It was a sur-reality “beyond the stress of
battle, corpses, death, hatred, and cold revenge.” Tillich’s most famous work, Courage to
Be, puts forth that the anxieties of death, meaninglessness, and guilt are the great con-
cerns of all individuals. Goodrich, xxi, and personal study with Tillich at Harvard.
11 Fortini reports that all biographers are in agreement about Pica’s piety. As well, “the
people of the city believed that Pica had the God-given grace of being able to foretell the
future.” (Page 87.)
84 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

When Bernardone returned on the Via Francesca from France,

he objected to his son being named after an ascetic, a man of the
desert, this madman John the Baptist. His son was to be a power-
ful businessman in his father’s footsteps! He changed Giovanni's
name away from the ascetic’s image to a name representing all
things good, refined, and profitable: the boy would be called
Francesco (the Frenchman), and he would learn French as a sec-
ond language.!?
What can we anticipate astrologically to capture the extraordi-
nary, mystical division that emerged in Francis’ identity? In studies
of the stigmata from Francis to present times (much more about
this later), the disposition to multiple personality is apparently so
very closely linked with the empathic suffering “that they could be
two different aspects of the same phenomenon.”!
Is there an extreme alteration of consciousness triggered by the
harsh life of Francis’ times, i.e., in Jung’s terms, a dynamic existence
or effect not caused by an arbitrary act of will?!* Do the incessant
praying for empathy with Christ’s suffering, the protracted fasting,
the mortification of the flesh, and the self-inflicted torture of such
a severe religious life create, perpetuate, and enhance an ecstatic
state of divine grace in the mind? What might suggest this in
the horoscope?
Is there a pathological state of self-hate present, bent on ulti-
mate self-destruction, rationalized en route as a religious experience
of the highest order? What would be the tensions that suggest such
personality implosion and destruction?
Is there something here that is truly mystical experience
extreme in personal manifestation, caused by highly specialized
reaction to highly personalized pressures? Astrologically, what
would the disposition to such reaction be?
The division of personality could lead us to look for empha-
sized double-bodied signs in Francis’ astrology, a psychodynamic
interplay of different directions or levels within conflicting need

12 Fortini, 88-89. In the Middle Ages, it was thought that one’s name influenced one’s life.
Rather than every mention of his son’s name recalling a desert-hermit who had dressed
in sackcloth and eaten locusts and wild honey, the new name would create an image of
fortune made through French wares, wools, and silks.
13 Harrison, quoting Ian Wilson, The Bleeding Mind, 18.
14 Jung, 4. Relating his discussion to Rudolf Otto’s term, “numinosum,” that whichis
external in orientation and seizes control of the subject as its victim.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 85

pressures and behavioral resources; perhaps a conspicuous ret-

rogradation pattern could portray a counterpoint to the chief line
of life development. The alteration of consciousness, the self-
devaluation/hate/punishment, the mystical escape could all rest on
a conspicuously aspected point of vulnerability and confusion estab-
lished symbolically in the horoscope.
This vulnerability to pressures to adopt a different life—
suddenly—the state of confusion that would allow or even invite
such a shift would certainly suggest a horoscopic preparedness for
dramatic adjustment, for rescue or escape.
All these considerations speak of Neptune and Pisces (and of
Jupiter, Pisces’ co-ruler: religion; the ministry; and, perhaps with
Mars, knighthood). Neptune always presents something that is
other than it seems. ‘There is confusion connected with Neptune;
there zs hypersensitivity; there is creativity, aesthetics, the mystical;
there zs the vulnerability and the preparedness to accept the power
of new stimulus, ranging from drugs to dreams, to visions, to spiri-
tual experience.
Additionally, conspicuous within the symbolism of Neptune,
there is the theme of sacrifice: something must be given up for
something else to be fulfilled. Something must be deduced,
changed, adjusted, got out of the way to make room for something
newly revealed, something newly understood. As well, there is
always the potential that idealism will grace (or complicate) the posi-
tion of Neptune in the horoscope, i.e., manifest in life behavior
through Neptune. Idealism is the signal of what should be, what can
emerge and reward the life.
When human beings feel high anxiety in reaction to criticism of
themselves and their world, and when they recognize personal lim-
itations, especially within the threatened state of only a brief exis-
tence in a troubled world, they look for a new life structure and
meaning. They can imagine a life infinitely better than what actual-
ly is. Fantasy can dominate as an escape mechanism; people can
entrust themselves totally to God’s forgiving love and ultimate
power which is above criticism and beyond death. This is the phe-
nomenon of religious revival, of being “saved” and “born again.” It
is a dedication of personal perspective to God. Personal responsi-
bility is turned over to the Divine.
86 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

In astrology, Pluto is the planet of perspective, the most of what

we can expect from experience, feeling, and vision. It is the concept
of empowerment through knowing. For Francis, we should antici-
pate dramatic focus on Pluto and Neptune through horoscopic syn-
thesis at the core of his life.

The Astrology
Without question, biographer Arnaldo Fortini’s work in service to
the life of Francis is overwhelming in scope, replete with details,
and sensitive in style. His research brings forward the date of Sep-
tember 26 for Francis’ birth. He quotes a reference in the General
History Records of the Franciscan Order, but he is quick to add that
there is no concrete evidence for that date or any other.
This September date also appeared in the seventeenth centu-
ry—and persists now—as the date upon which Assisi celebrates
Francis’ birth. Our astrological study will suggest that September
26 is indeed the correct date.!°
For the year of Francis’ birth, Fortini and most biographers and
compendia of historical dates always mention two years, 1182 and
1181—in that order—as possibilities. For no apparent reason, most
show preference for 1182. Our astrological study will present con-
clusively that 1182 is mot correct; that 1181 is indeed the birth year
for St. Francis, on the date September 26, in Assisi.!®
Both orientation horoscopes shown on the opposite page (Fig-
ures 1A & 1B) are set for noon on September 26 in 1182 (1A) and
in 1181 (1B).

15 Fortini, 86, note f. This birth date should not be confused with the Church Feast Day of
St. Francis which is celebrated on October 4, the date of Francis’ funeral and burial, the
day after his death.
16 The reason there is no apparent ground for choosing between the two year-dates is
undoubtedly complicated by the fact that event-dating throughout Francis’ life, except
for dates linked to formal Church actions, Feast Days, and his later activities when he was
very famous, are also vague, with, at best, occasional references to seasons of the year
rather than exact months or days. So ideas like “in the Summer or Fall of 1201, when
Francis was nineteen or twenty” are very confusing for astrology but good enough for
medieval history. In September of 1201, born in 1181 or 1182, Francis could be nineteen
or twenty, depending on when in the year or in the month the reference is made.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 87

Figure 1A 12°2 38'

Francis
Sept. 26,
1182
ie
12:00 p.m. LMT
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04 19
Placidus Houses 00°

Figure 1B
Francis
Sept. 26, 1181 ac
12:00 p.m. LMT es
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04
Placidus Houses 31!
4
00°

127°53'
88 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Observations for Chart 1182

+In the 1182 chart, the Sun-in-Libra emphasis establishes the
strong base for social energies working through the personal-
ity to please others and gain appreciation. The Virgo Moon
in conjunction with Venus echoes these Libran energies with-
in a reigning need (Moon) focused on being correct, exact,
“right,” fastidious, and insightfully discriminating.'”
+The Moon would never be in Libra that day, but it could be
in Leo, in a 6-degree orb separating conjunction with Saturn,
for a few minutes just after midnight. This would add not
only the severity and reform which were part of Francis’
humiliation before Christ but also the need to show it all dra-
matically (Leo).
+ There are conspicuous references to the Fire-sign flare and
self-dramatization throughout Francis’ life documentation.
For example: “The gossipers said that he was a cocky fellow
who thought himself better than his position warranted. In
truth, he never in the world would tolerate being second to
anyone in anything.”!® There was also Francis’ reputation for
bravery, reported by Thomas of Celano as “impulsive and not
a little rash.”
+ Pluto is square the Sun, a very important corroboration of
part of our initial anticipations. This aspect always promises
some kind of reform, a revolutionary change from one per-
spective of life to another, and the reliance on a subtle control
of others to establish one’s power position. Francis’ life cer-
tainly adjusted its perspective as dramatically as can possibly
be conceived, and in the process of that adjustment and
change he touched the ways of life of thousands during his
lifetime and many millions since then throughout the world.
He did indeed establish a new Order of being.!°

17 The Sun-Moon blends discussed here come from the work of Grant Lewi some fifty
years ago and my own research presented in Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, I, D, especially
beginning on page 76.
18 Fortini, 112.
19 Pat Nixon (March 16, 1912, close to 11:45 p.M., PST in Ely, NV); Greta Garbo (Sep-
tember 18, 1905, close to 7:30 P.M., CET in Stockholm, Sweden); Marlon Brando (April
3, 1924, close to 11:00 p.M., CST in Omaha, NE); and Prince Charles (November 14,
1948, at 9:14 p.M., GMT in London), all have the Sun-square-Pluto aspect natally.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 89

+Jupiter in Gemini, a double-bodied sign, ruling Sagittarius

and Pisces, two other double-bodied signs, is squared by
Mars in Virgo: opportunistic energies always working ahead
of everyone else. Francis was inventive and persuasive to a
fault; he would regale bishops and the Pope himself with
irrefutable arguments about the validity of his work.
¢ Uranus and Neptune are square, another strong corrobora-
tion of our anticipation. Uranus—which Alan Leo cast as
“The Awakener”—intensifies all that we expect from Nep-
tune, which, in turn here, is trine to the Sun. Both Pluto and
Neptune touch the Sun, a strong orientation argument for
this date in 1182.

Additionally in this chart, Mercury and Venus are in mutual

reception, reinforcing the constant references in the historical liter-
ature to Francis’ beautiful voice, his persuasiveness, his creativity
with song, his sweetness and social poise. For example: during a
battle in the war with Perugia, “And in the midst of it, Francis’
voice, which seemed so melodious to those who usually listened to
it, thundered out, loud enough to rise over the deafening noise”...
at the final Christmas, and at the outdoor creche scene that he cre-
ated for a torchlighted mass in a cave, “His voice rings out like
heavenly music that none of those present could ever forget: ‘a
strong voice, a sweet voice, a clear voice, a sonorous voice’... his
voice seems to resemble the sound of a lamb.””°
Mars is oriental, the last planet to rise before the Sun, suggest-
ing the spirit of promotion of a cause.?!

Observations for Chart 1181

+ The Sun-in-Libra component is reinforced and expanded con-
spicuously by the conjunction of Mercury and Venus. Mercury
and Venus are still in mutual reception, but their conjunction
now brings to the foreground a very strong idealism.”

20. Fortini, quoting Thomas of Celano, the earwitness: 156, 533, and many other references.
Even on his deathbed, his body wracked with pain from two decades of mortification,
Francis raised his voice in song: “Francis became a troubadour again, as he had been
when he was twenty. Songs poured out of him,” Fortini, 581.
21 See Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, beginning page 497.
22 Ibid., 105-112.
90 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Additionally, Mercury is conjunct the Aries Point, putting the

behavioral faculties of Mercury strongly into public view:
Francis’ public speaking, his preaching.”’
+ Most dramatically, the Moon is in tight conjunction with Uranus
and fupiter—a tremendous, explosive emphasis of identity,
intensified in terms of all things Taurean.
We shall see that Francis became a “builder,” not just
metaphorically, i.e., a builder of faith or a new way to God,
but /iterally, as a rebuilder of dilapidated, neglected churches.
Pope Innocent III’s powerful dream—which we shall review
later—saw Francis as holding up, symbolically rebuilding, the
stones of the Church that was near collapse. Francis’ actual
conversion in the San Damiano chapel was crowned by God’s
own voice: “Go Francis, and rebuild My house, for it is about
to fall into ruins!”2+
This is a critical observation between the two charts: in Fig-
ure 1A, the Moon in Virgo, ever so possibly in Leo, or in Fig-
ure 1B, emphatically accentuated in Taurus, ever so possibly
in Aries earlier in the day (but beginning to lose the triple
conjunction with Uranus and Jupiter). The overtones of
building, the overwhelming focus on possessions as the value
fulcrum of life development—the overturning of the status
quo, so decidedly, revolutionarily Uranian—the putting right
what should be right: all of this is strongly suggested by this
powerful cluster.
The Sun-Moon blend in the two signs ruled by Venus strongly
reinforces the social outlook of Francis’ life energy. The per-
sonality becomes the major asset. There would be strong aes-
thetic inclinations. Everything would be expressed in terms of
human interest and welfare; popularity would be guaranteed.
+In the 1181 chart, the Sun-Pluto square is also present, AND
the Neptune component, also square Uranus and the Moon

23 Ibid.,. beginning page 312.

24 All histories; see Cristiani, 36.
25 Ihave long observed and described the Moon in Taurus as a need to keep things as they
are, a resistance to change. Companion to this observation always is the consideration of
putting things right, rearranging things as they should be. In this powerful cluster, the
conjunction with Uranus and Jupiter intensifies the capacity to set things right and rein-
forces Francis’ missionary zeal.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 91

and Jupiter, is now opposed by Saturn—mortified, i.e., subject-

ed to humiliation and shame. That Saturn-Neptune axis is
tightly squared by the triple conjunction of Moon-Uranus-
Jupiter in Taurus; in Fixed signs, an anchored focus of behav-
iors that can dramatically shape the entire personality, a
dimentia praecox—a fixated hysteria operating independently
of all else. Jupiter-Saturn contact always “proves a point.”

In summation, the triple conjunction of Sun in Libra, with

Mercury and Venus (social sense, aesthetics, creativity, idealism)
squared (empowered) by Pluto with the extraordinary identity for-
mation of Saturn-Neptune (ambition, sacrifice, altered conscious-
ness) squared by Moon-Uranus-Jupiter says it all. Mars in
Capricorn is exalted and makes no aspect with any planet: it can run
away with the horoscope in terms of emphatic, definitive, coercive
self-application. This would be Francis’ swagger, his bravura and
bravery, his blind conviction, his early liberalism. All of this would
be graced by the Sun’s cluster and anchored in the awesome Saturn-
Neptune T-Square, which itself is tied to the triple conjunction of
Sun-Mercury-Venus by sextile and trine, respectively. Al] of this
would be sublimated, as we shall see.
When Saturn opposes (squares or conjoins) Neptune there is
confusion and doubt in any life, in relation to where these planets
are placed and the Houses they rule. A choice of some kind is
almost invariably enforced during life. Without preparedness,
ambition can disappear, but with preparedness (Taurus structure),
with energy (Mars exalted, unaspected), with enthusiasm (Jupiter
conjunction), with intensification for awakening and reform
(Uranus), a complete change in the direction of life is not only pos-
sible, zt is invited.
The Fire-sign flare (intensity) is spoken for in a different way,
by the almost exact conjunction of the Moon with Uranus.
Neptune—confusion, vision, sacrifice—is the conspicuously
aspected point of vulnerability and confusion established symboli-
cally in the horoscope.
Additionally, Mars is brought to conjunction with the Lunar
Nodal Axis, keying a strong maternal influence, which is suggested in
Francis’ early life and public outreach which we shall see later.”°

26 Tyl, Synthesis ¢ Counseling, 49-63.

92 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Both charts share the Libra social-public focus, but 1181 is

stronger through the tighter organization of Mercury and Venus
with the Sun. Both charts have a tenable Moon position, but the
1181 Moon organization is imposingly conceived. Both charts have
the Sun-Pluto relationship. Both charts have a Neptune focus, but
1181 is dramatically stronger through the opposition with Saturn.
Summarily, between the two charts, the portrait in 1181, in its
extremism, is undeniably more appropriate.

What Time was Francis Born?

Above all in the life of Francis, two characteristics stand out
repeatedly in all descriptions of his ways. First, upon his conver-
sion, which we will share in detail later as one of our time-tests of
the horoscope, there is the absolutely obsessive denial of all posses-
sions, including money, even if money were given to him. Poverty
was everything to Francis. Even academic learning was incompat-
ible with the humble life; he thought it simply a formalization of
frivolous curiosity. For over twenty years, Francis lived the
metaphor that he was married to “Lady Poverty.”*’
Lady Poverty became the beautiful damsel of distress for Fran-
cis the Knight. Early in his crusade, he composed a love song:
“Have mercy, sweet Jesus, have mercy on me and on our Lady
Poverty. For her I languish, because of her I have no peace, and you
know, Jesus, that you love me because of her ... When your disciples
abandoned you, when they denied your name, she stayed always at
your side ... High, so very high was the cross and Mary could not
ascend it. But she, Poverty, our Lady, was there. More strongly than
ever up there she united herself to you ... Grant that for her I shall
live, that in her and with her I can die.”28
Another example: “With all zeal, with all solicitude, he guarded
holy Lady Poverty, not permitting any vessel of any kind to be in

27 Cristiani, 33. On the point of education, it is presented repeatedly in the histories that
Francis was no ignorant, uncultured man deprived of intellectual accomplishments. His
knowledge of theology “was so profound that many thought it a gift from God.” But for
the gifted Francis, learning could never intrude upon prayer and must never weaken
humility. Fortini, 450.
28 This ballad is quite long; it was written by Francis in French. These excerpts show the
beginning of Francis’ extraordinary identification with Jesus, the crucified Christ. They
share the ever faithful spouse, Lady Poverty; it is she who represents the most faithful
ideal. Fortini, 232-233.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 93

the house [at best a cave], lest it lead to superfluous things ... For, he
used to say, it is impossible to satisfy necessity and not give in to
pleasure.” Francis rarely even allowed himself to eat donated food
that was cooked. If he relented even the slightest, he would mix the
morsel of food with ashes or destroy its taste with cold water.?? “At
times the saint would repeat: ‘In as far as the brothers depart from
poverty, in so much will the world depart from them, and they will
seek,’ he said, ‘and not find. But if they embrace my Lady Poverty,
the world will provide for them, because they have been given to
the world unto its salvation.’”?°
And at his death, “The saint rejoiced and was glad out of the
gladness of his heart, for he saw that he had kept faith with Lady
Poverty to the end. For he had done all these things out of zeal for
poverty, so that he would not have at the end even a habit that was
his own, but, as it were, lent to him by another.”?!
The second most outstanding characteristic of Francis’ life was
humiliation, his wounding himself in every way possible by neglect
of anything that would make his life easier. Mortification is the
appropriate word here, extensive debasement and humiliation, the
eradication of any sense of self-worth except that which he gained
through identification with Christ on the Cross.
After his trip to Gauthier de Brienne was aborted, after the
debilitation of prolonged relapse to fever left over from his horrible
imprisonment by the Perugini, we see Francis once again with his
ribald companions at dinner. He was strangely preoccupied and
separated from reality. One of his friends had sport with him in his
uncharacteristic aloof state: “Tell me, Francis,” he asked, “is it the
thought of a forthcoming marriage that makes you stand there like
a man of stone?”

29 Celano, I, #52.
30 Ibid., Il, #70.
31 Ibid., I, #215. And Thomas adds here an apology on Francis’ behalf that, at the very end,
he did wear a “little cap of sackcloth” to cover the wounds he had endured in the bar-
barous cauterization treatments given to him for his failing eyes.
Additionally: within two years after Francis’ death, an anonymous book called The
Sacred Romance ofBlessed Francis and Lady Poverty appeared. It was clearly inspiration for
Dante in his tribute to the saint and Lady Poverty in The Divine Comedy: in Canto XI of
“Paradiso,” Dante says that Lady Poverty had been deprived of a spouse for over a mil-
lennium, i.e., since the time of Christ, but St. Francis was to be her new lover. Dante
echoes the close identification between poverty and the Passion of Christ. Stock and
Cunningham, 59.
94 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

“Yes,” Francis replied, “I am seriously thinking of getting mar-

ried, and the bride I have chosen is the noblest, richest, and most
beautiful of all the women you know!”
... These words, [and then] “the peals of laughter, completely
upset Francis and destroyed all the joy he had had in his past plea-
sures. From that very hour, he began to despise himself.”
The marriage to Lady Poverty was forming in his mind and one
of his vows to her was to be self-mortification: the more Francis
tested his resolve, denuding himself of all things, protecting himself
from nothing in his life, the more he found joy.
The domain of possessions and the psychodynamic experience
of self-worth both focus themselves within the 2nd House.
In one sermon, after a long illness, Francis stood on the public
stone where prisoners were regularly placed to be mocked, and
addressed the crowd of people: “You think I am a holy man, as do
those who, on the basis of my example, leave the world and enter
the order and lead the life of the brothers. Well, I confess to God
and to you that during my illness I ate meat and some stew.”
Thomas of Celano reports that many who heard Francis were
deeply stirred by his bizarre admission and his obviously sincere
contrition. They heard Francis passionately accusing himself of
doing wrong by taking care of his health under threat of dying!
“Where then does that leave us, we who live so easily according to
our desires and indulgence of the flesh?”>?
In response to public enthusiasm for him, his strong effect
on others, Francis would command one of the brothers to drag
him through the streets on a rope, shouting to all: “Look at this
glutton, this worthless fellow, who ate chicken meat without
telling you!”
When the crowds admired Francis more and more for his humil-
ity, he would command another brother to shout insults at him. This
went on and on in Francis’ life every day, and then he would retreat
to solitary, long fasts alone in a cave, praying constantly.>+

32 Cristiani, 29. Report of this happening in Francis’ life is attributed to “The Three
Companions,” mysterious witnesses to Francis’ life. Thomas of Celano names them
as Brothers Leo, Ruffino, and Angelo, humble brothers close to Francis from the
very beginning.
33 Fortini, 461.
34 Cristiani, 87-88; all histories.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 95

For Francis, the utmost possible degradation was perfect joy. It

tested his resolve, his dedication to the suffering experienced by the
Christ and it defined his crusade. Francis had meaning not only for
others who gradually came to understand his example but for him-
self as well, alone in a world which only Jesus had experienced.
Astrologically, this inter-relationship between Poverty and
Humiliation, Sacrifice and Mortification, is symbolized by the Sat-
urn-Neptune opposition. By rulership and tenancy, the placement
of this key concept must involve the Ascendant and the 2nd House dra-
matically. The archetype must be personalized to the deepest.
A Pisces Ascendant would bring the vision and aberrant bliss of
Neptunian symbolism to Francis’ core. A Pisces Ascendant would
place the triple conjunction in Taurus into the 2nd House.
Figure 2 (page 96) is the horoscope for Francis of Assisi, Sep-
tember 26, 1181 at 4:41 pM., LMT in Assisi. The Ascendant in the
16th degree of Pisces was set by testing transits, arcs, and progres-
sion to angles against the events in Francis’ life. For example, the
Solar Arc projection of Neptune—the focal point of our apprecia-
tion of Francis’ identity—comes to conjunction with the Ascendant
at the time when Francis received the vision of all visions and
received the wounds of the crucified Christ upon his own body.
This miraculous event, the first stigmata, occurred on September
14, 1224, almost exactly forty-three years after his birth. Forty-
three years may be abbreviated as 43 degrees and added to natal
Neptune to approximate the actual Arc: 2 Aquarius 57 + 43 = 45
Aquarius 57, which is 15 Pisces 57).*°

The Divided Identity

The Uranus-Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Taurus, the Moon exalt-
ed in Taurus, by itself suggests intense identity development through
possessions. The ruler of the 2nd, Venus, the dispositor of the triple
conjunction, is in broad, excessive square with Pluto, is angular, and
is led into conjunction with the Sun through its conjunction and
mutual reception with Mercury. This is one level of the 2nd House
manifestation potential: intensified, expanded, rich possessions, a
strong, ebullient, and forthright self-worth profile.

35 The exact arc, as we shall see, brings SA Neptune to 16 Pisces 5. For approximation
techniques and exact measurement management in Solar Arc theory, please see Tyl, Syn-
thesis &” Counseling, 204, 289, 383.
96 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Another level is the modification of the triple conjunction in

Taurus by the involvement with the Saturn-Neptune opposition.
The opposition axis squaring the triple conjunction depresses, cuts
off, mortifies the 2nd. And the retrogradation of Uranus and Jupiter
there—with Jupiter ruling the 10th and the 9th, obviously the hope
for international glory hand in hand with religious ideals in his
life—suggests ever so clearly the contrapuntal concept within con-
cerns of possessions and self-worth. There is bound to be a drastic

22° 71 56'

19° -
21" Ip 28 Q

P-

(Aee

22° TT 56
Figure 2
Francis of Assisi
Sept. 26, 1181, 4:41 p.m. LMT
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04
Placidus Houses
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 97

shift, an imbalancing development of change that will alter Francis’

life in terms of the 2nd House.
Neptune rules the Ascendant, and so does unaspected, exalted
Mars, ruler of Aries. Here again we have the two personal projec-
tions: the swaggering libertine, the warring knight, and the

peste [Sn [en[woefr [vor[ve[te [sn[rnsrt [ra|

+ 0:00 UT Geocentric Tropical Longitides for SEP 1181

03432 59

26 53
26 39

26 26
26 16
26 08
26 02
25 59
25 57
25 58

26 00
26 05
26 11
26 19
26 28

RSS8SRRGER
RRRRVKB

BRRBRFR
RRRRRRB RSRRSER

BERLLES

Copyright (C) 1987 Matrix Sctware, Big Rapids MI 49307

98 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

bola [a [| Pe i ee | ee
+ 0:00 UT Geocentric Tropical Longitudes for NOV 1181

15M,33 12 036 57%) 11241

16 33 52 y
17 34 32
35 15
35 59
36 45
37 32

38 20
39 11
40 02
40 54
41 48
42 42
43 38

44 34
Copyright (C) 1987 Matrix Softwee, Big Rapids MI 49307

suffering scapegoat, the bleeding beggar. This duality—like a hot

poker immersed into cool water—is signaled perfectly through
double-bodied Pisces and the retrogradation of both Neptune and
Jupiter, its rulers.
The potential change of life perspective is also suggested by the
Pluto square with the Sun, as we have seen. Pluto rules the 8th, the
concerns of death matters, of the martyrdom of values and the body
of Christ.*°
Saturn rules the 11th, love hoped for, anticipated, received; love
in terms of or in spite of or through discipline, debasement, pain,
confinement, solitude. What is idealized through Neptune is sacri-
ficed through Saturn’s involvement. Within the T-Square, Saturn
relates powerfully with the Moon, ruler of the 5th, the House of
love given. Francis’ life epitomized the giving of love through all he
had in order to receive back the ideal love of Jesus.
And through it all—as testified by all histories, by all witnesses,
by all biographers—Francis was cheerful and joyous to a fault! Sun-
Mercury-Venus are focused within Libra, Mercury and Venus are
in Mutual reception, both ruling the 7th: idealized relationship with
the world at one level and then another.

36 The 8th is always the twelfth dynamic of the 9th in Derivative House readings. So
much of theology, to explain life, is founded on explanation and assimilation of con-
cerns about death.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 99

FRANCIS OF ASSIS! SEP 26, 1181

063°20' 080°43'
063°36' 081°22"
064°00' 081°39'
065°29' 082°08'
%QQr
+a+0 066°02' 082°56'
rs)z 066°33' 083°37"
/bec 069°54' 084°04'
/Ac 071°33' 088°02"
071°49" 088°15'
PB 071°58'| 9 —-088°21'
Acc 072°14' 089°50'
g 074°15'
Me 074°40'
b4 075°56'
e 078°01'
POOEUEA
Me 078°17'

The Mercury/Venus midpoint at 89 Mutable 50, i.e., 29 Muta-

ble 50, just at the “Aries Point” of 0 Cardinal, brings idealization,
joy, and public awareness out into the open, keeps them there to
establish Francis in the eyes of the world. MC=Venus/Asc suggests
“a sense of beauty, a recognized romantic.”?”
Saturn=Pluto/Asc (Saturn square the midpoint of Pluto-Ascen-
dant) shows the utmost power used for personal advancement and
fulfillment. In other words, for Francis, his quest was a life and death
matter, a fixation, a projection for eternal life with God, through the
live suffering of Christ’s death.
Venus=Pluto/MC, Sun/Asc is a picture of emotional charisma
and social appeal. Time and time again in the histories, we read that
Francis had an hypnotic effect on others through his voice, his
words, his sincerity, his joy, and his love.
Additionally, the symbolic location of poverty, penance, soli-
tude, and even wild birds (which are part of a miracle we shall see
later) is the 12th House. Here ruled by Uranus which brings these
concerns to the Moon in the 2nd. The arc of Neptune will carry
with it the opposition from Saturn throughout the 12th House for
the entire second half of Francis’ life.
We locate humility in the 6th House, and there we see this pow-
erful, dramatic show of ambition, Saturn in Leo. the House is ruled

37 All Midpoint pictures are derived almost verbatim from Tyl, Prediction in Astrology or
Synthesis ¢* Counseling, Appendices.
100 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

by the Sun which is beautifully bright in the 7th. Again, we see the
double identity formations presenting themselves everywhere.
Even the definite preoccupation with singing and song is a
manifestation of Taurus and the enormous concentration there
in the 2nd House. The dispositor, Venus, is reinforced further
through the mutual reception with Mercury in the 7th.*®
Brother Thomas of Celano’s description of Francis as he saw
him with his own eyes, as he lived and worked with him for years in
the Order, animates this extraordinary horoscope even more. The
description is a veritable catalogue of astrological keywords that fits
perfectly this horoscope we have just discovered:

O how beautiful, how splendid, how glorious did he appear in

the innocence of his life, in the simplicity of his words, in the
purity of his heart, in his love for God, in his fraternal charity,
in his ardent obedience, in his peaceful submission, in his angel-
ic countenance!
He was charming in his manners, serene by nature, affable in his
conversation, most opportune in his exhortations, most faithful in
what was entrusted to him, cautious in his counsel, effective in
business, gracious in all things. He was serene of mind, sweet of
disposition, sober in spirit, raised up in contemplation, zealous in
prayer, and in all things fervent.
He was constant in purpose, stable in virtue, persevering in grace,
and unchanging in all things. He was quick to pardon, slow to
become angry, ready of wit, tenacious of memory, subtle in dis-
cussion, circumspect in choosing, and in all things simple. He was
unbending with himself, understanding toward others, and dis-
creet in all things.
He was a most eloquent man, a man of cheerful countenance, of
kindly aspect; he was immune to cowardice, free of insolence. He
was of medium height, closer to shortness; his head was moderate
in size and round, his face a bit long and prominent, his forehead
smooth and low; his eyes were of moderate size, black and sound;
his hair was black, his eyebrows straight, his nose symmetrical, thin
and straight; his ears were upright, but small; his temples smooth.
His speech was peaceable, fiery and sharp; his voice was strong,
sweet, clear, and sonorous. His teeth were set close together,
even, and white; his lips were small and thin; his beard black, but

38 See Munkasey for detailed rulership concepts among the Houses.

 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 101

not bushy. His neck was slender, his shoulders straight, his arms
short, his hands slender, his fingers long, his nails extended; his
legs were thin, his feet small.
His skin was delicate, his flesh very spare. He wore rough gar-
ments, he slept but briefly, he gave most generously. And because
he was very humble, he showed ail mildness to all men, adapting
himself usefully to the behavior of all.”3?

We now see vividly the modifications of Pisces through Saturn’s

opposition with Neptune. We see the pervasive public show of Sun-
Mercury-Venus. We hear the strengths of Mars in Capricorn (with
the redness darkened), and the deep self-empowerment of Pluto.
We feel the uplift of Jupiter as ruler of the Midheaven and the 9th.
We feel the dramatic confrontation of Aquarius and Leo channeled
through the Saturn-Neptune opposition and then through the suf-
fering of the 12th to the wounded presence of the Ist, taking over
the energies of youthful swagger yet remaining in Aries. We see the
denunciation of what is real in favor of what can be. We see the
obsession with the ideal that changed the direction and level of life,
establishing self-sacrifice once again—for redemption of the world.

War, Imprisonment, New Ideals

The division of Francis’ identity, the alteration of his ideals begins
with the dreadful war between Assisi and Perugia. This particular
war began slowly with the defection of a powerful Assisian to Peru-
gia. Beyond the symbolisms of loyalty and pride, there was a com-
mercial loss through estate taxes and commerce for Assisi and a
commensurate gain for Perugia. For some two years, there were
raids and skirmishes between the two cities, the razing of crops,
ambushes, and disputations. Other Assisian leaders jumped city-
allegiances. The consuls of Assisi raced to assemble an army.
The long-awaited battle that would decide the issues finally
took place in November 1202, the Battle of Collestrada (some
sources say the Battle of St. John’s Bridge). Francis was thoroughly
swept up in the preparations and knightly overtones of the battle.
“Perhaps the hand of some noble lady reached out to give him a

39 Celano, I, #83.
102 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

white scarf. Perhaps some of those who had predicted a heroic life
for him saluted him now, calling him by name.”*?
The assembled armies came face to face 800 yards apart along
the Tiber just outside Perugia. The Perugino army, with standards
flapping above their hoisted swords, attacked the outnumbered
Assisians. The battle was ferocious. Nothing was spared, not even
the lepers’ hospital. It was a massacre “beyond every measure.” The
river was swollen with bodies and blood. The stragglers were hunt-
ed down like wild animals.

Oh, how disfigured are the bodies on the field of battle, and how
mutilated and broken are their members! The hand is not to be
found with the foot, nor the entrails joined to the chest; on the fore-
head horrible windows open out instead of eyes. That no prophet,
interrogated before the battle could have seen such omens! Oh, you
of Assisi, what a sad day and what a dark hour was this!*!
Francis was taken prisoner.

Figure 3 (page 103) shows the Secondary Progression for

early November 1202 in the ring around Francis’ natal horoscope.
The important transits of the time and the Tertiary Progressed
(TP) Sun position are noted as well. The SP Moon—very time-
sensitive and telling in astrology—is in the 12th House and
opposed natal Saturn at the time of the battle, reinforced by the
exact opposition with SP Saturn.
Transiting Saturn had been exactly opposed Francis’ Sun a
month before the battle, and transiting Pluto at 2 Leo was begin-
ning its critical square to the 2nd House group. Transiting Uranus
at 7 Leo was squaring Francis’ Jupiter, ruler of his 9th and 10th,
intensifying the dreams of international conquests, the potential
fortunes of crusading, the professional ideals for himself.
Indeed, Francis’ horoscope shows critical times of change
upon him. Note the SP-SA Sun at 1 Scorpio. Within two years
(degrees), the Sun will oppose Uranus and the Moon; we can cer-
tainly expect an extraordinary new development, a “new Francis,”
if you will. As well, the SP Moon will be crossing the Ascendant in

40 Fortini, 153.
41 Fortini, 155, quoting Bonifazio da Verona, a poet and “master of astrology,” commis-
sioned by Perugia to write a grand poem to glorify the city and its conquests. This work
would build upon Bonifazio’s ode about the descendants of Ulysses, the legendary
founder of Perugia. Fortini, 56, 154.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 103

almost three years (11 Aquarius to 15 Pisces, 1 degree per month

projection for the SP Moon).
Francis is in prison. His “happy-go-lucky” youth is gone for
ever. Once again life’s pain became more real to him than his fasci-
nating dreams, his heroic enthusiasms and hopes of glory, more real
than stirring fanfares, waving banners, and flashing blades, more
real than even great courage.

Figure 3
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi SP War/Prison
Sept. 26, 1181, 4:41 P.M. LMT Nov. 10, 1202
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04
Placidus Houses
104 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Even though Francis was imprisoned with the nobles, condi-

tions were squalid and miserable. This time in prison brought to
Francis his first experiences of humiliation and suffering. But, fol-
lowing his instinctive way of giving, of living life with joy, be took
responsibility for the other prisoners. This revealed his courage, “but
offended the sensibilities of his companions, who reproached him
and called him crazy. One day, one of them told him that his joy was
an insult to their common misfortune. Francis answered, “Of
course, your bad luck grieves me. But I cannot help being happy,
because even though my body is imprisoned in these walls, my spir-
it is free.”
The change of ideals had begun.
Francis himself became very ill after one year in the dungeons.
Though weak and exhausted, his irrepressible joy endured.
“Thrown down on his bundle of straw, burning with fever, his eyes
shone as if lit by a supernatural light.” He was delirious. He spoke
of winning the greatest liberty the world had ever known, that he
would soon be revered by all men. His fever rose and stayed. And so
did his obsession ... as the Sun began to oppose and transiting Pluto
began to square Uranus and the Moon.
Bernardone negotiated his extremely ill son’s release, probably
very late in December 1203. [Ir Mars was exactly opposed Francis’
Pluto on December 30 in the 4th House, a bid for freedom and an
activation of paternal force. Tr Venus was exactly conjunct Francis’
Midheaven at 23 Sagittarius, Tr Saturn was Stationary Direct trine
the Midheaven, and SP Moon was sextile the Midheaven.]
Francis remained in a trance-like state during his convalescence
at home. He was deeply preoccupied with the sense of an empty
life. Nothing excited him.
Early in 1205, Francis did come around (the SP Moon was
applying to his Ascendant; see Figure 4, page 106). With his first
returned energies, he devoured the tales of Count Gautier de Bri-
enne about whom all of Assisi spoke. He tried to be as he was
before, projecting his future again in terms of knighthood. With a
noble Assisian friend, Francis made plans to make the long journey
to enlist in the services of de Brienne and win knighthood through
arms. Fortini observes that Francis must have had a conspicuous
skill in and love of weaponry (exalted Mars; Aries intercepted in the

42 Fortini, 161-62.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 105

Ascendant) to persist, in the wake of his horrid war experience, to

fulfill his life through conquest.
At that time, de Brienne was on a mission against Sicily and was
headquartered in Lecce, far south in the Apulia region in the very
heel of Italy, some 700 miles from Assisi. Francis and his noble
friend, their eyes afire, set out for their noble futures.
In Figure 4 (page 106), working with the chart we have creat-
ed for Francis, we see just what we anticipated when he was cap-
tured during the war:*4* SA-SP Sun has come exactly to opposition
with his Uranus, suggesting always an independent, even revolu-
tionary spirit, a new project.
At the same time, the SP Ascendant was approaching conjunc-
tion with Uranus, and, so very important as we anticipated, the SP
Moon was conjoining Francis’ Ascendant! This signaled a whole new
thrust in his life, a thrust for personal ambition and glory. It was
decidedly high-minded and international in scope: transiting Saturn
at 8—9 ‘Taurus was exactly conjunct natal Jupiter, ruler of the 10th and
9th Houses, co-ruler of the Ascendant!
We know Francis did not complete this trip to Apuila. He bare-
ly reached Spoleto, just twenty-five miles from Assisi! He became
feverish again, a clear relapse into his illness of the dungeon. [A
counter-message through transiting Saturn?] In his languid state he
had a vision; a voice questioned him about his goals and sent him
back to Assisi: “there you will be told what you must do, because
what you have seen must be understood differently from the way
you have understood it.” Again, we see the divided organization of
Francis’ awareness and life experience.*°
It appears as if Francis lived an uneventful year in Assisi after this
experience. His companion had gone on to glory, and Francis had
returned to bewilderment. He was waiting. He could not reclaim his
old ways. At a banquet, his friends jeered at him when he spoke of
strange ideas of a different life. His mother, however, seemed to
know what was happening to him and kept up supportively with his

43 Fortini, note I, 177.

44 The exact time of the beginning of this trip is not known. It is almost surely early 1205;
probably March, when the weather had cleared for easier travel, when nature lured beau-
ty from the countryside and romance from the hearts of young knights-to-be.
45 Being one’s self and getting away with it.
46 All histories; see Cristiani, 26-27; Fortini, 188.
 106 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

transformation. His only joy was in prayer and in sharing all extra
food with the poor.
He began to give to the poor more and more and more, every-
thing he would have with him at any time of meeting. He longed to
be one of the unimportant, the humble, the poor, to sit with them
at a church door and beg for charity.*”

Figure 4
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi SP Apulia/Spoleto
Mar. 21, 1205

47 Fortini, 203.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 107

1206: To Rome, The Leper, and The Cross

In the Spring of 1206, Francis announced he was going to Rome,
“to fulfill a visit to the thresholds of the saints Peter and Paul.” He
dressed as a pilgrim, with a short cloak and a staff, in a group mak-
ing their way on foot slowly and joyously to the City of God.
Figure 5 (page 108), with the Solar Arc positions in the outer
ring, is set for June 1206. We see that the SA Ascendant has come 25
degrees (Francis is almost twenty-five years old) to exact opposition
with his Sun. This is another step in his conversion transformation
that began with his imprisonment, was punctuated by the vision in
Spoleto, and now would be completely confirmed within five
months. Francis would have his answer. He would know what to do.
In Rome, in front of St. Peter’s, Francis exchanged his clothes
with a beggar and blended in with a sea of the poor. “Some of them
suffered from the most repugnant infirmities—monstrous sores,
maimed and crippled bodies, blindness, paralysis.” He begged for
alms, in French. “Speaking French seemed to take him out of his
original milieu. He felt he was changing his life-style. (Besides, he
spoke French only when he was happy.)”*8
On his way home to Assisi—he wished to stay among the poor,
but he was anxious about the other Assisians with him—it is said
that Francis had his remarkable experience with the Leper. The
experience did occur in his life, but probably after Francis returned
to Assisi, enriched by his experience in Rome.*”
One day, Francis was riding down the road that led past the
leper hospital, deeply absorbed as usual in his amorphous thoughts.
His horse reared up suddenly. “To Francis’ horror,” a leper stood in
the middle of the road, immobile, just staring at him. The leper did
not move. His gaze was described as penetrating.
“An instant that seemed an eternity passed. Slowly Francis dis-
mounted, went to the man, and took his hand. It was a poor emaciat-
ed hand, bloodstained, twisted, inert and cold like that of a corpse.
He put a mite of charity in it, pressed it, carried it to his lips. And sud-
denly, as he kissed the lacerated flesh of the creature who was the
most abject, the most hated, the most scorned of all human beings, he

48 Cristiani, 33-34.
49 The recounting of Francis’ dramatic experience with the leper has Francis on horseback
when they meet. When he made his pilgrimage to Rome and back, Francis was on foot.
 108 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

was flooded with a wave of emotion, one that shut out everything
around him, one that he would remember even on his death bed.
“As the leper withdrew his hand, Francis raised his head to look
at him again. He was no longer there.”»°
At the end of his life, Francis dictated several impassioned per-
sonal statements as part of his Testament. He recorded what the
exact turning point for him was in the extraordinary change of his

Figure 5
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi SA Rome/Leper
June 1, 1206
50 All histories, but especially Fortini, 211. We must note that St. Bonaventure thought that
the leper was Christ himself.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 109

identity and the path of his life. He said: “This is how God inspired
me, Brother Francis, to embark upon a life of penance. When I was
in sin, the sight of lepers nauseated me beyond measure; but then
God himself led me into their company, and I had pity on them.
When I had once become acquainted with them, what had previ-
ously nauseated me became a source of spiritual and physical con-
solation for me.”>!
This life-significant experience quite possibly took place on
October 7 or 8, 1206. Nineteen days earlier, on September 18,
1206, a Lunar Eclipse of great importance within Francis’ horo-
scope took place. It is shown here as Figure 6 (page 110).
The Eclipse occurred at 2 Libra, with Neptune conjunct the Moon
and opposed the Sun conjuncted by Mercury, the axis squared broadly by
Jupiter. This Eclipse is within orb of the Aries Point, especially with
the Mercury and Neptune components lagging just over the sign
line in Virgo/Pisces. The strongly magnified Eclipse axis is square
the Ascendant at Assisi, and falls directly upon Francis’ Mercury at 1
Libra 19, squared by his Pluto at 3 Cancer.
This emphasizes Francis’ mental process, his need to know how
to relate to his world. This Eclipse emphasis invites new ideas, new
vision. Normally, such an eclipse construct waits for a transit trig-
ger to be manifested in life experience: this occurred on October 7,
when transiting Mercury, having just made its station turning
Direct at 2 Libra, was precisely upon the Eclipse position axis and
upon Francis’ own Mercury. Additionally, on that day, transiting
Mars and Pluto were exactly upon his Saturn, ruler of the 11th.
The final step in Francis’ complete dedication to Jesus and his
knowing what Jesus meant for him to do took place in the tiny
church of San Damiano, a third-century center for Assisi’s earliest
Christians and a place of many reputed miracles.*

51 Fortini, 212. Additionally: we can say that the saintliness of Francis was measured in
great part by his ability to love those who were by nature, by convention, by circum-
stance unlovable.
52 “By the grace of God, there were many miracles in that place. Those possessed by
demons who begged for peace were liberated. Lepers were rid of their terrible sores.
Farmers who prayed for the salvation of their crops from the threat of storm saw the
cloud melt away.” Fortini, 214.
The San Damiano Chapel could have identified itself some hundreds of years later
with the bishop St. Damiano who died in Pavia in 715, St. Peter Damian who was born
in Ravenna in 1007 and died in 1072 in Faenza, or—least likely—Cosmas and Damian,
brothers martyred early in church history. In modern times, Father Damien de Veuster
(1840-1889) was a Belgian Roman Catholic missionary working with lepers on the
Hawaiian Island of Molokai.
110 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Early in October 1206, so very probably on the 14th—still

within the scope of the recent Lunar Eclipse and the leper expe-
rience—Francis entered the abandoned church to pray. It was in
great ruin; no lamp burned before the altar; the walls were
cracked and crumbling; the beams were worm-eaten, the paint-
ings faded; grass and weeds invaded the sanctuary. Yet a painted,
wooden, Byzantine image of the Crucified Lord that hung by
the altar had survived all the decay: “an image of goodness and

02° ¥ 36

02° ip 36"
Figure 6
Lunar Eclipse
Sept. 18, 1206, 10:01 p.M. LMT
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04
Placidus Houses
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 111

suffering, expressing with extraordinary vividness both martyr-

dom and love.”*?
Francis asked again for guidance, surely remembering his
vision and the instruction in Spoleto just a few months before. As
all biographers report, the gaze of Jesus from the cross was sud-
denly fixed upon Francis. The eyes became animated, and there
was a whispered voice, like a sigh: “Francis, go and repair my
house, which, as you see, is falling into ruin.” This instruction was
repeated three times.
Francis was frightened. He rushed to the old priest who had
custody of the crumbling chapel and gave him all the money he had
and then went as fast as he could into Assisi to begin his mission of
rebuilding San Damiano.
Figure 7 (page 112) is the Tertiary Progression for October 14,
1206, the highly probable date of Francis’ completed conversion.
‘Tertiary measurements are extremely birth-time sensitive: one year
of life equates to one lunar month after birth. Here, for Francis, we
see his TP Moon—the most critical Tertiary measure—on this day
precisely opposed his extraordinarily focalized Neptune. At the
same time, TP Jupiter was squaring Francis’ Ascendant axis, and
transiting Jupiter had just crossed Francis’ fourth cusp.
Francis ran to his father’s shop, gathered up the most expen-
sive fabrics he could and raced to a nearby town where he wasn’t
known, and there he sold the wares. He returned to Assisi with
the money and turned it over to the priest of San Damiano. He
was given refuge in this little church. Francis was now an “oblate,”
a layman living under protection of the Church, and his mission
was launched.
When Bernardone learned what Francis had done, he was out-
raged. The town came abuzz with gossip about the renegade son.
Bernardo thought “he must have been taking poppy juice or maybe
dogs’ brain and hemlock juice. Nothing but drugs could have made
him change like this, all that craze for glory gone. Now he won’t
have anything to do with that sort of thing ... Obviously, he is pos-
sessed by a demon.”**

53 This cross was later preserved for seven hundred years by the Poor Clares [female Fran-
ciscan followers under the direction of St. Clare, as we shall see] inside the cloistered
monastery of St. Giorgio in Assisi. It is there today on view for the public.
54 Fortini, 218. Note the Neptune imagery.
112 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Francis had to hide from his father, beyond the little church.
Four months later, in March 1207, Francis came out of hiding to
confront his father. The SP Moon was now opposed his Sun.*°
Townspeople could not believe the transformation. He was
drawn and pale, and his clothes were in shreds. He appeared
deranged. This was the shining youth who was to be a great prince,

Figure 7
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi TP Conversion
Oct. 14, 1206

55 See Figure 4 (page 106): the SP Moon is at 13 Pisces in March 1205. In March 1207,
two
years later (24-26 months/degrees average) its position will be close to 39 Pisces
or 9
Aries, opposite the Sun.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 113

a knight in the Crusades, the lover of the most beautiful woman in

the world? He was jeered and pelted with garbage and mud. He was
stoned. “The violence that the statutes permitted the people to use
against lepers were turned against the madman who had allied him-
self with lepers in a a monstrous familiarity.” His father seized him
and imprisoned Francis in his house, underground, in chains.*°
Bernardone could not prevail upon the converted Francis to
return to his sensibilities. The father left on one of his trade trips,
and Pica, Francis’ ever loving, faithful, and pious mother freed him.
Francis left his home never to return again.
Bernardone returned from his trip and brought criminal
charges against Francis (rebellion and squandering, Uranus). The
harshest punishment could be banishment, even excommunication.
Francis was ordered to stand before the bishop’s court in the bish-
op’s palace, in the piazza of Santa Maria Maggiore. It was February
24, 1207. The bishop was in his finery, the people were agape at
Francis’ dreadful appearance. The bells rang to start proceedings.
Figure 8 (page 114) is the Tertiary Progressed chart for the
moment the trial began; it has advanced from the chart of Francis’
conversion (Figure 7, page 112) to bring the Sun to conjunction with
the seventh cusp, the Ascendant to conjunction with natal Neptune,
and most importantly the Moon to exact conjunction with Mercury,
that degree area so powerfully excited just five months earlier by the
Lunar Eclipse. These measurements clearly say that this is the turn-
ing point of Francis’ freedom, his becoming his own man, as it were,
someone clearly of his own mind, and it again reinforces the validity
of the birth year, date, and time we have created for Francis.
The bishop demanded that Francis return the monies to his
father, adding that the church would be restored in other ways.
Francis replied, “Lord Bishop, not only this money that I took
from him do I wish to restore to him, with all good will, but even
the clothes that he has given me.” Francis stunned the gathering
with his reply; he ran into a room off the piazza and, before any-
one could react, he reappeared naked with his tattered body-cloth
bundled in front of him. “It was his great act of renunciation that
freed him from all servitude to earthly things.”°’

56 All histories; see Fortini, 219-221.

57 Fortini, 228-229.
114 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The Path To Evangelism

Francis worked hard and long begging for stones to rebuild San
Damiano. Many people laughed at him, and many had pity. His
work throughout two years restored three churches. When work
on the third one, the little tenth-century chapel at Porziuncola
(also Portiuncula), was finished, another life-changing illumination
occurred for Francis, establishing the formal Order and Rule for
his mission.

Figure 8
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi TP Trial
Feb. 24, 1207
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 115

It was two years to the day from the renunciation of his father
and all worldly goods: the feast of St. Matthew, February 24, 1209.
Francis was attending Mass in the early morning. The celebrant
read from Matthew 10:7-14:

As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has
come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast
out demons. You received without payment; give without pay-
ment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for
your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers
deserve their good. Whatever town or village you enter, find out
who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter
the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come
upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If
anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off
the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.*®

Francis listened in astonishment. These were the instructions

Christ had given to his disciples on the eve of their going out to
preach to the world. Here in the words of Christ were his instruc-
tions as well, and Francis resolved to obey every letter of their
meaning. He discarded his shoes and his stick, and he changed his
belt for a cord.
These instructions became the first Rule of the Order of the
Friars Minor. Their uniform was now set. Francis was established
before God and the world. He indeed had become a knight, and he
would win souls for his Lord.
It is simply astonishing to check the Lunar Eclipse before this
moment of inspiration and conviction, the Eclipse that presaged
this additional focus of mission in Francis’ life. Figure 9 (page 116)
shows this eclipse of January 22, 1209, thirty-three days before the
feast of St. Matthew. Pluto—perspective, empowerment—is pre-
cisely conjunct the Eclipse axis, and so is Venus with the Sun in
Aquarius. This massive statement falls on Francis’ Saturn, within his
awesome I-Square.
We can see as well that Mars in the Eclipse chart is precisely
conjunct Francis’ Sun: further empowerment. The Ascendant-
Descendant axis of the Eclipse chart at Assisi is congruent with
Francis’ natal Ascendant. The chart’s close Saturn-Neptune square

58 HarperCollins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version.

116 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

relates to Francis as well through his Mercury at 1 Libra. This

astrology is undeniably prophetic.
In even further corroboration of this time, Figure 10 (page 117)
shows the Secondary Progressions for the day of this solidifying
inspiration: SA-SP MC is precisely conjunct Francis’ Mars, his SA-
SP Sun is opposed his Jupiter, ruler of the 9th and 10th; the SP
Ascendant is precisely conjunct natal Jupiter; and, finally, SP Moon
is exactly conjunct natal Uranus-Moon. Again, we have verification
of Francis’ birth year, date, and time.

10° II 48'

10°21 48"
Figure 9
Lunar Eclipse
Jan. 22, 1209, 8:01 P.M. LMT
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04
Placidus Houses
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 117

The Tertiary Progressions for that very day (not shown) are
also astounding: the TP MC is exactly conjunct the natal MC we
have captured for Francis, and the TP Ascendant has returned to its
natal position as well! And if the Mass that morning had started at
6:30 or 7:00 (Gust after dawn), transiting Moon and Mars at 10
Libra would be exactly conjunct Francis’ Sun, with transiting Pluto
in 9 Leo 29, precisely conjunct his Saturn.
Astrology speaks eloquently of awareness, purpose, and,
indeed, miracles as well.

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Francis of Assisi SP Evangelism
Feb. 24, 1209
118 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The Growing Order — Pope Innocent III

Several followers joined the Friars Minor. The first one is nameless
to history but the second, ironically, was named Bernardo, as was
Francis’ estranged father (Bernardone, “big Bernard”). The small
group begged and suffered together. Francis continued to set a
daunting example of self-mortification, humility, and prayer. The
Knights of Lady Poverty were most solicitous of one another, suf-
fering hunger and discomfort almost beyond imagining. More and
more people took them seriously. The totality of their poverty and
humiliation went beyond derangement: it had to be sincere, gen-
uine ... inspired.
Francis had written into a formal Rule the teachings he heard
through Matthew that day in Porziuncola. He knew his Rule need-
ed the approbation of the Pope. He and eleven followers left for
Rome in late June or early July 1210.°°
In Rome, through the endorsement of Assisi’s Bishop Guido,
Francis and his Friars quickly gained access to Pope Innocent III,
who was the most powerful and strategically skilled leader of the
Church in the entire medieval era. Innocent’s major goals beyond
the establishment of the political papacy were the liberation of the
Holy Land from the Moslems and the repression of heresy, i.e.,
anyone who did not accept Jesus, and, indeed, the lay movements of
preachers like Francis and his followers who, unlike Francis, spoke
against the Church hierarchy and authority.
“So it was that they found themselves facing each other, the fool
of Assisi, kneeling with his ragged companions on the rich mosaic,
and the most powerful of all the popes who had succeeded to the
throne of Saint Peter.”°!

59 In Oxford, there is strong critical observation about Francis: “It is hard to imagine any
more improbable founder of an order, for Francis had a talent for disorganization and
was reluctant to produce a rule.” These “Rules” were very important: they qualified the
Order for Church approval and they guided behavior of the constituents of the Order.
Francis’ first Rule from the Gospel of Matthew was simple but bureaucratically crude. A
second Rule followed when the Order grew larger, but it was deemed too strict and was
never used. A final Rule would be approved by Pope Honorius III in 1223, three years
before Francis’ death.
60 Innocent III (c. 1161-1216), installed 1198. Under his reign, the papacy reached the peak
of its power and influence. He forced King John of England to become his vassal and had
Emperor Otto of Germany deposed in favor of Frederick II. He initiated the Crusade of
1202 and supported the Crusade of 1208. He presided over the fourth Lateran Council
(1215) and planned the fifth Crusade, the culmination of the medieval papacy.
61 Fortini, 294.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 119

The date of the meeting was probably August 17, 1210, judging
from the astrology of that time: TP Moon was precisely on the
fourth cusp, transiting Jupiter was precisely conjunct Francis’ Mer-
cury, and transiting Mars at 3 Leo was precisely square Uranus-
Moon. One other measurement was to become a key to Francis’
victory in Rome: just one month before his twenty-ninth birthday,
natal Pluto at 3 Cancer 35 had arced to exact opposition with Francis’
“signature” Neptune. Something supernatural—as had been with
him for sometime—could inspire his mission once again.
With greatest poise and utter humility, Francis spoke to the
Pope of his mission and his Rule of sacrifice and poverty. The
Pope replied that he thought the life that Francis and his peni-
tents proposed to follow was too rigid and harsh. He did not
doubt their fortitude, but “would those who came after them have
the same ardor?”
Francis replied at once “that ability to make a total renunciation
comes as a gift from Jesus Christ.”
The discussion took clever semantic turns to each side in turn
and was suspended in a polite stand-off. The Pope and Francis
agreed to pray for guidance and meet again, and that night, the
supernatural did occur once more: the Pope had a dream [some
sources say “vision”]. He found himself in a grand Basilica with an
array of relics that encompassed all of Christian history. A great
rumble thundered through the temple. The pillars and columns
were teetering, they were cracking and about to collapse. He closed
his eyes and heard the terrible noise of crashing. But when he
reopened his eyes, he saw that all had been saved, that a “gigantic
man” had supported the Basilica on one shoulder alone. He saw
that this man was the beggar of Assisi.°
With his advisors, the Pope anchored the argument that if
Francis and his followers were prohibited to live according to the
Gospels—to conform to the life of Jesus—it would be a vilification
of Jesus who inspired the Gospels. The Pope then listened to Fran-
cis’ eloquence and studied his countenance. He saw clearly the man
of his vision. He rose, and turning to the cardinals surrounding

62 All histories. See Fortini, 297; Cristiani, 55; Celano, I, #32-33.

63 The same vision has been found in the records relating to the approbations of the Rule
of Saint Dominic (of Spain), an Order parallel and contemporaneous with Francis’ Fri-
ats Minor. Most histories credit the vision to the Pope’s dealings with Francis. The
astrology suggests that this is so as well.
120 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED
/

them, said solemnly, “this is truly the man who, with example and
doctrine, will uphold the church of Christ.”
Francis and the Friars Minor brothers had their Rule approved
and were granted the privilege of preaching. The Pope even
promised his help into the future.

Clare: The Feminine Among the Friars

Throughout history, women have had great difficulty getting close
to God: they lived under the crude criticism of Eve, the unalter-
able edict that Church clergy must be male, and a cultural posi-
tioning away from the benefits of education. The exceptions who
transcended the traditional role expectations of women stand out
in history.
One of these is Clare [Chiara], born of a noble family living just
outside Assisi. The family was extremely religious, Clare’s mother
having made the grand and dangerous Pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
All histories state emphatically that Clare was beautiful, opu-
lent, and dramatically self-aware. Her courageous, pious, noble
mother worked constantly to arrange a proper marriage for Clare
to extend the noble family. Clare resisted adamantly.
Clare had been drawn to the “crazy man,” Francis, “whom the
street boys attacked with mud and stones. His remarkable humili-
ty fascinated her more than any great deed in war or in knightly
tournaments.” A secret meeting was arranged between this daugh-
ter of the powerful feudal lord of San Rufino and the mortified,
humble Francis.
Here was the grand and beautiful damsel, ideal for the earlier
Francis, the Knight of Assisi. That thought must have gone
through Francis’ mind during his year of secret indoctrination

64 The trip to the Holy Land began with the crossing of the Mediterranean from the ports
in southern Italy to Damietta on the Egypt coast, just East of Alexandria and North of
(modern) Cairo. Then there was the two-week trek to the desert of the Sinai peninsula
and then the two-week crossing of the sands, guided by nomadic, dangerous Arabs, to
the Gaza region in southwest Judea. Thirst, wild animals, and robber bands threatened
constantly. ‘Then there was the two-week journey 250 miles north-northeast through
Judea to Jerusalem.
A second route was from ports on the south-southeast coast of Italy, in the Apulia
region, maintained by the Crusaders; across the Adriatic to Constantinople (Istanbul) and
then across Greece and down through Turkey, a very long, rough overland way as well.
65 Fortini, 337. .
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 121

meetings with Clare. Clare decided to dedicate her life to the way
of Francis; Francis was freeing the way a woman could do this.
On Palm Sunday, March 27, 1211, Clare wore “her richest
clothes and all her jewels, like a bride,” to the public church service
in the piazza. This was the first Palm Sunday celebration after the
ten years of war with Perugia. “It was a glorious, happy morning, a
morning of exultation and adoration.”
As the faithful walked to the altar to receive the symbolic olive
branches, Clare remained in her seat—undoubtedly creating a com-
manding spectacle for all. Bishop Guido—the friend of Francis—
added to the drama: he carried the last olive branch into the
congregation and solemnly gave it to Clare, “as if this were a part of
the rite.”
Clare remained alone in the piazza and in a trance-state most of
the day. At dark, she found her way to the tiny chapel at Porziunco-
la. She went to the altar and, one by one, she took off her jewels, the
ornaments of the life she was leaving behind her. She loosened her
golden hair and it was cut off, and she received from Francis’ own
hands the poor habit of a Friar Minor. She received honor from the
assembled “ragged knights” and, with Francis, went on foot two
miles to the Benedictine Monastery of San Paulo delle Ancelle di
Dio, into the dark of her new world, to lead the eventual Order of
the “Poor Clares,” women living the life of Christ.
Figure 11 (page 123) is the horoscope for Clare’s birth, which I
have rectified to 12:00 noon. There is no escaping this golden hour:
her noble birth and dramatic charisma (Sun-Venus conjunction in
Aquarius in the 10th, Mars-Neptune exact conjunction opposed the
Moon in Leo also in the parental axis, the opposition axis squared by
the Ascendant); her beauty (Venus ruler of the Ascendant conjunct

66 Psychoanalyst Nitzah Yarom, in her Freudian study of Francis (see Bibliography), sug-
gests that the spiritual fire that engulfed Clare and Francis (according to the accounts of
The Three Brothers) was indeed sexual. Francis knew a scandal would develop if a
woman were in the Order. He cloistered Clare in a series of nunneries, keeping her from
the mission of serving the poor as he did. This was his denial of sexuality once again,
and/yet (in my opinion) keeping his trophy near. Clare and Francis were close all his life.
See Yarom, 39.
Thomas of Celano (I, #18) points out several times in his description of Clare her
chastity, her virginity, and aligns those virtues with Francis’ virginity as well. The older
historians make a great deal of this observation.
67 A traditional chronology dates this conversion and acceptance event in the year 1212,
but recent research establishes the year as 1211. See Cristiani, 66; Fortini, 338, note f.
Astrologically, the year 1211 is overwhelmingly confirmed, see text and chart.
122 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

the Sun and Midheaven); and the pronouncedly obvious capacity to

change her way of life from the conventional to the avant garde,
from noble heritage to fringe rebellion (always the case in the con-
tact between Saturn and Uranus, here in opposition, with Uranus
ruling the Midheaven); the ego presence and individualistic reward
needs (Moon in Leo and Jupiter in Aries); her adamant refusal
(obstinate resolve, Fixed Angles) to consider marriage, but to pur-
sue a new way to relate to the world, a new life perspective (Pluto,
ruler of the 7th, is peregrine); and her contrapuntal mindset allied
with a higher way of giving love (Mercury retrograde in the 9th,
ruling the 5th House of love given, also peregrine).
The time test of Clare’s horoscope confirms date and time con-
clusively: at her conversion at age eighteen, SA Pluto=MC and SA
Asc=Uranus; SA Sun=Neptune; and, during her study period with
Francis, the Secondary Progressed Moon at 19 Aries was squaring
her natal Pluto; and Tertiary Moon at 16 Cancer was exactly con-
junct natal Pluto on the day of her conversion, the TP Sun was pre-
cisely opposed her Jupiter, and the TP MC was at 00 Libra, conjunct
the “public” Aries Point axis.
Clare was consecrated an Abbess by act of the Lateran Council
in November 1215 (discussed later): at that time, the transiting Sat-
urn-Uranus conjunction in 5 Libra was precisely opposed Clare’s
Jupiter in Aries, i.e., her need for ego recognition, her individualis-
tic religiousness.
Clare would be canonized in 1255.
Clare is important in our appreciation of Francis as a manifes-
tation of his anima, that part of him sensitive to things feminine, to
nurturing, caring, archetypal loving. This Jungian concept (with
the parallel animus in women, their awareness of things masculine)
explains the significance of Clare’s pleasure in calling herself the
“little plant of her Holy Father, Francis.”©? She considered him her
“nurse,” because “from him she had drunk sweet milk at the time
she had been reborn to life.”

68 The same arguments about the harshness of the life style that Pope Innocent III gave to
Francis were registered by the Church with Clare. Her argument was as eloquent as
Francis’ had been: “Holy Father, release me from my sins, but not from the obligation
to follow our Lord Jesus Christ!”
At Francis’ canonization ceremony in 1228, two years after his death, Pope Gregory
IX acknowledged Clare’s personal privilege to follow the rigorous Rule but made it an
obligation for the Poor Clares—under pain of excommunication—to accept the legacies
and gifts made to them, and forbade them to give any of them away. Christiani, 73.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 123

Clare had a most telling dream, reported by her companion,

Sister Filippa: She brought to Francis a basin of hot water and a
linen towel to dry his hands. She was happy in her submission and
abasement, this humbling of herself for love. “And when she had
come up to Saint Francis, he bared his breast and said to the virgin
Clare: ‘Come, take and drink.’ And when she had done so, the Saint
admonished her to drink again; and that which she drank was so
sweet and delightful that she could in no way describe it. When she

Inner Chart Outer Chart

St. Clare SA Conversion
Jan. 20, 1193, 12:00 P.M. LMT Mar. 27, 1211
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04
124 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

had finished, the nipple remained between the lips of the blessed
Clare, and taking in her hand that which remained in her mouth, it
seemed to her of such pure and shining gold that she could see in it
her own reflection, as in a mirror.”
Psychological studies attest to the thin line between religious-
ness and sexuality, the ecstatic feelings, the idealized goals, the
dynamics of relationship that include identification, projection,
conversion, and most importantly, submission. Nuns are “married”
to Jesus; all Orders wore wedding rings.’” The sexual underground
within the clergy has existed for all the history of the Church. In
the face of the unnatural demand of celibacy for men and women in
the service of God, conquering the weakness of the flesh represents
a formidable responsibility and challenge.
Sublimation becomes the key defense mechanism: certain
behaviors to serve one set of needs are renounced for a supposedly
more noble self-dedication elsewhere. In religion, sublimation is
part of the process of purification through sacrifice. Ideally,
through sublimation, the sexual hysteric becomes sexually frigid.
Francis’ sexual profile was clearly intense: his Moon, ruler of
the 5th (love given, sexuality) is exactly conjoined with Uranus and
Jupiter; Pluto, ruler of the 8th (also part of the sexuality profile) is
square the Sun. At the same time, this sexual drive was poised for
another level of management: with the powerful triple conjunction
in Taurus squaring the “mortification axis” of Saturn-Neptune, we
see repression, renunciation, sacrifice, sublimation.”
Francis’ Mars is exalted in Capricorn—adding to its power
symbolically—and makes no Ptolemaic aspect in Francis’ horo-
scope (perhaps a very wide trine with Venus). Mars must be con-
tended with; it can take over the horoscope through militarism,
dictatorial administration, sexual excess. While these Mars ener-
gies are ripe for dominance, with the scheme of self-sacrifice and

69 In Latin, the words are beautiful: Parva plantula sancti patris Francisci. Fortini, 357.
70 St. Bernard (1090-1153, two generations before Francis) was a French abbot (Cistercian)
and preacher of great fame and prestige. He was close to popes and King Louis VII and
organized support for the Second Crusade. He introduced the concept of erotic unity
with Christ, the spiritual marriage through love, into Christian mysticism. See Yarom, 23.
71 The historian John Holland Smith, writes, 89: “Chiara [Clare] found Francis irresistible
... Having impressionable girls fall in love with them is one of the earliest perils that
would-be mystics and ascetics have to learn to deal with. The indications are that Fran-
cis nearly failed this test. There are hints and stories enough in the Lives [Celano] and
the Mirror of Perfection [Speculum Perfectionis S. Francisci, ed. Sabatier, Paris, 1898] to
show that he always found celibacy difficult.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 125

ecstatic mysticism, they are also ready for sublimation. These were
the energies that Francis had to deal with in giving up his dreams of
knighthood and his libertine ways. Throughout his life, the sym-
bolism of Mars seems to disappear in his horoscope and in his life,
except in his preoccupation with fire (as we shall see).
In any extreme case like this (like these, including Clare, and
indeed, the other Friars and Poor Clares), one asks where the
energy goes, how well managed is it in its transferral to something
non-libidinal.
It is obvious—as psychologist Nitza Yarom points out—that
sexuality for Francis (and most of the other stigmatics who fol-
_ lowed through the centuries) was turned into “preoccupation with
the body, by the use of the defense mechanism of conversion.”
Chronic weakness or illness is very much part of the stigmatic’s life
profile as we shall see, and Francis himself observed that from the
day of his conversion on he was continuously sick.’? The stigmata,
while a complete identification with the suffering of Christ, was
also a total identification with the Highest Love and, it follows, the
ultimate—depleting and exhausting—fulfillment of body-mind-
spirit outreach.
It is also obvious in Francis’ life that his sense of aesthetics, cre-
ativity, and love of beauty—the Venus focus through Libra and Tau-
rus—reinforced by contrast by his revulsion initially felt for and
long remembered about lepers, were also clear manifestations of his
very strong anima. Jung averred that the anima projection was not
an invention of the conscious mind but was a spontaneous product
of the unconscious.’*
Francis could project all this upon Clare, spontaneously,
instinctively, while her cloistered position helped his sublimation
process do its work. Symbolically then, the victory over the body
was won once again.
Figure 12 (page 126) shows the synastry between Francis and
Clare. Most dramatically, we see her Sun-Venus-MC cluster con-
junct Francis’ all-pervasive Neptune, the fulcrum of his vision,
idealization, sacrifice, and sublimation. Clare’s Jupiter is opposed
Francis’ Sun-Mercury. Her Ascendant trines his Venus and her

72 Yarom, 60.
73 Green, 84.
74 Campbell—Ed., 151.
126 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Moon trines his Midheaven. Finally, her Uranus squares his Ascen-
dant and her Saturn crowns his Midheaven.
This is an extraordinary interrelationship of identities. Each of
these individuals, in the rarified realm of developing sainthood,
needed the other to fulfill the coupling of man and woman in the
service and love of God.

Figure 12
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi St. Clare
Sept. 26, 1181, 4:41 P.M.LMT Jan. 20, 1193, 12:00 p.m. LMT
Assisi, Italy Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04 12E37 43N04
Placidus Houses
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 127

Growth of the Order — The Lateran Council

The number of brothers following Francis continued to grow
rapidly. Groups of brothers traveled and preached in many differ-
ent areas and began to take stations in other countries. Organiza-
tion and quality control of the mission became important concerns.
A date for convening was established for the Order, to take place
every Pentecost—to celebrate the gathering together of the Apos-
tles after Christ’s Death and Ascension—at the Chapel of Porziun-
cola. This schedule was difficult to keep, but the brothers did
convene in 1212, 1214, 1217, 1219, and 1221.”
The main thrust of the Franciscan mission became to go
beyond Italy to preach to the infidels. This is what Innocent III
wanted as well. The entire Christian world was aghast at the Sara-
cen takeover of the Holy Land.”6
Francis planned a mission to the Middle East, but did not get
out of the harbor. He tried a second time, setting sail for Damascus,
only to have a storm cast his ship ashore in Slovenia. He stowed
away on a ship back to Italy and then set off for Spain. Of this trip,
we do not know any further details and can only assume that this
journey was a failure also. Although the Order was growing very
quickly, this time must have been most frustrating for Francis per-
sonally, and, indeed, we can assume that the aborting of his trips
abroad was assimilated as even deeper humiliation, keeping him in
his place, as it were.

75 By 1282, fifty-six years after Francis death, the Order’s growth had been so rapid that it
maintained 1,583 houses in Europe. Having a “house,” of course, was against Francis’ ear-
liest Rule which allowed no safety, no stronghold, no cloister, no possessions, no privi-
leges, i.e., those chains to the affairs of the world. His Order was to be defenseless and
exposed. It is remarked in many realistic studies of his life that, toward the end of his days,
Francis did lose control of the Order organizationally. Cunningham, 15, and others.
76 Saracen was the name most popularly used in the thirteenth century to describe the
Moslems, “the nomadic people of the deserts between Syria and Egypt.” However, this
is a very broad and imprecise label of geography. The Moslems were centralized in Con-
stantinople (Istanbul) and North Africa. The takeover of Jerusalem was accomplished in
638 by the Moslem conqueror ‘Umar (in power 634-644), second successor of Muham-
mad. There was nothing on the Temple site at the takeover (since Vespasian had over-
thrown Jerusalem, July 1, 70, and razed Herod’s expansion of the rebuilt remains (by
Zerubbabel, c. 530 B.C.) of Solomon’s original Temple, c. 1000 B.c.). By the early thir-
teenth century, some six mosques had been built and rebuilt on the Temple Mount. The
Crusades were planned repeatedly throughout Europe to attack and recover for the
Christians this holy place inJerusalem. The Dome of the Rock, one of Islam’s holiest
shrines built over the rock from which Muhammad ascended to heaven, still dominates
Jerusalem.
128 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

At this time, Francis was living through his “Saturn Return,”

transiting Saturn’s return to its birth position, which usually
“announces” itself some six months before exactness, and with ret-
rogradation periods can be extended over one and one-half years.
For Francis, the Return was shorter, June-December 1211. But, at
the same time, he absorbed Tr Uranus conjunct his 7th cusp, cer-
tainly a get-up-and-get-moving aspect, a new-look-for-the-Order
pressure from mid-1211 to mid-1212; and most importantly, Tr
Neptune was opposed his Sun from Fune 1210 through the middle of
1212, a protracted period of frustration, delay, bewilderment.
Immediately after the Saturn Return, Tr Saturn pressed upon the
seventh cusp from mid-1213 through mid-1214, and his tactical
frustrations cleared up gradually as Neptune eased away.
There is a beautiful, miraculous aspect to this time during
Francis’ mission that has been portrayed countless, countless times
throughout history and religious art: Francis’ sermons to the birds.
This miracle certainly fits the relation between transiting Neptune
and the Sun at this time, and the beautiful words of Thomas of
Celano are most fitting to describe it:

While many were joining the brothers, as we said, the most blessed
father Francis was making a trip through the Spoleto valley. He
came to a certain place near Bevagna where a very great number of
birds of various kinds had congregated, namely, doves, crows, and
some others popularly called daws. When the most blessed servant
of God, Francis, saw them, being a man of very great fervor and
great tenderness toward lower and irrational creatures, he left his
companions in the road and ran eagerly toward the birds.
When he was close enough to them, seeing that they were wait-
ing expectantly for him, he greeted them in his usual way. But,
not a little surprised that the birds did not rise in flight, as they
usually do, he was filled with great joy and humbly begged them
to listen to the word of God. Among the many things he spoke to
them were these words that he added: “My brothers, birds, you
should praise your Creator very much and always love him; he
gave you feathers to clothe you, wings so that you can fly, and
whatever else was necessary for you. God made you noble among
his creatures, and he gave you a home in the purity of the air;
though you neither sow nor reap, he nevertheless protects and
governs you without any solicitude on your part.”
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 129

At these words, as Francis himself used to say and those too who
were with him, the birds, rejoicing in a wonderful way according
to their nature, began to stretch their mouths and gaze at him. And
Francis, passing through their midst, went on his way and returned,
touched their heads and bodies with his tunic. finally he blessed
them, and then, after he had made the sign of the cross over them,
he gave them permission to fly away to some other place.7’

Characteristically, out of this beautiful moment, Francis began to

blame himself for negligence in not having preached to the birds
before, seeing that they had listened to the word of God with such
great reverence. And, Celano continues, that, from that day on, Fran-
cis solicitously admonished all birds, all animals and reptiles, “and
even creatures that have no feeling,” to praise and love their Creator.
Another vignette:

When he came one day to a city called Alviano to preach the word
of God, he went up to a higher place so that he could be seen by all
and he began to ask for silence. But when all the people had fall-
en silent and were standing reverently at attention, a flock of
swallows, chattering and making a loud noise, were building nests
in that same place. Since the blessed Francis could not be heard
by the people over the chattering of the birds, he spoke to them
saying: “My sisters, swallows, it is now time for me to speak, for
you have already spoken enough. Listen to the word of the Lord
and be silent and quiet until the word of the Lord is finished.”
And those little birds, to the astonishment and wonder of the peo-
ple standing by, immediately fell silent, and they did not move
from that place until the sermon was finished.
When these men therefore saw this miracle, they were filled with
the greatest admiration and said: “Truly this man is a saint and a
friend of the Most High.’ And they hastened with the greatest
devotion to at least touch his clothing, praising and blessing God.

With the Saturn Return, it appears that Francis’ reception by

the public calmed down and matured significantly: miracles were
easy, accepted, and persuasive;’® humiliation was omnipresent but

77 Celano, I, #58-59.
78 Miracles abound in the life of Francis. The Little Flowers of St. Francis (I Fioretti) and
other writings compiled by followers of Francis and early chroniclers in the early four-
teenth century capture scores of miracles in a childlike simplicity that charms the heart.
These legends and facts embody the Franciscan spirit delightfully and movingly.
130 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

compellingly refined; the public throughout Italy perceived Fran-

cis’ poignant sincerity, which fit his ever-growing reputation as a
saint among men, and Francis exhibited even more confidence in
his ability to touch the people. Celano reports: “Francis’ popularity
[had now] reached a point where those who no more than touched
his garment counted themselves lucky. When he entered any city,
the clergy rejoiced, the bells were rung, the men were filled with
happiness, the women rejoiced together, the children clapped their
hands; and often, taking branches from the trees, they went to meet
him singing.”
Finally, things were as they were to be. And Rome helped
once again.
Four hundred bishops and eight hundred abbots, representa-
tives of the Emperor of Germany (and the Holy Roman Empire),
the Latin Emperor of Constantinople, the Kings of France, Eng-
land, Hungary, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Aragon, and many Lombard
city-states were all called together in April by Pope Innocent III to
meet on November 11, 1215 at the Lateran Basilica in Rome.’?
The business before the Council was deeply serious: orga-
nizing the Fifth Crusade, in the light of their repeated failure;
then, formulation of dogma to conceptualize more clearly the
Holy Trinity.°°
There was the doctrinal problem of transubstantiation [the
Eucharistic miracle of the body and blood of Christ], the horrific
Albigensian conquests [Inquisitorial attack upon the anti-papist
Cathars in France and Spain], and the clean-up necessary in the
present-day administration of the Church, focusing on sexual trans-
gressions, pomp, and material luxury.®!
And then there was Francis and his two Orders, making the
Church face up to Christ’s example.

79 Cristiani, 95. The Lateran Basilica of our Savior is also named the Basilica of St. John the
Baptist, and we can not help but recall Francis’ original name, in honor of this saint. The
Basilica was then the Pope’s Cathedral Church. St. Peter’s Basilica was first constructed
by Constantine beginning c. 332 (See Grant, 196), and St. Peter’s Cathedral as we know
it today (Michelangelo’s remedial plans and dome) was not in place until 1546.
80 “The Father engenders the Son, the son becomes incarnate, and the Holy Spirit pro-
ceeds from the Father and the Son.” The problem is with “Father and the Son [fi/iogue],”
and this problem still divides East and West within Christendom. See Green, 167.
81 Innocent III died in the next year, in 1216. The French bishop Jacques De Vitry, visit-
ing Perugia when the Pope’s body was lying in state there, recorded that the body was
stripped of its robes and jewels by thieves who broke into the church. This dramatically
portrays the larceny of the times. Stock and Cunningham, 32.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 131

Innocent III was perceptive enough to see that Francis now had
power; his Order protested not, but they presented themselves as an
ideal that was embarrassingly missing at the highest levels of church
consciousness. Francis would have his way: he would again receive
definitive approbation by the Papal Court itself, for the Friars
Minor and the Poor Clares.*”
Figure 13 (below) brings Francis’ horoscope to the time of this
all-important Lateran Council. SA Ascendant squares natal Mars,

Figure 13
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi SA Lateran Council
Nov. 11, 1215

82 All historians. See Cristiani, 95-96.

132 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

suggesting that administrative challenge is absorbed for the bene-

fit of the mission’s goals, probably with the help of friends (11th
House; love received, goals, reward from the profession)—and
here we recall Francis’ powerful ally, Bishop Guido of Assisi and,
indeed, Pope Innocent III himself, for whom Francis literally was
a vision of the church’s future.
SA Mercury-Venus were tightly opposed (full awareness of)
Francis’ triple conjunction in Taurus—an affirmation of his ideals
within the structure of the Church. And most powerful of all for this
time period of maturity—of thirty-four-year old Francis and his
expanding Order—were SA Pluto square Jupiter, empowerment of
leadership, an optimism to fulfill dreams, and SA Saturn conjunct
the 7th cusp (opposite the Ascendant), the affirmation of one’s posi-
tion of maturity, wisdom, control, and patience, all brought out into
the open. This time for Francis was definitely his coming of age.
Additionally, the SP Moon was in 19-25 Cancer, opposed natal
Mars during the Council’s convocation. ‘Iransiting Saturn-Uranus
in 7 Libra were just a few weeks from exact conjunction with Francis’
Sun, the crystallization.of everything in his vocational life.

The Battle of Damietta

After the Order’s Pentecost meeting in 1219, Francis prepared
again to fulfill his dreams of international evangelism and interna-
tional Crusade. SA Jupiter, ruler of his 10th and 9th was finally
exactly square his Ascendant; SP Jupiter had retrograded to 3 Tau-
rus 37 precisely upon Francis’ Moon-Uranus conjunction; and his
SP Moon was upon his 7th cusp!
Francis prepared to journey to Damietta, Egypt, the center of
action of the Fifth Crusade, which was being led by King Jean de
Brienne—brother of Francis’ first knightly hero—the ostensible
king of Jerusalem, with his 100,000 warriors ready to do battle for
Jesus Christ. ‘To be with the grand Crusade, with his twelve Friars,
Francis set sail for Egypt in June 1219.8
The siege of Damietta is described as one of the most dramat-
ic events of the thirteenth century. It was the opening of Innocent
III’s new Crusade, and he had designated Egypt as the site of first

83 Fortini, 398-439.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 133

attack. During the preparation years before the conquest, Inno-

cent established a strict trade embargo throughout all of Europe
against Egypt and the Levant (the broad area of Syria and upper
Judea, the key ports for the Middle East). The great sultan Malik-
al-Kamil had offered de Brienne quite generous terms to lift the
blockade and avoid the enormous battle, but de Brienne refused
those terms.
The siege upon the sultan’s fearfully fortified city of Damietta
with its commanding river position, double walls, twenty-two gates,
110 towers, forty-two castle-turrets, a broad navigable moat now
obstructed by iron chains, and food supplies stocked for more than
two years—this siege would begin tomorrow, August 29, 1219, the
Day of the Decollation [beheading] of St. John the Baptist—again
the original namesake for Francis upon his birth.
The heat was oppressive, the river and offshoot swamps were
stagnating with refuse and human waste; “banners of every imagin-
able kind fluttered from the masts of ships: pennants, ensigns, flags
of every pattern and color, flags of France, Germany, Brittany,
Spain, Fisia, Holland. Companies, knights, and infantry of the Ital-
ian republics were there, equal in arms and in courage to the most
powerful kingdoms ...
“White and crimson crosses shone on silk and on steel, on the
castles of ships and on the mantles of knights of a multitude of
orders. It [the Cross] blazed out on the habits of monks and the gar-
ments of priests. Everywhere there was the flaming emblem that
was a symbol of the passionate feelings of those souls who had come
here ... to liberate, defend, and hold the Holy Land from the ene-
mies of the Holy Cross.”
And Francis, after the last night of prayer, knew this battle for
Christ would be lost. He spoke to the king. It was too late.
The clash of languages disordered the leadership of so great a
horde. The scalding sun inflamed the Crusaders’ infernal armor.
The craze of thirst desiccated reason. And the god-enraged, pas-
sionate heathen backlash stained the shining Christian tunics with
more blood than eyes and minds could manage. Decapitations
numbered as stones upon the rocky land. The battle of Damietta
was irretrievably lost.
134 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The Holy Land — The New Rule —

The Third Order
After the overwhelming disconsolation of Damietta, Francis
pressed on to the Holy Land. Little is recorded about this extend-
ed trip [a continuing Jupiter symbolism as we have seen], but the
words of Monsignor Cristiani summarize this emotional visit:

So he went to Nazareth, once the theater of Christ’s “hidden life”

[before Jesus’s birth, the Annunciation]. There he reverenced the
presence not only of his Jesus, but also of Mary His Mother, and
Joseph, the humble carpenter Jesus had chosen for His foster father.
We follow Francis now with greater awe to Bethlehem, the town
where Christ was born. To Francis’ eyes, this was indeed the
world capital of “poverty.” For Jesus, the Son of God, had chosen
to be born there in a stable, and to receive the homage of poor
shepherds and wealthy kings alike.
It would be a priceless treasure to know the thoughts, feeling, and
inspirations Francis experienced in this most blessed of earthly
places. Was it here perhaps that he was first inspired to reproduce
the Creche of Bethlehem, as he would later do at Greccio, thus
making the first Christmas crib in all of Christendom?
But our pilgrim must have felt even stronger emotions at the sites
of Christ’s sufferings than either at Nazareth or Bethlehem. We
can picture him kneeling on the hill of Golgatha, praying at the
Holy Sepulcher, meditating at the very places where the world
was redeemed through the sufferings of the Divine Master.
The vision of Christ’s sufferings was to grow on Francis, and we
have a proof in his stigmatization on Mount Alverna.**

In June-July 1219, a messenger, Brother Stefano the Simple,

secretly on his own, left Italy and located Francis in Jerusalem.
There was trouble: brothers in the Order had begun “to leave the
way of perfection that he [Francis] had shown them and were no
longer constant in love and in the practice of charity, humility, and
holy poverty.” Additionally, a Cardinal had imposed on the Poor
Clares a departure from the Rule, which Francis and his Friars
strongly opposed.®

84 Cristiani, 122-123.
85 Fortini, 436-437.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 135

Francis returned to Italy, to Venice, on the late Summer pas-

sage. He went alone to an uninhabited lagoon island, Isola del
Deserto, to fast and to pray. The experience of the Holy Land was
with him deeply and lifted him quite above the bureaucratic prob-
lems pressing upon the Order ... and into his last life period.
The astrology here was subtle. Recall Figure 13 (page 131), the
SA Midheaven at 27 Capricorn would come to 1 Aquarius in three
and one-half years, i.e., to July 1219 by adding three and one-half
degrees to the November 1215 position. This puts Francis SA MC
into contact with Neptune (SA MC=Neptune) suggesting a period
of “feeling lost” or, indeed, “losing it!”
Also in July 1219, transiting Saturn was Stationary-Direct (on
July 10) at 9 Scorpio, square Francis’ natal Saturn, always an adjust-
ment period of how things are going in life, usually in the profes-
sion. ‘Iransiting Neptune was at 0 Taurus approaching a very
important conjunction period with Francis’ entire Taurus focus,
another measurement of bewilderment and/or withdrawal [escape
and sacrifice are very closely related throughout Francis’ life].
The Secondary Progressed Moon was crossing his 7th cusp
that Summer.
We see Francis getting away from his Order, from its construc-
tion, if you will. The popularity was snowballing, the numbers of
friars were growing incredibly: there were now some 5,000 mem-
bers in the Order.®° The outreach was extraordinary, but it was no
longer the personal mission it had been fourteen years earlier.
Francis continued on to Porziuncola. His presence was aston-
ishingly effective, and he was able to settle things quickly within the
Order. But the need to write a more precise and complete Rule was
pressing. The composition of these Rules always seemed to be
beyond Francis’ interest and skill, so totally tied was he to the dic-
tates of inspiration. The astrology shows us Francis returning in his
life to a decidedly personal realm of experience (the Neptune
focus). In reality, he could not justify the bureaucratic rules neces-
sary for group organization with the Order’s Rule for individual
poverty and sacrifice. Francis resigned from leadership of the Order. He
withdrew with the phrase, according to Celano: “From now on Iam
dead to you.”

86 Yarom, 40.
136 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Brother Elias—one of Francis first converts—had been an

extremely powerful consul, lawyer/judge in Assisi, a man known for
his noble birth and his extraordinary wisdom. To him—after the
death of Brother Pietro di Catanio, who directed the Order for a
brief time—Francis gave the title of Vicar General of the Order.
Brother Elias then had the responsibility to reframe the Rule of
1221 and then write the Rule of 1223, which was finally approved
by Pope Honorius III at the end of that year.®’
In the Spring of 1221, Francis passed through Poggibonsi, a lit-
tle town between Siena and Florence. He met a man named Luc-
chesio, who was totally caught up with earning money through
cornering the grain supplies of the region and then selling at a high
profit when the price rose. With the influence of Francis, Lucch-
esio and his wife, who had worked closely with him in the business,
eventually saw the futility of their ways, sold all but their home and
garden, and gave the money to the poor.
A poor man then came to Lucchesio’s home, begging. Lucch-
esio asked his wife to get some bread for the man, but she told him
that not one crumb was left. Lucchesio insisted and, when the wife
went to the bread bin and opened it, she was amazed to find that it
was not empty at all, but full of fresh and fragrant loaves! This mir-
acle led Lucchieso and his wife again to Francis. They wanted to
follow the way of the Order as formal disciples of Poverty, but they
did not want to be separated, since “they could not get along with-
out one another.”
Francis saw “the luminous beauty of love when the union of a
man and a woman is an indissoluble joining of souls. It would not
be right to destroy a family, which is also a gift from God, blessed
by God.”88 [We are reminded of Francis’ own hallowed “marriage”
to Lady Poverty, the idealized focus upon the 7th House through
Mercury-Venus and the Sun.]
Francis understood in that moment that absolute renunciation
should be required only for an apostle. Thus, according to tradition,

87 Itis important to note that after Francis’ death, the incipient disorganization continued,
tragically in the person of Brother Elias, Francis’ trusted aide. Pope Gregory IX entrust-
ed Elias with building a basilica to honor St. Francis. In the process of doing that, Elias
became a profiteering businessman; he lived in luxury, rode horseback, kept two resi-
dences, and refused to hold general meetings of the Order. He was excommunicated by
the Church and was then again excommunicated by the grandly expanded Order. It is
understood that, at his death, he recanted his sins. Celano xlvii-xlviii. The Rule of the
Order was demanding indeed.
88 Fortini, 521.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 137

was born the Third Order, the Secular Order, formally the “Frater-
nity of the Third Order of Penitence” to accommodate all who
dedicated themselves to Francis’ mission of humility and helping
the poor but could not follow the extreme of the Rule. These mem-
bers would have a different Rule: they would be prohibited from
bearing arms, for example, from having hatred in their hearts, from
taking any solemn oath except in those circumstances allowed by
the Church. This Order now flourishes throughout the world in
modern times as the “Secular Franciscan Order (S.F.O.), still lay-
administered and self-governing; they are teachers, nurses, and
facilitators for the poor, and counselors; “they seek souls who long
for perfection in their own state.”®?
In December 1223—Fortini tells us—Francis experienced the
happiest time in his life. The weather was beautiful, and Christmas
was drawing near. Francis planned to recreate the birth of Jesus in a
cave outside Greccio, an Umbrian caste/lo near Assisi. He assembled
a manger, an ox and an ass, straw, and hay. Brother Thomas of
Celano was there; he tells the story:

The day of joy drew near, the time of great rejoicing came. The
brothers were called from their various places. Men and women
of that neighborhood prepared with glad hearts, according to
their means, candles and torches to light up that night that has
lighted up all the days and years with its gleaming star.
At length, the saint of God came [Francis], and finding all things
prepared, he saw it and was glad. The manger was prepared, the
hay had been brought, the ox and ass were led in. There simplic-
ity was honored, poverty was exalted, humility was commended,
and Greccio was made, as it were, a new Bethlehem.
The night was lighted up like the day, and it delighted men and
beasts. The people came and were filled with new joy over the
new mystery. The woods rang with the voices of the crowd and
the rocks made answer to their jubilation. The brothers sang, pay-
ing their debt of praise to the Lord, and the whole night resound-
ed with their rejoicing.
The saint of God stood before the manger, uttering sighs, over-
come with love, and filled with a wonderful happiness. The
solemnities of the Mass were celebrated over the manger and the
priest experienced a new consolation.

89 Pope Pius XII, public address, July 1, 1956.

138 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The saint of God was clothed with the vestments of the deacon,
for he was a deacon, and he sang the holy Gospel in a sonorous
voice. And his voice was a strong voice, a sweet voice, a clear
voice, a sonorous voice, inviting all to the highest rewards. Then
he preached to the people standing about, and he spoke charming
words concerning the nativity of the poor King and the little
town of Bethlehem. Frequently too, when he wished to call
Christ Fesus, he would call him simply the Child of Bethlehem,
aglow with overflowing love for him; and speaking the word Beth-
lehem, his voice was more like the bleating of a sheep. His mouth
was filled more with sweet affection than with words. Besides,
when he spoke the name Child of Bethlehem or fesus, his tongue
licked his lips, as it were, relishing and savoring with pleased
palate the sweetness of the words.
The gifts of the Almighty were multiplied there, and a wonderful
vision was seen by a certain virtuous man [the nobleman, Giovan-
ni (Francis’ first namesake, once again) who helped assemble the
Creche]. For he saw a little child lying in the manger lifeless, and
he saw the holy man of God [Francis] go up to it and rouse the
child as from a deep sleep.
The vision was not unfitting, for the Child Jesus had been forgot-
ten in the hearts of many; but, by the working of his grace, he was
brought to life again through his servant St. Francis and stamped
upon their fervent memory. At length, the solemn night celebra-
tion was brought to a close, and each one returned to his home
with holy joy.”

The Seraph, the Stigmata, and Death

In 1213, just after creation of the Order of the Little Clares and
during his frustrating first attempts to go to the Middle East, Fran-
cis met up with Count Orlando of Chiusi, a bold knight of the
emperor. The count was deeply impressed by Francis and exceed-
ingly appreciative of the Order and its example. In his name and
that of his sons—”solely for reason of devotion”—Count Orlando
donated to the brotherhood, without any restriction, a mountain

90 Celano, I, #85-86. Celano adds a note that any animals in the immediate area that were
sick were freed from their ailments after eating the hay used in the Creche. Women labor-
ing in difficult childbirth were delivered safely when some of this hay was placed upon
them. Miracle cures took place among the throng attending the beautiful scene, flooded
with firelight, singing, and love. An altar was built upon the spot and a church built
around the altar. And the church is still there in Greccio, forty-five miles south of Assisi.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 139

named La Verna (also A/verna). It was an immense, rugged cliff with

a thick forest at the top, located between the Arno and Tiber rivers
about sixty miles northwest of Assisi near Arezzo.
Fortini gathers together descriptions of the mountain and
describes it as “tormented, wounded, and broken in some horren-
dous convulsion. Violent passion made grievously immobile lurks in
the fearsome rock that is constantly assaulted by storms, rock that
seems of another world ... a setting for a battle of titans.” According
to Francis, God revealed to him that the enormous fissures and the
chilling precipices on this peak were made in the hour that Jesus
died, when, according to the Gospel, “the rocks were split.””!
Francis journeyed to La Verna in late August 1224. It was his
sixth and final retreat to this isolated, dramatic place. The brothers
had built huts of branches and mud on a rocky clearing near the
top. Francis found an ultimately secluded spot, guarded by a deep
fissure in the rocks for his solitary prayer vigils; no one save Broth-
er Leo was allowed to interrupt him, and then only by calling ahead
with a password warning.
This was the ultimate time of prayer and humility for Francis.
In his words, as told to a Brother John by Francis in a vision after
his death (one in a series of miraculous testaments of proof of the
stigmata, involving visionary appearances to brothers and the
touching and kissing of the wounds), here is what happened:

I was praying in that place where [now] stands the chapel of

Count Simon of Battifolle, and asked two graces of my Lord Jesus
Christ; the first was, that He would grant me in this life to feel in
my soul and in my body, so far as possible, all the pains that He
Himself felt, during the time of His bitter Passion. The second
grace which I asked of Him was like unto the first, that I might
feel in my heart the excessive love which induced Him to suffer
such a Passion for us sinners. And then God put it into my heart,
that He would give me to feel both the one and the other, in so
far as it was possible for a mere creature; which thing indeed was
fulfilled in me by the impression of the Stigmata.”””

91 Fortini, 551-552. Additionally, Dante described the mountain as the crudo sasso (“harsh
crag”), “Paradiso, Canto ii, line 106. See also Matthew 27: 45, 51-52: “The earth shook,
and the rocks were split; the Tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who
had fallen asleep were raised.”
92 The Little Flowers ofSt. Francis, 242-243.
140 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

In actual life after the experience, Francis spoke sparingly about

the ecstatic experience, but he gave these details on occasions, as
reported by Thomas of Celano in narrative form:

He saw in the vision of God a man standing above him, like a ser-
aph with six wings, his hands extended and his feet joined togeth-
er and fixed to a cross. Two of the wings were extended above his
head, two were extended as if for flight, and two were wrapped
around the whole body. When the blessed servant of the Most
High saw these things, he was filled with the greatest wonder, but
he could not understand what this vision should mean.
Still, he was filled with happiness and he rejoiced very greatly
because of the kind and gracious look with which he saw himself
regarded by the seraph, whose beauty was beyond estimation; but
the fact that the seraph was fixed to a cross and the sharpness of
his suffering filled Francis with fear.
And so he arose, if I may so speak [Thomas perhaps editorializ-
ing] sorrowful and joyful, and joy and grief were in him alternate-
ly. Solicitously he thought what this vision could mean, and his
soul was in great anxiety to find its meaning. And while he was
thus unable to come to any understanding of it and the strange-
ness of the vision perplexed his heart, the marks of the nails began
to appear in his hands and feet, just as he had seen them a little
before in the crucified man above him.
His hands and feet seemed to be pierced through the middle by
nails, with the heads of the nails appearing in the inner side of the
hands and on the upper sides of the feet and their pointed ends on
the opposite sides. The marks in the hands were round on the
inner side, but on the outer side they were elongated; and some
small pieces of flesh took on the appearance of the ends of the
nails, bent and driven back and rising above the rest of the flesh.
In the same way the marks of the nails were impressed upon the
feet and raised in a similar way above the rest of the flesh.
Furthermore, his right side was as though it had been pierced by
a lance and had a wound in it that frequently bled so that his tunic
and trousers were very often covered with his sacred blood.
Alas, how few indeed merited to see the wound in his side
while this crucified servant of the crucified Lord lived! But
happy was Elias who, while the saint lived, merited to see this
wound; and no less happy was Rufino who touched the wound
with his own hands ...
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 141

It was Francis’ custom to reveal his great secret but rarely or to no

one at all, for he feared that his revealing it to anyone might have
the appearance of a special affection for him, in the way in which
special friends act, and that he would thereby suffer some loss in
the grace that was given him.”

Cristiani tells the same story, as do all sources in one degree of

detail or another, and then adds succinctly and dramatically:

And it seemed to Francis that his prayer was already answered. He

began to burn with a consuming love and felt as though com-
pletely changed and transformed into his Fesus.*

Cristiani notes that Francis refused to tell the brothers anything

about the wondrous experience, but “when the brothers washed his
clothing they understood their master did indeed bear in his side, in
his hands and feet, the bodily image and likeness of the wounds of our
Lord Jesus Christ!” And, indeed, as we shall see, upon Francis’ death,
stripped naked upon the ground, the stigmata were there to be seen.

There is no doubt that the stigmata occurred within the first

three weeks of September 1224 (the party left La Verna on Sep-
tember 30). Every source agrees. This time in Francis’ life was well
annotated by his followers who had become organizationally more
and more sophisticated with the great increase in their numbers,
and Francis had indeed become a living saint, was constantly failing
in health and strength, and could die at any time. In short, records
became important.
Along with St. Bonaventure (Life of St. Francis, Tr. Garney-
Salter. London: Everyman Library, 1963), Fortini, to my knowl-
edge, is as detailed a biographer of Francis as there is. My reading

93 Celano, II, #94-95. Additionally, some time afterwards as Francis showed signs that
death was near, Brother Leo, Francis’ sentinel upon Mount La Verna at the time of the
vision, asked Francis for something personal, something written in his own hand to help
Leo through any difficult time. Francis wrote the well-known benediction (Numbers
6:24-26, “The Lord Bless you and keep you ...) in Latin with a personal Blessing point-
edly to Leo. Then, on the other side of the paper, Leo added specific testament in red
ink (not blood) about Francis’ experience with the Seraph and his reception of the stig-
mata. Leo also indicated the authenticity of Francis’ signature—a Greek Tau, the T-
Cross, on the outline of a mountain (Golgatha and La Verna?) that appeared on the paper.
Exhaustive studies by historians and paleographers allow no doubt of authenticity. This
paper is preserved in the sacristy of the Sacro Convento in Assisi.
94 Cristiani, 157-158.
142 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

of this climactic time in Francis’ life and in our study is that Francis
set up a-general schedule for the brothers (corroborated as well in
accounts of the stigmata in The Little Flowers of St. Francis): Francis
was awakened each morning by a “fierce and violent falcon” tamed
by Francis’ presence. The Falcon nested by Francis’ hut and sum-
moned him and the brothers to prayer at every dawn.”
The brothers would then pray all day, with Francis off alone,
watched over at a distance by Brother Leo. They would have their
evening meal—or perhaps Francis would fast and continue praying
through the night and into the next day(s).
Prayer would resume at “matins.” This word refers to the
“morning,” especially in the singular, through Latin and French
roots. For the Church, in the plural form, it came to mean “morn-
ing prayers,” but in medieval times there was the thought that the
“morning” could be anticipated by prayers of praise the evening
before, i.e., matins could begin at sunset, as a first canonical hour. In
fact, at that time the day was held to begin not at dawn but at sun-
set. It was very confusing indeed. Modern dictionaries echo this as
well, giving as first definition of matins, “the night office forming
with lauds the first of the canonical hours.”
In the same thought with the word “matins,” Fortini talks of
the woodlands on the mountain top “in a light of dream, wrapped
in the whiteness of the full moon.”*® This corroborates the
reference to the evening prayer schedule for the brotherhood. It
was during the darking of one of those nights on La Verna that Leo
went to the brink of the gorge separating Francis from the rest of
them to check on him, and called out the agreed-upon words that
would alert Francis. But there was no answer. Three times Leo
called. No answer ... finally, Francis appeared, coming forward,
according to Leo, “on pierced feet, uncovers his lacerated heart,
stretches out his nail-marked hands, and repeats the words of the
Last Supper: “This is my blood. Drink all of it.’””
Fortini’s reference to the Full Moon was more than a romantic
grace upon his historical narrative. A Full Moon did occur on Sep-
tember 1. This most specific reference probably came from records

95 ‘This description explained and personalized so much for me the opening lines of a poem I
have known for thirty-five years, Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ecstatic The Windhover - To
Christ our Lord: “I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-/dom of daylight’s dauphin,
dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding/Of the rolling level underneath him steady air,
and striding/High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing/In his ecstasy!...” -
96 Fortini, 556.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 143

of the organization of the program for the brothers’ prayer vigil,

drawn up upon their arrival on La Verna at the end of August, ie.,
with the Full Moon of September 1.
Dating references in this medieval period within the Church
were anchored to the Feast Days of Saints or of great happenings
involving Saints. No one outside the Church and sometimes the
courts particularly cared what date it was.”” During the time period of
Francis’ fast and prayer vigil on La Verna, September 14 was the very
important Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, certainly appropri-
ate—and perhaps magnetic—to the dating of the stigmata.”®
Very late on the night of this September 14, the Feast of the Holy
Cross, and throughout the early hours of September 15, a New Moon
was forming in the 29th degree of Virgo. In my opinion, it would have
been too dark and exceedingly dangerous upon that heavily wooded,
ominous mountain peak, alone, climbing around a precipitous gorge,
for frail, preoccupied Francis to be safe. I think the brothers would
have urged him that night (those nights of no moonlight) to stay clos-
er to his hut, to pray in his hut and retire early, and to await the bright
of the Moon returning in two days or so.
From most careful study of this time period early in September, I
suggest that the night of Francis’ stigmata was most likely seven days
earlier, on September 7, seven days into their stay, quite possibly very
near to 8 P.M. This adjustment from the 14th, the appropriate Feast
Day, back to the 7th does not affect the Solar Arc positions or Sec-
ondary Progressed positions in Francis’ horoscope at all. There is an
adjustment of four degrees backward for the Tertiary Moon (see Fig-
ure 15 to come, page 147), with either position reinforcing the beau-
tiful congruence between astrology and reality, as we shall see. ‘The

97 Whitrow, 83: “The essential quality of the world was its transitoriness vis-a-vis God, not
the visible change which went on unceasingly in the world. Until the fourteenth century
only the church was interested in temporal measurement and division ... As late as the fif
teenth century it is doubtful whether people in general knew the current year of the
Christian era, since that depended on an ecclesiastical computation and was not used
much in everyday life.”
98 The Early Church Calendar after Francis’ death designated September 17th as the Feast
Day of the Stigmata. This was not to over-ride consensus that the stigmata occurred on
the fourteenth, the Feast Day of the Exaltation of the Cross; rather, the 17th was the
nearest date available for this special designation! The 14th was an extremely important
Feast Day of long, long standing; the 15th was the Feast Day of our Lady of Sorrows; the
16th was the Feast Day of two other saints; so the 17th became the Day for the Stigma-
ta. The Council of Vatican II (1962-65, ninety-three years after Vatican Council I)
adjusted some Feast Days to try to bring them closer to the dates the celebrated events
actually occurred, but many yet remain disparate.
144 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

position on September 7th is just ideally perfect, and not uncharac-

teristic of Tertiary portraits projected from correct birth times.
It remains undeniable, however, that, for either date for
the stigmata, the astrology for Francis indeed shows the gift
from God.

Astrology of the Stigmata

Figure 14 (page 145) is Francis’ Solar Arc portrait brought for-
ward to September 1224, the historic time of the stigmata, the ful-
fillment of his every prayer and deed throughout his life.
SA Neptune, the sublime focal center of Francis’ being,
ruler of his Ascendant as well, has finally come to the Ascendant
within 7 minutes of arc of precision. At Francis’ level, this is the
mystic fulfillment of his sacrifice of being, his loss of ego, his
spiritual projection of identity to the greatest possible extreme,
the process begun long before in the Perugian dungeon, in the
feverish bed in Spoleto, in the San Damiano chapel, and naked
before his father.
SA projection of the extraordinary Moon-Uranus conjunc-
tion—the uniqueness of Francis’ being, the organization of his ear-
lier identity for materialism and the construction of his avant garde
emotional individuation, also to the greatest possible extreme—has
now come out of the natal square with the Neptune-Saturn to exact
square with his Pisces Ascendant axis. This is a tremendous emphasis
on the identity conversion and dual-personality fulfillment we have
seen developing throughout his life.
SA Jupiter is applying to opposition with Francis’ Mid-
heaven, certainly a time for vocational and religious reward
and fulfillment.
The final remarkable dimension of this Solar Arc portrait for
the stigmata is SA Saturn exactly square the Midheaven (Saturn=MC,
within 9 minutes of arc): this always signals a powerful time of life
development, a major change that can often involve matters of
great sacrifice for change, matters of death for change, or decision
for a major change of direction, how one relates to the world. The
father figure in the life is very often involved as well (here, God the
Father, the paternity of the Creator).
In this month of the stigmata, it is the date of a Progressed New
Moon. It takes place in 23 Scorpio in Francis’ 8th House. The fulfillment
 FRANCIS OF AssISI # 145

of the stigmata is certainly fulfillment through death; the personal-

ity dies, loses itself, to be reborn in new light.
In this directed horoscope, we see Francis’ lifetime sacrifice
through SA Neptune upon the Ascendant, the dynamic intensifica-
tion of his being through SA Moon-Uranus square that Ascendant,
his life change through matters of death through SA Saturn square
the Midheaven, and his new conceptualization of selfhood through
the Progressed New Moon in Scorpio!
Figure 15 (page 147) shows the Tertiary Progressions, which
are extremely time sensitive and Moon-and-angles orientated.

Figure 14
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi SA Stigmata
Sept. 7, 1224
146 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

They also reinforce the portrait of stigmata fulfillment dramatical-

ly: the TP Uranus-Moon-Sun conjunction (a Tertiary New Moon,
echoing the Secondary New Moon!) is precisely conjunct Francis’
Jupiter, ruler of his 9th and 10th. This is certainly a signature of ful-
fillment, a transcendental new illumination through things Jupiter-
ian. Jupiter is co-ruler of the Pisces Ascendant.
In turn, TP Jupiter at 16 Gemini is exactly square the Ascen-
dant axis.
Finally, Tertiary Mars-Neptune (charismatic and, in Francis’
case, mystical uniqueness) exactly opposes natal Saturn, and,
along with the 2nd House activity, activates the entire T-Square of
Francis’ being.
These Tertiary measurements alone are astounding. They sup-
ply a commanding echo of the magical constructs seen in the Solar
Arcs and Secondary Progressions.
The final chart for the stigmata, Figure 16 (page 148), shows
the transits for just before 8 P.M., approximately two hours after
sunset, into the matins period, arranged around Francis’ natal
horoscope. Yet, again, the corroboration is formidable: the Mid-
heaven over Mount La Verna was exactly upon Francis’ mysterious
sublimated Mars (co-ruler of the Ascendant through intercepted
Aries, the militaristic swagger of his early life projection, wounds
and blood), and the Ascendant at Mount La Verna at this time had
Neptune just about to rise at 8—9 degrees Taurus, another accentuation
of Neptune and yet another conjunction with Francis’ Jupiter.
Finally, the Moon in 23 Gemini was precisely opposed Francis’
Midheaven: another designation of matters ended, matters fulfilled,
with a new beginning promised in another realm.

Notes about the Stigmata

The word stigmata does not mean wounds. It properly means
marks, brands, signs, from the Latin meanings and the Greek
(also to tattoo). Interestingly, the connotation of shame or dis-
credit through markings is established and cited in the word’s
etymology. “The Stigmata” came to designate the marks resem-
bling the wounds of Christ crucified, manifested often during
religious ecstasy.
Francis was the first stigmatic, and there were thirty-one more
cases of stigmata up to the end of the thirteenth century, twenty-
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 147

two cases during the 14th century, and twenty-five in the fifteenth
century. Out of them all, nine were declared saints by the Church.
By 1908, of the 321 cases identified by a French doctor/
researcher, 229 cases had been reported from Italy (the rest France,
Spain, and Portugal).””
Ted Harrison, a former religious affairs correspondent of the
BBC, makes the very important deduction out of his research that

Figure 15
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi TP Stigmata
Sept. 7, 1224

99 Yarom, 23. Harrison, 9: “In the twentieth century [there is a] change in pattern. While
Italy provides many examples, it does not dominate in quite the same way. There have
been American cases, one in Australia ... and three are British (Anglicans).”
148 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

“the vast majority of cases [of the stigmata] have occurred at a time
and in a place where, although remarkable, reports of stigmata could
be absorbed into the culture.” In other words, it could happen.
We can see this kind of cultural acceptance or approval, for
example, in sports: when (Doctor-athlete) Roger Bannister, after
extensive study, conditioning, and planning, broke the four-minute
barrier in the mile race by running the mile in 3:59:04. It was an
enormous accomplishment hailed throughout the world as a never-
thought-possible physical breakthrough. It could be done! And
after that day, May 6, 1954, the four-minute barrier was passed

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Francis of Assisi TR Stigmata
Sept. 7, 1224, 7:52 P.M. LMT
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 149

repeatedly by other runners. Races today routinely include many

four-minute milers, and the record is still being lowered.
The same phenomenon of empowerment seciired after the
first ascent of Mt. Everest by Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953. So
many climbers have reached the top of the world since then that
there is a debris problem en route to the summit because of expedi-
tionary camp discards.
The stigmata manifest in different ways: the wounds are in the
feet and/or the hands and/or the side, and/or across the forehead
and crown of the head. The wounds all or in part may bleed. Fran-
cis’ wounds in his feet and hands did not bleed, but the convulsion
of traumatized flesh pointedly took on the definition of nails. The
wound in his side bled copiously.
In some cases, the stigmata come and go, appearing only during
Holy Week or occurring only on Good Friday, or on every Friday, or
on the Feast Day of Saint Francis. In some cases they remain: the
holy Padre Pio (his church near Foggia in Italy) who joined the
Capucine (a Franciscan) Order in 1902, carried the marks which
originally appeared in 1918 for fifty years, seeping a cup of blood
each day.!°?
The shape and positioning of the wounds suggest further dimen-
sion to the phenomenon: they are related to portrayals of Crucifixion
scenes in Christian art. The Christian’s conceptualization of nails-
through-the-hands, for example, leads the stigmata to wounds in the
hands. With the modern research presented in John D. Hiller’s book,
Report on the Shroud of Turin (Houghton Mifflin, 1983), explaining
that the hand wounds actually were wrist wounds (otherwise the
weight of the body would tear through the palms), the consciousness
of the details is beginning to change, and so has the location of the
wounds. A Maryland priest, for example, has the nailmarks in his
wrists. Another contemporaneous stigmatic has wounds and visions
that correspond to the illustration in her modern Bible.'°!
The mind is strongly active in this phenomenon, obviously, and
this has led to off-handed, empty explanations citing psychosomati-
cism, which addresses how emotional pressures can bring about

100 Harrison, 100-113.

101 Ibid., 40. In the twelfth/thirteenth century, Christian art reflected the pained and sinful
social times. The emphasis on a sweet Jesus and a beaming Virgin Mary gave way to an
agonizing, wounded, ashen pale Christ figure with all the gory details of suffering depict-
ed in glorious, brilliantly colored frescoes on the walls of churches.
150 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

organic results, but itself has no explanation. The concept of psy-

chogenic purpura has been coined to label spontaneous lesions for
which there is no physical explanation. The medical research talks
responsibly about the masochistic dimension of the stigmata, about
the ability to endure pain for long periods of time, to the point of
actual enjoyment of hardship.)
The profile assembled by researchers—medical, psychiatric,
religious, and journalistic—of the stigmatic, is a person usually
female (outnumbering men seven to one);!°? able to do with mini-
mal food or astounding lapses of eating (to the incapability of
eating); a strange body odor; instances of levitation; piercing, tele-
pathic insight; chronic ill health; difficult childhood; and a link
with, even immunity to fire and/or feverish states. All stigmatics
report and evidence a conspicuously altered state of consciousness,
the preparedness for visionary experience and multiple personality
manifestation. The profile can be detailed more exactly and,
indeed, expanded, but this is the general overview as gathered by
Harrison and Yarom.
The dimension of ill health in Francis’ case can not be denied.
Astrologically, it is perfectly clear: natal Saturn, within the
extreme opposition with Neptune, is in the 6th (sickness) and is
co-ruler of the 12th (chronic illness); the Sun, ruler of the 6th, is
squared by Pluto; Uranus, ruler of the 12th is exactly conjunct
Francis’ Moon; and Neptune, ruling the Ascendant, receives the
opposition from Saturn.
The dimension of fever and fire is pronounced throughout
Francis’ life. He endured debilitating, long-lasting sieges of fever
as a prisoner in the Perugian dungeon, during the next step
toward his conversion when he was in Spoleto (aborting his expe-
dition to become a knight), and many other times in his life, and
almost perpetually in the later years. The fevers were always well
documented because they emphasized his suffering, his personal
neglect, his selflessness.!%

102 Harrison, 15.

103 Due in great part to the Catholic clergy’s exclusion of women, to most of culture through-
out history excluding expression, position, and fulfilling relevance to women; in short, a
heightened suffering and alienation for women, and therefore, through intensified piety,
increased projection through that suffering for significance in Christ’s suffering.
104 In a Vatican-authorized medical inquiry into stigmatic Padre Pio’s case, it is recorded
that, on one occasion, the temperature of his body broke the mercury tube in the ther-
mometer. Harrison, 107.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 151

Fortini tells us explicitly that Francis had always been fascinat-

ed by fire. “Staring at it had always been a great joy ... At times he
had not hesitated to feed it with his own habit.”!%
When Francis was in Damietta, in Egypt, a prostitute offered
herself to him. Francis told how her bed was ready and that the
woman was very beautiful. He took her instead to a great fire (prov-
ing Mars sublimated) that was burning in the grand kitchen, in a
large roasting brazier. He then threw himself upon the fire and
invited the woman to join him.!%
Shortly after Damietta, Francis offered several times in his ser-
mons to throw himself into fire to prove his faith.
When Francis was near death, after the stigmata, his discomfort
complicated by severe eye problems (Sun; Moon), a doctor tried to
treat him, with a cauterizing operation:

When the doctor appeared, armed with the cautery that he would
heat in the fire till it glowed, Francis began to tremble with terror.
He knew perfectly well what they were planning to make him
endure so as to get rid of his ophthalmia—they hoped. The incan-
descent iron was to burn both temples from the top of the ear to
the arches of the eyebrows. Unable to bear this spectacle, his faith-
ful companions, Leo, Rufino, Angelo, and Masseo walked off.
Only Elias remained; he heard Francis address the fire with a
prayer of childlike faith: “My Brother Fire, the Most High has
given you a splendor that all creatures envy. Show yourself now to
be kind and courteous to me ... I pray the Magnificent Lord to
temper this fiery heat so that I may have the strength to bear his
burning caress.!0”
Elias held Francis’ hand and reported that it trembled no more.
Although the smell of burning flesh nauseated other brothers,
Francis had no pain.

Francis fasted continuously; he barely ate. Stigmatics in history

have shown extreme independence from food. There is the

105 Fortini, 563-64. And then is added: “Next to fire, he loved water ...” This is a most
appropriate description of Francis’ musing in terms of his sublimated Mars, ruler of Aries
intercepted within his Ascendant, and the dominant pervasiveness of the Piscean Ascen-
dant itself.
106 Fortini, 422, “undeniable historical fact.” Additionally: great numbers of prostitutes fol-
lowed the Crusader armies. There were the women who accompanied their “men of lin-
eage,” riding with them, fully armored, into battle, and also involved in “amorous
intrigues that provoked all sorts of passions, violent jealousies, and bloody feuds.”
107 Green, 261.
152 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

well-known case of St. Catherine of Siena (born 1347; one of a

number of stigmatics who died at thirty-three years of age, at which
age it is believed Christ died) who went, it is said, for eight years
without taking any food or liquid, other than the Blessed Sacra-
ment. Some modern stigmatics have had to be hospitalized not nec-
essarily because they are malnourished but because the medical
establishment insisted that they must be fed.
Why was Francis the first stigmatic? Did God suddenly decide
to open this direct channel to identification with Christ’s suffering
and love, to break the barrier that allowed the phenomenon to be
repeated often from then on throughout the world? The answer
probably is that the time was right for this specific mystical reli-
gious experience to manifest through the mind, into the body, in
terms espoused by the current religious teachings and depiction.
The Church philosophy of Francis’ time was extremely tied to Cor-
pus Christi, the Body of Christ, instead of to the Virgin Birth or the
Resurrection, or intellectual interpretations of the Holy Ghost, as
have dominated in other times. The times made the stigmata possi-
ble. Francis’ person made the stigmata happen.
At the outset of her psychoanalytic study of Francis, Israeli psy-
chotherapist Nitza Yarom presents William James’ caution of iden-
tifying as a state of illness certain physiological and psychological
phenomena that occur during a religious or mystical experience.
The “religious genius” will exhibit the kinds of behaviors that are
considered abnormal or pathological, but it is these very energies
that give such people “religious authority” and impact.
What is fighting to be said throughout all the medical studies of
the stigmata and Francis in particular is that we do not understand
the phenomenon of religious intensity (the mystical experience).
We are frightened by it since—unlike most other intense behavioral
syndromes—religious intensity carries with it some kind of other-
worldliness that implies divine approval. So, although we feel left
out of something as special as the religious experience seems to be,
and we do not understand it at all, we too must approve of it.
Astrologically, our analysis has led us through a conversion
between two personalities, bridging a split or division. That is not
only objectively clear historically, but it is also subjectively reward-
ing in appreciating the life of Francis. Yarom does not mention this
premise but dissects the fragile state of Francis’ core being in terms
of Francis’ Oedipal conflicts and his bi-sexual web of anxiety. Does
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 153

this help us to understand his conversion and ecstasy more; his

inspiration of history, and, indeed, his uniqueness in all of Creation?
What is “wrong” with being close to God? It is reasonable that
being close to God does alter the human being and that that alteration
may indeed appear aberrant. The mystical realm belongs to those who
get there. Perhaps the ideated electrodes and cerebral scalpels of
today’s psychology are not valid in early thirteenth-century life. For any
analysis to be meaningful, it must be couched in terms and at the level
of the object of that analysis, framed in terms of the subject's cultural
values, but acceptance seems to me to be more enriching.
Using insight that is pertinent to those times of old, Yarom
points out that Francis certainly felt disillusionment as a knight: he
lost in battle, he was sick and in prison; he failed again in his trip to
de Brienne, when he had to turn back at Spoleto. He had to feel
shame, and then he converted that shame, that disillusionment to
religion. Why not? The astrologer can say that Francis was perfect-
ly prepared for that switch. It was supposed to be that way.
As we have seen through Francis’ identity change, religion—in
terms appropriate to his times and to his personality, 1.e., sacrifice,
living the way Christ lived, which would guarantee spiritual suc-
cess—did provide for him the alternate path. Again, the astrologer
sees this as the way things are supposed to develop.
It is engaging to consider medical comments on the symptoms
of Francis’ chronic illness, that they relate, for one example, to a
form of malaria. Yarom quotes the details supplied by St. Bonaven-
ture about the hideous personal living conditions Francis endured,
serving the Lord in “cold and nakedness,” the suffering from
“diverse ailments so grievously that scarce one of his limbs was free
from pain and sore suffering.” The symptomology—the shivering,
the skin color, the fevers, the weight loss, the eye problems to the
edge of blindness—becomes more meaningful if we can label it.
For an astrologer, within the reliance upon vast spectra of living
symbolisms, the poetical must not be forgotten. For example, that
Francis began his “career” by disrobing completely before his father,
the bishop, and the assembled public, and ended his life asking to be
laid naked upon the ground is symbolic, beautifully so. It completes a
circle of intent and avowal in Francis’ life, and, very important to
understand, it was a means of making a statement that was typical of
Francis’ time. He lived at a time when the well-turned, epigrammatic
phrase was in high style (his dialogue with Pope Innocent III, for
154 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

example); there were Latin puns hidden in practically everyone’s Ital-

ian sentences. Naked before one’s father to be reborn is poetic and
inspired. It is also emphatic, convincing, and memorable.
Yarom rests much of her analysis on Francis’ not being able to
“allow himself masculine phallic existence. He could not actualize
himself as a knight, a merchant, or a family man. His more pro-
nounced characteristics were feminine. He was, above all, the promot-
er of love ... the feminine role that he cannot fulfill as a young adult in
normal life (leading to homosexuality) can be well fulfilled in a reli-
gious vocation, especially at a time when romantic love and religious
passion have become important to the contemporary man ... And by
turning sexuality into preoccupation with the body, by the use of the
defense mechanism of conversion, St. Francis finds an outlet.”
Astrologically, we were able to appreciate much of these insights
through the Jung-labeled archetype (timeless symbol) of the anzma
(see page 123). Indeed, Francis may have been surrounded by the
facts and rumors of rampant homosexuality among the clergy in his
time, but did not Francis give all that potential up too when he took
off his clothes? He desperately wanted to be free from the world as
he was living it, as he was hurt by it, as he saw it being worsened by
others. Francis was not a reaction, he was a new example.
Francis was saintly, perhaps the most celebrated and pan-
religion saint in history. In that sense, Francis was free. He was freer
than we who do not quite understand. Along with him, perhaps the
best we can do to get closer to him is to believe in miracles also.

The Death of Francis

Francis was now hallowed among men for his historical, tran-
scendental reception of the stigmata. His dreadfully ill state was the
talk of every city. The people of Assisi wanted Francis to die in
Assisi—soon, before fate, accident, or even abduction might estab-
lish another of the feuding cities of Umbria (or Tuscany) as the ter-
minal city of Francis’ holy life. Celano says that when Francis
himself asked that he be brought once again to the Porziuncola
chapel, the center of the brotherhood, on the outskirts of Assisi
(and when Elias actually had him moved yet again inside the walls
of Assisi for burial immediately after Francis’ death, to ensure the

108 Yarom, 58-60.

 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 155

body’s safety from militarized relic-hunters), “The whole city

rejoiced at the coming of the Holy Father.”
Francis died on Saturday evening, just after sunset, October 3,
1226, probably about 5:38 P.M. (my timing; see death chart, Figure
17, page 157). Then, on Sunday morning, as soon as it was light, a
funeral procession was formed: the brothers bore tree branches and
torches raised high, and band musicians played with joy. The body
was taken first to the San Damiano church and the quarters there of
the Poor Clares so that Clare and the other Poor Ladies could see
their beloved Francis’ body and kiss its hands. The procession con-
tinued then to the small church of Saint George, where Francis had
first preached, and he was buried.!°?
After Francis’ funeral, Elias wrote a detailed encyclical letter to all
the ministers of the Franciscans describing the final days in great
detail. He categorically stated that “not one part of his [Francis’] body
was free from excessive suffering, and because of the tightening of his
sinews all his limbs were stiff, exactly like those of a dead man.” Inter-
estingly, this rigorous bodily condition disappeared immediately
upon Francis’ death: Elias and others picked up Francis’ body,
washed it and wrapped him in beggar’s sack cloth, and they noted
how limp and flexible the body was ... and they all saw the stigmata.
Several days before he actually died, Francis had himself
stretched out naked on the ground (or floor; differing references are
made). Celano tells us that he covered his side wound with his hand,
that he called for bread for the final Eucharist.
There are many reports of contemporaneous visions of Francis
before Bishops and Ministers of the Order, as he was dying. Francis
is to have announced that he was “leaving the world.” There are
many stories like theses—quite beautiful indeed—that create for his-
tory the perfect medieval living-fresco of inspired, Christ-like death.
A particularly lovely occurrence repeated in every narrative,
speaks of a multitude of larks—birds that are seen and heard to sing
exclusively in daylight hours, in the light of the midday sun—
assembling in the dark of evening on the roof of Francis’ cell,
singing their honor and farewell to their dead brother.
The stories tell us of the brothers singing also, of Francis singing
with his final strength. He had just dictated his final verses, The Can-
ticle to the Sun, and his voice was yet inspired with strength and light.

109 Smith, 194, quoting Celano in the main.

156 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Arnaldo Fortini, whose biography of Francis combines memo-

rably humble devotion with professorial scholarship—in truly
remarkable translation by Helen Moak—takes us to the end:

Francis died just after darkness had settled. Evening was coming
on. In the wood the trees were still glowing in a soft and rosy
light, though Porziuncola itself, where everyone knelt around
Francis, lay in darkness.
After a long pause of shadow and silence, Francis’ lips opened on
his last invocation—David’s prayer in a cave, the prayer of souls
sore-oppressed: “With a loud voice I cry out to the Lord; with a
loud voice I beseech the Lord.”
The brothers made the response in subdued voices: “My com-
plaint I pour out before him; before him I lay bare my distress.”
From the edge of paradise, as if on a threshold that opened to
light, Francis’ voice rose again. He spoke for all troubled and
abused souls in the last message of his exhausted heart.
“T look to the right to see, but there is no one who pays me heed. I
have lost all means of escape. There is no one who cares for my life.”
He cried out in pain. His cry shook the dark walls and flowed out
through the door, wide open to gather in the last light of the
evening. The tops of the trees were no longer visible, but in the
west the skies still burned in fire and blood.
And then there was silence. Francis was dead.!!°

And we know that the Larks came with their song.

Figure 17 (page 157) is Francis’ Solar Arc portrait to the date of

his death. It is a miracle of confirmation of the birth date and time
we defined at the beginning of this study.
The Arc accumulation measures exactly 45 degrees 13 minutes.
This is the accumulated semisquare, always a time of conspicuous
development in anyone’s life, a time when all behavioral resources,
psychological needs, and personality expression make a special
statement in relation to the world.!!!

110 Fortini, 614.

111 The arc distance between the natal Sun and the SA-SP Sun, the basis of the Solar Arc
direction technique total 45 degrees. Bill Clinton was elected President of the United
States in November 1994 in the month of his SA semisquare; O. J. Simpson’s estranged
wife and her friend were killed in the month of Simpson’s SA semi-square.
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 157

Remembering our initial analytical grasp of Neptune, it is a

wonderment of astrology to have seen this symbol of mysticism,
sanctity, and sacrifice, of dissolution and dualism reach Francis’
Ascendant precisely for the experience of the stigmata (see Figure
14, page 145). This had to have been the beginning of his death. It
was an experience apart from this world (historically, even with
Francis in some accounts and artistic depictions, actual corporal
levitation is indicated within the stigmatic’s experience).
Now, at actual mundane death, Neptune is semisquare its natal
position, still within orb of the Ascendant, and semisquare Uranus-
Moon. The grand synthesis of birth potential is powerfully reiterated.

SP) 22% 58

TP 227] 26

Figure 17
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Francis of Assisi SA Death
Oct, 3; 1226
158 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

SA Jupiter is opposed Francis’ Midheaven: his mission is ful-

filled and rewarded.
At the stigmata (see Figure 14, page 145), SA Saturn was pre-
cisely square to Francis’ Midheaven. Now, at his death, the SA MC
is opposed natal Saturn: the time of fulfillment, major development,
change. Undeniably for Francis, death is fulfillment and freedom.
His whole life was dedicated to this moment.
The Secondary Progressed Moon on the day of Francis’ death
was precisely conjunct his Midheaven! Again and again, angular
contacts of epic import; again the fulfillment of every need of life.

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Francis of Assisi TR Francis’ Death
Oct. 3, 1226, 5:38 p.m. LMT
Porziuncola, Italy.
12E37 43N04
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 159

Figure 17 (page 157) also shows the highly sensitive Tertiary

positions for Francis’ death: coincidentally TP Jupiter is precisely
conjunct the fourth cusp opposed the Midheaven! The TP Ascen-
dant at 9 Scorpio is opposed natal Jupiter!
Figure 18 (page 158) shows the transits at the chapel of Porziun-
cola (just outside the walls of Assisi) in the outside ring, for the time
close to when Francis died, just after sunset. Note the Ascendant at 24
Aries, the Descendant at 24 Libra, with the Sun at 17 Libra just hav-
ing crossed below the horizon into the 6th House of the transit chart.
This death Ascendant at Porziuncola made the Midpoint pic-
ture: Ir. Asc=natal Sun/Jupiter: fulfillment, success, and happiness.
Pluto at 16 Virgo was very close to or exactly conjunct Francis’
natal horizon.
‘Transiting Jupiter, ruler of Francis’ Midheaven and 9th House, out
of the grand T-Square construct that was the design of Francis’ entire
life, had come to exact conjunct with his transcendental Neptune.

Epilogue
So many of the books about Francis have personal statements by
the authors as epilogues. This suggests that there has been more
than an academic involvement with the subject. Indeed, that is the
case for me as well. As I came near to the end of this study, I hoped
that it would not get too long because I wanted some space at the
end in which to make such a personal statement, although I did not
know what I wanted to say.
I have just finished the page above. It is 4:12 in the afternoon,
Sunday, December 4, 1994. I forewent the football game of the day
and continued working because of my involvement with the end of
Francis’ life. After all the reading, my companionship with Francis
has become very close throughout eight consecutive fourteen-hour
writing days. It has been more than an academic involvement.
I hesitated to introduce some last charts of significance, extend-
ing the story further. But I must, in the light of a personal, final
chart that then follows.
Figure 19 (page 160) shows Francis’ horoscope arced to May 25,
1230, three and one-half years after his death, after he was canonized
(July 16, 1228). This May date is when Francis’ remains were taken
from the little church of San Giorgio to the new Basilica di San
160 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Figure 19
SA Reburial
May 25, 1230

Figure 20
Reburial
May 25, 1230
12:00 p.m. LMT
Assisi, Italy
12E37 43N04
Placidus Houses
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 161

Francesco that had been built in record time, thanks to Brother

Elias’ direction and his wheeling and dealing (see page 141).
This horoscope lives along with Francis’ spirit. On his date, SA
Neptune was within 5 minutes ofprecise square to Francis’ natal Mid-
heaven! SA Uranus-Moon, Francis’ all-powerful identity focus, had
come to precise opposition with the Midheaven as well!
In Figure 20 (page 160), the transits of that day are shown, for
the moment around noon, when the festivities of extombing, pro-
cessing, and planning a midday mass to honor the retombing of
Francis’ remains surely would have been at their peak. Note that
the Sun is exactly opposed by Uranus, in valid placement at the

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Francis of Assisi SA Writing
Dec. 4, 1994
Placidus Houses
162 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Midheaven, with Jupiter, that glorious morning. Note as well that

transiting Saturn and Pluto were in opposition, both square to Fran-
cis’ natal Midheaven!
This is extraordinary energy, power, and even danger—for a
dead person.
“As the elaborate procession was nearing its destination [the
new Basilica], armed men of the commune, acting in collaboration
with Brother Elias, seized the coffin, carried it into the church,
barred the doors, and buried it in an excavation [that had been
made] in solid rock.”!!?
This strange occurrence is captured in Francis’ horoscope after
death and in the horoscope of that day related to his natal horo-
scope. The reason for the startling seizure (Uranus) of the body
(Pluto) and the rapid entombment (Uranus, Saturn), accomplished
behind barricaded Basilica doors, is that the brothers were afraid
that the public would demand to see Francis’ exposed body and
that, because of natural decomposition, the wounds of the stigmata
would no longer be visible. With the body safely hidden from view,
“the danger of disillusionment vanished” (Neptune). Such were the
mindset of the times, the veneration of saints, the obsession with
relics, and the love of Francis.
Then, on a personal note, I wondered if Francis’ birth chart
would speak through direction to this time now, 813 years, two
months, and eight days to the end of my writing in appreciation of the
astrology of his life. The chart is shown here as Figure 21 (page 161).
I may be very tired—and now self-indulgent for having sacri-
ficed my football game—but I was stunned to see Francis’ SA Mid-
heaven after all that time conjunct the Ascendant I had rectified for him,
the 16th degree ofPisces. |was stunned to see Francis’ SP Ascendant
from the rectified position of 16 Pisces, after all that time, now pre-
cisely at 10 Cancer, precisely opposed my natal Sun.
Ser
From beginning to end, we have seen astrology in remarkable syn-
chronization with one of the most unusual lives ever lived. Francis
is so relevant for humankind, as an example of sacrifice and love
unparalleled. It is reasonable indeed, then, to feel that God would
want signs in the heavens to show, as eloquently as in history, the
extraordinary being of Francis.
September 26, 1181 at 4:41 P.M. Ecco il Santo!

112 Fortini, 620, note h.

 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 163

Bibliography

Armstrong, Karen. A History of God. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.

Brown, Raphael. The Little Flowers of St. Francis. New York: Hanover
House, 1958.
Campbell, Joseph. Editor. The Portable Jung. New York: Viking Penguin,
1971.
Catholic Encyclopedia. Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson Publications, 1986.
Celano, Thomas of. [Tr. Placid Hermann, O.F.M.] Saint Francis ofAssisi.
Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1963.
Cristiani, Msgr. Leon. [Tr. Bouchard, M. Angeline] Saint Francis of Assisi.
Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1983.
Cunningham, Lawrence. Editor. Brother Francis. New York: Harper &
Row, 1972.
Eerdman. Eerdman’s Handbook of the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids
MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1977.
Fortini, Arnaldo. [Tr. Helen Moak] Francis ofAssisi. New York: Crossroad,
1992.
Goodrich, Norma Lorre. The Holy Grail. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Grant, Michael. Constantine The Great. New York: Scribners, 1994.
Green, Julien. God’s Fool: the Life and Times ofFrancis ofAssisi. San Francis-
co: Harper & Row, 1983.
Hall, Angus. Strange Cults. New York: Doubleday, 1976.
Harrison, Ted. Stigmata: A Medieval Phenomenon in a Modern Age. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
Jung, Carl G. Psychology & Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1938/66.
The Little Flowers of St. Francis ofAssisi. Paterson, NJ: St. Anthony Guild
Press, 1958.
McManners, John. Editor. Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Lon-
don: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Munkasey, Michael. The Astrological Thesaurus, House Keywords. St. Paul,
MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1992.
Pardoe, Rosemary and Darroll. The Female Pope. London: Crucible Thors-
ens, 1988.
164 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Smith, John Holland. Francis of Assisi. New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1972.
Sogyal, Rinpoche. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. HarperSanFran-
cisco, 1993.
Stock, Dennis and Cunningham, Lawrence. Saint Francis of Assisi. San
Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981.
Tyl, Noel. Holistic Astrology. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1980.
. Synthesis &* Counseling in Astrology. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn
Publications, 1994.
. Editor. Exploring Consciousness in the Horoscope. St. Paul, MN:
Llewellyn Publications, 1993.
Whitrow, G. J. Time in History. London: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Yarom, Nitza. Body, Blood and Sexuality. New York: Peter Lange Publish-
mg, 1992:

Personal conversations and discussion with Alan J. Ouimet, S.F.O.

(Secular Franciscan Order).
 FRANCIS OF ASSISI # 165

Index

Alverna, see “La Verna,” 138 Humiliation, 88, 92, 94, 102, 118
Babylon and Assisi, 79 Humility, 94, 99, 118, 120, 137
Bernardone, Francis’ father, Idealism, 85
83-84, 112 Idealism, Mercury and Venus, 89
Birds and Francis, 81, 82, 128 Identity division, 83, 84, 95, 101,
Body of Christ, 83 154
Canonization, 162 Innocent III, 118, 130, 132
Christmas Creche at Greccio, 137 Innocent III’s Dream, 119
Church in near collapse, 79 Jean de Brienne, 132
Clare, 120, 155 John the Baptist, 83
Clare, conversion, 121 Jung, Carl G., 84
Cross miracle at San Knighthood, 80
Damiano, 110 La Verna, site of the stigmata,
Crusade, the Fifth, in Egypt, 132 138, 142
Damietta, 151 Lady Poverty, 92, 118, 136
Damietta, the Battle, 132-133 Larks singing, 155
Elias, 141, 152, 155, 163 Lateran Council of 1215, 127,
Elias, as Vicar, 136 130, 131
Eye problems, 151 Leper meeting, 108
Feudalism, 79 Malik-al-Kamil, sultan at
Francis and fire, 151 Damietta, 133
Francis and illness, 103 Matins, 142
Francis and song, 80, 82, 156 Mortification, 92, 93, 95, 118, 122
Francis and the prostitute, 151 Mystical experience, 85 153
Francis appearing insane, 82 Naming of Francis, 83
Francis as a young man, 80 Neptune, importance of, 85, 91,
Francis as beggar, 81 94, 144, 146, 157, 159, 162
Francis at his death, 155, 156 Order of Penitence, the Third
Francis, birth date and year Order, 137
discussion, 86 Pax et Bonum, 82
Francis, confrontation with his Pica, Francis’ mother, 83, 106,
father, 112 112
Francis ill health, 151 Porziuncola, 114, 118, 121, 127,
Francis in prison, 102 135 154, 161
Francis in the Holy Land, 134 Possessions and Self-Worth, 93
Francis, physical description, 99 Poverty, 92-94, 99, 134-136, 137
Francis, relationship with Clare, Reburial, 162
122 Religious intensity, 153
Francis, sexuality, 122 Resignation from the Order, 135
Francis speaking with the Rome, first trip, 106
Birds, 128 Rome, second trip, 118
Funeral Procession, 155 Rule 1, 114
Gautier de Brienne, 80, 93, 104 Sacrifice, 85, 101, 122, 125, 146,
Growth of the Order, 135 154
166 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Saturn opposed Neptune, 91 Stigmata vision, 139

Spoleto and the vision, 105 Sublimation, 124, 125, 151
Stigmata after death, 162 Suffering, 83, 102, 114, 116, 156
Stigmata astrology, 144 Trial before the Bishop, 114
Stigmata dating, 142 Trips to the Middle East
Stigmata, historical notes, aborted, 127
analytical comment, 148 Trouble in the Order, 134
Stigmata timing, 143 War, Assisi and Perugia, 101
 Dracula
The Life of Legend

HR ollowing the path of the sun, civi- An astrological

lization moves inexorably from the . .
East to the West. Conquest leads Lean of
the way and, throughout history, every the birth date
country—some still known and many and time of
long forgotten except in name—has had :
its time to rule the known world. Giants Prince Vlad
came and went and returned again, and Dracula of
Turkey (the early Anatolia) had domi-
nance and domain longer than most. In Wallachia
the middle of the fifteenth century, witha
crescent of occupation already accosting
Europe from across the Adriatic, Turkey moved to secure its reli-
gious, trade, and political anchor back in Constantinople, at the
entrance to the Black Sea and the wealth of the East.
This arc of influence above Greece from the Adriatic, from
Bosnia to Constantinople (now Istanbul)—lands collectively known
as the Balkans—has always been a nerve nexus for the world, its den-
drites extending further East along the border of the Mediterranean
and then south down through the Levant, and down the Rift Valley
that is Israel. This is where all politics, faiths, and trade routes have
always come together between East and West—to confuse, chal-
lenge, and conquer the efforts men made to survive and prosper.
In the middle of the fifteenth century the battles raged inces-
santly. Countries still fought about which god would prevail for
what profit, which force commanded how much respect. The Turks
167
168 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

were then the invading hordes. They were the center of all Euro-
pean defensive attention and they had to be defeated. It was into
this combative, dangerous world and into this time of the Turks
that Dracula was born. It was the world that would extol his loyalty
to the Christian faith and cringe at his demonic cruelty.
In Florence, during the last weeks of June and the first week of
July 1439, there was an attempt to end the religious schism between
the Roman and Eastern Orthodox arms of Christianity, between
West and East. The Eastern Emperor, John VIII Paleologus, had
put out a call for help to save ancient Byzantium (then Constantino-
ple) from the Ottoman Turks. The threat had been there for many,
many years and now an ultimate confrontation was imminent.!
The call was heard. The Emperor and Pope Eugenius IV
decided to meet in Ferrara, Italy, about 100 miles southwest of
Venice. During the initial deliberations, an outbreak of the plague
occurred in Ferrara, and the Pope and the Patriarch—and more
than 700 scholars, theologians, interpreters, and officials compris-
ing the convention—were persuaded to reconvene in glorious,
healthy Florence, 100 miles further south.’
It is recorded that this extraordinary ecumenical convocation
marched and processed into Florence during a torrential wind and
rainstorm; all the delegates and their servants, and the horses, the
pompous banners and vestments, were totally drenched. In the
wake of the plague in Ferrara, the wet parade into Florence was
another poor omen indeed.
In spite of a grand gap between West and East in terms of
doctrine and observance, theological issues were somehow stabi-
lized and adjusted to a political flexibility, to a secure defensive
position against the Turks. On July 5, there was a grand ceremo-
ny in the Duomo,’ and it was announced to the world, “Let the

1 Ottoman is the designation for Turkey’s vast empire. The term was derived through
English mispronunciation of the name of the great Sultan Osman I who entered Asia
Minor in the late thirteenth Century, The Turks then entered the Balkans in 1345,
securing Constantinople in 1453. At its Zenith under Sultan Suleiman I in the mid-
sixteenth century—having annexed lands extending to the Persian Gulf, embracing the
entire southern coastline of the Mediterranean as well, including Alexandria—
Suleiman began to advance into Austria. He failed to capture Vienna, and the Ottoman
Empire began its decline. The Turkish fleet was annihilated in the Eastern Mediter-
ranean in 1571.
De libbert92:
3 The “Cathedral, the Dome;” the great Cathedral of Florence—Santa Maria del Fiore—
had just been enlarged with Brunelleschi’s first-ever grand dome on March 25, 1436, just
three years before the ecumenical conference.
 DRACULA # 169

heavens rejoice and the earth exult: the wall which divided the
Western and Eastern Churches has fallen. Peace and concord
have returned.”*
Figure 1 (page 171) is drawn for the approximate time of this
grand announcement to the world. The Sun and Pluto in conjunc-
tion at the Midheaven opposed by Jupiter in Capricorn certainly
shows the establishment of grand, new perspective in terms of reli-
gious and philosophical dogma, but Jupiter which rules the 3rd,
the House of treaty signings, is retrograde. This is another poor
omen indeed: the extraordinary potential and resourcefulness
(Jupiter-Pluto) of the treaty are tentative, vulnerable, undecided;
and the anchor to the vision is undefended in the chart’s northern
hemisphere. [This opposition axis keyed by retrograde Jupiter is
also square the Ascendant.]
The dramatic idealism of it all seen in the Mercury-Venus con-
junction in Leo zs challenged by the square from Mars. This is the final
omen: the ruler of the West (the 7th), Mars, is still at odds with the
ruler of the East, Venus (the Ascendant). [Or perhaps this can be
reversed since the Council took place in the West, i.e., the Ascen-
dant signifies the Western power and the Descendant the Eastern.]
And this Mars is also conjunct the Moon, dispositor of the Sun-
Pluto conjunction and ruler of the 10th.
Deep within the entire problem is the assumed God-sanction of
rightness propelling the Roman Catholic cause: the West demands
respect and adherence to its dogma, which is especially focused
within the singular issue of the rift, the conceptual assimilation of
the Holy Trinity (Neptune in the 11th, recognition expected,
squared by Uranus).°
The treaty was soon abandoned. It was a symptom of the times:
princely allegiances were easily washed away in the wake of oppor-
tunism. Dracula swam these currents and was eventually drowned
by them, as we shall see.

4 Hibbert, 93.
5 Father and Son and Holy Ghost: “The Father engenders the Son, the son becomes
incarnate, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.” Western faith
was confronted by Greek (Eastern) logic. The problem is with “Father and Son /fil-
ioque],” and this problem still divides East and West within Christendom. See Green,
167; Grant, 168.
170 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The Fall of Constantinople

By the time of Constantine (c. 280-337), Rome, the eternal city,
had ceased to be the political center of the empire. Rome was sim-
ply too far removed from overland trade routes West to East, too
distanced from defensive positions for its northern cities to control
its outreach to the expanding world. Additionally, powerful con-
querors like Constantine did not want to be headquartered in Rome
so close to the Senate and its edicts.
Constantine decided on a new site for a new capital. He rebuilt
the ancient city of Byzantium. The site was near where he had
enjoyed a great military victory (the defeat of the “pagan rival”
Licinius, giving Constantine “possession of the East”), and its mag-
nificent harbor allowed defense by sea as well as land. He inaugu-
rated and dedicated his new Constantinople in 326. It was the key
city-symbol for the two halves of the known world.®
The fall of Constantinople to the Turks, when Dracula was
twenty-one years old—besides being a milestone of world history—
establishes the arena and political climate for Dracula’s life: the
deadly intrigues, the battles of vengeance with the Turks after his
imprisonment as a child, the hideous tortures he employed, his bit-
ter determination to kill the king of Poland, the duplistic treaties
with the Turks and Hungarians, his second long imprisonment and
third rise to the throne, and his mysterious assassination, with his
head displayed on a spike in Constantinople.
Figure 2 (page 173) is the signal conjunction of Saturn and
Neptune in 1450. This conjunction occurs every thirty-five or
thirty-six years as a generational statement. In this Figure from the
perspective of Constantinople (thirty-two months before the city’s
fall), the Sun is depressed by the massive conjunction. The Sun
rules the 10th, the “party in power,” the Christians. It is put down
strongly by doctrinaire coercion (Saturn in Virgo), compounded by
subterfuge, revolutionary turnover, and upset (Neptune).

6 Grant, 116-122. Grant observes, “It was possible to see where the future lay, and the
new foundation [Constantinople] marked a definitive transfer of the epicenter of the
[Roman] empire to the east, which was richer than Italy and the western provinces, and
would house imperial rulers long after the west had gone.”
Groh, 268-269 recounts the long debate about Constantine’s faith, his Christianity.
Recent authentication of a sermon Constantine preached sometime between 317 and
324 shows that the mighty ruler declared publicly that the (Roman) Christian God was
indeed his sponsor and driving power. Constantine was baptized on his deathbed (337)
and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, where he had had
erected six coffins, symbolizing the apostles, on either side of his resting place.
 DRACULA # 171

Pluto is opposed by Mars, both rulers of the Ascendant, and

this axis is squared by the Ascendant axis as well, dramatically
describing the battle-force that can be brought upon the people.
Venus, ruler of the 7th—the other forces, the Turks—forms an
arm of the T-Square, square the Mars-Pluto axis. Venus is in the
12th (hidden enemies) and supportively trined by the Moon in the
4th, the “party out of power,” the infidels, the Turks. The Moon’s
rulership of the 9th and the Mercury-Jupiter square (each planet in

19°€9 53'

19°
V853"
Figure 1
Ecumenical Council
July 5, 1439, 12:00 p.m. LMT
Florence, Italy
11E15 43N46
Placidus Houses
172 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

its own sign) show the tension of dogma in the background of the
epochal anxiety.
Figure 3 (page 173) shows the Solar Eclipse that occurred thir-
ty days before the grand battles. The invading Turks and the defen-
sive Christians saw the Eclipse of the Sun form in the early
afternoon in the western sky above the Turks’ encampment.
After the Eclipse there were other omens, and a heavy atmos-
phere of gloom and doom pervaded Constantinople: the dome of
the great Saint Sophia cathedral glowed red. The Christians saw the
light as a threatening reflection of the Turkish campfires outside
their walls; the Turks saw the light as a confirming sign from heav-
en that Islam would finally prevail to enlighten the ancient city.
The Eclipse, which darkened the Moon, threatened to fulfill
the prophecy held dear by the Christians that the city would never
fall while the Moon was bright in the heavens!
During a solemn procession within the city to bring a heavy
statue of the Blessed Virgin to the cathedral to invoke God’s bless-
ing, the statue came loose and fell to the ground; a violent storm
with thunder and lightning then broke out; there was widespread
flooding; and then a thick fog settled over the city—highly unusual
for May. It was said that God had brought in the fog in order to
conceal His departure from the city.
Finally, there was the prophecy that the /ast emperor of the city
of Constantinople would have the same name as the first emperor,
and that was indeed the case with Constantine XI Dragases, now
awaiting with his people complete annihilation by the Turks.’
The Eclipse chart has brought Neptune forward from the
Grand Conjunction chart to a Midheaven nosition over Constan-
tinople, opposing Jupiter. This opposition with Jupiter augurs
poorly for the Christians since Jupiter rules the Ascendant here
at Constantinople.
Mercury, ruler of the 7th, the Turks (the attackers), is “caught
up” within the Eclipse, is part of it, and is related by trine to Nep-
tune. Mercury and Jupiter-Neptune rule the Virgo-Pisces axis on
the 9th—3rd axis, the axis of dogma, philosophy, religious teaching.
Saturn in the 10th, the Christian power, is retrograde and
opposed Venus, the Midheaven ruler and dispositor of the Eclipse,
the Christians in power, the gloom and doom.
7 Reported by the Greek historian Chalcondyles and retrieved by Florescu and McNally,
Dracula: Prince ofMany Faces, 70-73.
 DRACULA # 173

Figure 2
Saturn-Neptune
Sept. 19, 1450
8:51 AM. LMT
Istanbul, Turkey
28E58 41N01
Placidus Houses

Figure 3 09°
2 50'
Solar Eclipse 1g, 04°
May 8, 1453
8:55 P.M. LMT
Istanbul, Turkey
28E58 41N01
Placidus Houses 28° sg 52'

09° P 50'
174 # ASTRO UOGY OF THE FAMED

This Saturn-Venus axis is squared by Uranus. Saturn and

Uranus both rvle the 2nd House, Constantinople’s resources, which
were severely c epleted by this time before the battle. The build-up
of Turkish annexation had been protracted over several years, and
thousands of Cionstantinople’s citizenry had left the city for safety
elsewhere. The city had shrunk from some one-million inhabitants
to about 60,001) now facing the Turks, with many of the remaining
population being non-military clergy. The Christians simply could
not defend their nine miles of border facing the sea and the five
miles on land Reinforcements would not come. Politics—and
omens—had got in the way.®
Finally, Mars in Cancer is peregrine (yet exactly semisquare the
Eclipse) and can run away with the horoscope.’ Mars rules the 4th
(and the 12th), the opposing political power, and Mars rules force.
The Turkish army numbered 100,000 men, and the Sultan himself,
Mehmed II, wes on the scene.
Mars also 1ules gunpowder, which had just been incorporated
into Middle Ez stern warfare. The Turks had had a monstrous can-
non built, nickaamed the “Basilica”: it was twenty-seven feet long,
had a forty-eight-inch bore, and was capable of firing projectiles
weighing 600 pounds, propelled by 150 pounds of gunpowder.!°
The scene was set.
A Turkish astrologer must have advised Sultan Mehmed who
personally gave the signal to start the battle at 1:30 in the morning
on May 29; Jupiter would have been visible on the horizon, having
just risen in Aries.
The “Basilica” had smashed open the city walls the days before.
The Sultan’s European mercenaries now stormed those walls. They
were followed by the Sultan’s bodyguards who were ready to kill any
mercenary who turned back or lagged in the advance. Then came
the elite troops and the military band drumming a rapid march-
beat. Constantinople fell, and so did Emperor Constantine XI,
fighting like a common soldier in hand to hand combat.

8 Ibid., 72.
9 See Tyl, 155-190. Peregrination: not making any Ptolemaic aspect, nor in a sign of ruler-
ship or exaltation.
10 Florescu and McNally, 73. The weight of Basilica was such that it required 700 men
and fifteen pair of oxen to pull it into position. The shot left a crater six feet deep. It
could be fired cnly seven times in twenty-four hours because of the danger of over-
heating and explosion.
 DRACULA @ 175

Some 4,000 Christians were killed and 50,000 men, women,

and children were enslaved. Sultan Mehmed waited the traditional
three days to allow his army the rewards of looting and then
entered the city, going directly to the cathedral to pray to Allah.
Florescu and McNally report that it was believed then that the
Prophet Mohammed had said, “Blessed be he who conquers Con-
stantinople.” And so it was: Mehmed was named Conqueror, and a
turning point in history was established.
The Ottoman Empire was now geographically part of Europe.
The Pope, who had provided no support for defense, wrote: “The
light of Christianity has suddenly gone out. We shall not see it
again in our lifetime.”!!
Along with cyclical occurrences of the Black Death (bubonic
plague), tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy, and small pox; natural disas-
ters like floods and earthquakes; constant intrusions westward,
north, and south by the warring Turks; and intricate and com-
pelling webs of superstitions that fatalized behaviors, this siege of
Constantinople represented a culmination of all things fearsome. It
affected all states and nations, especially Wallachia (now southern
Romania) to the northwest of Constantinople; Transylvania and
Moldavia further to the north; and Hungary just further west.
Times were very, very difficult and dangerous.

Dracula’s Father and the Order of the Dragon

As his son will be, Vlad the father was born in Wallachia, a state
about the size of the State of New York, with a population of about
500,000.12 Two classes—Boyars (wealthy land-owners with political
power) and peasants—made up the population. The army amount-
ed to about ten percent of the citizenry. All were ruled by a prince.
Growing up, Vlad spent much time in Hungary and in Germany,
especially Nuremberg, the center of operations for the Holy Roman
Empire, where he enjoyed the many alliance treaties with Wallachia.
It is suggested that Vlad had been converted to Roman Catholicism
from the Eastern Orthodox. Upon his father’s death, Vlad the son
would be determined to secure the Wallachian throne for himself.!

11 Ibid., 75.
12 Ibid., 30.
13. The right of progenitor succession was not established in Wallachia. The Boyars determined
succession. Politics, international alliances, and subterfuge were key determining factors.
176 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Vlad the father needed powerful support to commandeer the

Wallachian boyars to his side. He sought support from the Polish
king. This threatened to disrupt extant alliances, and the potential
crumpled. Next, the twenty-eight-year old aspirant went to mighty
Constantinople, willing even to marry a Byzantine princess if that
would help his cause. Vlad was overwhelmed by the city’s courtly
glamour and the spiritual power centered in the holy shrine of St.
Sophia. But no major support could be rallied and no marriage
opportunity came about.
The fifth Crusade against the Turks was being organized by the
Roman Emperor in Nuremberg in early 1430. Vlad went to this
center of excitement and his life was changed.!*
Vlad the father was inducted into the Order of the Dragon, a
very private, knight-like fraternity among young European elitists,
sworn to protect the Christian cause (Roman and Eastern Ortho-
dox) at all times, with special mention being given to the Franciscan
Brothers Minor. The Order of the Dragon was ratified by the
Roman Emperor, and a golden necklace was given to Vlad bearing
the seal of the Order. It was to be with him to the death and then
with his son until death and further, the mysterious threads within
his casket (discussed later). Vlad the father was now indisputably in
fine company, in an alliance, a brotherhood that extended through-
out eastern Europe.
Vlad was not to become Prince for several years (his half-broth-
er ruled). When he returned to Wallachia, he was given the post of
military governor of Transylvania, another state in the region, con-
tiguous to and north of Wallachia ... and he was given a new name.
The boyars knew of Vlad’s induction into the Order of the
Dragon. They now called him “Dracul.” Florescu and McNally
point out that the word drac means “dragon” or, indeed, “devil” (the
dragon symbolized the devil); -w/ was simply the definite article
“the.” The peasants gravitated to the demonic meaning more than
the loftier symbolic one, and this would condition strongly the his-
torical view of Dracul and, especially, of his son.

14 These Crusades were an echo of the papal Crusades to rescue Jerusalem from the
Moslems. These “Holy Land” Crusades began in 1095 and ended in 1291. Then, atten-
tion shifted away from the Moslems and onto the Turks, away from Jerusalem and onto
Constantinople, and the Eastern Crusades began.
 DRACULA # 177

Dracul married,!5 and three sons were born: Prince Mircea

(1428), Vlad Dracula /vlahd drah’-koo-lah) (i.e., “son of Dracul”) in
1431, and Radu “The Handsome” (1435).
Florescu writes that Vlad Dracula was “born in Sighisoara,
under the sign of Sagittarius, in November or, more likely, Decem-
ber 1431.”!6 In personal discussion with Professor Florescu, he has
explained to me that this birth month/sign datum for Dracula came
from an historian colleague in Bucharest who also researched Drac-
ula and who was knowledgeable in astrology. I only hoped that it
was not a superficial astrological assignment to fit Dracula’s infamy
as “Vlad the Impaler,” impaling many tens of thousands of victims
on stakes (Sagittarius) and planting them in groves and along roads
(for miles) as displays of his authority and might. My astrological
study—which we shall now analyze together—agrees with Sagittar-
ius for several reasons. Additionally, in the process of rectification
and in the light of new data presented—with astrology filling in
some gaps in the historical record—the date and time were brought
together conclusively, as will be reported later.

The Astrology
Theoretical justification of Sagittarius is not difficult: the key is to
appreciate the sign’s energy for self-assertion, for what is right, its
drive to affect thought, to impose opinion.!’ The Sagittarian life-
energy fights for acknowledgment and respect. Undeniably, Dracu-
la needed to be respected, to be feared to the extreme. He had
to have reasons, and those reasons were surely framed in his early
life conditioning.
When Dracula was very young, his father took him and his
younger brother (Radu) to do business with the great Sultan Murad
(the father of Mehmed II, conqueror-to-be of Constantinople). The
negotiations with the Sultan ended with Dracul leaving young Vlad

15 The role of women in the life of Dracul or his son is barely noticeable. Such was the way
of the times: it reflected the “harem philosophy” of the Ottomans that spilled over into
the eastern European states and the style of keeping genealogical history. Women were
lost to the bidding of the men. There was little distinction between servant, concubine,
or wife.
16 Florescu and McNally, 45.
17 Tyl, Synthesis and Counseling, 76, 94-95.
178 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

and Radu in the Sultan’s household as hostages; in this way the Sul-
tan would hold Vlad to his word. We shall see how this long impris-
onment in Dracula’s youth builds within him an extreme drive for
vengeance, compounded by his father’s murder by the king of
Poland and his older brother being buried alive by his own people
(the boyars) in Tirgoviste.
Additionally, Dracula became totally caught up with interna-
tionalism, treaties and alliances, and many different languages. His
political philosophy was to create maximum strength in his own
realm in order to be powerful elsewhere. In other words, his
strength would have to be known far and wide and converted into
fear in order for respect and compliance to be inspired.
Savage acts became the rule of his reign. Dracula’s murder
record within the major time of his rule—just six years—is num-
bered from 40,000 to 100,000 people (conservatively, that is about
thirty killings per day for six years), a calculation made by various
historians and by the papal nuncio, the bishop of Erlau, near the
end of Dracula’s career in 1475.!° Impalement was his favored
method of execution according to all the histories (German, Russ-
ian, Hungarian, Turkish, Romanian). Stakes stood permanently
prepared in his palace courtyard, as a deterrent, as an advertise-
ment. To this day, to the Romanians, Prince Vlad is not known as
“Dracula” but as “Vlad ‘Tepes (tsep-pesh),” Vlad the Impaler.
Dracula combined physical torture with “moral torture.”!? He
liked to obtain confessions prior to punishment, as the researchers
say, “to put a man in the wrong before he was executed.” This was
a forced justification for the murder to follow.
Dracula placed inordinate emphasis on words, on artful polemics
(along with his great language skill, a 3rd House emphasis): an adver-
sary could talk himself out of death if his words were clever and
included flattery of Dracula, self-debasement, and a daring statement
welcoming whatever “justice” Dracula would deem appropriate.
We must assume the Sagittarius position for the Sun and build
out from that center through the rest of the planets to establish
Dracula’s life portrait.
Figure 4 (page 179) shows the ephemeris pages for Novem-
ber-December 1431. Inspecting the planetary positions Jupiter
through Pluto, we see that there is one major aspect in formation

18 Florescu and McNally, 104.

19 Ibid., 106.
 DRACULA # 179

between two of the “heavy” planets: Saturn and Uranus make a

square in cardinal signs during the whole Sagittarian period. This
aspect highlights an ego-dramatic intensification of extraordinary
ambition. If it is tied into the other planetary pictures, Dracula’s
administrative power would be well delineated.
Another dimension of this Saturn-Uranus relationship that is
very important in Dracula’s life is the intensification of conservatism,
of dogma, of rigid ways of doing things. Normally, Saturn-Uranus
contacts suggest a struggle between the conservative and the avant-

SM
+ 0:00 UT Geocentric Tropical Longitudes for NOV 1431

121118} 21V826 | 25751R} 18232%) 09930%

8388
S8S8S883

21 59
19 23 07
20 24 17
21 25 27
22 26 37
23 27 48
28 59

30 10
26 31 21
2h 02,90
33 43

01 37 14 BBESBSSESB
SBS8RSSSBSBS

Copyright (C) 1987 Matrix Software, Big Rapids MI 49307

Figure 4
Ephemeris for November-December 1431
180 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

garde, the potential for radical change from the old way to the new
way of doing things. For Dracula, this is mutated into his arch-
conservative enforcement of his will through avant-garde methods,
his ways of meting out his personal sense of justice.
Indeed, everything Dracula did served his ambition and needs
for power, even his conversion to Roman Catholicism late in life to
please King Matthias of Hungary, to get out of prison, to have his
sins forgiven, was a strategy to regain the throne. This zs a fight
between Saturn and Uranus, with Saturn in Capricorn dominating
for most of Dracula’s life.
We can see a conjunction of Venus and Mars in Aquarius for the
second half of the Sagittarian period. This could be quite important
to capture the sexual emphasis—the “morbid sexual deviation,” espe-
cially toward women—that is revealed through Dracula’s tortures:
the symbolism of the constant impaling, his excision of women’s and
men’s genitalia. One story related in all the histories (from a Slavic
narrative) is that a concubine told Dracula she was pregnant with his
child; after having her examined, Dracula knew it was impossible;
and literally had her ripped open to reveal that fact.?°
This Venus-Mars conjunction in Aquarius—normally a social-
ly-aware relationship thrust for anything but evil; rather, for innov-
ative good—could be distorted within the whole astrological
portrait by the opposition this conjunction can make with Neptune in the
second week of December.
In December, the Moon positions range from Scorpio to early
Aries. The lure of the Scorpio Moon is extremely strong through
the association of complex sexuality and brutality with the sign of
Scorpio, which is easily overstated in astrolcgical studies. But look-
ing very carefully at the ephemeris page, we see that Pluto—except
for a possible relationship with the Moon—will be peregrine, very
powerful in its lack of Ptolemaic contact with the Sun or the other
planets. This Pluto itself could take up the Scorpio banner.
Throughout the study of Dracula’s history, there is an extreme
awareness of defensiveness, a pervasiveness of self-protection: from
his obsession with building walls (the walls of Bucharest especially,
raising that city to the rank of princely residence; founded in the

20 “Realizing he had been made an object of ridicule, [Dracula] had her womb cut open from
her sexual organs to her breasts. As the unfortunate woman lay dying, writhing in excruci-
ating pain, Dracula cynically remarked: ‘Let the world see where I have been.” Ibid., 107.
 DRACULA # 181

mid-thirteenth century but matured in strength by Dracula during

his reign), fortifying monasteries, building mountain fortresses and
his notorious Castle Dracula;?! to his need for spiritual atonement,
his building of many churches and monasteries, of being often in
the company of prelates of the Church. Dracula liked to think of
himself as a protector of the whole Orthodox world, not merely the
Romanian church.”?
All this is a very clear mixture of Sagittarius and Scorpio, of
Scorpio and Sagittarius. There is the energy for power and person-
al conviction, the dastardly action upon it, and then the defensive-
ness about it all, rationalizing it through religion.”?
Dracula gathered beggars and the infirm and ill street people
together in a banquet hall and fed them richly. He then burned
down the barricaded building, including all the people, to improve
the health of his State. He was cleansing his realm.
Defensiveness, walls, atonement; inspiration and rationaliza-
tion; again, Scorpio and Sagittarius. With the Sagittarius Sun, Scor-
pio must be emphasized in Dracula’s horoscope. But is it through
the Moon?
Figure 5 (page 183) is the noon chart for the Scorpio Moon
possibility, December 1 or 2 (into 3). Figure 6 (page 183) is the
noon chart for the Capricorn Moon possibility, since, on December
7, this Moon is conjunct Saturn in Capricorn, therefore involved
with the Uranus square. Would this deep press upon the Moon tell
us something? Is that the coldness and lethal administrative power
we are talking about, then rationalized by the Sagittarian energy?
Could the Scorpio component then be fitted to the Ascendant?
In Figure 5, there is a curious separation in the whole-form of
the portrait: the Moon-square-Neptune unit is clearly separate from
the Saturn-square-Uranus unit. The Venus-Mars subgroup is trined
Jupiter, and alone; the Sun is trine Neptune, and all these units are

21 Ibid., 88.
22 Ibid., 97-98.
23 To show Dracula’s love of the bon mot in the light of his torture/atonement syndrome:
“Two monks came to visit the palace at Tirgoviste. [They] climbed to the top of the
Chindia Tower and were shown by Dracula the customary scene of horror in the court-
yard below, which was strewn with impaled cadavers. Dracula was evidently expecting
some form of protest. Instead of reproof, one of the two monks reacted quite meekly,
‘You are appointed by God to punish the evildoers.’ The prince hardly expected this
enunciation of the doctrine of divine right, and consequently spared and rewarded the
monk.” The second monk spoke his mind and was impaled on the spot. From a German
narrative, Florescu and McNally, 98.
182 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

separated centrally by the Mercury-Pluto opposition. The display

seems fragmented, disunited. Indeed, a case could be made for a
division (a schism) in Dracula’s psyche, but that does not really hold
up in the reality of his life: Dracula was well-integrated in actions,
he was thoroughly committed to how he was; he was not one way
one moment and another way at another time; duplistic in alle-
giances but singularly focused in performance.
Figure 6 (page 183) brings a surprise into view: a Fire Grand
Trine among the Sun, Uranus, and Neptune. This construct is an
arch defense mechanism, a closed circuit of motivational self-suffi-
ciency. Dracula does as he pleases. He is driven, potentially
obsessed, with proving himself in dramatic fashion, commanding
respect. He is a law unto himself.’*
The way into or out of a Grand Trine is through any planet in
opposition or square to one of the corners. Here, the outlet would
be through Mars, which opposes Neptune within the Grand Trine,
and through Saturn, which squares Uranus within the construct.
Mars and Saturn, life and death at the ultimate level; killing at the
despotic level. And are not “walls” part of the significance of the
defensive Grand Trine complex?
Figure 6 suddenly overpowers Figure 5. The Moon now in a
Cardinal sign captures Dracula’s getting-things-done persona. After
all, when Vlad the father lay dying,” he sent on to his son the gold
necklace of the Order of the Dragon, transferring the sworn duty to
protect the Christian faith. Dracula was privileged and highly moti-
vated by this act.
In his life of mayhem, Dracula was not only working out some
deep personal psycho-tragic knots, he was pursuing a duty passed
on by his father, he was administering his realm to accomplish
something. What rationalization! The Capricorn austerity and
organizational power—and, indeed, the sign’s religiously rational-
ized inquisitorial nature—definitely gain answer from reality.

24 Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, 284-302. The Grand Trine construct is found dispropor-
tionately often in the horoscopes of criminals: one takes one’s own road. Actions are sus-
tained by deeply personal justifications, but while the defense is strong the freedom is
curtailed. In other words, after a while, the tail wags the dog.
25 The heroic Hungarian prince, John Hunyadi decided to eliminate Dracul who, in spite
of his duplistic dealings with the Turks and the Eastern Christians, had blamed Hunya-
di for a particular Christian defeat. Hunyadi collusively and artfully discredited Dracul
and then motivated the prince who would become Vladislav II, King of Poland, to pur-
sue and kill Dracul.
 L A +
DRACU 183

Figure 5
Dracula Test
1431
Dec. Li
M. LMT
12:00 P.
nia
Sighisoara, Roma
24E48 46N13
Placidus Houses

a Te31st
Dracul7,
Dec. 14
12:00 p.m. RoLmaMTnia
Sighisoara,
Placidus Houses 08°

41'
24° I
184 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The timing tests throughout Dracula’s life—as we shall see—fre-

quently emphasize degree areas in Fixed signs, especially 0-3 and
10-13. The early degrees of Fixed signs on the angles, then, would
strengthen the horoscope powerfully, and with a Scorpio Ascendant
we would preserve the Scorpio dimensions dramatically, through
Pluto peregrine, and we would emphasize the 3rd and 9th Houses
with Capricorn there, the mental process, the language sophistica-
tion, the many references to Dracula’s considerable intelligence, his
brilliant mind, the international outreach, and more. Picture it: this
Scorpio Ascendant alinement would place Neptune upon the Mid-
heaven and Mars in opposition, angular as well, on the fourth cusp!
Figure 7 shows our rectification of Prince Vlad Dracula’s horo-
scope: December 7, 1431 at 3:18 A.M. in Sighisoara [ziggy-shwa’-
rab\, Romania.
The unity of this horoscope is immediately obvious, and sever-
al additional measurements present themselves to reveal and define
Dracula extraordinarily well.
Note the retrogradation pattern: all planets except Saturn,
Venus and Mars are retrograde. Here is the definite suggestion of a
psycho-contrapuntal level to everything about Dracula, to all he
does. Venus is drawn into the opposition with Neptune through its
conjunction with Mars: this Neptunian touch is an echo of the ret-
rogradation, and it is most telling here since Venus rules the 7th, the
presentation Vlad Dracula makes to others, to his public. He
thought himself a social crusader—not just for the Church—but for
his people. This is a clear twist of the Aquarian potential signified
here; the aspect with Neptune, i.e., something is other than it seems.
Note that Mercury is in 0 Capriccrn, conjunct the Aries
Point.’° This brings the mental process forward into the public eye,
identifies the thinking process with a public line. The retrograda-
tion is the personal agenda counterpoint at work as well.
Neptune is oriental, rising last before the Sun in clockwise
motion.’’ There is an emphatic statement here of something ideal
or idealized. Perhaps it is something wnattainable for Dracula. With
Neptune ruling the 5th, perhaps the ideal is the core significance of
sexuality, that is complicated and distorted or unattainable in his life.
No researcher whose work I have read has not mentioned Dracula’s

26 Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, 303-311. The Aries Point suggests public focus.
27 Ibid., 497.
 DRACULA # 185

obsessive psychosexual difficulty—often stated as an inclination to

impotence—that he was ineffective sexually and overcompensated —
for this deep undercutting of his masculine power.
The deeper and deeper we get into understanding Dracula, the
more and more Neptune and its concomitant pathologies manifest
themselves. The broad conjunction with the Midheaven tells us
that every transit, arc, or progression to the Midheaven will work
through the Neptune veil and, in turn, engage the sense of a power-
ful, angular Mars, conjunct Venus. With the nodal axis involved as

10°
§2 53

10°44 53'

Figure 7
Dracula
Dec. 7, 1431, 3:18 P.M. LMT
Sighisoara, Romania
24E48 46N13
Placidus Houses
186 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

well, the public thrust for all personal difficulties is strongly suggested.
With Venus’ rulership of the 12th as well, the mix gains even more
relevance within the swirl of psychological impedimenta.
With the retrogradation pattern, with the powerful and domi-
nating Neptune, with the depression below the horizon and the
accentuation of the mental axis (Saturn ruling the 3rd, holding the
Moon-Saturn conjunction; the Moon ruling the 9th holding Pluto
peregrine), with the walled-in defensive behavior of the Grand
Trine and the lethal outlets through Mars and Uranus-Saturn, we
have a formidably complex, constantly self-justifying portrait. But
where is the confirmation we need for the despotism and cruelty
that twist the credibility of history?

Midpoint Sort: 90° Dial

000°09' ;
P 001°18'
001°23'
P 004°37'| >
005°56'
008°40'
009°04'
009°04'
009° 4'
009°55'
010°19'
011°46'
011°59'
013°40'
013°42'
016°21'

Figure 8
Midpoint Locations — Dracula’s Rectification

Figure 8 (above) is the Table of midpoint locations through-

out Dracula’s rectified horoscope.’® Mercury is at the Aries Point
(zero degree of a Cardinal sign) beginning the Table. The follow-
ing key Midpoint Pictures shape Dracula’s horoscope into even
greater synthesis:

28 In the Table, 0 degree = the beginning of Cardinal sign positions; 30+=0 of Fixed signs
and further; 60=0 Mutable and further. The “equals” sign in Midpoint Pictures connotes
the relation of any planet or point by the extended family ofthe fourth harmonic (conjunction,
semisquare, square, sesqui-quadrate or opposition) to the midpoint of the planetary pair.
 DRACULA # 187

+ Mercury=Sun/Pluto: Extraordinary mental projection; “lord-

ing it over” someone; great salesmanship.??
+ Pluto=Sun/Saturn: The pressure to change (enforce) per-
sonal values.
+ Pluto=Venus/Jupiter: Popularity; the world view. [Dracula
was highly praised and widely known for his deep under-
standing of the Turks (through his imprisonment, learning
their language and ways), his dedication to Eastern Ortho-
doxy, and his willingness to be part of all Crusade activity
against the Turks.]
+ Pluto=Jupiter/MC: Great recognition and publicity.
+ Asc=Saturn/MC: Cold, calculating ambitious drive.
+Asc=Moon/Neptune: Losing ego definition [Perhaps the
psychosexual part of his complex personality; Neptune rules
the 5th.]
+ Asc=Mars/Saturn: The center of the personality deals with
matters of life and death, or deals with matters in a life-or-
death way. This is an extreme manifestation of what
Ebertin called the “death axis.”*°
+ Mars=Venus/Neptune: Sexual drive has difficulty being ful-
filled; easy self-delusion.
+ Mars=Neptune/MC: Personal flair, sensual image [many
descriptions of Dracula’s single extant life-portrait use the
word “sensual”].
+ Sun=MC/Asc: The quest to be one’s own person. Individualism.
+ Sun=Uranus/Neptune: Extremely high self-regard [echoing
Venus’ trine with Jupiter, ruler of the self-worth 2nd].

29 These Midpoint Picture capsule-images are taken practically verbatim from Tyl, Synthe-
sis & Counseling, the Appendix or Tyl, Prediction in Astrology, the Appendix.
30 Reinhold Ebertin, the founder of the Cosmobiological School of Astrology, and a mas-
terful pioneer with Midpoint Pictures, named the Mars/Saturn midpoint the “death
axis.” This is an extreme statement indeed, and indeed Dracula’s horoscope does call for
the extreme. Hardin and Harvey (see bibliography) suggest that Mars/Saturn “can also
denote an authoritarian manner, a ‘killer instinct’ or a need to center [oneself] through
hard or ascetic work ... making the snap ‘life or death’ decisions ...”
I add that normally there is a drying up, a struggle to end things, a coldness, dealing
with death matters in many different senses of the words. For example, Jackie Kennedy-
Onassis had natal Sun=Mars/Saturn; see Tyl, Synthesis ¢* Counseling, 43, 314, 526.
188 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

+ Sun=Mars/Asc: Adjusting things by force.

+Sun=Jupiter/Pluto: Successful use of strong personality
power; keeping things in one’s own grip.
+Sun=Neptune/Asc: Discomfort, frustration [surely from
things sexual, with Neptune ruling the 5th].

Dracula was at his best in diplomacy, running double-deals with

the Turks and the Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic coun-
tries: the 3rd and 9th Houses are very strong in his horoscope, the
Neptune all-pervasive.
Finally, within our initial orientation, we can look at the horo-
scope in barest form, just as a fifteenth-century astrologer would
have looked at it, without Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus, not know-
ing for sure where Venus or Mars was, having a reasonably good
idea that the Moon was in the middle of Capricorn conjunct Sat-
urn. The Sagittarian internationalism, judicial ethic, and self-pre-
sentation power would be clear. The austere administrative thrust
through Moon-Saturn would be acknowledged, with a concomitant
fear factor, and all would be blessed or at least made easy by Jupiter,
the only planet visible (above the horizon), in opposition (by sign)
with the Sun: recognition by God. Dracula was special indeed.

Early Imprisonment, Freedom, Vengeance

Dracul the father was a crafty politician. He saw the Turks gaining
an enormous hold on territories surrounding his little princedom.
The Turks had destroyed the Serbs and the Bulgars and were now
planning a siege upon the Greeks. Dracul signed an alliance with
the Turks against his own patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigis-
mund, and certainly against his holy commission in the Order of
the Dragon!
Even the Turks got so they did not easily trust Dracul. Sultan
Murad II lured Dracul into a meeting in the spring of 1442. Dracul
took young Dracula and younger Radu with him to the meeting.
The Wallachian party did not receive a good reception: the children
were spirited away and the father was immediately put into chains
and confronted by the Sultan. Dracul had to reconfirm his oath of
loyalty to Murad; to do this and claim his own freedom, he offered
 DRACULA # 189

his own sons as hostages. The children’s imprisonment would last

for six years. Dracul and his sons would never see each other again.
In March—May 1442, Dracula was almost ten and one-half
years old. Solar Arc Pluto (see page 183; add 10 degrees to Pluto
at 9 Cancer) was opposing his Moon and going onto the mid-
point of Moon/Saturn and Saturn itself, rulers of the 3rd—9th axis,
over the six-year period of incarceration, in a foreign country, as
it were. At the same time, transiting Pluto at 21 Cancer empha-
sized the same mental axis, the same core-significant, sensitive
planetary picture.
Here is the confinement, the pain, the disorientation, the emo-
tional hurt, the isolation, and repression that formed the needs for
vengeance and vindication in Dracula’s adult life. This is a secure
beginning to ground our rectification, but we must look ahead to
clear-cut developmental contacts with the angles of the horoscope.
McNally and Florescu point to this time as a clue to Dracula’s
“shifty nature and perverse personality. From that time onward,
Dracula held human nature in low esteem. Life was cheap—after
all, his own life was in danger should his father prove disloyal to the
Sultan—and morality was not essential in matters of state.”>!

Dracula’s Turkish captors related that the boy exhibited trickery,

cunning, insubordination, and brutality, and “inspired fright in
his own guards.” Dracula had gotten a taste for revenge and
showed it.??
However, at the same time, Dracula received a splendid edu-
cation in the finest Byzantine tradition. The Sultan had an eye to
the future, of course, and was grooming Dracula (and his broth-
er) to be important allies in the conquests ahead. Dracula was
taught philosophy under the crack of a whip. He learned Turkish
perfectly and observed constantly the insidious ways of politics
and the brutal ways of war.

Back at home, Dracul the father allowed his oldest son Mircea
to cooperate with the Christian forces at the battle of Varna and
thereby broke his vow to the Sultan. Dracul thought that his chil-
dren would be “butchered” for his act, which he rationalized as

31 McNally & Florescu, In Search ofDracula, 21.

32 Ibid., 22. Additionally, Dracula developed an intense hatred for his younger brother
“Radu the Handsome” whose good looks and compliant nature installed him as minion
of the Turkish courtiers.
190 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

piety and loyalty to Rome, as a move to ensure Christian peace.

Dracula learned of his father’s treachery and felt abandoned and
alienated to the core. The Sultan spared the sons any punishment
for their father’s treason.
Dracul then turned against the heroic Hungarian leader John
Hunyadi, who then chose to eliminate Dracul for his duplicities.
Hunyadi accomplished this indirectly by seeding fear and suspicion
of Dracul in the mind of the Polish prince Vladislav, a Hungarian
ally, who then organized the final attack on Dracul.
Dracul’s oldest son was the first to die for treason, buried alive
by his own people. Dracul tried to escape the closing net of intrigue
and assassination. Knowing the end was near, he sent on to Dracu-
la his gold medal from the Order of the Dragon. Dracul was caught
and beheaded in November—December 1447.*?
Figure 9 (page 191) shows the Lunar Eclipse of September 24,
1447, just two months before the death of Dracul, for Tirgoviste,
Romania, the seat of the Wallachian throne. Note that the Eclipse
axis in 9 Aries-Libra is precisely square to Dracula’s natal, peregrine
Pluto in 9 Cancer and that the Pluto in this Eclipse chart, at 1 Leo,
is square to Dracula’s natal Ascendant, as we have rectified it (page
183). This synastry promises a tremendous change in life perspec-
tive for Dracula, not quite sixteen years old.
Upon his father’s murder, Dracula was freed by the Sultan and
was made an officer in the Turkish army. Learning of the eradication
of his family, Dracula formulated far-reaching plans for vengeance.
We can easily presume a traditional-respect and personal-hatred rela-
tionship with the memory of his father. Dracula was a young, bril-
liant, intrepid warrior with much psychclogical baggage, with
grudges to settle with the world. With that energy, motivation, and
sense of rightness, he was able to build upon his freedom quickly.
Figure 10 (page 192) shows the Solar Arc picture for Dracula’s
freedom and his attack to regain his father’s throne. SA Saturn has
come to opposition with the Midheaven, promising a “major
change in the family or in the profession; possible death concerns
within the extended family circle; the father figure; an extremely
important time of life development.”3* This is a key angular confir-
mation of the rectified time we have established.

33 East European Monographs, 14, through Romanian Embassy, see Bibliography.

34 Tyl, Prediction, Appendix, 317; Synthesis, Appendix, 845.
 DRAcuLA + 191

SA-SP Sun has come to opposition with natal Pluto illuminat-

ing Dracula’s need for power and confirming new life perspectives.
The SA Ascendant was squaring his all-important Neptune,
promising that his specialness would gain recognition (the Turks
were backing his effort to regain his father’s throne, i.e., to contin-
ue the alliance with the Turks).
Yet, two other measurements threaten to undermine the entire
picture: Solar Arc Uranus was promising sudden upset of the polit-
ical/professional position through its square with the Midheaven

14°
TP 19"

14°% 19"

Figure 9
Lunar Eclipse
Sept. 24, 1447, 10:17 am. LMT
Tirgoviste, Romania
25E27 44N56
Placidus Houses
192 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

and, transiting Neptune was squaring the Sun, promising further

duplicity in political dealings (the Sun rules the 10th) and possible
overturn of the status quo.
Supported by the Turkish cavalry and other troops, Dracula led
a bold and successful coup of the Wallachian throne, but his tenure was
short-lived, only two months! The Polish prince who had killed his
father, Vladislav II, overthrew Dracula with Hungarian forces, and
Dracula had to flee for his life. Although he was free of the Turks,
the young prince was imperiled from all other sides.

SP) 282

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Dracula SA Freedom
Dec. 15, 1447
 DRACULA # 193

Dracula hid away in Moldavia and then Transylvania, which

was under the rule of the Hungarian hero Hunyadi, who had set up
Dracula’s father for murder by the Polish prince. Politically in the
most chicanerous of times, Hunyadi and Vladislav, who was in con-
trol of Wallachia, Dracula’s family base, began to drift apart, and
Hunyadi saw it beneficial to make peace with Dracula! A very tricky
meeting took place inJanuary 1453—Dracula was just twenty-one:
the Secondary Progressed Moon was at 29 Libra conjoining Drac-
ula’s Ascendant for a new start within sixty days, and transiting
Jupiter was square its natal position.
A deal was made: Dracula took a prominent military appoint-
ment in Hunyadi’s army, at that time highly reputed and success-
ful; Dracula would counsel Hunyadi about Turkish ways, tactics,
and plans.
As the siege upon Constantinople was begun, the only real
hope of the Byzantines was placed upon the armies of John Hunya-
di, with Vlad Dracula at his side. The invading Sultan Mehmed II
had been in the same court learning with young Dracula during his
imprisonment with Mehmed’s father. Mehmed had gotten close to
Radu, Dracula’s handsome younger brother. Now all of them could
meet on the battlefield at Constantinople, such were the fractured
alliances and collusion of the times ... but it was not yet to be. Hun-
yadi’s army did not go to the aid of Constantinople but saw to pro-
tecting its own borders in Transylvania (now commanded by
Dracula) and the great fortress at Belgrade, guarding the approach
to Hungary.*°
Details about the fall of Constantinople struck fear into the
heart of eastern Europe. Wallachia, Transylvania, and Hungary
were in grave, immediate danger. The brutality of the Turks was
one of their great weapons: tales were told of their use of impale-
ment to kill captives. The impaled bodies displayed around con-
quered cities were silent, efficient sentinels. We shall see these
tables turned by Dracula later.
Vladislav II began to shift allegiances to the Turkish side. That
is all Hunyadi needed: as defenses against the Turks’ push onward
to Belgrade and Hungary were mounted, Dracula was given leave
to mount an offensive against Vladislav II.

35 Florescu and McNally, Dracula, 70-71.

194 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Dracula’s allegiances at this time were to Hunyadi and Hungary

and to the Christian cause, the pledge implicit in the Order of the
Dragon. His rupture with his former Turkish protectors was out in
the open, and his attack on Vladislav II was fully in order. In July
1456—while the Turks and Hunyadi fought at Belgrade, Dracula
met Vladislav II near Tirgoviste. Dracula had the satisfaction of
killing—in hand-to-hand combat—the man who had killed his
father. Vengeance was his—and so once again was the throne: by
August 22, Dracula was prince of Wallachia, Prince Vlad, son of
Vlad the Great, sovereign and ruler of Ungro-Wallachia and of the
duchies of Amlas and Fagaras.*©
Figure 11 (page 195) shows the Solar Arc positions as they had
developed to this time of victory for Dracula. In the eight and one-
half years since his freedom, Dracula’s SA Saturn had proceeded
past the opposition with the Midheaven and now opposed his key
natal Neptune. This measurement normally corresponds to a
bewilderment, a frustration, a giving up under difficult circum-
stances, but the awesome transiting conjunction of Uranus and
Pluto was conjunct natal Neptune and the SA Moon in 13 Aquarius
was applying to conjunction with natal Mars. The picture is one of
extreme force through collusion, through deception or chicanery,
precisely what occurred within the Vladislav-Hunyadi-Dracula tri-
umvirate. This is reinforced by transiting Neptune at 9 Libra exact-
ly square Dracula’s peregrine Pluto. (The Secondary Progressed
Moon was opposed Jupiter.)
Figure 12 (page 196) shows the Tertiary progression for Drac-
ula’s second ascent to the throne after the murder of Vladislav II.
The TP MC is applying to conjunction with Pluto, the TP Sun is
square the key Neptune, and the TP Moon opposes that Neptune.
TP Saturn is square to the rectified Ascendant, and TP Uranus is
opposing that Ascendant. These two charts show a powerful por-
trait throughout astrology’s spectrum of predictive measurement; a
determined, nefarious ascent to power.
Just two months before this vital time, in June 1456, when
Dracula began his pursuit of Vladislav II, a comet was sighted in

36 Ibid., 76-81. Fighting against the 90,000-strong Turkish army, Hunyadi’s forces in the
battle of Belgrade were reinforced from an unlikely source. A seventy-year-old, gaunt,
mystical Franciscan monk, now canonized as Saint John of Capistrano, brought a band of
some 8,000 inexperienced peasants and clergymen to help Hunyadi. The determination
and fanaticism of these crusaders were extraordinary and played an important role in the
Hungarian victory. Shortly after the repelling the Turks, both leaders died of the plague.
 DRACULA # 195

the night sky and was visible for seven weeks and four days over
central and eastern Europe. As with the Eclipse over Constantino-
ple, here again was a powerful omen. The Turks under Mehmed II
saw it as the significator of their defeat by Hunyadi, but promising
a second opportunity to fight again since Hunyadi died immedi-
ately after his victory. Dracula’s people saw the comet as a positive
omen, with Dracula returning to the ancestral throne. In fact, the
only Dracula coin yet discovered depicts on one side the profile of
the Wallachian eagle with a cross in its beak, and on the other side
a crescent mounted on a star trailing six undulating rays in its wake.

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Dracula SA Regains Throne
Aug. 22, 1456
196 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

This was Halley’s comet, 221 years before its formal identification
and study!37
And as we look ahead into Dracula’s future, we must note from
Figure 11 (page 195) that transiting Uranus-Pluto will be making a
brutally forceful opposition with his natal Mars for another year and
Solar Arc Pluto is inexorably approaching conjunction with the

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Dracula TP Regains Throne
Aug. 22, 1456

37 Florescu and McNally, 82-83. English astronomer Edmund Halley (1636-1742) identi-
fied this first periodic comet in 1677. The very bright comet has a period of about
sev-
enty-six years, and records of its appearances go back to 240 B.c. (studied earliest
by the
Chinese). Its last appearance within earth vision was in 1986; the next will be in 2061.
 DRACULA # 197

Midheaven, due in 1462 (6 degrees/years further into the future). We

must see also that transiting Neptune from 9 Libra (in Figure 11,
page 195) will proceed on to Dracula’s Ascendant in about ten years.

Dracula’s Brutal Rule

We have a detailed physical description of Dracula in words from
a papal representative to the region, and we have a life-sized por-
trait painting (at the Amras Museum near Innsbruck, Austria),
from which a miniature was copied and is displayed at the Kun-
sthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The verbal and painted portraits
agree. Dracula had an unusual, even bizarre appearance, singular-
ly arresting and strange. [This image is portrayed on the cover of
this volume.]
Three traits dominate: a tremendously thick growth of hair,
worn in curled ringlets close to the sides of his face, down, over, and
below his shoulders; a heavy frankfurter-shaped mustache that
reached out wider than his gaunt face and rested lumpily above a
vanished upper lip and a protruding lower lip. One gets the impres-
sion of a jutting jaw and a slender nose, the tip of which is too close
to the bottom lip. And the third arresting feature was his eyes, over-
ly large, perhaps bulging, establishing a kind of gaze beyond or
through things, an almond-shaped openness that is alarming and
mysterious. He was clean shaven, although the painting reveals a
heavy beard beginning its return.*8
Here is the verbal description from Niccolo Modrussa, the
papal legate to Buda, who knew Prince Dracula later in his life:

He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cold and
terrible appearance, a strong and aquiline nose, swollen nostrils, a
thin and reddish face in which the very long eyelashes frame large
wide-open green eyes; the bushy black eyebrows made them
appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven, but for a

38 Itis interesting to note that, for the ancient Egyptians, for example, hair was a liability in
battle; soldiers were clean shaven and bald. The word “barbarian,” meaning bearded one,
comes from Roman times when the wealthy and aristocrats were clean shaven and the
slaves and lower classes were not. In Turkey, it was quite the opposite: flowing beards
conferred status and it was slaves who were forced to shave. In Dracula’s time and region,
long drooping mustaches were the rule among princes. His was stiff and differently,
meticulously groomed, and, though clean shaven, he appears to have had a shadow of a
beard at all times.
198 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A

bull’s neck connected [with] his head from which black curly
locks hung on his wide-shouldered person.*?

Florescu and McNally see the portrait as “overpowering,

haughty, authoritarian.” The astrologer sees the Scorpio Ascendant
powerfully presented through Dracula’s obvious hirsute nature and
stocky build. The Mars rulership of Scorpio and its prominence in
the horoscope, in Aquarius, suggest the ruddiness, the redness in
the verbal description; and, in the painted portrait, Dracula is wear-
ing rich red silk robes and a pink topaz and pearl headpiece.
aay et
The ruins of Dracula’s palace at Tirgoviste can still be distin-
guished from more massive remains of later additions. In the
main, what is left is the Chindia Tower and the ruins of a cellar
where Florescu and McNally found clear outlines of cells. It is
recorded in histories that it was from the Chindia Tower that
Dracula presided over the tortures that were administered in the
courtyard below.
Dracula’s political philosophy was simply to build and keep
power. The mere flicker of possible confrontation triggered an
overwhelming, annihilating response. Immediately upon seizing
the throne, for example, Dracula conducted a massive purge of the
hostile noble families, allying the small but powerful boyar class to
his way of doing things. Florescu records the oldest Romanian his-
torical chronicle of a typical event:

The Spring of 1457, during the Easter celebrations that the boyars
were attending at the palace: Dracula had found out that the boyars
of Tirgoviste had buried one of his brothers alive. In order to know
the truth he searched for his brother in the grave and found him
lying face downward. So when Easter Day came, while all the citi-
zens were feasting and the young ones were dancing he surround-
ed them ... led them together with their wives and children, just as
they were dressed up for Easter, to Poenari [a reference to Castle
Dracula], where they were put to work [for months] until their
clothes were torn and they were left naked.

39 Florescu and McNally, 85, and other sources.

 DRACULA # 199

The record is repeated by the Greek historian Chalcondyles, cit-

ing some 200 boyars and their wives, as well as leading citizens of
Tirgoviste: “They were seized by Dracula’s men as they were fin-
ishing their meal in the main banqueting hall of the palace, fol-
lowing the elaborate Easter ritual at the Paraclete Chapel. In
Dracula’s ingenious mind, one aspect of the punishment had a
utilitarian purpose: the reconstruction of the famous castle high
up on the Arges ... the old boyars and their wives were selected
out from the main body and immediately impaled ... the others
formed work gangs to build the castle over several months.”4

The walls of the castle—and walls were Dracula’s obsession—

were double conventional fortress-width to withstand the heaviest
Turkish cannon fire.
In his purge of the nobles and most boyars (land-holding, polit-
ically strong citizenry), Dracula impaled, according to German
accounts, some 20,000 people, including entire families. In their
place, he built up a different kind of nobility, the armasi, who car-
ried out Dracula’s style of justice. Many of the armasi were foreign-
ers, adventurers and mercenaries, who “were well paid and devoid
of principles.” They were Dracula’s “impalers par excellence.”
Dracula saw himself as a judge, an administer of justice—a
very pronounced confirmation of Sagittarian characteristics,
especially with his Moon ruling his 9th, holding Pluto peregrine.
This self-regard was a part of the extraordinary attention he paid
to atonement for his heinous acts. He frequented monasteries,
he built monasteries and churches, and he punished evil-doers
with a savagery almost unimaginable. He did all sorts of “good
works” to redeem himself before God. Florescu points out per-
fectly what we see astrologically: “In [Dracula’s] tortured mind,
cruelty and religiosity were deeply intertwined, and he would
occasionally use religious grounds to justify a crime.” And we
must remember that always in the background was his Dragon
oath, inherited from his father, which established him as a lead-
ing Christian crusader.

Here is how Dracula kept the law against adultery: “If any wife
had an affair outside of marriage, Dracula ordered her sexual
organs cut. She was then skinned alive and exposed in her skinless
flesh in a public square, her skin hanging separately from a pole or

40 Ibid., 91-92.
200 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

placed on a table in the middle of the marketplace. The same

punishment was applied to maidens who did not keep their vir-
ginity, and also to unchaste widows. For lesser offenses, Dracula
was known to have the nipple of a woman’s breast cut off. He also
once had a red-hot iron stake shoved into a woman’s vagina, mak-
ing the instrument penetrate her entrails and emerge from her
mouth. He then had the woman tied to a pole naked and left her
exposed there until the flesh fell from the body, and the bones
detached themselves from their sockets.”*!

“Vlad the Impaler’—as Dracula is known to Rumanians

today—perfected the Turkish torture:

Stakes stood permanently prepared in the courtyard of the palace

of Tirgoviste, in various strategic places, in public squares, and in
the vicinity of the capital. Dracula was often present at the time of
punishment. Usually, it is said, the stakes were carefully rounded
at the end and bathed in oil so that the entrails of the victims
should not be pierced by a wound too quickly fatal when the vic-
tim’s legs were stretched wide apart and two horses (one attached
to each leg) were sent [to pull] in different directions, while atten-
dants held the stake and body firmly in place. Not all of Dracula’s
impalement victims were, however, pierced from the buttocks up.
Judging from several prints, men, women, and children were also
impaled through the heart, the navel, the stomach, and the chest.
Dracula decapitated, cut off noses, ears, sexual organs, and limbs.
He blinded, strangled, hanged, burned, boiled, skinned, roasted,
hacked (“like cabbage,” specifies a German narrative), nailed,
buried alive, and had his victims stabbed ... If he did not practice
cannibalism, German [folklore] mentions that he compelled oth-
ers to eat human flesh ... he stuck stakes in buth breasts of moth-
ers and thrust their babies onto them ... innumerable people were
hanging from each tree branch.”

Every source speculates the reason behind such savagery, and

all sources suggest sexual pathology, specifying the symbolism of
Dracula’s ritualized obsession with impalement, and the cutting off
of sexual organs. The impalement could have substituted from his
own inadequacy. Additionally, Russian narratives in particular con-
firm Dracula’s anger toward women.

41 Ibid., 104.
42 Ibid., 104-106.
 DRACULA # 201

In his own lifetime, Dracula became famous for his crusade for
Christendom, his helping the poor of his principality, and his hor-
rific ways of justice (Mercury=Aries Point, notoriety). He actually
became the subject of contemporary horror literature: refugees
from Dracula’s reign reported the horrific tales to monks who
copied down the details and kept them in monastery libraries.
The astrologer can recognize the wanton, reckless, overriding
power force of peregrine Pluto, ruler of the Ascendant; the depres-
sion and pain in the mental axis, the Moon-Saturn conjunction
squared by Uranus; the Ascendant square the midpoint of Mars/
Saturn; the mutual reception between Mars and Uranus; Venus
drawn into the conjunction with Mars and the opposition with
Neptune, ruler of the sexuality 5th. We see the harshness of focus
within the parental axis, the drive for vengeance, the elaborate
defense mechanism (Fire Grand Trine) establishing for Dracula the
law unto himself.

The Great Battle

Pope Pius II saw the Turkish threat growing yet again in eastern
Europe. At the council of Mantua in 1459, the pope inaugurated
yet another crusade against the Turkish Sultan Mehmed, asking
Christendom to raise 100,000 gold ducats.
With John Hunyadi dead, his younger son Matthias rose to the
throne of Hungary. His hold on the position was initially insecure
so he could not answer the pope’s call. Many potentates sent verbal
support but, caught up in nationalistic squabbles, did not commit
troops or money.
Dracula was the only sovereign to respond immediately. He was
admired for his courage and his eagerness to fight for Christianity.
It would be Dracula who would meet the Turkish onslaught,
Mehmed II with whom he had grown up in the Turkish court dur-
ing his early imprisonment.
An added complication was that Dracula’s younger brother,
Radu the Handsome, who resided in Turkish Constantinople, was
now positioned and poised to seize the Wallachian throne from Dracula.
The grand battle, the show-down for East and West was set for the
spring of 1462.
202 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Dracula’s army numbered only about 31,000, including boys

and women. Along with swords and bows and arrows, the army’s
weapons included scythes, hammers, and scimitars. Dracula was
planning on help from Matthias in Hungary, help which would
never come.
Sultan Mehmed knew of the poor response to the pope’s plea,
and decided to strike at Wallachia as soon as he could. His forces
outnumbered Dracula’s ten to one.
During the winter early in 1462, Dracula had some preliminary
skirmishes with Turkish forces along the Danube. He attacked quick-
ly and stealthily and was able to defeat several Turkish strongholds,
burning them as he made hasty retreat with his outnumbered and
exhausted forces. Dracula was proud to send on to the pope a detailed
statistical list of all Turks killed in the different places. He was a
blood-drenched hero, controling the entire length of the Danube.
The time came for Mehmed to launch a full-scale invasion of
Wallachia; he would be compelled to invade the country by land
from Bulgaria.
Dracula knew what was to come. He implored Matthias of
Hungary to enter the effort. He even expressed his readiness to
conclude a marriage with a member of the royal family, meaning he
would abandon his Eastern Orthodox Christianity and become a
Roman Catholic. Matthias would not cooperate—and Mehmed
approached from Constantinople with his forces numbering almost
300,000 men and 120 cannons!*+
Yet, historians report that morale among the Wallachians was
extremely high: “Dracula had a talent for inspiring enthusiasm
in his men; he exhorted them to glorious and sometimes sacrifi-
cial action.”*°
But the Turks were able finally to cross the Danube on June 4,
1462 and the high point of the mighty battle—from Dracula’s per-
spective—occurred during the night of June 17, 1462.
Figure 13 (page 203) shows us that Solar Arc Pluto has arrived
at Dracula’s Midheaven, a major test of our rectification. This
measurement is life-significant: dramatic changes of perspective
are practically assured. There can be transformations of many

43 Ibid., 134; In Search of Dracula, 49.

44 Florescu and McNally, Prince ofMany Faces, 138-139.
45 Ibid., 141.
 DRACULA # 203

kinds. Professional adjustments are major. In short, it is a life-

milestone time that is so large in impact that change is invariably
decidedly disruptive.
At the same time, SA Moon opposes Dracula’s keystone Nep-
tune, a time of insecurity and doubt. SA-SP Sun is conjunct Saturn
suggesting the enormous awareness of responsibility Dracula man-
ifested in answering the papal plea for leadership of the crusade.
And finally, transiting Saturn that summer was transiting 10-12
Aquarius, exactly opposed the Midheaven we have set for the

Tr h 10-12 x

Figure 13
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Dracula SA War/Capture
June 17, 1462
204 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

bloodied prince. This time—this mighty battle—would be the

change of a lifetime for Dracula, just thirty years old.
As the Turks made it across the Danube, Dracula had to adopt
creative “retreat tactics.” He would draw the Turks deep into his
land, surround them, and isolate sections of the Sultan’s army.
Dracula would wear down the invading hordes, destroy the
resources of his own land, depopulating villages, burning towns,
destroying crops and cattle, diverting streams, poisoning wells,
turning flatlands into mire and swamps, pitting the land with traps.
The Turks invaded but found nothing, absolutely nothing—except
a scorching sun of extreme intensity that summer; they could use
their shields to roast their meat.*
Florescu and McNally report as well that Dracula used
“serm warfare.” Dracula would encourage with grand rewards all
in his land affected by lethal disease—leprosy, tuberculosis,
syphilis, the plague—to dress up like Turks and intermingle with
the enemy soldiers.
Then, Dracula staged his final, courageous night attack on June
17, 1462. The Turkish chronicles record that the guerrilla skirmish
lasted from three hours after sunset until four the next morning in
a mountainous region south of Tirgoviste. This is what happened,
according to many sources, including Dracula himself, reporting
later to the papal legate for transmission to the Roman curia:

The sultan besieged him [Dracula] and discovered him in a cer-

tain mountain where the Wallachian was supported by the natur-
al strength of the place. There Dracula had hidden himself along
with 24,000 of his men who had willingly followed him. When
Dracula realized that he would either perish from hunger or fall
into the hands of the very cruel enemy, and considering both
eventualities unworthy of brave men, he dared commit an act
worthy of being remembered: calling his men together and
explaining the situation to them, he easily persuaded them to
enter the enemy camp.
He divided the men so that either they should die bravely in battle
with glory and honor or else, should destiny prove favorable to
them, they should avenge themselves against the enemy in an
exceptional manner. So, making use of some Turkish prisoners,
who had been caught at twilight when they were wandering about

46 Ibid., 144.
 DRACULA # 205

imprudently, at nightfall Dracula penetrated into the Turkish camp

with part of his troops, all the way up the fortifications. And during
the entire night he sped like lightning in every direction and caused
great slaughter, so much that, had the other commander to whom
he had entrusted his remaining forces been equally brave, or had
the Turks not fully obeyed the repeated orders from the sultan not
to abandon their garrisons, the Wallachian undoubtedly would
have gained the greatest and most brilliant victory.
Dracula carried out an incredible massacre without losing many
men in such a major encounter, though many were wounded. He
abandoned the enemy camp before daybreak and returned to the
same mountain from which he had come. No one dared pursue
him, since he had caused such terror and turmoil.*”

The account offered by the Greek historian Chalcondyles is

more detailed and seems more realistic: Dracula rushed the camp
with some 7,000 to 10,000 troops. With torches and flares, they
tried to locate the Sultan’s tent but couldn’t. The Ottoman cavalry
and jannisary guards got into action and warded off much of Drac-
ula’s attack. Some 2,000 Wallachian prisoners were taken; Dracula
lost 5,000 men and the Turks 15,000 in the night of slaughter.
A few days later, the Turks attacked Tirgoviste. There the Sul-
tan Mehmed and his men came upon Dracula’s most infamous
scene of horror, the “forest of the impaled.” Strung out for over a
mile, many thousands of stakes of various heights held the carcass-
es of some 20,000 Turkish captives. This was Dracula’s tactic to
destroy the Turkish spirit.
Mehmed was disgusted: Dracula’s land was not worth this price
of victory. He retreated eastward! And then the plague erupted.
The Turks saw all of this as a curse linked to Dracula. The mil-
itary forces were overwhelmed with illness. Radu the Handsome,
with a lifetime of Turkish support behind him, was sent into Wal-
lachia to win over the people and usurp his brother’s throne. He
succeeded. [Note Saturn’s rulership of the brother-3rd House, with
SA-SP Sun illuminating natal Saturn and transiting Saturn oppos-
ing Dracula’s Midheaven.]
Dracula’s army on-the-run melted away. There was no help
coming from anywhere. At a secret mountain retreat, surrounded
by overwhelming Turkish forces, Dracula used a subterranean

47 Ibid., 146.
206 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

passageway to try to escape. He purloined some horses who were

reshod backwards to leave a confusing trail. He went to a Hungar-
ian fortress at Koenigstein to hope against hope for the arrival of
King Matthias from Hungary.
Matthias had indeed finally started off to help Dracula and the
two met up in as much secrecy as could be arranged. But two very
strange things happened: Matthias knew that Dracula’s brother,
Radu, was now installed as the new Prince of Wallachia, and
Matthias had given official recognition to the new Prince; and a
series of letters (the so-called “Rothel” letters) supposedly from
Dracula to Sultan Mehmed begging forgiveness and reconciliation
were intercepted by Matthias’ spies. The king and his men—in full
frontal deception of Dracula—carefully plotted his end. Dracula
was in the dark.*®
After weeks of discussion and planning, Dracula took a force of
Matthias’ soldiers and set off ostensibly to attack Radu. En route
over the rugged mountainous region, the army and its horses and
cannons were being lowered off a cliff into a valley by pulley-
supported platforms. In this moment, on December 6-7, 1462,
under secret orders from the Hungarian king, the head Hungarian
officer took Dracula prisoner.*?
On this night, there was a Lunar Eclipse at 24 Gemini-Sagit-
tarius conjunct Dracula’s Sun. It was his birthday. Figure 14 (page
207) shows that Eclipse: note that the Sun-Moon axis is squared by
Uranus; that transiting Neptune is rising [the duplicities] and exact-
ly square to Dracula’s natal Uranus; and, of course, transiting Sat-
urn is still precisely opposed Dracula’s Midheaven.
Dracula, under palace arrest by Matthias, king of Hungary, now
became a living legend in the Hungarian court ... for almost thir-
teen years.

48 These letters were revealed only recently to be forgeries by Romanian historian Radu
Constantinescu. The letters had been written in clumsy Latin syntax, which was most
uncharacteristic of Dracula’s style. Everything about the letters went against logic, e.g.
offering the Turks help in abducting the Hungarian king while Dracula was planning
with the king against the Turks, especially in the wake of the enormous battle period that
had lasted almost eight months! The letters have now been ascribed to one Johann
Reudell, a Catholic chaplain who had earlier suffered losses under Dracula’s plundering
actions. The ploy was to discredit Dracula even further than his reputation as psy-
chopath and killer in the eyes of the Church, which was nevertheless compelled to praise
Dracula’s pro-Christian activities.
49 Ibid., 159.
 DRACULA # 207

Marriage — Conversion — Freedom — Death

Dracula was imprisoned in Hungary in its best times, the “Hungar-
ian Renaissance,” wherein Matthias played the role likened histori-
cally to that to be played by Lorenzo de Medici in Florence twenty
years later. Learning and the arts flourished. Material affluence was
everywhere. Royal treasures were displayed to all visitors. Hungary
was the paragon of western cultural splendor.

00° §2 35' &

52'

WS 00°4a35'
Figure 14
Lunar Eclipse
Dec. 7, 1462, 2:34 A.M. LMT
Tirgoviste, Romania
25E27 44N56
Placidus Houses
208 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Matthias would put Dracula on display to visiting delegations.

Florescu says, “the king knew the psychological impact that this
confrontation would entail—the awesome ‘Impaler Prince,’ even as
a captive, had the power of sending shivers down the spines of the
Turkish delegates. It was a way of signaling to the king’s foes that
Matthias would keep Dracula in reserve, just in case the Sultan vio-
lated the provisions of [the] treaty.”
There are accounts of Dracula’s bizarre behavior in jail: catch-
ing mice and having birds brought to him for impalement; cutting
off the heads of some birds, stripping them of feathers and letting
them loose. While these descriptions may be projections of fright-
ened, ghoulish minds, there 7s confirmation from supposedly cred-
ible sources like the Bishop of Erlau, writing to Pope Sixtus IV in
1476: “Unable to forget his wickedness, [Dracula] caught mice and,
cutting them up into pieces, stuck them on small pieces of wood,
just as he had stuck men on stakes.”*°
In the grandness of Hungarian life at this time, it was awkward
indeed that Matthias continued his inaction against the Turks. The
Church remarked on this often. Matthias finally got the opportuni-
ty to improve his position when Stephen the Great of Moldavia
(Dracula’s cousin) attacked a Hungarian outpost of great impor-
tance on his way to oust Radu and take over the Wallachian throne.
The Moldavians captured the city of Bucharest on November 24,
1473, along with all of Radu’s treasures. Radu, beaten and lost, died
of syphilis. Matthias now had to contend with Stephen. A new
enemy was too close for comfort.
At the same time, there was the impulse to “rehabilitate” Drac-
ula. Dracula could lead Matthias’ crusade against Stephen and,
again, against the Turks. There was one provision, however: for
Dracula to be reinstalled as Wallachian prince he would have to
convert to Roman Catholicism, abandoning Eastern Orthodoxy,
and Matthias would accept Dracula’s earlier offer to marry into the
extended family of the Hungarian king.
Further details are not known, historically, except that Dracula
accepted Matthias’ offer, converted, married, and had two sons, all
before his military reappearance in July 1475. Deductive reasoning
begins to place the marriage and birth of the children into the mid-
1460s. New research shared by McNally and Florescu in In Search
of Dracula points in this direction.

50. Ibid., 163.

 DRACULA @# 209

In personal discussion with Professor Florescu, I was able to

contribute strongly a tenable time and life-development scenario.
Figure 15 (below) shows Dracula’s horoscope for June 1466, the
mid-time between March 1466 and September 1466.
Most important to note is that transiting Neptune finally
arrives at Dracula’s Ascendant, a time of change, when identity is
altered, when ego changes. Within that same time period, transit-
ing Saturn squares the Sun, ruler of the 10th; trJupiter conjoins
Uranus; tr Uranus squares his Mercury. All these measurements
suggest rethinking one’s position. They show change.

Figure 15
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Dracula SA Marriage/Conversion
June 1, 1466
210 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Marriage is clearly suggested by the Secondary Progressed

Moon’s position on the 7th cusp in September 1466; and the SP
Nodal axis conjunct Venus (children as well).
In the background, SA Pluto moves to the midpoint of Nep-
tune/Midheaven (at 14 Leo 37), suggesting strange circumstances
altering life perspective, one’s professional position.
Figure 16 (page 211) shows the Tertiary Progression positions
at a time of possible (probable) marriage; the chart once again
clearly supports Dracula’s birth time and our suggestion of the mid-
1466 date for his new strategy. Note that TP MC is square to Nep-
tune—always, this key Neptune is involved with every major turn in
Dracula’s life. The TP Moon conjoins the Sun (and, conjoins the
natal Moon, also for marriage, on September 5, two months later),
and TP Venus-Uranus are very close to the 7th cusp (Venus exact-
ly there one month later). Finally, TP Jupiter is exactly upon Drac-
ula’s power Pluto in the 9th House, the opportunity for a new start,
beyond Hungary, on the Turkish front, once again in Wallachia.
This “conversion” by Dracula absolved him of all past sins.
While this maneuver played into Matthias’ and Dracula’s hands for
political strategies, it also touched strongly Dracula’s deepest needs
for atonement. Dracula was again “even” in his ledger before God, or
even a bit ahead since he, with the rank of captain in the Hungari-
an army, was leading yet another crusade against the infidels!
In the summer of 1475, Matthias, Stephen, and Dracula signed a
pact, and a renewed front was formally established against the Turks.
In January 1476—precisely the exact date of Dracula’s semi-square
Solar Arc, at age forty-four and one month*!—with transiting Pluto
exactly squared Dracula’s natal Sun, ruler of the 10th, Dracula was
formally given recognition for the Wallachian throne by the Hun-
garian Diet. On November 26, 1476 Dracula was reinvested by the
metropolitan at Curtea de Arges, with a few boyars standing by, as
the Prince of Wallachia—for the third time.
McNally and Florescu point out that everyone feared and hated
Dracula: what would this pathologically duplistic sadist do next?
Dracula did not bring his wife and sons with him to Wallachia;
researchers conjecture that he knew he was in great peril. And,
indeed, Dracula would be dead in five weeks.

51 The Sun’s passage for a winter birth in the northern hemisphere is slightly faster than -
the average, so the Solar Arc of 45 degrees accumulates faster, earlier in life. See Tyl,
Synthesis, 204-216.
 DRACULA # 211

Dracula was killed during another violent clash with Turkish

forces. Again, his own 2,000 soldiers were outnumbered two to
one. Researchers (especially the Austrian chronicler Jacob Unrest)
confirm the fact that Dracula was killed by a hired assassin from
the Turkish camp. The killer had enlisted (been captured) into
Dracula’s circle as a slave. The Turk was instructed to attack Drac-
ula from the back, to cut off his head, and bring it to the Sultan.
That is what happened “in the last days of December.” Then,
Dracula’s head was taken to Constantinople and exposed high on a
stake to confirm that the Great Impaler was finally dead.*

Figure 16
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Dracula TP Marriage/Conversion
July 11, 1466

52 McNally and Florescu, Dracula, 174-175; Florescu and McNally, In Search of Dracula,
102-103.
212 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Chronicles and folklore place Dracula’s burial in the fortified

monastery of Snagov (place of death) on an island in one of Europe’s
deepest lakes. Dating back to the thirteenth century, the fort-
monastery was extremely safe from siege, protected always by the
harshest terrain, the waters, and, in winter, the thick ice—that
could be shattered by a cannon shot, drowning enemies advancing
over it. The protection walls were built right up to lakeside. The
installation was a tiny town unto itself, in the gloomiest of sur-
roundings. For over 100 years from the mid-thirteenth century,
Wallachian princes built onto and improved the fortress. The last
improvements were made by Dracula.
The abbey was used for imprisonment and torture; excavations
reveal decapitated skeletons with their heads placed neatly beside
body bones. In the nineteenth century, the abbey was a formal
prison, haunted by violence; a bridge from the mainland to the
island collapsed under the weight of chained prisoners who were all
pulled under the reedy-clogged waters to their death. Earthquakes,
violent storms—all reminders of the curse connected with the
Abbey through the person of Vlad Dracula fill the history of Snagov.
Tradition had it that Dracula’s body was buried in front of the
main altar of the church on Snagov, there to be trampled and
defiled by the priests during every mass. Excavation there revealed
a neat grave pit empty except for anachronistic animal bones placed
there by earlier searchers as decoys. It is a mystery.
But the extraordinary Dracula researchers, whose superb works
have guided our study—Professors Florescu and McNally—dug
elsewhere, chiefly at the entrance to the church. There they found a
headless skeleton in threads of proper raiment for a prince. Tiny
treasure clues—including reference to the Order of the Dragon and
to his father, Vlad Dracul—were found with the bones, as well.
Most creative deduction by teams of researchers suggests strongly
that this stormy spot is indeed the dismal grave of Dracula.*?
Figure 17 (opposite) shows in the outer ring of Dracula’s natal
horoscope the Lunar Eclipse just preceding Dracula’s re-investiture
and his death. The portents are dire indeed: the Eclipse axis is con-
joined by transiting Pluto and all are square Dracula’s Sun; there is
a massive Mars-Uranus square to Saturn that connects tightly with

53 Ibid., Chapter 8.
 DRACULA @ 213

Dracula’s own Mars in the 4th House, suggesting strongly the sud-
den deathly danger from the home encampment. Transiting Saturn
in December 1476 (three months later) had retrograded back to 20
Cancer opposed Dracula’s Moon, and transiting Mars on Decem-
ber 27—surely the night of the death blow—was exactly conjunct
Dracula’s 4th cusp, opposed his Midheaven. Time and time again,
at the turning points of Dracula’s life, we have seen his birth day
and birth time convincingly reinforced.

Tro jl0-11 x
1227/76
LEcl
O'/h =0 45

Figure 17
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Dracula Lunar Eclipse 1476
Sept. 4, 1476, 3:30 A.M. LMT
Tirgoviste, Romania
25E27 44N56
214 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Interestingly, the Mars/Saturn midpoint—Ebertin’s “death axis

(see pages 183 and 187)—of the Eclipse chart is at 00 Libra 45, con-
junct the Aries Point, i.e., Dracula’s Mercury as well. Mercury in
Dracula’s horoscope always represented his notoriety, as we have
seen, and we see as well that Mercury rules his 8th. In death, a tor-
tured personality left the world. His body is decayed, his head is
gone, but this life lives on, linked to folklore older than history, to
the concept of vampirism, in macabre alteration through the imag-
ination of a novelist, 420 years later.

Epilogue: Blood Beyond Death

Modern preconceptions to the contrary, bodies are active long after
death. Throughout history, observing dead bodies left unburied,
exhuming buried corpses, we have seen those bodies change posi-
tion, change color, move, bleed, grow hair. There are extraordinar-
ily dynamic considerations in the state of a dead body: the moisture
of its surrounding, the temperature changes, insect activity, soil
chemistry; gravity’s pull on body fluids, changes in the veins (color
and size) as the skin starts to be shed; distension of the abdomen,
bloated erection of the penis, blisters formed at pressure points
upon the body, blood flowing afresh from the mouth, the eyeballs
liquefying, and much more.**
‘To our ancestors, if the body continued to change color, move,
alter its shape, to have blood trickling fresh from the mouth, to
show sexual readiness, etc., then the body continued to live. Living
beyond death was a fearsome thing, and folklore was created to
explain the phenomenon, to assimilate it and make it manageable.
The dead had to die, or the living were threatened.
Subsequent deaths, then, could be blamed on the already
dead.°* To stop the epidemic (and vampirism always seems to
occur in concentrated waves, much as UFO sightings seem to), the
already dead had to be (re)killed properly. Upon exhumation, the
body was seen to be different than in death—most often, just days
or weeks after burial—reinforcing the suspicion that the corpse
had indeed taken on the identity of a vampire. This would justify
the ritual termination of the spirit through elaborate means, most
54 Barber, 83-119.
55. Ibid., 3.
 DRACULA @ 215

popularly by impaling the vampire through the heart (or navel)

with a wooden stake, during daylight hours, preferably using a stake
fashioned from the wood of an Ash tree.*®
Blood is the medium of life; it is vitality. The vampire needs
blood to live on, of course. And, as well, the vampire needs compa-
ny in the loneliness of the night world. By ingesting blood from a
living neck or breast, vampires form community with the living,
stay alive themselves, and the killing threat multiplies.
The belief in vampires is universal and timeless. It has been
documented in every extant culture. The body of vampire folklore
is very close to the practice of animal and human sacrifice: blood
supplies energy, satisfies gods, keeps influence alive. Blood is dan-
gerous and important.
Since some bats suck blood for sustenance and were named
“vampire bats” (probably first by Cortes in his conquest of Mexico)
the quality of flight became part of the vampire archetype. Our fear
of vampires ascribed ugliness to them; ideas of Satan, then—the
devil we fear—took winged, ugly form, threatening to drain life
away from the path to God.
The earliest derivations of the word vampire have a common
root from most of the Mediterranean languages: from vam meaning
blood and pyr meaning monster. Slovakian forms are vampir, vapir,
vepir, veryr, vopyr, upier. The Romanians have many names for a
variety of vampires, most commonly strigoi, an evil creature who
sleeps during daylight hours, flies at night, can take animal form
and sucks the blood from sleeping children. Other languages
transliterate words for “red-faced with drink, drinking and growl-
ing, restless in death.”*”
These fears, myths, and myriad embellishments have endured
and multiplied throughout time. Evil—the taking of life—fascinates
eternally. Evil generates sin, which is exciting in its threat. We are
aroused by and attracted to the dangerous, the deviant, the demonic.
Ian Fleming has suggested that without the seven deadly sins, our lives

56 Wood from the ash-tree is fundamental to many primal folk beliefs, beginning perhaps
with reference to Ashtoreth (or Asherah), a mother figure, fertility symbol, a goddess of
sexual intercourse, the consort of Baal, the Canaanite god (though at Ugarit she was El’s
wife, mother of seventy sons). Her name means “upright.” She was a tree goddess as well,
represented either by a tree or by a sacred wooden pole or pillar. See Grant, Ancient
Israel, 24.
Additionally, in Teutonic legend, Wotan’s staff, carrying the magic Runes of fate, was
fashioned from ash.
57 Mascetti, 198-199.
216 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

would go flat ... “How drab and empty life would be without them ...
it [would be] as if Leonardo, Titian, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh had
been required to paint without using the primary colors.”*®
Is it that we humans darkly identify with evil characters, with
vampires, with someone like Dracula? Is it that our deepest urges,
prohibited from seeing the light of life, are discharged through an
alter ego monster-form. Is it that this identification is licensed, that
it is allowed by the fact that we know well that good wil/ win in the
end and evil will be conquered? Is it that security needs fear to define
itself? Is it that religion requires the rivalry represented by evil?
As blood and living are vital, so is the perpetration of bloody
evil vital; it is a vivid, active, filled-with-life-accentuated occur-
rence: the adrenaline, the fear, the danger, the inscrutable motives,
the incomprehensible repercussions. We recognize and, to varying
degrees, identify with such extremes. We feel more alive and,
indeed, at the same time, more protected by not being evil our-
selves; we are protected by our mores, laws, and religion.
For example, a celebrity’s murder trial fascinates hundreds of
millions of people. It is not for its gory details as much as for the
vital excitation of the startling, gruesome event and the vitally
important question of its just outcome. We are involved. It is the
public celebrity’s fame that gives us permission to take part in the
drama: he or she belongs to us and we belong in the picture. We
identify with the process of evaluation and punishment and, in that
sense, each of us knows good and evil.
But Dracula was not a vampire and was not known as one. He
was revered by his people for his public works, his excessively strin-
gent but highly effective laws and punishments, his bravery, and his
loyalties to the Church. Peasants in Romania, in the region around
Castle Dracula do/did not connect Vlad Tepes (the Impaler) and the
vampire(s) in their folklore.°? Vlad the Impaler’s only overlap is
simply that he impaled people, but they were alive and well. Folk
tales do cite one instance of his dining in his courtyard of torture
and dipping his bread into the blood of a nearby victim, but blood
was not his elixir of life.
How did Dracula the life merge with the vampire legend? The
answer is not difficult, but for it to be sound, we must approach it

58 Quoted in Plantinga, 91-92.

59 McNally and Florescu, In Search of Dracula, 123.
60 Florescu and McNally, Dracula: Prince ofMany Faces, 120; and other sources.
 DRACULA @ 217

through the outline of Bram Stoker's life, the man whose sensuous
gothic novel, Dracula, created the merger in 1897 and ignited a
popularity for the vampire theme that commands four-star cultural
attention still a century later.

Bram Stoker and Dracula

What little is known about Abraham Stoker, an Irish theater critic,
manager of theatrical events, and novelist, is consistently strange.
From birth he was so ill and feeble with a never-diagnosed disease
that he was not expected to live and was confined to his bed for the
first eight years of his life; he never experienced standing up and
walking before he was nine! McNally and Florescu suggest that
Stoker could look back on this experience and know “what it would
be like for a vampire to be bound to his coffin and native soil.”°!
Bram took his father’s abbreviated name, from Abraham.
Bram’s “strong-willed mother” was most indulgent of him and
influenced his early childhood strongly with Irish fairy tales and
(entertaining) horror stories, her remembrance of a cholera epi-
demic in 1832, etc. The diversion of all this fell upon a most sensi-
tive mind and facile imagination.”
Through private tutelage, Bram was able to enter Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin in 1864. He had mysteriously overcome his childhood
illness and developed into a star athlete! He was popular with his
fellow students and was elected president of the very important
Philosophical Society. He was an avid theater buff and graduated
with honors in science.
Stoker was born on November 8, 1847 in Dublin. I have found
that cursory rectification tests suggest a revealing starting point
when the birth time is set at 1:58 p.M., LMT (Figure 18, page 219).
The New Moon birth in Scorpio in the 8th House emphasizes
occult interests (which abounded in his life) and also personal pri-
vacy (echoed by the heavy rectification pattern in the Ascendant,
including the co-rulers of the Ascendant, Uranus and Saturn).

61 McNally and Florescu, 137; all Chapter 11.

62 When Bram was twelve, a great deal of public attention focused on the union of the two
Romanian states, Moldavia and Wallachia, and researchers point to this time as Bram’s
initial introduction to that mysterious part of Europe.
218 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

The weakness at birth is often ascribable to New Moon birth,

i.e., the Moon has not light of its own), especially when closer to
exact; and here as well, we see the potential debilitation of Neptune
retrograde conjunct the Ascendant. Mars retrograde corroborates a
lowered vitality also. This horoscope birth-time hypothesis certainly
shows a repressed, weakened system, with enormous energy roiling
beneath the surface. Clearly, the threat of debilitation is present. We
can note the Solar Arc of Ascendant to Saturn, i.e., out of Neptune’s
way, to occur at nine, when Bram was free of bed and illness, when
his “spine” was established, with transiting Jupiter-Pluto conjunct his
Mars and tr Uranus squared the suggested Ascendant (Spring 1857).
Stoker’s horoscope shows a highly emphasized Jupiter, with its
square to the Uranus-Pluto conjunction (Jupiter=Uranus-Pluto)
promising a drive to success; the severe retrogradation pattern in
the northern hemisphere (and the Sun-Moon in Scorpio in the 8th)
suggests at the same time great obstacles en route to that success.
Jupiter here rules the Midheaven and trines the Sun-Moon con-
junction. This drive can certainly corroborate young Stoker’s ath-
letic success and popularity (Moon rules the athletics 5th with
Jupiter there; Sun rules the 7th; Uranus-Pluto in Aries, applied
power, trine the Midheaven).
Venus, the final dispositor of the horoscope, in its own sign Libra
in the 7th, suggests popularity as well, and conjunct the Nodal Axis
testifies unequivocally to the great maternal influence in Bram’ life,
specifically in terms of the 3rd House, ideas, thinking, writing.
Through Pluto’s rulership of the 9th holding Mercury in Sagit-
tarius (disposed by Jupiter), we begin to see writing in terms ofpub-
lication; we see internationalism (and Stoker made professional trips
to many countries including several visits to the United States). In
other words, the power focus of Uranus-Pluto squared by Jupiter
and trine the Midheaven has very much to do with Stoker’s profes-
sion and his/its international thrust, and, early on, the revival of his
vitality into athletic strength.
A rare photograph of Stoker at about age fifty-five shows a
strong, barrel-chested man, with a textual reference made to red-

63 Ihave researched the Lunar Nodal axis as lunar symbolism in relation to the Sun. In that
axis, I have learned to see the process of the feminine meeting the masculine, taking in
the Sun’s light and transmitting it further, ingesting the seed and putting forth the fruit.
I see maternal influence. I see the potential for a knot of complication through the moth-
er, or, indeed, an amalgamation of strengths through maternal influence, in terms of the
planet or angle configurated by conjunction or square with the Nodal axis. See Tyl, Syn-
thesis & Counseling, 49-65.
 DRACULA # 219

dish hair and bushy eyebrows. Without any doubt the photograph
portrays fixed-sign dominance and certainly supports reference to
Aquarius and Uranus.
Midpoint pictures reveal a great deal in our test horoscope for
Stoker: the Aries Point=Mercury/Jupiter (29 Virgo 30), a clear ref-
erence to writing for the public. The Aries Point is also focused at
the midpoint of Saturn-Pluto suggesting the image of a struggle in
public or pathology exposed. This joins the extraordinary retrograda-
tion pattern and Sun-Moon position to suggest a contrapuntal world

17°
7143'

17° JJ 43'

Figure 18
Bram Stoker (Rectification)
Nov. 8, 1847, 1:58 A.M. LMT
Dublin, Ireland
06E15 53N20
Placidus Houses
220 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

BRAM STOKER NOV 08, 1847

Midpoint Sort: 90° Dial
h/P 000°53' Hi -015°07"
t/Ae 00°55 Q/P 015°41'
ov 001°07'| P/Q 016°39'
U4/Mc 004°09'| Y/Ac 017°48'
o/h 005°26'| Y/Y 018°00'
Q — 005°47'| 9/gt_ 020°13'
O/hc 006°23'| HI/P 020°20'| gt
O/Y 006°36'| 4% ~—-020°34'
9/2 006°46'| GQ 021912
ie Oonese |ke 0o2"27
Asc '

S/y 009°11'| Y/Me 022°39'

'

9/1 010°27'| g/l 024°53"

010°54' 025°34'
011°26' 025°41'
013°29' 026°40'

Figure 19
Bram Stoker — Midpoint

within Stoker, a deep private realm that somehow is brought out and
discharged publicly. This is the inspiration of the creative artist,
indeed, but we can see that this repressed world is very, very diffi-
cult for Stoker. In one manifestation, it threatened his life in his
earliest days.
A key measurement here—regardless of the time of birth on
that day—is Venus opposed the midpoint of Mars-Saturn (Venus=
Mars/Saturn). Again, this is reference to the other realm within
Stoker, kept beneath the surface that is polished by Venus in Libra
in the 7th.
As the measurements accumulate, synthesis suggests the pres-
ence of real problems, problems with emotional expression and
relationship. Everywhere we look, we see a stratum of frustration
working itself out through the imagination, the dogged self-appli-
cation, and a very smooth public presentation. This Venus= Mars/
Saturn picture is a passionate effort to make something work; in
this case, life itself to begin with, then his emotional tie with others,
and undoubtedly the management of difficult sexual issues. That
Stoker’s professional pursuits would be a cathartic pipeline for all
this is clear, corroborated by the redeeming and importantly syn-
thesizing picture Midheaven=Sun/Jupiter and Venus being exactly
quintile (72 degrees, creativity) the Midheaven.
In the “winter” of 1876, probably February, Stoker, aged twen-
ty-eight—with published drama reviews and horror stories already
 DRACULA # 221

to his credit—met the celebrated Shakespearean actor Sir Henry

Irving. Stoker’s notes state that, at a reading by Irving, he [Stoker]
broke into “uncontrollable hysterics.” McNally and Florescu add:
“In a way he [Stoker] fell in love with Henry Irving and began
working immediately in a part-time capacity [personal manager]
that was to continue for the rest of Irving’s life.”
At this time, transiting Saturn was conjunct the Ascendant-
Neptune position we have for Stoker, and SA Moon was conjunct
his Midheaven, a tremendous vocational excitation as well as an
emotional vulnerability or emotional assertion. Stoker became Irv-
ing’s private secretary and confidant and theatrical manager for
twenty-seven years. Stoker called their friendship, “as profound, as
close, as lasting as can be between two men.”®
McNally and Florescu add to this: “But there was more to the
relationship than [even] that. Irving held such a fascination for
Stoker that he achieved an extraordinary dominance over him.
Indeed, in life Irving was lord and master to Stoker as in fiction [in
Stoker’s Dracula] ‘Dracula’ is to Renfield.”
There is no doubt here that the underpinning of Stoker’s person-
ality was vulnerable to dominance, was open to exploitation, was
masochistic, and deeply repressed. There is little doubt that homo-
sexuality was an enormous problem for Bram Stoker in Victorian
England, in his life, and in his bizarre relationship with Henry Irving.
During the early years, Stoker had married and moved to Lon-
don in the Spring of 1878: SA Sun, ruler of the marriage-partner
7th, was at 16 Sagittarius 30 applying to the Midheaven; transiting
Uranus was at 27 Leo conjunct the seventh cusp; and the Secondary
Progressed Ascendant was at 16 Taurus opposed Stoker’s Sun. This
is a powerful group of measurements corroborating the rectifica-
tion of Stoker’s horoscope.
Astrologer David Monks (see Bibliography) has accomplished
a very sensitive and clever deduction of the horoscope of the
fictional Dracula from Stoker’s extraordinary novel.® His observa-
64 The researchers quote Stoker’s Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving; see In Search of
Dracula, 141.
65 Monk’s speculative horoscope for Dracula, based on the chronology and location of his
first appearance (“birth”) in the novel is May 4, 1893 at 9:25 p.M., LMT in the Borgo
Pass, 47 North 17, 25 East 08. The year is deduced by Monk most craftily through Van
Helsing’s comments on the death of Charcot, the French pioneer of hypnotism and hyp-
notherapy. Charcot died on August 16, 1893. Van Helsing is speaking on September
26th in the novel, a month later. Mina Harker’s diary makes references to a Thursday,
etc. The year has to be 1893; the year of Charcot’s death, the time reference of the
remark, and the time setting of the novel.
222 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

tions and those of the commentaries he quotes point to “the great

submerged force of the Victorian libido breaking out to punish the
repressive society which had imprisoned it.” Monks suggests that
Stoker’s novel’s phenomenal success was that it spoke on a subtle
level to the Unconscious. He calls attention to the novel’s seduc-
tion of a coyly hesitant man by the vampire women, an extreme
reversal of everything thought normal or not allowed to be
thought about at all.
With regard to Stoker’s horoscope, which Monks used with a
noon mark, he notes the Venus in Libra and points out Stoker's
marriage and the friendship with Irving. He adds factually: “Both
these relationships were flawed. After the birth of his son, Noel, the
marriage ran out of sexual steam, while the Stoker/Irving arrange-
ment saw Bram very much as second fiddle, a role he was only too
happy to accept. His admiration for the actor [Irving] seems to have
been a naive adulation which belittled his own standing.”
There is simply no doubt in astrological analysis that Neptune
is the planet that leads synthesis to the signification of masochism.
Barbara Watters pointed up courageously twenty-five years ago at
the beginning of the psychological maturation of astrological analy-
sis that Neptune rules the unconscious with a compulsive power,
that it represents the illusion of reality, that it signifies martyrdom,
the need to “suffer in public.”
There is no doubt that masochism and surely homosexuality
played a powerful role in Stoker’s relationship with Irving, in the
release of Stoker’s inner world through the horror stories depicting
passive men, extensive oral fixations (sucking blood, i.e., always
“kissing”), and indeed, the ultimate end, impalement with a stake.®8

66 It is interesting indeed to note that Monks’ fictional “Dracula” horoscope has a 4 Libra
32 Midheaven conjunct the Venus in Stoker’s horoscope, i.e., therefore “Dracula’s”
MC=Stoker’s Mars/Saturn; and our real-life Vlad Dracula has Ascendant=Mars/Saturn,
with these horoscopes conceived independently.
67 Watters, Chapter VIII. As well, we must note that in 1912 Alan Leo wrote “Neptune
allows the soul to leave the body,” (Art ofSynthesis, page 115) when Neptune was the last
known planet, when theosophy had influenced spiritual understanding strongly at the
turn of the last century. The Leo view and the Watters (and others since) view are not
disparate; the questions are simply why does the soul leave the body, what is the uncon-
scious going to do with the potentials presented to it? Freud did not create psychoana-
lytic morphology, nor did Jung create archetypes, nor did the Greeks invent their
glorious fables: they exposed them in terms appropriate for understanding the times, for
use within the extant ethos.
68 Stoker was fascinated with masks and masquerades (Neptune). In one of his last books, enti-
tled Famous Imposters (1910), he probed into histories of women who took on the outward
appearance of men and vice versa. See McNally and Florescu, In Search ofDracula, 154.
 DRACULA # 223

Stoker was well aware of vampire legends, especially through

the Irish writer Joseph Sheridan LeFanu whose lesbian (symbolical
presentation, of course) vampire novel Carmilla was one of the
greatest, most inflaming vampire stories ever written; The Vampyre,
written by John Polidori, Lord Byron’s personal physician and lover
(1819; published first under Byron’s name); and particularly Emily
de Laszkowska Gerard’s Land Beyond the Forest (1888), in which

Figure 20
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Bram Stoker Dracula Publication Transits
Nov. 8, 1847, 1:58 A.M. LMT May 1, 1897, 12:00 P.M. Z00
Dublin, Ireland Dublin, Ireland
06W15 53N20 06W15 53N20
Placidus Houses
224 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Romanian superstitions (Transylvanian; literally, “beyond the for-

est”) were presented to beguile readers.
Stoker prodded his reader’s minds beyond what was known;
eastern Europe was the lure; real names from the region provided
exotic and powerful details. Surely, Stoker knew of Prince Dracula
and his reputation as the Impaler. It was an easy mixture then to
place the powerful sounding and exotic name of “Dracula” into
extant vampire tales wrapped in travelogue mists of lands beyond
the forests, to discharge safely an imagination afire with the forbid-
den and the frustrating. “Dracula” set Stoker free.
The novel—called the Un-Dead until it was changed to Dracula
at the very last moment before printing—was published in May 1897.
SA Sun was within 1 minute of arc exactly square Stoker’s Venus,
according to our 1:58 P.M. birth time. Solar Arc Ascendant and Nep-
tune were precisely trine to the Midheaven, and SA Pluto was 1-1/2
degrees away from opposition with the Midheaven (not shown).
Figure 20 (page 223) reveals as well SA Node—Venus in 27-26
Scorpio exactly square the Ascendant (tremendous public thrust
and recognition); the transiting Saturn-Uranus conjunction in 27
Scorpio was exactly square Stoker’s Ascendant; and, finally, the SP
Moon at 19 Virgo squared the Midheaven. Here is dramatic testi-
mony once again about the viability of Stoker’s horoscope angles,
the validity of his birth time.
Stoker’s imagination focused all vampire legends into the black-
caped, formally dressed, handsome aristocrat named “Dracula,” a
far scream from Prince Vlad, the life behind the legend. Over 250
motion pictures have reeled into our teetering unconscious since
Stoker’s extraordinary creation, and millions of copies of the novel
have been sold in hundreds of languages. Bram Stoker died “of
exhaustion” on April 20, 1912 in London, in near poverty. He was
cremated ... for sure.

69 The name “Dracula” is powerful: there are the most open vowel [ah] and the most closed
[u, pronounced 09] contrasting each other—ah-oo-ah; the strongly stroked, rolled “r” led
explosively by the “d”; and, above all, the pivotal, hard, menacing sound of “k”. An extra-
ordinary number of power words and epic historical names carry their strength through
the “k” sound, ending or beginning in “k” (or hard “c”) for effect: Kaaba (the most sacred
shrine of Islam in the courtyard of the Great Mosque (also the “k” sound); Kabbalah,
Franz Kafka, Kamikaze, Immanuel Kant, Herbert von Karajan, Kennedy, J. Arthur Rank,
Kissinger, Elektra, Socrates, The Koran, Krishna, Moby Dick, Christ, square, kleptoma-
nia, wreck, peak, crazy, cool, captivate, kill, and many slang-sexual words. Drrra’-Koo-
Laaah has clear kinetic impact.
 DRACULA # 225

Bibliography

Bao-Lin Liu and Fiala, Alan D. Canon of Lunar Eclipses 1500 B.C.-A.D.
3000. Richmond, VA: Willmann-Bell, Inc., 1992.
Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1988.
Florescu, Radu R. and McNally, Raymond T. Dracula: Prince of Many
Faces. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1989.
Grant, Michael. Constantine the Great. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1993.
. The History of Ancient Israel. New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1984.
Green, Julien. God’s Fool: the Life and Times of Francis ofAssisi. San Fran-
cisco: Harper & Row, 1983. :
Groh, Dennis E. “The Religion of the Empire: Christianity from Con-
stantine to the Arab Conquest.” Christianity and Rabbinic Fudaism, Her-
schel Shanks, Editor. Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeological
Society, 1992.
Hale, John. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. New York:
Atheneum, 1994.
Hardin, Michael and Harvey, Charles. Working with Astrology: The Psy-
chology of Harmonics, Midpoints and Astro*Carto*Graphy. London:
Arkana, Penguin Books, 1990.
Hibbert, Christopher. Florence: The Biography ofa City. New York: W. W.
Norton, 1993.
Mascetti, Manuela Dunn. Vampire. New York: Penguin, 1992.
McNally, Raymond T. & Florescu, Radu. In Search of Dracula. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
Michelsen, Neil F. The Tables of Planetary Phenomena. San Diego: ACS
Publications, 1990.
Monks, David. “Astrology, Vampires and Sex,” article in the Bulletin of the
Irish Astrological Association. Dublin, 1994.
Plantinga, Cornelius. Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be—A Breviary of Sin.
Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1995.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula.
Tyl, Noel. Prediction in Astrology. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications,
1991.
226 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

—_—-. Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn

Publications, 1993.
. Editor. Sexuality in the Horoscope. St. Paul MN: Llewellyn Pub-
lications, 1994.
Watters, Barbara H. Sex and the Outer Planets. Washington D.C.: Valhal-
la Paperback; Louk

Discussion with Boston College Professor of History, Radu R. Flores-

cu, the world’s leading Dracula researcher, with Professor Raymond
T. McNally.
Discussion with Romanian Embassy Cultural Counselor, Ioana Ieronim,
Washington D.C.; reference: East European Monographs, “Dracula—
Essays on the Life and Times of Vlad Tepes,” edited by Kurt W. Trep-
tow, distributed through the Embassy, by Columbia University Press,
New York; 1991.
 DRACULA @# 227

Index
Atonement, 181, 199, 210 Freedom from early
Balkans, 167 imprisonment, 190
Basilica cannon, 174 Gerard, Emily de Laszkowska,
Blood and vampires, 215 223
Body activity after death, 214 Halley’s comet, 194, 195
Boyars, 175, 178, 198, 199 Hunyadi, John, 189, 192, 193,
Comet as omen, 194 201
Constantine, 170 Impalement, 178, 200
Constantinople, 167, 193, 202 Impaling a vampire, 215
Constantinople Eclipse and Imprisonment, early, 188
omens, 171 Irving, Sir Henry and Stoker,
Constantinople, fall, 170 221-223
Crusade against Turks, 176, 201 LeFanu, Joseph Sheridan, 223
Death and Mars/Saturn, 182, 214 Mars/Saturn midpoint, 182, 214,
Death axis, 187, 214 220
Defensiveness, 180, 181 Masochism, 222
Dracul, the father’s death, 190 Matthias, king of Hungary, 201,
Dracula as young hostage, 177, 202, 205, 206, 210
188, 189 Mehmed, Sultan, 193, 201, 205,
Dracula in Hungarian prison, 208
207-208 Midpoint pictures analysis, Bram
Dracula, name analysis, 176 Stoker, 219
Dracula, number of victims, 178 Midpoint Pictures analysis,
Dracula on the throne, first time, Dracula, 186
191 Monks, David, 221
Dracula on the throne, second Moral torture, 178
time, 194 Murad, Sultan, 177, 188
Dracula on the throne, third time, Order of the Dragon, 176, 188,
210 190
Dracula, physical description, 197 Polidori, John, Byron’s doctor,
Dracula taken prisoner, 206 223
Dracula’s cruelty, 199 Polish prince, Vladislav, 189, 191,
Dracula’s death, 210 192, 193, 194
Dracula’s grave, 212 Radu, Dracula’s brother, 188,
Dracula’s marriage, 208 201, 205, 206
Dracula’s palace, 198 Retrogradation pattern, 184, 186
Dracula’s political rehabilitation, Rome displaced, 170
208 Sagittarius justification, 176, 188,
Ebertin, Reinhold, 187 199
Education, 189 Saturn-Neptune conjunction, 170
Evil, fascination with, 215 Sexual pathology, 180, 184, 186,
Florence, Ecumenical Council, 187, 200, 202
168 Solar Eclipse at Constantinople,
Forest of the Impaled, 205 172
228 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Stephen the Great of Moldavia, Turks, as invading hordes, 168,

208 172, 188, 193, 202, 205, 208
Stoker, Bram, early years, 217 Vampire word derivation, 215
Stoker, Bram, speculative Vampires and myth, 214
horoscope, 217-218 Vlad (Dracul), the father, 175
Stoker’s death, 225 Vlad Dracul, death, 177
Turkey, 167 Watters, Barbara, 222
 Leonardo da Vinci
The Mind as Master

iorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was a An astrological

masterful painter, with many
portraits shown in Florence and rectification of
the Vatican, including the definitive por- the birth date
trait of Lorenzo de’ Medici. He was also a
superb architect—one of his designs was
and time of
the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and anoth- Leonardo
er was the tomb of Michelangelo, with da Vinci
whom he had studied. But perhaps above
>
all, as a rhapsodic writer, Vasari was the
inventor of art history.
In 1550—with revisions made in a second edition in 1568—
Vasari’s Vite de’ pit eccellenti architettori, pittori e scultori italiani (The
lives of the most excellent Italian architects, painters and sculptors)
reflected the light of Italy’s classical revival as a rebirth of fine art.
He set forth for the first time the concept of “renaissance. »1
While Vasari’s work was filled with editorialization, Florentine
nationalism, and a definite awareness of the sensual captivation
intrinsic to legend, it was the singularly authoritative record of
1 Vasari’s great work contained 120 biographies, all recounted in adventurous style, filled
with love of the subject, awe of the personages depicted, and the sense of their collective
world significance. The stories are based on eye-witness accounts experienced by Vasari
or secondarily gleaned through interviews with people who knew the masters. At the time
of publication, Vasari was superintendent of fine arts for the Grand Duke Cosimo de’
Medici. See Penguin Classics, Lives of the Artists, Ed. George Bull.
The term “Renaissance” was first formally applied to the era by Swiss historian Jakob
Burckhardt in 1860, but the idea, the spirit, and recognition of the movement was born
first with Vasari.

229
 230 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

the artistic times. It is he who monumentalized this bloom of

fifteenth-sixteenth century Italy, the 200 years of intellectual and
aesthetic glory that ended the darkness of the Middle Ages and illu-
minated for all time to follow the nobility of man’s creativity. It is
Vasari who introduced “II Divino” to history: “Celestial influences
may shower extraordinary gifts on certain human beings, which is
an effect of nature; but there is something supernatural in the accu-
mulation in one individual of so much beauty, grace, and might.”
The divine one was Leonardo da Vinci.
Leonardo embodied everything excellent about man, about the
Renaissance. He possessed every noble quality: prodigious physical
skill and strength, generosity, kindness, eloquence, love of the wild,
and a “terrible strength in argument, sustained by intelligence and
memory.” There was the subtlety of his mind, “which never ceased
to devise inventions”; his aptitude for mathematics, science, music,
poetry. And even more, Leonardo was a man of “physical beauty
beyond compare.”
Other writers followed suit, adding their reminiscences and his-
tories of the period to Vasari’s. Great attention was given to the
early splendor of Giotto, the perspective refinements of Masaccio,
and the age of perfection culminating in the works of Michelange-
lo and Raphael. There were Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello,
Alberti, Verrocchio, Botticelli, and many others, but there was
always the special, incomparably beautiful presence of Leonardo
whose tall silhouette was famous in the streets of both Florence and
Milan, whose knee-length, rose-colored capes went against long-
draping fashion, whose beard, hair, and thick eyebrows (in his later
years) fulfilled the philosopher image. In his painting, The School of
Athens, Raphael captured Leonardo in the image of Plato, paying
_ homage to Leonardo by choosing him to represent the man then
esteemed as the greatest thinker of all time. Leonardo was declared
“the true model of the dignity of knowledge, like Hermes Tris-
megistus and Prometheus in antiquity.”
This regard of Leonardo as a philosopher above any other
description is most telling. The Renaissance symbolized a return,
literally a rebirth, of ancient philosophers (some even say a reincar-
nation cluster from ancient Greece). The entire style of study and

2 Allsources. Bramly, 5.
3 A description by Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (c. 1590), quoted by Bramly, 6.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 231

expression of thought changed, in Italy and then throughout

Europe. Important personages identifying with ultimate ideals were
seen as restless seekers experimenting in many directions with all
kinds of subjects, looking for arcane truths, for eternal principles—
and their beauty. Philosophers were magicians (Magi), and Leonar-
do was honored until his death as the paradigm.+
Leonardo was a meticulous note taker. After about the age of
thirty, he wrote everything down, all his observations of the world
about him from the complex aerodynamics of a bird’s wing in
flight—and how man could fly—to the detailed working concept to
divert from its course the Arno, Tuscany’s river of life, to bypass and
finally defeat enemy Pisa 120 miles downstream; from grocery lists
and domestic memos to the amount of wax needed to make the
proper number of candles for his own funeral; from anagram witti-
cisms written in musical so/feggio notation to detailed rules for living
a healthy life. There were solutions to all conceivable problems like
putting the thread onto a screw, mass producing needles, remaining
underwater safely; there were copious scientific considerations of
optics, aerodynamics, anatomy, watchmaking, acoustics, mechanics;
creating the better olive press, automatic door closure devices, inten-
sified lamps, folding furniture, better toilets, cranes, and on and on
and on. But there was mever any personal revelation, never any emo-
tional insight. There was only the applied work of the mind.
The notebooks—estimated by scholars to total about 7,000
pages retrieved from probably 20,000,° the rest being yet undiscov-
ered or lost—only came to light and systematic study in the 1870s.
These stupendous observations and studies, almost all of them
extremely beyond Leonardo’s own time, revealed an inventive
genius, a mind of concentrated analytical skill beyond description
or measure. Here was painter, sculptor, philosopher, systematically
reinventing the world. The qualities of his mind and spirit recov-
ered from the notebooks portray Leonardo as the singular individ-
ual in all of history to attain such consistent universal brilliance.®
Vasari and later sources—and Leonardo’s notebooks—focus on
Leonardo’s presence, his mind, his reputation as a man of learning.
Benvenuto Cellini quotes Francis I, King of France, under whose
protectorate Leonardo died, as saying that “never had there been a

4 Garin, 123 (Chapter Five).

5 Turner, 5. Other sources.
6 For most thorough study of the inventive realm of Leonardo, see Hart.
232 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

man who knew as many things as Leonardo, not only about sculp-
ture, painting, and architecture, but also about philosophy, for he was
a very great philosopher.”’
Vasari gushes about artistic details of Leonardo’s work told to
him by expert eyewitnesses (Vasari was eight years old when Leonar-
do died). Leonardo was the ultimate master of chiaroscuro (molding
form through manipulation of extremes of light and shade) and con-
traposto (showing movement through turns of the body about its
axis). He changed art forever by showing attitude in paintings; he
pursued, discovered, and revealed the nerves, musculature, and
blood-flow process that lifted and colored the mystery of a smile; he
captured the personality of hair; he captured thought in his brush
strokes; and above all perhaps, he applied a neo-classic (indeed,
Euclidian) geometry to the organization of his paintings that set an
ideal for all art to follow. The power in this geometry was its sugges-
tion of the inherent order of creation.®
But Leonardo left no central monument for his art. We point to
the Sistine Chapel for Michelangelo, the Grand Rooms at the Vati-
can for Raphael, the dome of the Duomo in Florence for
Brunelleschi, St. Peter’s in Rome for Bramante. We have little to cite
for Leonardo—the genius who rarely finished a work ofart.
Time and time and time again in his life, Leonardo accepted
commissions and then walked away from the work unfinished, or he
made mistakes with innovative binding agents, for example, and a
fresco two years in the preparation would drip off the wall. Of the
thirteen works that do survive and are confirmed to be largely by
Leonardo’s own hand, even four, perhaps five of these are unfinished,
including the Mona Lisa (after some eight years of work!). The extra-
ordinary, epoch-changing masterpiece, The Last Supper, even in
Vasari’s time, just forty to fifty years after completion, was said to
have deteriorated to no more than “a dazzling stain.”

7 Allsources. Bramly, 8.
See Turner, Chapter 11, “The Body as Nature and Culture,” and Chapter 12, “A Blessed
Rage for Order.”
9 Bramly, 296. By 1624, there was hardly anything left of The Last Supper to see. Restora-
tions good and bad have kept some image alive.
In light of Leonardo’s habitual incompleteness and frequent project failure, Vasari tried
to explain the romantic grandness of Leonardo’s life and work by introducing the concept
of perfectionism: “He began many things and never finished any of them, since it seemed
to him that the hand was not able to attain to the perfection of art in exactly the things
which he conceived: seeing that he imagined difficulties so subtle and marvellous, that they
could never be expressed by the hand, no matter how skillful.” All sources; see Gould, 13.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 233

Vasari’s veneration of Leonardo through the memories and con-

viction of the genius’ contemporaries became the base of legend.
The Mona Lisa was there with her enigmatic, mystic smile; the
unfinished Adoration ofthe Magi, with its extraordinary geometry; the
unfinished Saint Jerome with its depiction of poignant suffering; the
unfinished Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and a Lamb, a happy swirl
of exquisitely controlled movement and spirit, and a few other paint-
ings; Rubens’ sketch of part of Leonardo’s plan for the grand fresco
The Battle ofAnghiari and the master’s own instructions about battle
portrayal in his notes for a Treatise on Painting show the extraordi-
nary power of Leonardo’s mastery of composition and anatomy. For
just over 300 years, Leonardo was like a celestial Nova, but the glow
was not yet clarified; its existence was known, but its light had not
fully reached our eyes.
Then, when the thousands of pages of his notes were discovered
just before the turn of this century, to the meagre but marvelous
legacy of his art were added the revelations of Leonardo’s mind. The
explosion of this man’s presence took on infinitely more detail, far,
far beyond painting. The Renaissance man was born, and the longer
the list of Leonardo’s “discoveries” became, the more Leonardo
appeared to move beyond all human measure. Here was someone
exploring human flight, exploring the ocean bed, obsessed with
omniscience, who could also paint the perfect smile, who knew the
workings of humankind in anatomical detail, who could make musi-
cal instruments and sing songs of his own creation, who was elo-
quent beyond telling, who could create dramatic pageants that would
rival twentieth-century stagecraft. But again, there was mystery:
Leonardo wrote these thousands and thousands of pages of notes
backward from left to right, with inverted characters! His manu-
scripts that described so incredibly many inventions had to be read
with a mirror, and not one machine or battlement apparatus put forth
on these pages had been built to endure or survive! The Nova became
even brighter, but it was still unclear.
As more and more information accumulated, Leonardo took on
more and more mystery. Was he supernatural? Was he hiding mes-
sages in his work too advanced for the rest of humanity? His obses-
sions with knowing, with detail; his illegitimate birth and thus

10 Leonardo was left-handed, and this style of writing is not uncommon to left-handers. All
sources. Bramly, 13.
234 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

disqualification from university studies, from a traditional career,

from certain trades like medicine, law, or banking; his extreme and
continual fear of slander and degradation; his sensitivity which
threatened to go beyond practical management; his disinclination
to complete his works; his misanthropic inaccessibility—all added
to the legend and defined him distinctly apart from other mortals."!
The brighter the light became, the more the mystery devel-
oped, and the greater became our need somehow to explain the
magnificent Leonardo.
Then there was Sigmund Freud. In 1916, after some twenty-five
years of his formulation of what became known as psychoanalysis, as
Leonardo’s newly discovered notes were challenging the academic
world, Freud published Leonardo da Vinci: A Psychosexual Study of an
Infantile Reminiscence (original title). Freud took a rare subjective
thought from Leonardo’s notes (the only piece of information about
his childhood in the notes)—a dream of a vulture that flew down to
Leonardo’s cradle and struck its tail against his lips—and created a
homoerotic full-scale analysis of Leonardo’s neuroses.!
There was an error in Freud’s German translation of Leonar-
do’s notes. For example, “vulture” should have been “kite” (a kind
of hawk), which in retrospect does much to mitigate the amplifica-
tion of Freud’s theorization, involving the Egyptian archetype of
the vulture with the appropriate goddess, etc. But Freud’s hypothe-
sis remained: Leonardo’s story revealed an unconscious wish to
commit the act of fellatio. The early experience of sucking at the
breast and his having been taken away from his mother shortly after
birth had been transformed into the discomforting report about a
bird and its tail smacking at Leonardo’ lips.
Freud took the sketchy facts known about Leonardo at the time
(illegitimate birth, mother and father marrying others during
Leonardo’s first year) and hypothesized that his father left him to be
brought up by his mother Caterina in her home. Caterina was over-
tender with Leonardo and over-eroticized her relations with him—

11 Vallentin, 114; Bramly, 36.

12 Leonardo’s words: “I seem to have been destined to write in such a detailed manner on
the subject of the kite, for in one of my earliest childhood memories, it seems to me that
when I was in my cradle, a kite flew down and opened my mouth with its tail and struck
me many times with the tail on the inside of my lips.” Bramly, 49. Also Merejcovski,
probably the source Freud read, the German translation from the Italian through the
author’s Russian(!), 387 ... in some versions, the phrase is added, “as though to signify
that all life long I would speak of wings.”
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 235

as the kite memory supposedly showed. Somewhere between the age

of three and five, according to Freud (and to inaccurate biographical
details), Leonardo’s tie with his mother was broken. He was
returned to his father’s household and to the care of a [his father’s
new] young and childless wife. At about this same stage, Leonardo
had to repress his sexual interest in and curiosity about his mother
Caterina. He achieved this repression by identifying himself with ber
and thereby forcing himself to choose love objects like himself. In
Leonardo’s case, the repression of sex interest was severe. He subli-
mated much of his sexual energy and interests into curiosity and a
craving for knowledge. Freud stated that “What an artist creates
provides at the same time an outlet for his sexual desire.”
Freud takes this theory full-blown into a dramatic analysis of
Leonardo’s whole life. For example, likening Leonardo’ use of dark
caves in his paintings and drawings to portrayal of the vulva; to his
clumsy portrayal of the vulva in his otherwise spectacularly refined
anatomical drawings; to the explanation of the Virgin and St. Anne
(her mother) appearing together as equal in age to symbolize paral-
lel or competitive mothers, etc.!*
Freud saw Leonardo’s cold and bitter notes about humanity as
emphasizing extremely conservative behavior, the manifestation of
a severe and puritanical conscience. He hung much upon Leonar-
do’s observation that “Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.”
In reality, there is little doubt that Leonardo was indeed a
homosexual.!° Homosexuality was rampant in Florence; in Ger-
many, the word “Florenzer” became synonymous with homosexu-
al. The legal penalty (burning at the stake!) was not enforced; the
government considered public brothels as an alternative. The
authorities turned an almost blind eye to the situation, and this
saved Leonardo, as we shall see, when he was brought before the
authorities on a charge of sodomy in his early years. We shall learn
of his very long relationship with Salai, his young ward, and more.

13 Freud/Farrell introduction. It is explained that, when Leonardo refers to the kite’s tail
striking him many times against the lips, he is referring not only to the experience of
sucking, but also to the experience or memory in which his mother pressed innumerable
passionate kisses on his mouth. Hence, Freud explains the passive character of the fanta-
sy equating with Leonardo’s adult wish to play the passive partner in a homosexual act of
sucking a penis.
14 Freud did not recognize that it was traditional in the Renaissance to portray the Virgin
Mary and St. Anne as young women together as the idealization of perfection.
15 All major sources, except Vallentin. See Gould, 22.
236 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

When Freud’s exercise was added to the lore of Leonardo, the

legend became inflamed with prurient speculations: the psychosexu-
al explanations only created more mystery. Other commentaries fol-
lowed. Intriguing questions about his maternal complex came to the
fore and are still there: who is/was the Mona Lisa? Is this actually
Caterina as Leonardo remembered her, as she should have been? Is
that why Leonardo spent eight years with this portrait, never really
finishing it, keeping it with him to his death?
What emerges from any study of Leonardo is mot an extensive
statement about art—there is so little to go on. It is mot a marvellous
catalogue of inventions that steals thunder from eighteenth and nine-
teenth century scientists—there are thousands of pages of drawings
and detailed notes, but no thing ever completed or preserved. It is not
a library of treatises—there were so many begun, on optics, flight,
anatomy, water, and more, but none ever published. Rather, it is the
monumentality of the man’s mind, his observations of the world
around him, and his crystalization of the creative process.

Leonardo’s Birth
In the very small village of Vinci, a long day’s ride from Florence, a
peasant girl named Caterina gave birth to the “love child” con-
ceived with Ser Piero da Vinci, an up-and-coming Notary. The
date was Saturday, April 15, 1452, and the time was “at the third
hour of the night.”!¢
Ser Piero’s father (Ser is a title given to a Notary), Antonio—
Leonardo's grandfather—was attending the birth and recorded it in a
book very important to the family. His entry was complete with the
name of the priest who baptized Leonardo and the names of the wit-
nesses to the ceremony. We do not know when Antonio’s entry was
made and we do not know when the baptism took place, but we can
assume a good level of accuracy with this record since Antonio was
himself a Notary, in a long family line of middle-level legal officials, and
the book in which he wrote the expanded entry was a “notarial” book.

16 Bramly, 37-38, the only reference to have the time and its source: a photocopy of grand-
father Antonio’s entry on the last page of a notarial book that had belonged to Leonardo’s
great-great-grandfather. The entry reads: “1452: There was born to me a grandson, son of
Ser Piero my son, on 15 April, a Saturday, at the third hour of the night. He bears the
name Leonardo.” As was usual in the case of an illegitimate child, the mother’s name was
not recorded.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 237

In Italy in the Renaissance, the night began at sunset. Sunset on

that day in April in Vinci occurred at 6:50 P.M. (with a 4 Scorpio
Ascendant). But “night” was surely confirmed by a darkened sky,
which would have occurred closer to 7:15 or 8:00 P.M. Three hours
later (“at the third hour of the night”) would mean approximately
10:15—11:00 P.M., giving an Ascendant of 14 Sagittarius and a Mid-
heaven of 7 Libra at 10:15 P.M. (see Figure 1 below).
The very beginning of study of Leonardo’s life brings quickly
forward from all sources the facts of his tall figure, his extraordinary

07°2 18'

o7° 7 18'
Figure 1
Leonard da Vinci (Test)
April 15, 1452, 10:15 p.M. LMT
Vinci, Italy
10E55 43N47
Placidus Houses
238 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

beauty of presence, his extreme love of the outdoors (he was the
first to depict landscapes as pictures in themselves and not just as
background to portraits), his great pleasure with animals (buying
birds from vendors just to free them and observe close at hand their
anatomy in flight); his passion for horses, of which he did extreme-
ly detailed anatomical studies; his thoroughly reinforced reputation
as a philosopher. All of this suggests a Sagittarian Ascendant, which
indeed was the sign on the eastern horizon when he was born, and,
on that night and day, Jupiter, the Ascendant ruler, was squared
(across the sign line) by Venus in Taurus, a strong suggestion
indeed of the importance of aesthetics and personal beauty.
As well, the general chronology of Leonardo’s life points
strongly to the time “in late 1482 or early 1483,” at age thirty when
Leonardo left Florence in Tuscany to seek his fame in in Lombardy,
delivering a silver lyre he had created as a gift to Lodovico Sforza,
the powerful ruler of Milan, from the great Lorenzo de’ Medici in
Florence.!’? General perusal of the ephemeris for late 1482 and
early 1483 (see Figure 2 below) shows transiting Uranus at 17
Sagittarius in December 1482 (just beyond the 10:15 P.M. Ascen-
dant of 14 Sagittarius), the transit that so reliably signals major geo-
graphic displacement, individual change of a life-significant nature.
(Leonardo would remain in Milan for most of his adult life.)

+ 0:00 UT Geocentric Tropical Longitudes for 1482

17:12:32 | 18139 08 06.703R| 06:.207%

19:10:48 | 17914 49
21:09:04 | 15257 24
23:07:21 | 14159 37
1:05:38 | 14.30 06
3:03:54 | 14M,30 41
5:02:11 | 14.755 01
7:00:28 | 15V829 42
8:58:44 | 152458 03
10:57:01 | 1605 25
12:55:18 | 15743 30
14:53:34 | 14652 10
16:51:51 | 13138 36
18:50:08 | 12914 56 LB38333sE

Figure 2
Leonardo da Vinci, age 30

17 Allsources. See Vallentin, 69.

 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 239

Recalculating the test chart for an Ascendant of 17 Sagittarius

gives 10:30 PM., with a Midheaven of 11 Libra 23, and also gives us
an early surprise: the ephemeris record (see Figure 2, page 238)
shows that, in December 1482, along with transiting Uranus in 17
Sagittarius, transiting Pluto would be in 11 Libra 25! As well, transit-
ing Saturn would have just opposed Leonardo’s Sun. These are
mighty measurements—two of them angular—working together to
support this major move in Leonardo’ life.
In other words, the birth time of 10:30 P.M.—surely within the
reference made by Antonio, “at the third hour of the night”—would
indicate for Leonardo powerful, life-changing, simultaneous angular
transits. ‘Testing in this way throughout Leonardo’s life repeatedly
reinforced this time of 10:30 P.M. conclusively, as we shall see.!®
At first glance, Leonardo’s horoscope, Figure 3 (page 240),
drawn for 10:30 P.M., presents four initial considerations.

The Dominating Saturn

Saturn is almost exactly overhead. It is easy to imagine the sym-
bolic influence Renaissance astrologers would have given to this
Saturn: exalted in Libra, overseeing the entire horoscope, the only
planet above the horizon, born on Saturn’s day (Saturday)!!?
This Saturn is ennobled by sign placement in Libra: ambition
directed through social awareness; and by elevation: austerity,
nobility, a rigorous behavioral code, alone in a crowd—these are the
impressions we learn of Leonardo in every source of information
about him.
All of Leonardo’s inventions were somehow directed to make
things better for people, to please authorities, to fulfill civic pro-
grams: from the plans to build a bridge for the Turks from Istanbul
to Pera;?° to retrieve land from the marshes near Rome; to making

18 The earlier horoscope for 10:15 P.M. is very tempting indeed with the clear signature
MC-=Saturn/Neptune, as our analysis will suggest, i.e., the interplay between a Neptune
complex and a Saturn complex of measurements; perhaps the disinclination to finish his
works, But such a midpoint picture, its severe debilitation, is left behind by Leonardo’s
extraordinary eventual success. The 10:30 P.M. time responds throughout Leonardo’s life
much more appropriately.
19 Ofcourse, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were not yet known.
20 This bridge was conceived to be the link between Asia and Europe. Leonardo’s design
was “amazingly modern,” with a colossal span of 240 meters (almost the length of three
football fields). In his proposal, Leonardo also itemized many of his other inventions: his
ability to build windmills, an automatic bilge pump for ships, and more. Bramly, 326. So
often, it seems, Leonardo presented so much to others so as to defy credibility. No
response came from the Turks.
 240 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

rope, minting coins, building mirrors, creating bizarre theatrical

costumes. A. Richard Turner captures this Libra dimension—and,
as well, Leonardo’s Mars in Aquarius, beautifully trine Saturn—in
his phrase, “Leonardo’s manifold practical projects [were] to
rearrange God’s creation in a way useful to humans.”?!
This Saturn is retrograde, clearly suggesting his estrange-
ment from his father, and, as well, his illegitimacy, his feelings of

11°223'

11° 23' 2-0)

Figure 3
Leonard da Vinci
April 15, 1452, 10:30 p.m. LMT
Vinci, Italy
10E55 43N47
Placidus Houses

21 Turner, 213.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 241

inferiority (we hear often his embarrassment that he can not

speak Latin with the intelligentsia of Florence, how hard he
worked to learn, how he never achieved that facility; how sensitive
he was that he was not formally educated).?2
Saturn rules the 2nd House: Leonardo’s undermined sense of
self-worth was at one and the same time overcompensatorially self-
aware in excellence and intrinsically self-demeaning that he was not
working hard enough.”? The question is begged always, “Whom
was Leonardo trying to please?” The search for his father’s close-
ness and his mother’s love, for family togetherness are emphasized
always in every turn of narrative about Leonardo’ life.
This Saturn is opposed to Mercury—a key aspect which will be
covered in detail later—and Mercury is the ruler of Leonardo’s 7th
House: we can see these deep dark feelings projected onto society as
a defense against the pain Leonardo felt personally. For example,
biographer Bramly suggests “Virtue persecuted” as a perfect epi-
taph for Leonardo.** Bramly sees Leonardo’s identification with
Jesus in The Last Supper (on the eve of betrayal) as one expression of
Leonardo’s constant fear of being socially maligned and persecuted.
An angry and pained view of man grew within Leonardo through-
out his life: he wrote, speaking of bone structure, muscles, and
organs, “I do not think that rough men, of bad habits and little
intelligence, deserve such a fine instrument and such a variety of
mechanisms.” In short, Leonardo did not think that others appreci-
ated the marvel of human life; thus they felt no obligation to respect
it: “How many people there are who could be described as mere
channels for food, producers of excrement, fillers of latrines, for
they have no other purpose in this world; they practice no virtue
whatsoever; all that remains after them is a full latrine.””°

22 For full study of the Saturn retrograde phenomenon, please see Tyl, Synthesis & Counsel-
ing, 38-47.
23 Even on his deathbed, Leonardo is supposed to have recognized (to the King of France)
“how much he had offended God by not working on his art as much as he should have.”
All sources.
24 Bramly, 279.
25 Bramly, 280.
242 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Neptune at the Aries Point”®

This position of Neptune—tiushly trine to Venus in its own sign
of Taurus (the final dispositor of the horoscope)—is a dramatic state-
ment of Leonardo’s extraordinary thrust of imagination, vision, aes-
thetics, sensitivity and, in counterpoint, his anxious turn of mind
about his social acceptance. This Neptune is also “at” (i.e., squaring)
the Midpoint of Moon/Saturn suggesting feelings of inferiority,
melancholy, frustration, unfulfillment, and even the disinclination to
finish what one starts.7”7 Much more will be discovered about this
Neptune position later.
The Sun-Moon blend, Taurus and Pisces, suggests tremendous
energy to work with the intangible and to give it form, an extreme-
ly high potential for creativity, a great need for understanding and
sympathy from others. The need for a goal so that all of the feeling
is somehow worthwhile introduces the Saturn concept (ambition)
in Libra, its opposition to Mercury ruler of the 7th, the thrust of the
Sagittarian Ascendant (we can note that Neptune is quincunx
Jupiter, both planets dispositing the Moon in Pisces).”®
The Sun is square with Pluto, a statement of personal power
held back, dampened, even stifled, as in the image of a blanket cov-
ering a grenade. This square almost invariably suggests something
haunting, repressing, or constricting a powerful personal thrust;
some contrapuntal developmental concept that impinges upon the
normal flow of progress.’?
In managing the Sun-Pluto square, Leonardo will have to work
through difficulty. The difficulty is deep and psychological: Pluto in

26 Key to zodiacal conceptualization is the point of zero-Aries, of course. But this awareness
relates as well to 0 Libra by opposition (the same axis) and to 0 Cancer and 0 Capricorn
by square. In short, “O-Cardinals” is our orientation to the world around us. Any natal
planet or point at 0 degree of any Cardinal sign is by definition configurated with “the
Aries Point;” the planet’s or point’s symbolism will be given a decided push out into the
world, a public boost, exposure. See, Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, 312-321.
27 See ”Solar Arc Analysis Directory,” practical for analysis of natal Midpoint pictures as
well, Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, Appendix; or Tyl, Prediction in Astrology, Llewellyn,
1991, Appendix. Additionally, Leonardo loved conjuring, creating tricks with a natural
science orientation for his friends. “He conscientiously prepared his surprises with
almost pedantic seriousness.” Vallentin, 32.
28 See Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, Sun-Moon blend Section beginning page 76.
29 A modern example: Charles, the Prince of Wales (November 14, 1948 at 9:14 P.M.,
GMT in London) has the Sun square Pluto. The Sun rules his Ascendant. The would-
be king has a stifling influence in his life, clearly symbolized by his Moon-Node con-
junction in the 10th, opposed his Mercury. This influence working against his personal.
power is clearly his mother, Queen Elizabeth. See Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, 50-52.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 243

the 8th so very often suggests that psychological or spiritual assis-

tance will be sought sometime to work out difficult concerns in life,
usually those connected to early development, family upset, and the
problems with interpersonal values that follow. Learning about the
pressures and understanding their role in development help free the
personal potential, help to remove the blanket. Empowerment fol-
lows struggle; freedom is achieved through assimilation of difficult
considerations and refinement of one’s approach to life. The best
ending to the development scenario of Sun square Pluto shows the
personality strength—in this case, Leonardo’ creativity and its ori-
entation to his world—matured, reinforced, and confirmed by the
very tensions that threatened to debilitate it early on.
We can begin to agree with historians and biographers that
Leonardo’s illegitimacy and his “neuroses” born out of the early
family disorganization are of deep concern within his development.
We note also the suppression into the northern hemisphere of all
planets within Saturn’s orbit, suggesting much unfinished business
in the early development; we see the awesome Saturn-Mercury
opposition hard on the parental axis, and the Sun receiving the
Pluto square within the parental 4th.
In our first overview of this horoscope, led by the dominating
Saturn in Libra upon the Midheaven, we have gained corroboration
of Leonardo’s austere characterological presence, the severity of his
mind. This is complemented by the Sagittarian Ascendant with
Jupiter square Venus which fits Leonardo’s tall figure and extraor-
dinary personal beauty, described by all biographers, his occasional
jocularity, his enthusiasms, etc.
We can feel extreme sensitivity and the need to give it all form
and value (the Sun Moon blend) and we can strongly suspect a
smothering or fuming frustration within all of this drive (the Sun-
Pluto square), behind which we can suspect with good reason a
deeply entrenched dissatisfaction that is linked to the break-up of
the early home.
Through Mercury’s relationship with Saturn and Mercury’s
rulership of the 7th, we see projection of personal anxiety, sae
and depression upon society in general, relationships in particular.*°
His homosexuality is an outgrowth of these concerns (and others)
and further individualizes Leonardo’s growth.

30 See Tyl “Defense Mechanisms, projection,” Synthesis & Counseling, 655.

244 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Going Deeper
Leonardo’s mind is the dominant theme in all presentations of his
life: the philosopher, the intellect, the thinker, the imaginer, the
analyst, the inventor, the social critic ... image after image out of his
life behavior bring focus to the role of his mind, to the symbolism
of his Mercury in Aries. It is “on fire,” if you will, and ignites his
entire being. Through its trine with Pluto, Mercury is an easy con-
duit for the Sun-Pluto syndrome into Leonardo’s psyche; through
its tight semisquare with Venus in Taurus, Mercury is idealistically
tied to his all-encompassing sense of aesthetics; and through the
Cardinal opposition with Saturn on the Midheaven axis, Mercury is
made dominatingly serious. We can recall Vasari’s description of
Leonardo’s “terrible strength in argument, sustained by intelligence
and memory,” an obvious emphasis of 3rd House dimensions (ruled
by Neptune).*!
Additionally, Mercury is only 24 minutes of arc away from the
precise midpoint position between Sun and Moon (see Figure 4, page
245). It is undeniable that any planet conjunct, square, or opposed to
the Sun-Moon midpoint will work to dominate the life.>”
And so Leonardo’s Mercury is life-dominant. More than anything
painterly, architectural, or even inventive, the mind and its workings
are Leonardo’s life signature. Leonardo’s mind designed his every
action, perceived every nuance of life that it could, noted in arch
objectivity every detail accessible to the eye, and drove every glimmer
of awareness this man had about the world into the consciousness of
all time. His “rule” for his life was a commandment from this Mer-
cury: nota ogni cosa, take note of every thing*?; and his working
premise, pittura e cosa mentale, painting is something mental.*+
And further, Mercury is square the Lunar Nodal axis, an unde-
niable indication of extreme maternal influence. The subject of
his relationship with his mother—even before any awareness of
Freud’s hypothesis—must be a dominant theme in Leonardo’s

31 All sources. But, as well, Vasari wrote of Leonardo’s generosity and kindness, perhaps
overstated in his deification of Leonardo. Largesse does not come through in the more
careful biographies; Leonardo was too poor and too unrecognized for too long in his life
to be the bubbling courtier.
32 This observation through my experience is corroborated in the literature, especially in
the Cosmobiological School in Europe. It is very well presented in Harding and Harvey,
Chapter 4, by Harvey. Also, see Tyl, Synthesis ¢ Counseling, Section 2, C.
33 Vallentin, 270.
34 Garin, 193.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 245

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Figure 4
Leonardo da Vinci, April 15, 1452

life. That relationship, its discomfort, is the blanket upon his

power, warming it to life and continuously conditioning its full
claim to living.*°
This Mercury in Aries is the first way Leonardo’s sensorium
perceives the world; the fiery sparks of Mercury bombard the ultra-
sensitive Moon-screen in Pisces. There is a lightning-fast consider-
ation process that is embraced by awareness of the intangible.
Together, the brazen sense of proud knowing and the sensually
fragile sense of receptivity and understanding nourish creative form
and expression.
Saturn represents fear, recognition of the potentials for control
and repression. Within this opposition, Mercury gains all-too-keen
awareness of Fire fears, the fears of being ignored, not being recog-
nized, not being listened to. This is compounded by the fact of
Leonardo’ illegitimacy and the way his society regarded that con-
dition. The Saturn-Mercury contact defines gnawing insecurity and

35 Indeed, Freud’s dramatic hypothesis—right or wrong—colors one’s view of Leonardo

because of its potential validity. It stimulated much counter-analysis in the literature.
Biographer Vallentin, for example, writing in 1938, does not even mention Freud. Yet,
she offers this perspective: “But the child was carefully kept away from his own mother
[capturing the break that had to have been there]. Leonardo’s development was permanently
influenced by the fact that he grew up [after weaning] as a motherless child, bereft of the
primitive, irreplaceable tenderness and natural warmth of mother love ... This incomplete
acceptance, this sense of admittance only with reservations, coloured Leonardo’s whole
personal development and outlook on life. From early childhood the boy was thrown back
upon himself; he had lost the happiness and the tyranny[!] of mother love, and gained
unfettered liberty to reap impressions from the world around him.” Vallentin, 7.
246 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

paranoia. Leonardo suspected and feared others; others did not eas-
ily understand or appreciate Leonardo.
Bramly observes: “Above all other things, Leonardo feared jeal-
ousy and the malicious gossip it gave rise to, the bad reputation that
scandal could create. He complains of it in near-paranoid fashion.
He believes he has never done any wrong; yet he is pursued,
attacked, persecuted. Falsehood, scandal, ingratitude, lies, hatred,
insults, ill repute—all these words recur insistently in his writ-
ings.”° In Leonardo’s horoscope, jealousy is keyed to Mercury as
ruler of the 7th; malicious gossip is a 9th House concern (the third
House, communication, of the 7th), here also keyed by Mercury,
ruler of the 9th. The 9th House holds Neptune conjunct the Aries
Point and adds layers of intensity to Leonardo’s paranoia.
Leonardo’s conservative reactions were his tight defenses
against his fears. Time and time again in the books written about
Leonardo we read descriptions like, “He would give full vent to his
high spirits in the company of young men of his own age, but in
his own conduct he showed a sobriety and prudence beyond his
years, as though a sure instinct held him back from any sort of
over-indulgence or excess.”>”
This Mercury connection with Saturn—its severity and resid-
ual conservatism, i.e., inspiration tightly controlled—was self-
protection, withdrawal from his fears of rumor, debasement, and
rejection, and was also key to his management of libido, as we shall
see, turning his opinion of sex to disgust and revulsion, except
when true emotions were involved beyond bestial behavior.?8

Neptune Complex
One of Germany’s premiere astrologers in this century was
Thomas Ring (1892-1983). His approach was classical and philo-
sophical. He appears to have been fascinated by the astrology of
famous people, by the archetypal significance shown in the horo-
scope symbols of people developed in life beyond measure. He
published a short analysis of Leonardo. Knowing that Leonardo

36 Bramly, 128.
37 Vallentin, 34.
38 Venus in Taurus and ruling the 5th House emphasizes the need for refinement and per-_-
fection in matters sexual. Any ugliness is abhorrent.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 247

was born “at the third hour of the night,” he set his horoscope
rectification at 9:49 P.M., exactly three hours after sunset. This
horoscope gave an Ascendant of 9 Sagittarius and a Midheaven of
00 Libra. Ring was undoubtedly confirmed in his presentation by
the exact conjunction of Neptune with the Midheaven.??
Ring observes that Leonardo was a secret man, that he dealt pri-
vately with the finite and the infinite, within the clash of the practi-
cal and the universal. Ring spotted one key dimension leading from
the elevated position of Neptune deep into Leonardo’s sensorium:
the exact aspect of 165 degrees between Neptune and the Moon. [Fif-
teen degrees beyond a quincunx; 15 degrees short of an opposition. ]
This aspect was barely recognized, understood, or taught when
Ring was doing his work. We know it now as formed within the
24th harmonic; it is called a Quindecile.* Ring called it the “Abtren-
nungsaspekt,” the separation aspect, in the sense of divorce, disrup-
tion, upheaval. I should like to add, “compulsion,” the response to
such upset in life, the obsessive nature in response to trauma.
Michael Munkasey, an expert with harmonics, amplifies this
observation of separation significance and compulsion: he suggests
that the aspect defines something that overrides common sense,
that puts life out of balance, that drives the entire life in order to
play out the energies symbolized. Michael puts it quickly and mem-
orably as, “You can not escape the planets involved.”
In astrology, Neptune symbolizes the soul or, as Alan Leo put it,
“Neptune allows the soul to leave the body.”*! And I might add,
Neptune allows things soulful to enter as well, to identify inspira-
tion, vision, the unknown. For Ring, Leonardo’s soul symbol in
such demanding contact with the Moon introduced deep within
Leonardo the soul of the mother beautiful, and it was mystified
throughout Leonardo’s whole life.

39 Ring, Astrologische Menschen Kunde, Vol. 1, 297; analysis in Genius und Daemon, 45-47.
40 This harmonic is based upon 360 divided by 24, or 15 degrees. The family of aspects
includes 15 degrees, 75 degrees, 105 degrees, and 165 (all multiples of 15) as chief
aspects in the harmonic since they stand alone from other aspects. We may note that
President Bill Clinton (August 19, 1946 at 8:51 a.M., CST in Hope, AR) has the 105
degree aspect between his Mars and Uranus (suggesting a sexual compulsion and a drive
to be before the public) and 75 degrees between Mercury and Jupiter (suggesting an aca-
demic, learning compulsion). Arnold Schwarzenegger (July 30, 1947 at 4:10 a.m., CED
in Graz, Austria) has the 165 degree quindecile between Moon and Mars (enormous
drive for action).
41 Leo, Alan, The Art of Synthesis, London: Fowler. 1968; 115.
248 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

This beautifully apt description suggests a whole realm of psy-

cho-ethereal sensation to balance in Leonardo’s existence the arch-
detailed perceptive data of the Mercury-Saturn construct. In the
process, it is reasonable that Leonardo’s personal feelings and emo-
tions become lost; they could find no manageable point of refer-
ence. Thus the austere, dry, private, lone position of the master.”
Without family connections, Leonardo created glorious and
dramatic mother images (Madonnas), and Ring echoed Freud’s
symbolisms of the caves/wombs appearing threatening and fore-
boding in Leonard’s work. In this scenario, Ring saw the male as
someone allowed [asking permission] to enter the cave only as
Anstossbefruchter, as “driving seed-planter.”*?
We are now ready to work with this extraordinary horoscope of
genius, corroborated substantially in all studies of Leonardo’s char-
acter, throughout his life time, testing the birthtime we have select-
ed through the sensitivity of the astrological angles to Arcs
Progressions, and Transits. All the while, we will be clarifying the
brilliant light of this extraordinary individual, this Nova in the his-
tory of man.

The Family Shifts

To trace the foundation of Leonardo’s development and complexes,
we must work carefully with the earliest years, specifically the fam-
ily shift very soon after birth and then, as a teenager, away from
home into his apprenticeship in an art studio in Florence. In the
process, we will be fine-tuning the horoscope and learning as much
as we can about Leonardo’s mother. Although historians are not
sure, astrology does offer confirmation that she eventually returns
in Leonardo’s life much later, as we shall see.
From Leonardo’s natal horoscope (see Figure 3, page 240) we
can see the suggestion of a powerful time of family change in the very
early years: note that the Solar Arc projection of the Midheaven will

42 Gould, 23: “All we know of Leonardo is consonant with the image of the tough intellec-
tual homosexual in all ages—the combination of physical strength, great beauty and
spectacular ability offset by a certain isolation arising, in this case, from his illegitimacy
and continuing as a marked aloofness throughout his life.”
43 Ring did not mention Pluto and its square with the Sun. With Pluto having been dis-
covered only some twelve-fifteen years before his writing about Leonardo, computations
of Pluto’s position even at that time were unreliable, let alone for 500 years earlier.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 249

bring it to Saturn in 2 degrees 42 minutes (14 Libra 5 minus 11

Libra 23), which is approximately two years and eight months (5
minutes of arc per month abbreviation of SA movement).
At the same time, we can project (anticipate) Leonardo’s Sec-
ondary Progressed Moon to place it at that future time as well. The
SP Moon will be crossing the fourth cusp in approximately twenty-
six months (abbreviating SP Moon passage as one degree per
month; 26 degrees/months from 15 Pisces to 11 Aries), which is
approximately two years and two months!
In two years and two to eight months, June-December 1454,
the ephemeris indicates that transiting Pluto will enter exact sextile
with the Midheaven from 11 Leo and that transiting Uranus will be
at + Leo, exactly square Leonardo’s Sun!
Look at the Moon at 15 Pisces: in 2 years+ (2 degrees+), the Solar
Arc advance of the Moon would be to 17 Pisces square the Ascen-
dant, and SA Mercury would be exactly conjunct the 4th cusp!
These measurements suggest a major family shift shortly after
Leonardo’s second birthday.
When we include the Tertiary Progressions for June 26, 1454,
at two years and two months of age, we find the TP Moon at pre-
cisely 11 Aries, conjunct the 4th cusp also!
The traditional chronology of Leonardo’s earliest years is based
on several tax declarations by the da Vinci family. In a 1457 tax doc-
ument, when Leonardo was five, the earliest evidence researchers
have, it is noted that Leonardo is claimed by Antonio, his paternal
grandfather. There were tax reductions to be gained for illegitimate
children; Antonio applied, but was not granted such consideration.
Researchers also know that Caterina, Leonardo’s mother, married a
man nicknamed Accattabriga soon after Leonardo’s birth and that
Ser Piero, Leonardo’s father, married a young woman named
Albiera very soon after the birth and went to live in Florence.
The astrology says that Leonardo remained with Caterina until
shortly after his second birthday and was shifted over to his grand-
father’s home when Caterina married and moved to a smaller place
called Campo Zeppo, about thirty minutes’ walk from Vinci. Or,

44 See Tyl, Synthesis x Counseling, 204-216 and Tyl, Prediction in Astrology.

45 Tertiary Progression takes each day after birth as symbolism for one Lunar Month of
life. Tertiaries are Lunar orientated and extremely sensitive; the Moon progresses
approximately 3 degrees per week of life, the Sun, 1 degree per month. ‘Tertiary contact
with the natal angles is of paramount importance, therefore Tertiaries are a most sensi-
tive test for rectification.
250 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

the astrology shows the shift in Leonardo’s life caused by Caterina’s

marriage, and then, perhaps three or four months later (as the Sec-
ondary Progressed Moon went on to oppose Saturn) the separation
from his mother. Perhaps Caterina tried to make a go of it with
Leonardo and her new husband; it didn’t work; it was better for all
to put/to leave the boy with the grandparents.*°
But, Leonardo had to be breast-fed. Hiring a wet-nurse was out
of the question socially and financially. In all probability, Caterina
stayed with Leonardo, living with the grandparents, and then, after
Leonardo was weaned, Caterina left Leonardo with Antonio and
went with her husband to their own home. Perhaps the weaning
and the separation coincided harshly—and perhaps a kite did
indeed come to his cradle. Leonardo’s precocious perception
recorded the effect, processed and stored it forever. Or did such a
dream grow to rescue trauma?
Bramly writes, “Leonardo, who later spent much time studying
the mechanisms of childbirth and the development of the fetus,
wrote and repeated that ‘a single soul governs the two bodies’ (of
mother and unborn child). He considered—in an astonishingly
modern insight—that ‘desires, fears, and suffering are common to
this creature as to all the other animate parts of the body, so that
something desired by the mother will be imprinted on the members
of the child within her when she experiences the desire, and a sud-
den terror may kill both mother and child.’”*”
tat ra
When Leonardo was a teenager, he was continuously prying into
things, exploring the hillsides, studying strange flowers, watching the
darting movements of animals, ruminating about things hidden in
caves, wondering why sea shells were on hilltops. He sketched what
he saw, his imagination took form, he discovered the joy of portrayal.
From an early age, Leonardo permitted none of the household
to enter his room. He hoarded his collection of things gathered
during his journeys into the hills; Vallentin even suggests “the
high odour of animals he had caught and the stench of dried and
decaying fish and larvae mingled with the heavy scent of fading
flowers.” In his aloneness and throughout his lifetime, Leonardo
defined himself through his discoveries.

46 Bramly, 39-45.
47 Bramly, 46.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 251

Vasari tells us that Ser Piero maintained some contact with his
son and actually sold some of Leonardo’s early drawings in Florence;
that Piero really took notice of the boy’s talent when Leonardo fash-
ioned a monster-theme creation on a board (or shield) presented to
him for decoration. It was startling: a fire-belching monster leaping
from the surface. Piero sold it in Florence for a handsome profit.
Ser Piero’s commercial success with his son’s work induced
Piero to send Leonardo as an apprentice to an established painter in
Florence. Piero approached the master painter and teacher Andrea
del Verrocchio. Verrocchio (1435-1488) was most impressed with
Leonardo’s early work and accepted him.
When did this key shift occur in Leonardo’s life? Normally, appren-
ticeships of this sort began when the young student was twelve or
thirteen years old. Not of privileged family, Leonardo probably
remained in the hills longer, to 1465 or 1466 (Bramly) or 1467 (Turn-
er) or 1468 (Vallentin). The decision to send him to Florence might
in fact have been prompted by the death of Antonio, the grandfather.
As well at that time, Ser Piero began his second marriage.
The astrologer sees several family events coinciding in time: the
father’s remarriage, the grandfather’s (father surrogate) death, leav-
ing Vinci, and entering a great artist’s school as apprentice in Flo-
rence, the Tuscan capital, flourishing at that time as one of the
greatest cities of Europe. We can anticipate major Transit and Pro-
gression activity affecting the angles of Leonardo’s horoscope. We
are led by the ephemeris notation (not shown): transiting Saturn was
in 7-11 Aries in Leonardo’s fifteenth birthday month, April 1467.
This transit of Saturn across the 4th cusp is a highly reliable indica-
tor of Leonardo’s new start, as well as his father’s new start. Calcula-
tion of the Secondary Progressed Moon’s position for that month
places it at 12 Libra, exactly conjunct Leonardo’s Midheaven—
extremely important corroboration of the Saturn transit—definitely
stating the turning point onto Leonardo’s career path.
Figure 5 (page 252) shows Leonardo’s natal horoscope sur-
rounded in the outer ring by the full transits for 6:00 a.m. April 18,
1467, a feasible departure time for the full day’s trip to Florence,
just three days after his fifteenth birthday.**

48 We can imagine that much could have been made of this coincidence with Leonardo’s
birthday: what a new start, the becoming a man, leaving the past behind, entering the
fabulous city of Florence on completely new footing!
252 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Note that the SP Ascendant is squaring Neptune (new, public

art/sensory influence), that the Tertiary Mars is exactly conjunct the
fourth cusp and TP Moon is exactly conjunct Uranus. Transiting
Neptune is opposing the Sun. These measurements define the
strong bloom of individuation, an artist’s individuation.
SP)12x%

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Leonard da Vinci Transits: Florence
Apr. 15, 1452, 10:30 P.M. LMT Apr. 18, 1467, 6:00 a.m. LMT
Vinci, Italy Vinci, Italy
10E55 43N47 10E55 43N47
Placidus Houses
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 253

There is little doubt that this focused time in Leonardo’s life

was extremely important. Transiting Mars had been squaring
Leonardo’s Sun just before his birthday; the Ascendant that morn-
ing of probable departure was conjunct the powerful Venus. This is
a compelling portrait of Leonardo’s entrance into a new world.
What a time of opportunity, with transiting Pluto exactly opposed
Jupiter, ruler of Leonardo’s Ascendant!*?

Scandal in Florence
Florence began as Florentia, “the flourishing town”: for the Etr-
uscans and then the Romans, emerging from histories of battles and
sieges, occupations and upheavals to become the blooming flower
of intelligence, creativity, and business in the Renaissance. The
name of Lorenzo de’ Medici, The Magnificent One, and his ex-
tended family dominated the era through their patronage of the arts
and the thrusts of exploration and discovery that revived Europe in
the mode of classical achievement. Lorenzo was not personally a
man of universal mind, but he promoted spiritual interests, was
extremely diversified in his pursuits, and sought to make these
dimensions vanguard to his rule.*°
The city itself was a gleaming, busy work of art: the streets
alined at right angles, fifty public squares adorned with sculpture
and bedecked with blazingly colorful family, guild, and govern-
ment banners; forty-four gold and silversmiths and jewelers dis-
playing their luxurious creations in open shops; 180 churches,
with the central cathedral crowned by Brunelleschi’s wondrous
dome. Some 70,000 people were supported by 270 woolen-goods
shops, eighty-three shops belonging to members of the silk guild,
sixty-six apothecaries’ shops, eighty-three shops kept by wood-
workers, fifty-four by sculptors and stonecutters, seventy butcher
shops, thirty-three banks whose cashiers dealt with their customers

49 Additionally, SA Mars (not shown) was 40’ from exact conjunction with Jupiter. Also, we
can look backward into time from this chart and note the transit of Uranus over Neptune
for the preceding eighteen months as the time when Ser Piero recognized the intense
development of Leonardo’s talent. We can look forward two months to see the SP Moon
conjoining Saturn, giving a span of time of approximately four to six months of planning
for change, affecting change, and anchoring change.
50 Burckhardt, Chapter Six, “The Furtherers of Humanism.”
254 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

while sitting outside their premises behind counters on which

their quills and inkwells, ledgers, and abacuses were laid upon ex-
pensive carpets.”!
And this was the city where the greatest artists since Hellenic
times had developed and produced their masterpieces of creativity,
scholarship, and wisdom.
Leonardo learned well from Master Verrocchio. He modeled in
clay, wax, and gypsum; he painted in tempera (using an albuminous
medium—egg whites—as paint carrier); he began working with the
new oils; there was carving, filing, and soldering. He was part of the
team that assisted the teacher with major works of art in many
mediums. Eventually, Leonardo was working on entire figures in
large works done by Verrocchio. In his private time, Leonardo
began drawing from nature.
The earliest extant sketch made by Leonardo as a young man is
a pen-drawing of a landscape, the first we know of when nature was
portrayed for its own sake, i.e., the first true landscape in Western
art. Leonardo dated the drawing—which was “an extremely rare
phenomenon at the time”—he dated it emphatically and decora-
tively, 5August 1473. He was twenty-one years old.*?
On the reverse side of this detailed yet expansive, perhaps the-
atrical landscape there is a hasty sketch of a hill and a stone arch
among trees. A male nude appears in the sky, and above a smiling
face there is the sentence (written in normal style): “I, stopping (or
staying) at Antonio’s, am content (io »orando dant. sono chontento).°?
Bramly can not explain this except to note that the landscape
shows a rugged yet serene scene in vivid detail, “as if to etch it for-
ever in memory, as if it represented in the artist’s secret heart the
setting for some moment of great emotion.” That is the end of this
intriguing glimpse into the beautiful, young Leonardo.
Figure 6 (page 255) is the horoscope of that date, of that land-
scape’s position in Leonardo’s life: here is SA SP Sun exactly con-
junct Venus, simultaneously with SA Pluto square Venus; with SA
Venus conjunct the 7th cusp of relationships!

51 Hibbert, 100-102, after the detailed report of a Medici agent, Benedetto Dei.
52 All sources. See Bramly, 85, for photo presentation of the landscape.
53 Bramly, 84.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 255

Solar Arc Midpoint Pictures for June 10, 1473 to Oct. 10, 1473
Jun 1473 |Mc G 9/Q | Being known for one’s art or appreciation of things cultural; significant romantic fulfillment.
% Q o/h | Thoughts don't know where to go; any alternative seems inappropriate; indecision; separating from
issues,
Jul 1473} B G ¥Y/Mec |Amajor turing point is possible; the power picture is clear; persuasion dominates.
& @ O/ tl | Meeting unusual or intense people; quick 1ew associations.
Aug 1473; PO @ Intensification of love desires; affairs; compulsiveness; wasting emotions.
Y & D/ | Dreaminess; fantasies about love, the erotic; possible misdirection of love; being duped.
h&O The sense of difficulty, overwork, depletior, confinement, discipline; the fear of loss; “aloneness";
possibly griet.
Kl GG §Q/ Asc | All for the avant-garde; unusual associations; upbeat ways of doing things with other people.
Sep 1473 | | G D/¥ | Sudden, innovative thoughts and plans; imtability about progress; getting on with things hastily.
h O 4/8 | Working with others by the rules; getting things perfectly clear; holding back in strategic reserve;
slowing things down for safety; maybe “missing the boat” through caution.

Figure 6
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci SA Landscape
Apr. 15, 1452, 10:30 p.m. LMT Aug. 5, 1473
256 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Transiting Jupiter exactly opposed natal Venus and transiting

Neptune squared natal Mars (charisma). Please note on the Mid-
point list (Figure 6, page 255) that natal Mars at 16 Aquarius (See
46 degrees 26; sixteen degrees in Fixed signs) squares the midpoint
of Sun/Venus (natally, “Desire for love; sexual feelings; the applica-
tion of creativity”); at this time for Leonardo, as transiting Neptune
squared Leonardo’s Mars it activated (opposed) his natal Sun/
Venus, “dreaminess about love potential; overindulgences of all
kinds for ego gratification”).°*
These measurements are undeniably measurements of ro-
mance, sexual happening, and intimate relationship. The SA posi-
tion of Saturn opposed the Sun suggests a difficult, hard-working,
perhaps even lonely time for Leonardo, at that time on the verge of
leaving his apprenticeship program to be on his own. The insecuri-
ty would have all too naturally opened Leonardo to a significant
togetherness, a romance, a sexual liaison, perhaps with an older
man (Saturn within this matrix of measurements). The nude male
Leonardo drew in the sky was real; the landscape drawing was a cel-
ebration of the liaison, the relationship, the site of its occurrence or
a projection of its perfection; the extraordinary statement “I am
content,” was never repeated in print in all of Leonardo’s later writ-
ings as far as we know.°?
And this leads us to a pivotal emotional moment in Leonardo’s
life: his being brought before a court of justice in Florence on
charges of sodomy on April 9, 1476, one week before his twenty-
fourth birthday, three years after the landscape drawing.
In Florence at that time, there were special letter boxes known
as tamburi (“drums,” because of their shape). These depositories for
anonymous citizen complaints were also called Buchi della Verita
(Mouths of Truth). One could denounce one’s neighbor all too eas-
ily—and frequently. In the case of homosexuality, the charge would
be serious indeed. Someone wrote an accusation of Leonardo.
Several people were charged along with Leonardo, one of them
from a celebrated family, for engaging in sodomy with a certain

54 See Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling or Prediction in Astrology, Appendix. Additional observa-
tion: at the same time as Tr Neptune=Mars=Sun/Venus; Tr. Neptune=Saturn/Ascen-
dant (“depressing and introverted life situations”), i.e., natally Leonardo’s Mars also=
Saturn/Asc (“struggling with inhibitions and control”).
55 Bramly opines that this moment of tranquility, “of pure happiness,” corresponded to the
landscape drawn on a visit home, when Leonardo perhaps saw his mother. The astrolo-
gy says different.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 257

Jacopo Saltarelli, aged seventeen. The charge was reviewed by the

court, and on June 7 it was dismissed.
Leonardo was deeply jarred by this. We read that the question-
ing by the Board of Inquiry was incessant and grossly detailed, that
Leonardo’s sensibilities were pummeled by crass, heavy-mouthed
officials. Astrologically (just three years after the landscape chart,
Figure 6, see page 255), we can see SA MC coming to square with
Pluto and opposing the Sun. This strong measurement also sug-
gests that a major reorientation of Leonardo’s career was in the off-
ing, a push into new directions. Indeed, Leonardo was leaving
Verrocchio to go it alone.
The scandal before the court imploded powerfully upon
Leonardo’s sense of aesthetics and fairness; the blanket was smoth-
ering the grenade (the natal Sun-Pluto square). All the vulnerabili-
ties to distrusting (fearing) relationships were exacerbated (natal
Mercury’s key position opposed Saturn and ruling the 7th). Biogra-
phers relate this shocking time to Leonardo’s lifelong withdrawal
thereafter from relationships, to his pronounced disgust for sexual
copulation. He wrote later, “The act of coupling and the members
[sex organs] engaged in it are so ugly that if it were not for the faces
and adornments of the actors [the people going through the ritual],
and the impulses sustained, the human race would die out ... He
who does not restrain his lustful appetites places himself on the
same level as the beasts.”*°
The acquittal certainly did not do very much to erase the smear
Leonardo felt, even in rampantly homosexual Florence. He was
surely embarrassed for Verrocchio, for his father and, dare we feel,
for his mother. The fact that he was open to such attack, such
potential defamation shocked him deeply, and throughout his life
his mistrust of others, his misogyny, was always traceable back to
this incident by some thought construct or direct reference in his
notes. This incident took its position very clearly within the
counterpoint-retrogradation symbolism of Saturn in Libra.
Leonardo gradually left Verrocchio’s care and tutelage and
through lonely times worked and waited for significant commissions.
In 1478, the day after Leonardo’s birthday, the powerful Pazzi
banking family attempted a public coup against the Medici. The
clash occurred in the grand cathedral just as Mass ended. Flashing

56 All sources. See Bramly, 123.

258 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

daggers and loud shouts rang out as the Pazzi people assaulted
Lorenzo de’ Medici and his family. A bloody scene, a hysterical riot,
and a frantic chase through corridors and up and down towers
were recorded by witnesses frozen in their tracks by the surprise
and horror. The Pazzi lost and, in those hours of terror, eighty vic-
tims lost their lives.
Florence was plunged into a mass of troubles. The Pope was
enraged, and King Ferdinand of Naples saw the opportunity to
reach northward to punish the Florentines “for their arrogance.”
After two years of battles, Lorenzo finally settled a shaky truce.
Out of these unsettled times, in 1480, Leonardo finally received
his first important commission: an altarpiece in the grand style, for
which he would paint what was to become one of the most impor-
tant works of all art history, The Adoration of the Magi.°’
Leonardo worked with plan after plan after plan, with unheard
of mathematical precision in the geometric organization of the fig-
ures. Time went by. The groundwork of the painting was complet-
ed, and the composition was clear, but after September 28, 1481,
when the monks recorded their last contact with the artist (bring-
ing Leonardo a cask of wine, perhaps to urge him on), work
stopped, and the painting, already a masterpiece in its preparation,
remained unfinished.
‘Transiting Saturn was at 15 Libra, signalling Leonardo’s Saturn
return, a return of his entire psychological make-up to another
point of change.°®
Vasari explained Leonardo’s failure to complete The Adoration
with an allusion to Leonardo’s perfectionism, i.e., that the hand
would never achieve what the mind knew to be. Leonardo’s
supreme achievement here was, as the German philosopher Oswald
Spengler put it, “the clarity of intent.”
No one can adequately explain this moment of Leonardo’s turn
of mind. Perhaps the monks who commissioned The Adoration
reneged on their contract (it was complicated and unusual,

57 For its geometry (triangulation) principles, the contraposto technique of bodies turning
upon their own axis, and the humanism of reactions. Legendary art historian Bernard
Berenson (1865-1959), a specialist in Renaissance painting, acclaimed The Adoration,
“Truly a great masterpiece and perhaps the quattrocento produced nothing greater.”
This is high praise from the sole prestigious critic who normally cast harsh judgment on
Leonardo’s work. All sources, see Bramly, 164.
58 Additionally, transiting Pluto at 6 Virgo was at the midpoint of Neptune/Midheaven:
“strange happenings on the job.” See Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling or Prediction, Appendix.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 259

arranged by Ser Piero for his son), and Leonardo felt once again
taken advantage of and assailed by unfeeling mortals, and this in
turn resurrected bitterness and disgust with regard to the scandal
past. Yet, we astrologers know all too well that the die was cast for
Leonardo to alter the course of his life dramatically at his Saturn
return. In his continued pain of having been scandalized, Leonardo
had to leave Florence and begin again.

In Milan
Leonardo felt that he had been passed over by Lorenzo de’ Medici;
he had not been invited to place one of his works into the de’
Medici collection. Leonardo watched as his artist colleagues left for
sparkling commissions available in Rome and elsewhere. He felt
shunned by the literati of Florence, since he spoke hardly any Latin
and was not University educated (Mercury ruler of the 9th House
opposed Saturn).
Leonardo was a skilled musician. His playing of the lyre and his
singing were regarded as “without equal.” And finally, it was
Leonardo’s musical achievement that caught the ear of Lorenzo. Il
Magnifico saw that Leonardo had made a splendid silver lyre, fash-
ioning the frame of the small harp in the bizarre form of a horse’s
skull. The lyre possessed a wondrous tone, and he thought it would
do much for political good will if this lyre were given as a gift to the
Count of Milan, the powerful Lodovico Sforza (“force” in Italian).
Leonardo saw his opportunity: he declared his willingness to
part with the lyre and deliver the gift to Sforza himself. Armed with
Lorenzo’s letter of recommendation, Leonardo set out for Milan,
for his new life.*?
Scholars do not know exactly when Leonardo left Florence; we
are told that it was at the end of 1482 or early 1483 (Vallentin), the
end of 1481 or early 1482 (Hart), in 1482 (Bramly) or in 1481 (Turn-
er). But the astrology is exceptionally clear: in December 1482, the
ephemeris shows transiting Uranus at 17 Sagittarius and Pluto at 11
Libra, each planet exactly on an angle in Leonardo’s horoscope!
Figure 7 (page 260) shows Leonardo’s Solar Arc positions for
December 15, 1482: note SA Moon opposed Saturn just about to

59 All sources. See Vallentin, 65-67.

260 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

free itself from a year or more of heavy work, depression, and ultra-
sensitivity. Note how this insight is painfully corroborated by the
simultaneous transit of Saturn opposed his Sun from 4-5 Scorpio.
The mighty transits over the Midheaven and Ascendant answer
to the SA Mars position exactly upon Leonardo’s natal Moon: “the
strong drive to fulfill needs, to let it fly; disruption, hyperactivity.”
Figure 8 (page 261) shows the Tertiary Progressions for this key
date in the outer ring around Leonardo’s natal horoscope: the Sun

Figure 7
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci SA to Milan
Dec. 15, 1482

60 Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling or Prediction in Astrology, Appendix.

 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 261

is precisely conjunct the 7th cusp, lifting itself above the horizon to
new visibility; TP Venus has returned precisely, affirmatively to its
natal position; TP Jupiter is precisely upon the young master’s all-
powerful Mercury; and TP Node is conjunct the Ascendant,
promising new relationships and associations.
These measurements show conclusively that change was essen-
tial in the development of Leonardo’s life, and they confirm, once
again, the accuracy of the 10:30 P.M. birth time.

Figure 8
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci TP to Milan
Dec. 15, 1482
262 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Milan was three times larger than Florence, yet it did not com-
pare with Florence in terms of the arts and humanities. Lodovico
Sforza ruled with an iron hand. Because of his swarthy complexion
and gruff ways, he was nicknamed II Moro (the Moor).
The thirty-year old Leonardo presented himself to the court of
Milan, with Lorenzo’s letter, the lyre, and a very carefully com-
posed letter of his own. Leonardo’s letter is simply astonishing; the
easy self-intensification of Uranus natally trine his Moon, the
emboldened professional thrust of Pluto natally square his Sun, the
excessive display of his ambition, his Saturn-need to be useful and
of service—all of this explodes:

Most Illustrious Lord, having by now sufficiently considered the

experience of those men who claim to be skilled inventors of
machines of war, and having realized that the said machines in no
way differ from those commonly employed, I shall endeavor,
without prejudice to anyone else, to reveal my secrets to Your
Excellency, for whom I offer to execute, at your convenience, all
the items briefly noted below.
1. Ihave a model of very strong but light bridges, extremely easy
to carry, by means of which you will be able to pursue or if neces-
sary flee any enemy; I have others, which are sturdy and will resist
fire as well as attack, and are easy to lay down and take up. I also
know ways to burn and destroy those of the enemy.
2. During a siege, I know how to dry up the water of the moats
and how to construct an infinite number of bridges, covered ways,
scaling ladders, and other machines for this type of enterprise.
3. If because of the height of the embanknient, and the strength
of the place or its site, it should be impossible to reduce it by
bombardment, I know methods of destroying any citadel or
fortress, even if it is built on rock.
4.1 also have models of mortars that are very practical and easy
to transport, with which I can project stones so that they seem to
be raining down; and their smoke will plunge the enemy into ter-
ror, to his great hurt and confusion.
9. [Sic] And if battle is to be joined at sea, I have many very effi-
cient machines for both attack and defense; and vessels that will
resist even the heaviest cannon fire, fumes, and gunpowder.
5. Iknow how to use paths and secret underground tunnels, dug
without noise and following tortuous routes, to reach a given
place, even if it means passing below a moat or a river.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 263

6. I will make covered vehicles, safe and unassailable, which will

penetrate enemy ranks with their artillery and destroy the most
powerful troops; the infantry may follow them without meeting
obstacles or suffering damage.
7. In case of need, I will make large bombards, mortars, and fire-
throwing engines, of beautiful and practical design, which will be
different from those presently in use.
8. Where bombardment would fail, I can make catapults, man-
gonels, trabocchi, or other unusual machines of marvelous efficien-
cy, not in common use. In short, whatever the situation, I can
invent an infinite variety or machines for both attack and defense.
10. In peacetime, I think I can give perfect satisfaction and be the
equal of any man in architecture, in the design of buildings public
and private, or to conduct water from one place to another.
Item: I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, and clay; and in
painting can do any kind of work as well as any man, whoever he is.
Moreover, the bronze horse could be made that will be to the
immortal glory and eternal honor of the lord your father of
blessed memory and of the illustrious house of Sforza.
And if any of the items mentioned above appears to anyone
impossible or impractical, I am ready to give a demonstration in
your park or in any other place that should please Your Excellen-
cy—to whom I recommend myself in all humility.®!

Vasari wrote that I] Moro was incredibly moved by Leonardo’s

presentation of talent and implored him to begin work on an altar-
piece representing the Nativity, which he would send to the emperor.
But that is not what happened. Leonardo had to languish—probably
due to the Duke’s doubting of such an arrogant and self-possessed
young man. No practical leader could trust such a dreamer. Leonar-
do would have to wait for some nine years to prove himself.
Leonardo stuck it out, studying, studying, studying to fill the
gaps in his formal education, following his inborn compulsion to
perceive and to know. He began his notebooks. He compiled end-
less lists of synonyms (some 7,000-8,000 words). Vallentin reports
that he was able later to declare with pride that “I possess so many
words in my mother tongue that I am more likely to have trouble
with the right understanding of things than from the lack of words

61 Many sources. See Bramly, 175-176.

264 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

with which to express my mind’s conception of them.” The domi-

nance, reliance, and strength of Mercury are obvious.
Leonardo adds, “As iron rusts when it is not used and water
gets foul from standing or turns to ice when exposed to cold, so the
intellect degenerates without exercise.”
Leonardo suffered for acceptance and busyness, for recogni-
tion. He formed a loose partnership with another artist family (de
Predis brothers) and, with transiting Jupiter precisely upon his
Neptune, gained a commission to paint The Virgin of the Rocks.
He dreamed of far-away places and drew ideas and inventions
for their societies. He became remote to others, tight unto himself.
He developed an antipathy against society. His notes revealed the
lowest opinion of mankind.
The plague came to Milan in 1484, for two years.
At this time, Leonardo worked hard: he designed a city plan to
bring fresh air into houses, to organize shops and living quarters cre-
atively, to improve urban waste disposal, to build spiral staircases,
updraft chimneys for smoke removal, bay windows for maximum light,
clean stables, etc.; in short, dream cities for the rich and the poor. He
was dedicated to the removal of the horror of dirt and poverty.
He staged elaborate pageants utilizing gears and cog-wheels as
no one had dreamed possible, capturing in one of them, the
“Masque of the Planets” the motions of all the planets in the solar
system.°? When he found himself meditating upon new ideas too
long in the early morning, he created an alarm clock to rouse him
to his workbench. Mechanical invention dominated his mind.
Roasting spits. Olive presses. Steam power. Gear differentials. Tri-
cycles. Bicycles.
Leonardo’s work with the pageants pleased Sforza. He now
believed what Leonardo could do (and Leonardo was more credi-
ble, eight years older). In the Spring of 1490, they began seriously
to consider the immense monument to II Moro’s father. Transiting
Jupiter was conjunct Leonardo’s Sun.

62 Vallentin, 109. Leonardo “gave memory higher rank than will and reason”; memory was
man’s only defense against time the destroyer, and it was man’s most precious posses-
sion, of which only death could rob him. Again, Mercury opposed Saturn.
63 This “Masque of the Planets” was held on January 13, 1490 in the Castello Sforzesco.
The theme was chosen by Lodovico on the advice of his astrologer Ambrogio da Varese
in gratitude for having saved I] Moro’s life during a serious illness. Leonardo had some
respect for astrology, but had scant regard for astrologers who, he said, got fat on the
credulity of the foolish. Bramly, 221.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 265

At the same time, Leonardo began his deepest study to date, in

the field of optics, which led to many inventions, including the
camera obscura (a device to accept and project light images trough
a pinhole into a darkened enclosure), addressing the problems of
the time of light transmission, refraction, image inversion, binocu-
lar vision, perspective, three-dimensionality, etc.
On July 22, 1490, Leonardo noted cryptically, “Giacomo
arrived.” Leonardo took in a ten-year-old apprentice, naming him
“Salai,” a Tuscan word meaning a “demon.” Salai was troublesome
and hyperactive all his life, according to all sources, but he was
beautiful, and it becomes clear that Leonardo’s and Salai’s master/
apprentice relationship developed into a sexual one. Salai remained
with Leonardo throughout the master’s life.

The Caterina Enigma

Three years later, we read in Leonardo’s notebook, on two separate
lines: “16 July / Caterina came, 16 July 1493.” This is noted
emphatically [the repetition of the date].
Does the emphasis betray hidden emotion? On the facing page
is a list of names from Leonardo’s childhood. Bramly notes that
meetings (this with Caterina) characteristically summon up memo-
ries. Is this list tied to Caterina?
The name again appears some six months later in Leonardo’s
notes about costs and budget. Then there is nothing further until
the day of Caterina’s funeral (not dated) approximately a year or two
later: Leonardo notes the expenses, which were excessive for a
housekeeper or servant, but not generous for a beloved mother.
Bramly points out with great sensitivity that at this time in his life
Leonardo was possessed with a sense of keen fulfillment, what Pasteur
called “the inner god, which leads to everything.” Nothing seemed
impossible for him; he could attempt anything—and he could wnder-
stand anything. He composed treatise after treatise; with supreme self-
confidence, he sought to penetrate the secrets of art, water, air,
mankind, the world (he was now interested in geology, in fossils, and
in mountain formation); he investigated the origins of milk, colic,
tears, drunkenness, madness, and dreams; as if it came under the sens-
es, he talked of “writing what the soul is”; he dreamed of flying like an

64 Bramly, 243-244.
266 #@ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

eagle or a kite and began to draw plans of “flying machines.” And

there was the giant horse being planned for Il Moro.
Leonardo’s sense of accomplishment, personal power, and
inspiration suggests a freedom ... the blanket sliding away from the
grenade, a more direct acknowledgment of personal power, with
difficulties moved out of the way or with problems being solved. Astrolog-
ically, we should expect to find Plutonic emphasis and an activation
of the maternal complex, the quindecile aspect (Neptune-Moon).
Figure 9 (page 267) shows Leonardo’s horoscope brought for-
ward to the date of the “Caterina” entry, July 16, 1493. Most dra-
matically, we see transiting Pluto at 4 Scorpio exactly opposed the
Sun (the awareness of full life perspective and personal power, or
the push into that direction); we see Solar Arc Pluto at 14 Virgo 45
opposing the Moon (“extreme emotional intensity, upheavals, exag-
gerated new plans,” and also the mother figure).
The SP Moon at 29 Virgo is almost precisely conjunct Leonar-
do’s Neptune, part of the quindecile mother-separation/compulsion
aspect; SA Uranus is exactly opposed his Jupiter, ruler of his Ascen-
dant (“the big break, boundless optimism”).
We see extreme personal empowerment and the awakening of
the maternal complex as we studied initially. These large measure-
ments are reinforced by transiting Neptune’s exact square with
natal Neptune, the SA Sun exactly trine to Saturn. And—as is
shown in Figure 10 (page 268), the Tertiary Progressions for this
date—the TP Sun along with TP Saturn are exactly opposed natal
Sun, creating a I-Square with natal Pluto, which is, in turn, exact-
ly emphasized by TP Uranus!
Additionally, the most sensitive TP Moon is conjunct Venus,
ruler of Leonardo’s Midheaven and the TP Midheaven itself is pre-
cisely conjunct the 4th cusp.
There is absolutely no doubt that Leonardo sent for his moth-
er, in her early sixties, probably widowed, to live with him in Milan.
Her coming was a release, a closure of emotions, a part of his flush
of extraordinary success, and a clear period of maturation in
Leonardo’s life. The astrology of this all-important time of Leonar-
do’s life is unqualifiedly astounding.

65 Bramly, 245.
66 Additionally, the TP Node is square to the Moon/Jupiter midpoint signifying “success-
ful contacts,” professionally here and also in terms of the Moon and the quindecile com-
plex. All interpretations quoted for Arcs and midpoint pictures are from Tyl, Synthesis &
Counseling and Prediction in Astrology, the Appendix.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 267

The Sforza Horse Monument

The model for the Sforza horse monument—Lodovico’s father
astride a battle steed with front hooves raised in excitement over
the body of a trampled enemy—was so colossal “that it took men’s
breath away.” ‘To solve the center of gravity problems would be a
formidable achievement for Leonardo; solving the casting prob-
lems would revolutionize sculpture and the foundry industry.
Leonardo’s plans for the monument for Maximilian Sforza became
a monument to his own design capabilities. In the process, with

Figure 9
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci SA Caterina
July 16, 1493
268 ¢ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

clear Plutonic impact upon the art world, Leonardo became

extremely famous.
But in all the might of his ascendancy, Leonardo could not hold
off politics and war, namely Charles VII, king of France, at the
head of the largest army in Europe, who had crossed the Alps and
now marched into Italy. City after city opened its doors in capitula-
tion to this army; all of Italy—from Milan to Naples—was con-
quered, and not one cannon was fired.
It was late in 1494, and in a program to reinforce defenses for
the future, the metal allocated for the colossal equestrian statue was

Figure 10
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci (Test) TP Caterina
July 16, 1493
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 269

necessarily diverted, in November 1495, to building canon and

other weapons. While the drawings and construction studies
remain, the monument was never finished.

The Last Supper

Through covert means, Lodovico Sforza had himself invited Charles’
stege upon Italy. With great cleverness he had planned and succeed-
ed in subjugating the House of Aragon (the remains of Spanish rule
of Italy), humiliated the Pope, confirmed himself with the powerful
Este family, benefitted from the fall of the Medici in Florence, and
established an alliance with the king of France. Sforza was the
mightiest prince in Italy, and Milan was (for the moment) returned
to stability.
Lodovico commissioned Leonardo to paint The Last Supper
on the dining room wall of a monastery building alongside
the church he was refurbishing—Santa Maria delle Grazie. The
Dominican monastery was to be the burial place for Lodovico and
his wife Beatrice.
We do not know an exact date for the beginning of Leonardo’s
work on The Last Supper, but all authorities agree that the commis-
sion was given by Sforza in 1495 and that the work was completed
in 1498. (There are many references in the histories to Leonardo
standing before the wall for hours, leaving without touching the
work or making just two or three ministrations with his brush and
then retiring to study his plans, his mind’s vision. He would search
the streets and piazze to find people with extraordinary faces; he
would follow them through the streets and sketch their visages and
movements for one or the other of the thirteen personages planned
for the mural. Astrologically we can take mid-year 1496 as a mid-
point for the creation of this extraordinary fresco. Figure 11 (page
270) shows the Solar Arc positions and key transits for that time.
Again, we see extraordinary corroboration in the horoscope: SA
Sun was exactly on the horizon (“Recognition; being seen for who
one is”); SA Jupiter opposed Saturn (“ambition given the go-ahead
signal; patience pays off; feeling more right than right”); and above
all, SA Pluto had moved to precise square with the Ascendant-Descendant
axis, signaling an “extremely important time of life, taking command
of things, identity transformation, a life milestone.”
270 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Additionally transiting Saturn was in 9-10 Aries just crossing

the fourth cusp, an extraordinary new start, and transiting Jupiter
was at 3 Scorpio opposing Leonardo’s Sun.
The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa (see page 279) were to
become Leonardo’s most known and celebrated works of art. The
Last Supper’s organization and spiritual impact changed the face of
art forever. Leonardo’s functional space was articulated on the end
wall of the room to elongate the real space of the room length, to
fool the eye; his management of perspective was theatrical to the

Trh9-10T

Figure 11
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci SA Last Supper
June 8, 1496
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 271

extreme, accommodating thirteen individually expressive bodies in

one plane, creating points of focus that reinforced the divine posi-
tion of Jesus in the central space of the painting, along the longitu-
dinal center of the room; the geometry within the painting was a
full study of Euclidian discoveries; each apostle was modeled to
speak a life development of individualistic qualities; Judas was so
anti-conventionally near Jesus, before the fact of betrayal, yet so
obvious to all after the fact; and each person was endowed with an
individualistic response, captured in a split second of animated time,
to Jesus’s statement, “Verily I say unto you that one of you shall
betray me.”
Leonardo used an experimental medium to hold his color upon
the wall, and it proved to be disastrously flawed. The mural began
to disintegrate during Leonardo’s lifetime; his major success was
threatened with disappearance.°’
The German genius poet/dramatist, Wolfgang Goethe first saw
The Last Supper in 1788, and with his own vision stimulated by the
remains of Leonardo’s work (reinforced by clumsy touch-ups) wrote,
“The Last Supper is the true key to the vault of artistic concepts. In its
genre it is a unique work to which nothing can be compared.”
At this same time, Leonardo was studying and inventing:
machines to produce needles, machines to make rope, an ingenious
industrial spinning wheel, the principles of which would not be
realized again for 200 years; the principles of flight, aerodynamics,
pressures and currents, principles of gliding, the propeller, the para-
chute, all to be adapted for man; and above all the machinery of
war, every conceivable device to improve and economize the pro-
duction of weaponry, including gunpowder, attack and defense
machines; and designs for concepts absolutely incredible to late
fifteenth-century minds: a helicopter, an armored battle vehicle, a
submarine, all conceived in detailed design particulars.
New sieges came upon Italy from the French, this time by
Louis XII, and Milan capitulated on September 14, 1499, again
without a shot being fired. The Comte de Ligny, commander of the

67 All sources. See Turner, 36; 276-297.

68 Letter to Goethe’s patron Karl August in Weimar, quoted in Turner, 94. Goethe later
(in 1815-16) wrote an extensive, beautifully constructed essay about The Last Supper,
which has been widely circulated in art literature. His grand and insightful attention to
The Last Supper imbedded the masterpiece in the art consciousness of the western world.
Along with other great witnesses and writers, Goethe depicted The Last Supper as image
given to literature, as immediacy given to history, as life given to the record of Jesus.
272 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

French armies, is thought to have invited Leonardo to work with

the French against Tuscany as a battle engineer. While this appears
traitorous to us now, “those scruples,” according to Bramly, were
not known at the time. Leonardo made notes about this liaison with
de Ligny and added the code of anagrams to his mirror-written
script: for example, “Go and find ingil [Ligny] and tell him you
[Leonardo] will wait for him at amor [Roma] and that you will go
with him to ilopan [Napoli].”°?
Astrologically, we should expect to find something covert, even
duplistic in Leonardo’s horoscope development at this time; and
we do: transiting Neptune was at 12 Capricorn exactly square to his
Midbeaven and the accumulated Solar Arc semisquare had peaked!
Again, Leonardo was restless, his services ready for the asking,
courting change.
At the same time, August-September 1499, Leonardo’s SP
Moon was conjunct his Ascendant. He traveled to Mantua, Venice,
and returned to Florence.
During this trip which only took two or three months, Leonar-
do spilled out his inventions and ideas on municipal authorities in
an effort to be hired for the realization of his extraordinary plans.
Chief among them were sub-marine plans for the Venetians against
the Turks, the reclaiming of land from the sea, and the enormous
bridge to Asia from Istanbul (for the Turks!). But no commissions
were offered.

Cesare Borgia
There is simply no despot in Renaissance history as criminal, evil,
and fearsome as Cesare Borgia. To historians—as it did to the peo-
ple of his time—his name suggests “cruelty, deception, impiety, lust,
and incest.” Borgia was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI
and a Roman courtesan. Borgia himself became a cardinal at age
sixteen and was defrocked at twenty-two. His liaison with his sister
Lucrezia was legend in his time and his arrangements of her mar-
riages for political gain were legion; he would summarily dispatch
the suitors and spouses involved. He is said to have had his own
brother stabbed to death; to have arranged orgies for his father the

69 Bramly, 306.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 273

pope’s entertainment. He was even described as “more execrable

than the Turk!” He habitually dressed in black.”°
Cesare’s mission was to conquer central Italy. He was deter-
mined to fulfill the glory of his namesake, Julius Caesar. Figure 12
(page 274) is the horoscope of Cesare Borgia, carefully and thor-
oughly rectified by astrologer Basil Fearrington.
Borgia’s Mars-Saturn conjunction in Leo at the Ascendant,
through monarchical imposition, demands the getting away with
murder and, dare we say, the doing of murder to fulfill ambition.
The dramatic ruler.
It is very interesting to note that Borgia’s Midheaven is quin-
decile (recall Leonardo’s compulsion aspect of Neptune-Moon,
see page 247) to his Sun, which is conjoined by Pluto. This is a
compulsion, a powerfully driving thrust of ego-assertion, didactic
and unemotional (Virgo), stimulated by some early development
problems. Additionally, note Uranus square Mars-Saturn and
Neptune square Moon, tyrannical enforcement and duplicity
within the despotic profile of (at the quality level established for)
Borgia’s life.
Two midpoint pictures round out the dreadful burden within
this horoscope: Pluto=Mars/Uranus (“Force, shock”) and Moon=
Pluto/ Ascendant (“dramatic personal projection”). Pluto oriental,
i.e., rising last before the Sun (clockwise motion) suggests strong-
ly the collection of power through affiliation with or annexation
of others.”!
To fulfill his dream as a military engineer, Leonardo had met his
man in Cesare Borgia. Note that Borgia had Pluto conjunct the Sun
and Leonardo, Pluto square the Sun, that Borgia’s Midheaven
received Leonardo’s Saturn through opposition, and his Jupiter on
the Descendant was square Leonardo’s Sun. The men met in terms
of power, Borgia using it, Leonardo building it. To top if all off,
both Leonardo and Cesare Borgia were illegitimately born. Note
that Borgia’s horoscope in the main is suppressed below the horizon
(“unfinished business” in the early development), echoed by the 8th
House Moon placement and the retrogradation of Jupiter at the
horizon. Each of these men was possessed in his achievements with
a scorn of convention and a quindecile compulsion.

70 All sources. See Bramly, 321-322. And especially, Chamberlin, 191-205.

71 See Tyl, “the Oriental Planet,” Section 3A, Synthesis & Counseling.
274 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Leonardo began his new post in “March—June” 1502. Figure 13

(page 275) again captures this move in Leonardo’s life clearly and
emphatically: SA Ascendant came to exact opposition with the all-
important Pluto power center, again freeing it within the square
with the Sun! SA Moon and transiting Jupiter were conjoining the
Sun and both were squaring Pluto! Transiting Pluto at 0 Sagittarius
was square Leonardo’s Jupiter, ruler of his Ascendant!

15°f 19°

02° 2 21'
€ot Q 55'

15° 2 19' »») = P/Asc

Figure 12
Cesare Borgia
Sept. 13, 1475, 00:55 a.m. LMT
Rome, Italy
12E29 41N54
(Rectification by Basil Fearrington)
Placidus Houses
 LEONARDO DA VINCI @ 275

At this time, Leonardo met Niccol6é Machiavelli who had

been sent by the Signoria of Florence to observe Cesare Borgia,
what he was doing and how he was going about it. Borgia’s
exploits and tactics were to become the centerpiece of Machi-
avelli’s The Prince, which Napoleon regarded as “the only book
worth reading.”/?

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Leonard da Vinci SA Borgia Work
Mar. 15, 1502

72 Please see Fearrington’s life study and rectification of Machiavelli’s horoscope in Tyl-
ed., Astrology Looks at History, “The Princely Warlord,” Llewellyn Publications, 1995.
276 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Leonardo worked separately from his patron, probably never

witnessing any of the horrors. Historians do not know why Leonar-
do—without any notation in his notebooks—then left Borgia and
was back in Florence by March 1503. Since he was withdrawing
long-held savings from the bank in Florence, it can be conjectured
that he perhaps had not been paid by Borgia (so often the case
between patron and protege, i.e., the affiliation was deemed recom-
pense enough). Perhaps Leonardo saw Borgia’s end coming, which
occurred in August 1503 when his father, Pope Alexander VI died.
Borgia lost his power at the top, if you will, and was exiled, first to
Naples and then to Spain.
Astrologically, we can see in Figure 13 (page 275), during the
year with Borgia, that Leonardo’s SA Moon would strengthen its
conjunction with the Sun. Perhaps Leonardo had second thoughts
about military bombast for another’s glory. Perhaps he wanted to
return to being his own artist on his own terms.
Back in Florence, Leonardo at age fifty-one—still extraordinar-
ily celebrated throughout all of Italy—began two very important
commissions, neither one of which would be completed.
The first was the grand plan—backed strongly by Machiavelli—
to defeat Pisa once and for all by diverting the flow of the Arno, the
river coursing thorough both cities. This would be a tremendous
task of earth removal and water management. An enormous effort
was mounted, with workers paid the highest wages, but the war was
won by other means, and all work was stopped. Then Leonardo
adapted the work to peaceful purposes—his automatic cranes, his
gigantic treadmills to dredge up earth—pronosing a canal from Flo-
rence to Pisa (a distance of 120 miles). Horrible weather hampered
progress; there were deaths on the job; friction developed when
wages were lowered; and the project became “the ridiculous dream
of an eccentric.” It was abandoned in October 1504.73
The second commission from the Signoria of Florence was to
depict The Battle ofAnghiari—a celebrated battle between the Flo-
rentines and the Milanese in 1440—on the expansive end wall of its
Grand Council Chamber. This commission became crucially
important to Leonardo and to onlookers throughout Florence
because the young, sensational, brooding, ruthlessly powerful of
body and talent, perpetually stone-dust dirty, brutally acerbic sculp-

73 Allsources. See Vallentin, 346.

 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 277

tor/painter Michelangelo Buonarroti, aged twenty-eight, wanting

to challenge the aging master, had wrangled the commission for the
wall at the other end of the Chamber!”*
Michelangelo had been a star in Lorenzo de’ Medici’s household
and a student of the master Ghirlandaio. He had sculpted the gigan-
tic masterpiece David just the year before. Interestingly, Michelan-
gelo was born with Pluto opposite his Mars-Sun conjunction in
Pisces; this moody power structure was the apex of an enormously
self-defensive Water Grand Trine.”> There is an annotated, caustic
chance meeting in a public square between the great master and the
younger genius: Leonardo suggested some questions he was being
asked by the public be cast Michelangelo’s way, who was just passing
by. Michelangelo thought he was being patronized. He barked back
to Leonardo accusations about the latter being unable to finish any
artwork, ending with, “And the stupid people of Milan had faith in
you?” The stab hurt Leonardo to the quick.”
Shortly after Leonardo began planning The Battle, Ser Piero
died (SP Moon was exactly on Leonardo’s Mars, ruler of his 4th).
The only evidence of emotion is shown through a strange entry of
the date in Leonardo’s notebook: “At 7 A.M. on Wednesday, July 9,
1504, Ser Piero da Vinci, my father, notary to the Podesta, died, at
seven in the morning. He was eighty years old, and left ten sons
and two daughters.” Leonardo had accounted Ser Piero’s age
incorrectly (at most he was sevnty-seven) and he was wrong about
the date: it was not a Wednesday but a Tuesday. Scholars do not
know what to make of the coldness of this important data and its
clumsiness of entry.’? Was it Leonardo’s resentment of Piero’s
early-life abandonment of him, certainly part of his mother-com-
plex anchored to the same condition?
Leonardo was to give up on The Battle (and Michelangelo
never got started either—nude soldiers bathing was his theme—
because he was called to Rome by Pope Julius II to design his tomb
and articulate the Sistine chapel) when his binding agent within

74 Reliably timed birth data for Michelangelo from several sources, including his own notes
and those of his father: March 06, 1475 at 1:45 A.M., LMT, in Caprese Michel, Italy.
75 Michelangelo wrote that he “delighted in melancholy” (Sonnet LXXXI). “He laboured
at all times under a sense of persecution, interpreting entirely innocent phrases as uttered
in malice, with intent to humiliate him (Sun-Moon in Pisces; Saturn retrograde in the
7th square the Nodal axis). See Vallentin, 349.
76 Bramly, 343-345.
77 Vallentin, 343.
278 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

the colors failed; Leonardo watched helplessly as the colossal

drawing on the wall dripped off completely, forever gone. It was
Spring 1505, just six months after the colossal failure of the Pisa
canal; transiting Uranus was exactly square to Leonardo’s Ascendant:
change beginning again, and perhaps with it the slide from the
pinnacle of fame.
Leonardo had become totally fascinated yet again with natural
history. This diversion could very well have undermined his atten-
tiveness to the Pisa project and to the Battle fresco, frustrating in
turn everyone’s efforts on his behalf.
Leonardo was intrigued with fossilized crustaceans found on
mountain tops. Had they been caught up in Noah’s deluge? Crus-
taceans can’t swim! Where did the water go if the earth had been
completely inundated? He made grand deductions (correct) about
changes in the earth’s land and water areas over geological time.
Leonardo conjectured and formulated the concept of sea level. He
hypothesized principles of erosion. He applied his mind to explain-
ing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by natural forces. He
thought he had discovered the soul of the world! He began to man-
age a heretofore unknown force: steam.’®
It is breathtaking to see these grand concepts being worked
night and day by this man’s shining mind, and, as vividly, to see him
in his suffering so isolated from others, driven somehow to make
up—now with Caterina’s death—the separation traumas of his ear-
liest childhood, working through his bitter contempt for family
relationships. The extraordinary quindecile aspect (see page 247)
between Neptune and the Piscean Moon inexorably drove Leonar-
do to private martyrdom, sublimated so much anxiety, supported
inspiration, and birthed visionary accomplishment.

78 Vallentin, 336-339
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 279

Mona Lisa

Vasari tells us that Leonardo undertook a commission from a cer-

tain Francesco del Giocondo: to portray his wife, Monna Lisa. And
Vasari notes that after four years of effort, Leonardo still had not
finished the painting.
Francesco del Giocondo was a wealthy man, married for the
third time in 1495, to a woman named Lisa di Gherardini. In 1505,
Monna (an Italian title for “Mistress, Dame, Lady”) Lisa was about
twenty-six or twenty-seven years old.’?
Vasari had never seen the Mona Lisa, but gives a detailed
description of the portrait’s quality and detail from expert witnesses
and from copies made by other masters and students. We must note
in particular that Vasari was the only person to provide the Monna
Lisa story. Consequently, many other stories were presented: that
the woman Leonardo depicted so intriguingly sensitively was a
favorite mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici, was a mistress of Charles
d’Amboise, or was even the celebrated grand dame Isabella d’Este
(who so eagerly wanted Leonardo to do her portrait only to be curi-
ously and perpetually avoided by Leonardo), or this duchess or that.
There is serious conjecture that Leonardo was painting the ideal
woman, finally discharging his deep maternal complex. Why else
was it never finished? If it were a commission, wouldn’t the com-
missioner have insisted on having the painting after years and years
of waiting? Would he not have sued Leonardo? Perhaps the com-
missioner’s wife died in the meantime and he wanted nothing more
of it? But wouldn’t he want the portrait even more? Had Leonardo
fallen in love with the painting himself?
With Leonardo’ artistic example, painting had become focused
on capturing life precisely, realistically, and in psychological depth;
portraits were to reveal not just features but temperament. There
was heightened interest in capturing a transient thought or mood
on the faces depicted. Vasari put it, “At that time accomplished
artists were setting themselves to the intelligent investigation and
zealous imitation of the true properties of the natural world.”
Leonardo himself had acclaimed that “the painter can even induce
men to fall in love with a picture that does not portray any living

79 Bramly, 362. The portrait to which Leonardo himself never gave a title is known as La
Gioconda (“Mrs. Gioconda”; also, the smiling woman) in Italy, La Jaconde in France, and
Mona Lisa in English and German-speaking countries.
280 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

woman. It once happened to me that I made a picture representing

a sacred subject which was bought by one who loved it—and [who]
then wished to remove the symbols of divinity in order that he
might kiss it without misgivings.”®°
Some historians claim that the Mona Lisa is a portrait of the
artist, of Leonardo himself, in the guise of the idealized woman, the
woman of his life, Caterina, Leonardo’s mother “La Caterina.”
These researchers have explored computer analysis of the painting,
X-rays, etc. to support their hypothesis.
Not one word about the painting or the man who supposedly
commissioned it is found even obliquely in what we have of
Leonardo’s notebooks. The concept about the painting is like the
conceptualization in the painting itself, sfumato, smoky, as seen
through a veil, a mist, a soft focus. Perhaps elsewhere in Leonardo’s
notes, yet to be discovered, the answer will be revealed.
The famous smile was supposedly achieved (Vasari) by Leonar-
do composing music and having it played by instrumentalists in his
studio during the model’s sittings. After Vasari, historians gushed
with romantic reaction to the portrait: the subject’s Christlike peace
defying time; she who has experienced all pleasure and all pain, full
of compassion and understanding.
The portrait has suffered over the centuries: strips of about
seven centimeters (almost three inches) have been cut from each
side; two pillars that originally framed the background landscape
have disappeared; her superbly rendered eyebrows (according to
Vasari) have disappeared; sensitive tones of color that allowed the
onlooker “to see the pulsing of the veins in the hollow of the
throat” are no longer visible.
Astrology can not help with this dilemma. The chronology of
Leonardo’s life and suggestions through Vasari begin to establish
1505, perhaps toward the end of the year, as the time that Mona Lisa
was begun. At that time, SA Uranus was at almost 14 Virgo, moving
into opposition with Leonardo’s Moon within the Neptune-Moon quin-
decile complex. This transit matrix could well have been the catalyt-
ic witness to Leonardo’s portrayal of the ideal woman, la Caterina, a
memorial of perfection.

80 Hale, 215, 434-435. Additionally, Bramly reports that one of the attendants in the Lou-
vre fell in love with the Mona Lisa, which it was his duty to guard. He talked to her and
was jealous of tourists who came too close, claiming that she sometimes smiled back at
them. He was encouraged to take early retirement. Page 396.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 281

The Mona Lisa never left Leonardo until his death in 1519;
King Francis I, caring for Leonardo in France, kept the painting. It
later entered the Louvre Museum in Paris.
And it was stolen! On August 22, 1911, this most famous paint-
ing in the world was stolen one night from the Louvre, where it had
hung for over a century. The painting was not recovered until
December 13, 1913, when it was found in Florence in the posses-
sion of a painter named Vincenzo Perugia.
This theft and the global resurrection of Mona Lisa awareness
can help us confirm Leonardo’s birth time still more. The horo-

TPMC3Q

SP 3414 02

Figure 14
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci) SA Mona Lisa Theft
; Aug. 22, 1911
282 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

scope on page 281 (Figure 14) shows the Solar Arcs for Leonardo
brought forward to that August 22nd in 1911 when his guindeccen-
tial masterwork was stolen. It is astounding what we see: 143,290
days after Leonardo’s death; 459 years, four months, and six days
after his birth, the day chosen by a thief to steal the Mona Lisa was
WITHIN 2 MINUTES OF ARC THE EXACT 5TH OCCUR-
RENCE OF LEONARDO’S 90-DEGREE SQUARE SOLAR
ARC! Every planet and every point in the horoscope was, for the
fifth time in Leonardo’s extended life, precisely square its natal
position as we have timed his birth—within 2 minutes of arc!
Everything about Leonardo da Vinci was emphasized, was
brought to highest focus once again, throughout the modern world.
The theft of the Mona Lisa was a major news story everywhere.
Note as well that SP Jupiter was within 3' of arc opposed natal
Saturn (justification, proving what's right); SP Ascendant was exact-
ly square his Uranus (heightened individual recognition).
The Tertiary Progressions brought TP Moon almost precisely
to the Ascendant that we have determined for Leonardo’s birth, and
the Midheaven almost precisely to Pluto. The distance from partile
here in terms of the Moon is only two days of real time!
The transits are equally astounding: tr Pluto at 29 Gemini 38
was square Leonardo’s critical Neptune (within 32') and the Aries
Point and the midpoints of his Moon/Saturn and Venus/Pluto (See
Figure 4, page 245); and more!
It is no surprise in astrology that horoscopes of the famed
live on after death. For those who have affected time itself, it is
no accident.
At this time of the Mona Lisa, 1505-1506, Leonardo’s study of
gliding and flight came to a climax: his testing of his model, “the
great bird.” In Fiesole, just outside Florence, there was a bare hill
some 1,300 feet high, popularly called Monte Cecero (Swan Moun-
tain, because of its shape). Leonardo was determined to attempt
flight—in utmost secrecy—from the crest of this hill: “From the
mountain that bears the name of the great bird, the famous bird will
take its flight and fill the world with his great fame.”®!
To his mind, this was to be his greatest moment of fame, “fill-
ing the whole world with amazement, filling all records with its
fame, and bringing eternal glory to its birthplace.” But we know

81 Most sources. See Vallentin, 367-368.

 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 283

not of the results; and knowing not in this frame of expectation is

failure. The test took place at the time of the Battle’s failure to hold
to the wall of the Grand Council Chamber. No witness to the flight
attempt ever came forward.
Also at this time, Leonardo immersed himself in the study of
anatomy. His dissection of corpses—some thirty in all, an unheard
of number at that time: men, women, fetuses, the extremely aged—
and his work with slaughtered animals were explained within a
characteristic grandness of plan: “I am revealing to men the origin
of the prime and perhaps the secondary cause of their being ... I
want to work miracles (voglio far miracoli).” Leonardo eventually
was able to make diagnoses in many cases as modern as today’s; for
example, the first report in the history of medicine of a death from
arteriosclerosis, another from pulmonary tuberculosis. He was able
to describe in detail—in pictured detail—the development of the
fetus within the mother’s womb, the accurate curvature of the spine,
the automatic neuromuscular system, the lachrymal canal through
which “the tears rise into the eyes from the heart.”®
Researchers have noted that Leonardo, in his studies of the
reproductive organs, gave short shrift to the female: his drawings
were incomplete (without clitoris or labia minora) and the vaginal
orifice was grotesquely out of proportion. Leonardo thought [sure-
ly in a bias against women, perhaps for the early hurt in relation to
La Caterina] that the private parts of a woman were dispropor-
tionate to those of her partner. He writes, “In general, woman’s
desire is the opposite of man’s. She wishes the size of the man’s
member to be as large as possible, while the man desires the oppo-
site of the woman’s genital parts, so that neither ever attains what
is desired.”83 This depiction was eventually corrected, and extraor-
dinary deductions were made about fertilization and the gestation
process. For the penis, Leonardo believed it to have a life of its
own(!): “This animal often has a soul and an intelligence which are

82 All sources. See Vallentin, 392. His working conditions were so difficult, even macabre:
fighting the hot Italian climate and its effects on decomposition, eschewing embalming
fluids because of their tainting the natural state of the body, working at nights so as not
to draw attention to his labor, the restraint of nausea, etc. And there was the stigma
attached to tampering with the dead: a papal bull issued in 1300 by Boniface VIII estab-
lished excommunication as the penalty for those who eviscerated the bodies of the dead.
This bull was aimed at horrible practices in the Crusades but was generalized as well to
the study of anatomy. Ibid, 389.
83 Bramly, 119-121.
284 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

independent of the man.” He declared the testicles to be the seat

of emotional energy.**
Leonardo’s studies in anatomy became one of the major monu-
ments of his mind; his practical goal was to show the incompetency
of physicians and his idealized goal was to “write down what the
soul is.” These studies continued to absorb him completely
between 1508 and 1511, the period of his most exact drawings and
studies, with SA Pluto conjunct Neptune (concerns of death mat-
ters, unusual experiences, etc.).®°

To Rome
Commissions came to Leonardo from Milan as well at this time. He
shuttled between the two cities. His notebooks filled up with studies
on mechanics, geometry, geology, painting, and, of course, anatomy.
He began work on a bypass of the River Adda at Tre Corni, but he
soon had to return to Florence to assist the sculptor Rustici with a
bronze group for the Baptistry. Then he was back in Milan, concen-
trating on muscles and the dynamics of fluids, and a second equestri-
an monument, which never got beyond the sketch stage. And there
was the masterpiece of the Madonna and Child and Saint Anne.*®
Again in this time period, politics and war interrupted the
course of life. Louis XII was engaged in expansionist policies and
invaded Italy, beginning with Milan. But forces formed in Venice
with allies brought in from Germany and Spain rallied around Pope
Julius I, and Louis was eventually driven out. In the process, the
Pope had stirred up the Swiss—the formidable mercenaries of
Europe at the time—and they attacked where the French had
failed, beginning with an invasion of Milan and its territory. Then
the French came back at the Swiss, back and forth until September
1513, when the French were finally routed and the Swiss were in
control, and the Milanese knew not to whom allegiance was due.

84 Vallentin, 403-404. There are several decidedly homosexual doodles in the notebooks
attributed to Salai (bearing his name), Leonardo’s life-long ward and companion.
85 Leonardo was intent on publishing treatises on every subject imaginable. He came close
to this fulfillment in anatomy through his meeting and planned collaboration with the
young anatomist Marcantonio della Torre, but della Torre died prematurely shortly
after meeting with the master.
86 ‘Turner, 49.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 285

By this time, Leonardo desperately needed a patron. Commis-

sions had all but vanished during the wartimes. He decided to for-
sake the city of his choice and to journey to Rome. He needed a
new patron—the Sforza family was gone, Borgia was gone, the Flo-
rentine government was a shambles. It was the beginning of the
unhappiest time of his life.
Figure 15 (below) clearly shows this time of change—Septem-
ber 24, 1513, when Leonardo left Milan—again reinforcing the
reliability of the birth time through the sensitivity of the angles.

Figure 15
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci SA To Rome
Sept. 24, 1513
286 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Note that the SP Moon was exactly upon the 7th cusp (2
degrees orb, i.e., two months, certainly within the planning period
for such a major change).
SA Moon was square to Mars (“Strong drive to fulfill needs, to
‘Jet it fly;’ disruption,”) and SA Ascendant was conjunct Mars (“The
fighting spirit, robustness”). SA MC was square to Leonardo’s
extraordinary Mercury: Leonardo needed his points of view recog-
nized once gain by a powerful patron/partner. Overall, we can say
that Leonardo, at sixty-one, was looking to start over again, else-
where, at a new level.
Figure 16 (page 287) shows the Tertiary Progressions brought
forward to the day of departure for Rome, September 24, 1513.
The TP Moon and TP Ascendant were at 15-16 Aries exactly oppo-
site Leonardo’s Saturn; TP Uranus was square Leonardo’s Sun. Note
that TP Saturn was at 6 Scorpio square TP Uranus conjunct Pluto,
symbolizing the fall-apart nature of Leonardo’s battle-torn time in
Milan in the recent past.®”
Pope Julius II died during the French evacuation, and the new
Pope was a Medici, the younger son of Lorenzo the Magnificent!
Artists from all over Italy flocked to Rome hoping that the art-sen-
sitive Leo X would distribute glorious commissions to all for the
spirit of Rome. It was to be a golden age. .
Leo X did encourage the arts, but Leonardo, while celebrated,
was no longer in fashion. His reputation was being eclipsed by that of
younger rivals who worked with high energy and great speed. Appear-
ing old beyond his years, with a long white beard, Leonardo was left
to wander in solitary gloom through the corridors of the Vatican.
Leonardo was being sustained at a very meagre standard by
Giuliano de’ Medici, the Pope’s brother, on a monthly stipend that
was “insulting”: hundreds of times less than the payments being
commanded by the glittering young Raphael, for example. Leonar-
do could not play the games of the court, he could not bow to curry
favor of the powerful, and he had no stamina for the competitive
fight with the new maestrini.

87 Also, it is important to note that transiting Pluto came to Leonardo’s Ascendant between
October 1509 and October 1510. This was his peak study time for anatomy, dealing with
dissections of the dead, as we have discussed. Normally, this powerful transit would have
signaled an enormous shift of life perspective, but Leonardo’s environment did not coop-.
erate; he could not shift out of the circumstances he was in until three years later in Sep-
tember 1513. This transit was confined to another level, his search for the soul within the
bodies of the dead.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 287

The art world of Rome—of all Christendom—was focused

around the new Cathedral of St. Peter. Donato Bramante, the
great architect who had collaborated with Leonardo long before at
the court of Milan, had earlier persuaded Pope Julius to pull down
the thousand-year-old basilica of St. Peter and adopt plans for the
grandest cathedral the world would ever see. Work had begun on
the new St. Peter’s in 1506 and would last until 1667(!), utilizing
the genius of Bramante, Raphael, Sangallo, Michelangelo, Mader-
no, and Bernini. Armies of workmen were involved, and all artists

Figure 16
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci (Test) TP To Rome
Sept. 24, 1513
288 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

coveted the inspiration and work being realized there; all wanted to
be a part of the conception.*®
Leonardo threw himself into the study of motion, percussion,
weight, air, botany and, in anatomy, very specifically the lungs and the
larynx. He produced plans for machines to make rope and mint coins.
Finally, the Pope got around to commissioning Leonardo to
drain the marshes, a vast area on either side of the Appian Way in
Rome, that were “a breeding ground for fever.” Leonardo’s experi-
ence with canals came to the fore again, as did his innovative map-
ping abilities, creating the first aerial-view maps, i.e., looking
directly down upon a site instead of from an oblique three-quarter
angle viewpoint.
Leonardo also pioneered the use of solar energy, the light cap-
tured by a huge parabolic mirror, to boil the water in dyers’ vats.
Work on the marshes was stopped after a few years, completed
only some 370 years later, and the work with solar energy was aban-
doned to await our modern times. Leonardo was traveling out of
Rome to other cities as a consultant on art commissions, his time
and attentiveness fractured as always, and later in Rome he was
given commissions to create involved and technically daunting
pageant amusements for the Pope.®?
Another blow to Leonardo’s pride was that Michelangelo was
now the hero of Rome, having just finished the Sistine Chapel.
Then Pope Leo gave Leonardo a commission to paint a pic-
ture. Leonardo immediately began working, not with the subject of
the painting but with distilling juices from certain plants he was
studying to create the proper varnish with which to finish the pic-
ture. Vasari tells us that the Pope exclaimed, in exasperation, “Alas!
This man will never get anything done, for he is thinking about the
end before he begins.” This papal statement was the phrase that
ended Leonardo’ artistic career at the papal court.”
Leonardo’s sketches became heavy, filled with disasters; people
stranded, victimized by nature: the Deluge, the ruins of buildings.
In short, in his chalk studies, he portrayed massacres, which could
only be a projection of the bitter feelings he had toward the world
for his loneliness. As his life was falling away, it is no exaggeration
88 Bramante seems to have forgotten his old friendship with Leonardo. Raphael had
become Bramante’s protege.
89 Bramly, 379-398 for Leonardo’s Rome experience.
90 All sources, See Vallentin, 456.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI + 289

to say that this awesome man who could move the world with his
chalk was dreaming of the annihilation of mankind.
Leonardo’s patron, Giuliano de’ Medici died in March 1516.
Leonardo was again abandoned: transiting Saturn was precisely upon
his rectified Ascendant, and transiting Pluto was still square his Nep-
tune, as it was for so long during the Rome years.
But an astrologer would have seen hope. Figure 17 (page 290)
shows Leonardo’s portrait for this pivotal time: again, as we have
seen so often in key moments of individuality, Leonardo’s Uranus is
highlighted, this time by the Secondary Progressed Moon exactly
in conjunction.
Note the positive, supportive measurements: SA Jupiter is
applying to conjunction with the Sun; SA Ascendant is square
Venus, ruler of his Midheaven; the SA SP Sun is applying to the
Nodal Axis, suggesting a new relationship, a new patron; transiting
Jupiter at 11 Cancer is square the Midheaven. Transiting Uranus
was at 0 Taurus approaching Leonardo’s most responsive Sun.
Some new association must come out of this lonely time.”!
Leonardo decided to abandon Rome and go to France, where
his reputation was still very grand, thanks to the appreciation earli-
er of King Louis XII. Leonardo and his household, which included
Salai, another apprentice of some years standing (and heir-to-be)
Francesco Melzi, and a new servant, left Rome in the Spring of
1517, surely in April, with transiting Uranus conjunct his Sun.
The group took three months for the journey, going through
Florence, Milan, and into France through Grenoble and Lyon to
meet the young, robust King of France, Francis I. The king
received Leonardo with excitement and honor and settled him and
his companions in comfort in a manor house of their own, in
Amboise, connected with the royal house by an underground tun-
nel which the King used daily to go see Leonardo and have long,
long discussions with the master. Francis gave his “favorite painter,
engineer, and architect” a handsome income.
Leonardo helped Francis with plans for a castle and devised
court entertainments, his grand, intricate pageants that some thirty
years before had finally secured the trust of Lodovico Sforza.

91 Looking ahead: we can see SA Pluto 3+ degrees away from opposition with Leonardo’s
dominating Mercury and SA Saturn 2+ degrees away from conjunction with Leonardo’s
Ascendant. The period from mid-1518 to mid-1519 will be critical for the old master.
290 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

On April 23, eight days after his sixty-seventh birthday, Leonar-

do recorded his last will and testament. Vasari tells us that Leonar-
do had been ill for many months and had “desired scrupulously to
be informed of Catholic practice and of the good and holy Christ-
ian religion. Then, after many tears, he repented and confessed.
Since he could no longer stand upright, he had himself supported
by his friends and servants in order to receive the holy sacrament in
piety outside his bed.””

TR by 008

Figure 17
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci SA Medici Death
Mar. 15, 1516

92 Bramly, 406.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 291

Leonardo’s will seems to confirm this last-minute turn to reli-

gion, which he had assiduously avoided throughout his notebook
records of his life. His specifications for his funeral were precise and
painstaking, but absolutely nothing is specified for his burial, for his
tombstone or epitaph. He portioned out his estate, with the bulk
going to young Melzi [who later shared many details with Vasari
personally], including the notebooks.
Leonardo died quietly in the manor house on May 2, 1519.
Figure 18 (below) is Leonardo’s death horoscope, our final
proof for Leonardo’s rectified birth time.
TR41I3m

Figure 18
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Leonard da Vinci (Test) SA da Vinci’s Death
“ May 2, 1519
292 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

SA Pluto had come to exact opposition with Leonardo’s domi-

nating Mercury. SA Saturn had just crossed Leonardo’s Ascendant.
Note that the SP Ascendant was conjunct Jupiter, suggesting a
peaceful passing. TP Mars was precisely opposing, attacking,
Leonardo’s Ascendant; the TP Moon opposed his Uranus, and the
TP Sun was exactly conjunct his Saturn.
The transits are similarly clear: transiting Jupiter is conjunct
Leonardo’s Saturn, Pluto upon his Nodal Axis, Saturn opposed his
Uranus, and, in peace, transiting Venus square his Jupiter.
There is a nice story told in the life studies that Leonardo died
in the arms of the King of France, lamenting to Francis “how much
he [Leonardo] had offended God by not working on his art as much
as he should have.”” Yet, Francis is historically logged as having
been seeing to business too far away to have made it back in time for
Leonardo’s swift passing. However, most recent research has sug-
gested that someone else in the King’s place had officiated at the cer-
emony away from Amboise and that the King, having been advised
of Leonardo’s failing state, could indeed have made the trip back to
Amboise in time to hold the philosopher safe in his last moments.
Biographer Bramly departs from the romantic ending, suggest-
ing that Leonardo probably did mot spend time lamenting his
underachievement; rather, Leonardo (would have) used the time
available to explain his illness to the king and describe his symp-
toms! In a final, deep bow to the Master’s Mercury, Bramly says, “If
he had had pen and ink at hand and the strength to write, he would
surely have recorded in his notebook with what reluctance and suf-
fering the soul leaves the body that has harbored it.””*
Not a trace of Leonardo’s burial place can be detected, the
churchyard having been ravaged by Napoleon and randomly
exploited by generations of families and pillaged by stone masons,
the lead coffins melted down for war efforts and household goods.
Through the notebooks, The Last Supper, the Mona Lisa, and
several other paintings, throughout the world and throughout time,
the presence of an extraordinary mind had been established, a veri-
table Nova of explosive light. That mind was inventive beyond
imagination and imaginative beyond telling. And indeed, perhaps it
is the ultimate contentment with this excellence that mystically sus-
tains the haunting, privately proud smile of La Caterina.

93 All sources. See Bramly, 407.

94 Ibid., 408.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 293

Bibliography

Bramly, Serge. Leonardo: Discovering the Life ofLeonardo Da Vinci. Tr. Sian
Reynolds. New York: HarperCollins. 1991.
Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. New York:
Harper & Row. 1958.
Chamberlin, E. R. The Bad Popes. New York: Dorset. 1969.
Freud, Sigmund. Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory ofHis Childhood. Tr. Alan
Tyson. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Pelican Books. 1963. Introduction
Copyright, Brian A. Farrell, “On Freud’s Study of Leonardo,” 1963.
Garin, Eugenio. Editor. Renaissance Characters. Chicago: University of
Chicago. 1991.
Gould, Cecil. Leonardo: The Artist and the Non-Artist. Boston: New York
Graphic Society. 1975.
Hale, John. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. New York:
Athenum. 1994.
Harding, Michael and Harvey, Charles. Working with Astrology: the Psy-
chology of Harmonics, Midpoints and Astro*Carto*Graphy. London:
Arkana. 1990.
Hart, Ivor B. The World of Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Viking Press.
1961.
Hibbert, Christopher. Florence—The Biography of a City. New York: Nor-
ton & Company. 1993.
Mannering, Douglas. The Art of Leonardo Da Vinci. New York: Excalibur.
1981.
MacCurdy, Edward. Editor. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Vol I.
New York: George Braziller, 1939.
McLanathan, Richard. Images of the Universe: Leonardo Da Vinci, the Artist
as Scientist. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. 1966.
Merejcovski, Dmitri. The Romance ofLeonardo Da Vinci. Tr. Bernard Guil-
bert Guerney. New York: Heritage Reprints. 1938.
Munkasey, Michael. The Astrological Thesaurus, Book 1: House Keywords. St.
Paul, MN: Llewellyn. 1992.
Ring, Thomas. Astrologisiche Menschenkunde. Freiburg: Bauer Verlag. 1956.
. Genius und Daemon. Publication data not available.
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Sypher, Wylie, “Leonardo’s Mystery,” in Book Week publication, Septem-

ber 25, 1966.
Turner, A. Richard. Inventing Leonardo. New York: Knopf. 1993.
Tyl, Noel. Prediction in Astrology. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications,
1991.
. Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn
Publications, 1994.
Vallentin, Antonin. Leonardo Da Vinci. Tr. E. W. Dickes. New York:
Viking Press. 1938.
Williams, Trevor I. The History of Invention. London: Macdonald & Co.
1987.
Zubov, V. P. Leonardo Da Vinci. Tr. David M. Krause. Cambridge: Har-
vard University Press. 1968.
 LEONARDO DA VINCI # 295

Index

Adoration of the Magi, 258 Leonardo, handwriting, 233

Anatomy, study of, 283 Leonardo, his fears, 245
Antonio, Leonardo’s grandfather, Leonardo, his mind and
236, 249, 251 Mercury, 244
Aries Point, 242 Leonardo, imagination,
Borgia and Leonardo, 273 vision, 242
Borgia, Cesare, 272-273, 274, 275 Leonardo, qualities, 230, 232,
Bramante, 287, 288 233, 238
Caterina, Leonardo’s mother, Leonardo, teenage years, 250, 259
234-235, 249, 265, 266, 278, Lorenzo de’ Medici, 252, 257,
280, 283 258
Charles VUI, French Machiavelli, Niccolo, 275
invasion, 268 Maternal influence, 244, 247
Family estrangement, 241 Mercury in Aries, 244, 245, 264
Fearrington, Basil, 273 Michelangelo Buonarroti, 277,
Flight, study of, 282 287, 288
Florence, Leonardo as Milan, relocation to, 237
apprentice, 251 Misanthropy, 240, 264
Florence, the city, 252 Mona Lisa, 279, 280
France, journey to, 289 Mona Lisa, theft, 281
Francis I, 231-232, 289, 291 Munkasey, Michael, 247
Freud, Sigmund, 234 Neptune Complex, 246
Goethe, 271 Note-taking, 231
Homoerotic analysis by Notebooks, 231, 233
Freud, 234 Piero, Leonardo’s father, 236,
Homosexuality, 235, 248, 254, 249, 251
283 Quindecile aspect, 247, 266, 278
Inventions, 262-263, 264, 276, Raphael, 230, 286, 287
278, 288 Renaissance, 229
Landscape dated 5 August 1473, Reproductive organs, study
254 of, 283
Last Supper, 232, 241, 268 Ring, Thomas, 246
Leo, Alan, 247 Rome, journey to, 284
Leo X, 47, 285, 286, 288 Salai, Leonardo’s ward, 265
Leonardo and Cesare Borgia, 273 Saturn and fear, 245
Leonardo as musician, 259 Saturn in Libra at the
Leonardo as philosopher, 230, Midheaven, 239
232 Saturn opposed Mercury, 241
Leonardo, birth, 236 Saturn retrograde, 240
Leonardo, death, 291-292 Scandal, 256
Leonardo, earliest family Sforza horse monument, 267, 268
shift, 248 Sforza, Lodovico, 259, 260, 262,
Leonardo, failure to complete 268, 290
works, 232 Sodomy trial, 256, 257
296 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Soul, 284 The Battle of Anghiari, 276, 277

St. Peter’s Cathedral, 287-288 The David, 277
Studies, 250, 263-264, 265, 270, Vasari, Giorgio, 229, 231, 244,
271, 282, 283, 284, 288 251, 258, 279, 288, 290
Sun square Pluto, 242 Verrocchio, 251, 254
Sun/Moon midpoint, 244 Vulture dream, 234
Tertiary Progressions, 249
 Beethoven
Da Da Da
a

=i he key. Tonality. An astrological

In music, the key is the sound . .
grounding of any piece, the cen- Bear aE
tral tone (tonality) around which the the birth date
music is composed. A tonal color is estab- and time of
lished, and, not surprisingly, tests have
shown that non-musicians and musicians Ludwig van
alike react similarly to keys, to tonalities, Beethoven
so strong is the archetypal manifestation »
of a color, a mood, an energy level through
the sound.
For example, play on the piano (or have played for you) in the
middle register, with the right hand, the notes E and then A, in that
order, going down from the E to the A. Do you hear the sound of an
“ending,” the sound of bringing the music to a final stopping point?
That progression (musicians call it the dominant-tonic progression)
is the same in every key, in various colors; the fifth degree of the
scale always leads to, calls out for, the first degree.
Play the notes again, this time adding a C# after the E: E-C#-A.
This C# is called the “third” of the chord; the three notes together
establish the grounding sound of the key of A-Major. Now play
them in reverse: A-C#-E and hold each note down as you play the
others. To most of us, A-Major is the color red—play the chord
strongly—hear the sounding of bright finality.

297
298 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Now, try playing the A and then the D below it: this is the same
progression, the same sound of coming to rest, but the A has
become the dominant of a different key, the key of D, a scale of
entirely different coloration (play the notes A, F#, and D down-
ward; D-F#-A upward, for the grounding in D-Major).
Astrologically, we can translate this to the Sun being the base
(tonic) of a key (a particular life-coloring sign) and the Moon
being the dominant (fifth degree), and the Ascendant being the
third degree, a very important variable within the scale. They all
go together; they must. Each relies on the other to establish
the whole.
A second example, please: play the D-F#-A triad (the group of
three notes that work together as the tonic or root chord of D-
Major). Listen to it intently. Next, sove the F# down one-half step,
i.e., to the white key just below it, abutting it, F-natural. Now, play
the notes D-F-A together. Just listen to the change accomplished by
altering the third degree of the scale (the Ascendant)!
That change of key is a change from D-Major to D-Minor, per-
haps Sagittarius to Scorpio; all the difference in the world when the
composer wants to adjust mood coloration.
Beethoven played tricks with these tonal regimens, these well-
tempered concepts of acoustics. He planned his earth-shaking
Ninth Symphony with a grounding in D-minor (D-F-A), but
instead of establishing that key clearly at the outset of the work, as
a composer should and must traditionally, he introduced the deep
grounding of an A (played by the big double-basses) and repeated
over it fleetingly (with the violins), many times, the notes A to E.
There is no “D” in sight!
Surprisingly and daringly, this A beginning the Ninth Sympho-
ny emerges (along with the E) as part of the dominant chord of the
D-Minor scale (the chord built upon the fifth degree of D-minor,
A-C-E); Beethoven then leads us dramatically and innovatively
back to the base tonality instead of establishing it clearly at the out-
set for our maximum listening comfort. Beethoven creates tension
and drama in unique ways.
The title of this chapter on the life of Beethoven captures the
most famous of all his musical phrases, the rhythmic statement (G,
G, G to E-flat; a descending major third), from the very beginning
of his Fifth Symphony. Beethoven played a trick here as well (six-
teen years before the Ninth): using the dominant of G (and tipped
 BEETHOVEN # 299

off by the E-flat), he leads the listener into the key of C-minor (per-
haps Beethoven’s most favored key, C-E-flat-G), the grounding of
this symphony, but then he ends it in the key of C-Major (C-E-G),
the transition from night to daylight! Beethoven did the same in his
final Symphony, beginning in D-minor and ending in D-Major,
again darkness to light. This individualistic creative way captures
symbolically the essence of Beethoven’s shadowed realm of neuro-
sis giving birth to genius illumination.
In his defiance of established structure and practice, Beethoven
created grand new forms for his inspiration. In the “Da-Da-Da Da
Fifth,” the rhythmic motif dominates the work, even to the point of
displacing any particular melody to lead the ear to fulfillment. In so
many, many ways—technically and inspirationally—Beethoven
transformed music from the Classical Era to the Romantic Era.!
Such avant-garde practice dominated Beethoven’s personal life
as well. For almost fifty years, Beethoven denied the year in which he
was born; he avoided this grounding tonality as best he could. Even
more, there is no valid statement anywhere in the biographical
sources with regard to the date on which he was born; we only have
the December date of his Christening.
Beethoven even ignored his parentage.
There are reasons for all this, to be sure: psychological games
being played out at the core of Beethoven’s identity, which have
been extremely well-annotated throughout a century-of study and
will be revealed in our rectification process.
Our objective here, then, is to determine the astrological tonali-
ty of Beethoven’s birth: to establish the key, the major and minor
colorations, the principle themes, and, most helpfully, the rhythms
in time that lead us to knowing measurement and appreciation of
Beethoven’s rebellious life and inspired genius. That is the chal-
lenge to astrology, with its own music of Sun, Moon, Ascendant,
aspects, and development sounds.

1 Indeed, the so-called modern music of any era usually makes a departure from estab-
lished practice in terms of tonalities and progressions. The twelve-tone scale conceived
by Austrian born Arnold Shoenberg (1874-1951), for example, dictates that each note of
the entire chromatic scale be sounded in composition before any note can be repeated!
This atonal (against the establishment of a central key) movement influenced twentieth-
century music dramatically.
300 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Birth Date and Lineage

Bonn, Germany in 1770 was a neat, clean, elegant city at a pic-
turesque bend in the Rhine river in the southwest of the country. Its
population numbered about 12,000 persons. The archbishop and
the Elector (a very important prince-like figure) were established
there. Bonn was bustling with courtiers, politicos, servants, and
small businessmen. While Bonn’s artistic and cultural life was well-
developed and influential, the music capital of the Holy Roman
Empire was clearly Vienna, and serious artists had to go there to
make their mark in the world.
Beethoven’s paternal grandfather, Ludwig van Beethoven
(1712-73), was a bass singer with a secure position in the chapel at
the court in Bonn. He had come from Belgium—and the Flemish
“van” in his name becomes very important in his namesake grand-
son’s life, in contradistinction to the ponene?, nobility-
signifying “von” in German.
Kapellmeister Ludwig's son was Johann (1740-92), also a career
musician, as violinist, singer, and harpsichordist. He continued the
family’s musical tradition by teaching his own son, our Ludwig
(1770-1827) music in brutal, intense, tyrannical fashion. Johann
suffered a lifelong shadow from the celebrity and grandness of his
father (who also disapproved of Johann’s marriage) and from the
precociousness of his son, our Ludwig. Johann got lost in the young
boy’s excellence, and in his eclipsed state, turned to drink and
became unstable.
Beethoven’s mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, held things
together. She was “born on” (a rare mention of birth date, since the
Christening date was the date of importance in those times) Decem-
ber 19, 1746, three days after what would be the birth date of her
genius son, as we shall see. Frau Beethoven had a Sun-Jupiter con-
junction in Sagittarius, with the Moon probably in Pisces, with a
Water Grand Trine, all suggesting a philosophical way of managing
life, with keen private reliance on some inner, sustaining spiritual
sense. She is portrayed as pious, kind, grave, and resigned; pained,
suffering, and righteous.
Three things are important here in reference to the mother.
Maria Magdalena was herself born into a family that was racked
with pain: a father who died when she was twelve and a mother
who was a cook in the court, had six children, four of whom died,
 BEETHOVEN # 301

a nervous breakdown, a problem with drink, and a precipitous death

in abject poverty. Second, Maria Magdalena saw all of this as a
“chain of sorrows,” which she identified with the married state.
In a discussion with young Caecilia Fischer [a key source of
biography since the Beethovens had rented a flat in the home of
Caecilia and her brother’s parents], Maria Magdalena remarked:
“If you want to take my good advice, remain single, and then you
will have the most tranquil, most beautiful, most pleasurable life.
For what is marriage? A little joy, but then a chain of sorrows.”?
Caecilia reported carefully that the young Ludwig, probably aged
five, was in the room at the time and overheard this conversa-
tion distinctly.
Third, Maria Magdalena herself had seven children with
Johann, four of whom died. A key consideration here is that her first
Beethoven child, who was christened on April 2, 1769, was named
Ludwig Maria, after grandfather Kapellmeister Ludwig and the
mother, but this Ludwig lived for only six days. Our Ludwig, the
master to be, was born twenty months later in mid-December 1770.
From these background details, we can anticipate dimensions of
parental tension, family anxiety, to be prevalent in Beethoven’s life
and, of course, in his horoscope. He would be born into a very, very
difficult life space: a stoic, suffering mother, a lowly, “ne’er-do-well”
father with a tyrannical, driving temperament, the pervasive specter
of a luminous grandfather, and an earlier namesake born first, ahead
of him, and dead. From the heights to which we know Beethoven
ascended creatively and conceptually, we can hypothesize that his
formative family concerns were commensurately deeply imbedded
in his emotional makeup, in the patterning of his relationships with
the world. We can anticipate that many explanations of much
behavior will be reasonably and clearly rooted in these family ten-
sions. That is how humankind develops; through echo, alteration,
or denial of inherited circumstances.
Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized in the Saint Remigius
Parish Church in Bonn on December 17, 1770. There is simply
no doubt about this. The christening certificate in the Registry at
Bonn exists today, and it is clear as a bell: “... de decima septima
Decembris Baptizatus est Ludovicus.” Every detail is presented in
legible Latin: the sponsors were Beethoven’s grandfather, the

2 Solomon, 9.
302 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Kapellmeister, and the wife of the next-door neighbor, Johann

Baum, clerk of the electoral cellar, etc.’
It is reported in almost all sources that it was the custom at the
time in the Catholic Rhine country not to postpone the baptism
beyond twenty-four hours after the birth of a child. Thayer (see
Bibliography), the most voluminous and respectedly definitive
biographer of Beethoven, says that “it is in the highest degree prob-
able that Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770.”*
Here and there in other sources, there is a confusion between
“being born” and “being christened (or baptized).” Schindler (see
Bibliography) says flatly that Beethoven “was born in Bonn on 17
December 1770,” but there is an editor’s footnote that corrects this
statement to the date of Beethoven’s baptism, suggesting that birth
on the 16th is probable.
Kendall (see Bibliography) says “the date of his birth has usual-
ly been taken to have occurred two days previously, on the 15th of
December, and certainly he [Beethoven] seems to have regarded
that date as his birthday, though there is a tradition [of other
researchers, saying the 16th] so that 16 December would seem
more probable.”° It seems as if Kendall didn’t really care to check
this out; and where Beethoven’s alleged own reference to the 15th
comes from I have been unable to uncover. It is Beethoven’s
nepbew’s reference to the 15th (in a letter to the master) that is jar-
ring in the scheme of things, and probably influenced Kendall.®
[This nephew, Karl, will figure prominently in Beethoven’s life and
our rectification, for other reasons.]
Even (Dr.) Franz Wegeler (see Bibliography), a close friend of
Beethoven for many, many years, states, “Our Ludwig was born on
17 December 1770,” but there is an accompanying editorial com-
ment that this mistake is “incomprehensible.” I think that Wegeler,
five years older than Ludwig, confused baptism with birth under
the protracted duress of helping Beethoven in his extraordinary
custody battle for his nephew: the baptismal certificate which
Wegeler procured for Beethoven at his behest assumed great
importance in finally establishing his birth year and negating
Beethoven’s tacit approval of the story that he was of noble birth.

Thayer, Volume 1, 53; and other sources.

Ibid., 53.
Kendall, 10.
pw
nu Wegeler and Ries, note 171.
 BEETHOVEN # 303

In summary, then, the swirl of conjecture about the birth date is

complicated by several considerations:

First — Noble Birth

Beethoven appeared to deny his family beginning.’ Instead of his real-
ity, he held on to a “Family Romance,” a very powerful life-
pervasive psychodynamic defense structure. The Family Romance is
a fantasy structure conceived by Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank
whereby the child replaces one or both of his parents with elevated
surrogates—heroes, celebrities, kings, or nobles. Biographer Solomon
integrates this concept into Beethoven’s life adroitly, meaningfully. It
becomes an important astrological point of analysis as well.
Beethoven felt. deeply special. He lived with his genius while
being completely aware of it. It is undeniable that he thought there
must have been more about his origins to support, justify, and lead
to his noble excellence.
Additionally, in a time of frequent misspellings and typograph-
ical errors, Beethoven was not uncomfortable with the occasional
change in his name from “van” to the German nobility’s “von” [of
the lineage of]. Faced with his greatness and his regular appear-
ances in the highest social circles, people assumed that he did have
the noble birth that was provocatively suggested by the prefix to
his surname.®
Rumor had it that Beethoven was the (illegitimate) son of King
Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia (and the cook’s char-daughter).
Beethoven let that rumor live quietly, in between the lines of his
thoughts and in between the thoughts of all those around him, until
the month before he died!?

7 Schindler wrote: “Beethoven himself as a rule did not speak of his early youth, and when
he did he seemed uncertain and confused,” 46.
8 For example, the announcements and a review of a concert on March 29, 1795 refer to
“Herr Ludwig von Beethoven,” as does an announcement for a concert in 1797. Even
Goethe wrote of “von” Beethoven; the police filed a secret report on “Herr von
Beethoven.” Solomon, 87-88.
9 Ina long, intimate letter to Wegeler—answering a Wegeler letter one year late(!)
Beethoven wrote, “You say that I have been mentioned elsewhere as being the natural
son of the late King of Prussia. Well, the same thing was said to me a long time ago. But
I have adopted the principle of neither writing anything about myself nor replying to
anything that has been written about me. Hence, I gladly leave it to you to make known
to the world the integrity of my parents and especially of my mother.” Beethoven
delayed mailing this extremely late letter two months more, just a few weeks before his
death. Solomon, 286.
304 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

It is fascinating to note that Beethoven sought and received

permission to dedicate his last symphony, the Chorale Ninth, to
Friedrich Wilhelm III, the scion of Beethoven’s imagined father.
In a dedicatory passage in the score, Beethoven wrote, “Your
Majesty is not only the supreme father of your subjects but also
the patron of arts and sciences ... I too, since I am a native of Bonn,
am fortunate enough to regard myself as one of your subjects.”!° I
can not help reading here Beethoven’s private paternity claim pre-
sented to the unknowing son of Friedrich Wilhelm II, in fantasy,
his half brother! 1 can not help acknowledging that the dominant
theme of the Ninth Symphony (using much of Schiller’s Ode to Foy
as text) is brotherhood.
Beethoven was advised that he would receive a commendation,
a decoration from the King for his grand accomplishment and ded-
ication of the Ninth. Beethoven told Wegeler that he hoped and
expected that a Royal Order would be forthcoming as a token of
appreciation. Finally, he would become a noble!
But Beethoven received no decoration. Instead, along with a
small note of appreciation, he was to be sent a diamond ring (Bril-
lantring). The ring arrived; not a diamond, but a cheap “reddish-
looking stone,” which was appraised at low value. Proudly above it
all and embarrassed to anger—and undoubtedly deeply hurt—
Beethoven insisted that the ring be sold.
According to his friend, Karl Holz (whom Beethoven autho-
rized to write his biography), who urged Beethoven to keep the
ring, Beethoven rose up before him and “with indescribable digni-
ty and self-consciousness proclaimed: ‘I too am a King!”

Second — The Earlier Ludwig

The master loved his namesake, the Kapellmeister, and he could
well have felt put out that his mother’s first-born had been given
the grandfather’s name first (undoubtedly to put father Johann
back into the Kapellmeister’s good graces). But Beethoven could
just as easily have seen his own soul waiting for the better time, the
stronger body into which to be born. We don’t know, but
Beethoven often said that 4is Christening date was that of the dead

10 Ibid., 288.
 BEETHOVEN @# 305

first Ludwig, and that he himself had been born two years later
than in reality, in 1772! Bizarre denial.
There is no logic in this, no rational deduction possible. Some
theorists suggest that Johann changed Beethoven’s birth date (in
publicity) to make him two years younger and appear even more
precocious than he was, perhaps to compete with the memories of
the astounding Mozart child some fifteen years earlier. But there is
absolutely no shred of evidence to support this. Johann did not fal-
sify the birth information; Ludwig did.

Third — The Pain of the Father

Johann “inflicted” teaching upon Beethoven. Beginning at age four
or so, Johann used his tutelage of young Ludwig as a means to
reassert his importance in the family circle. His father, the much-
loved Kapellmeister, had just died (and young Ludwig kept a por-
trait of the grandfather with him all his life), and Johann clearly saw
Ludwig’s extraordinary potential. All sources say that Johann con-
ducted his teaching of the supremely gifted child (initially clavier
and violin) in a brutal manner. There were witnesses that Ludwig
was forced to stand on a little footstool at the clavier, weeping, to
play his lessons; that the father was implacably severe, not merely
strict, but cruel. Young Ludwig would at times be punished and
locked up in the cellar.!!
Biographers report uniformly what Solomon words so aptly:
“We have, then, a matrix of family circumstances, actions, and atti-
tudes which might well have led to permanent disillusionment and
despair. It is testimony to Beethoven’s strength and resiliency of
character that he was able to withstand these stresses.... Apparently
abandoning any hope of establishing warm and loving relationships,
Beethoven largely withdrew from the society of his fellows and
playmates, and from his parents as well.”!?
Beethoven was unable to learn anything at school much
beyond simple addition in arithmetic. He amazed those around
him by how gifted he was in music and how ungifted he was in
everything else. It seems that young Ludwig retreated into the fan-
tasy of his music, a “protective cloak of his daydreams.” And here

11 Ibid., 16.
12 Ibid., 19.
306 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Solomon appends Freud’s well-known theory that “unsatisfied

wishes are the driving power behind fantasies; every separate fan-
tasy contains the fulfillment of a wish, and improves on unsatisfac-
tory reality.” We will return to this Neptunian signification of
psychological defense later.
The Family Romance of noble birth was a fantasy component
used to discharge the anxiety of namesake complications with his
grandfather whom Beethoven adored as a father surrogate and
model, even though the old man died when Beethoven was three;
his earlier-born dead brother, the original namesake for Ludwig;
and the tyranny of his father Johann’s teaching and discipline, all
within a sorrow-full existence. How possibly could he, the
Beethoven, come from such mean surroundings? He had to have
been born of privilege and fanfare, somehow a noble!
For rectification, we are strongly alerted then to a focus of
developmental tension that ust involve the parental axis somehow,
within the 4th-10th House axis and/or involving the significators of
these two Houses. There will surely be a tie-in as well with the 7th
House of relationships, a-lifelong frustration for Beethoven.
Clearly, these bold, initial deductions about Beethoven’s per-
sonality development call attention to the angles ofthe horoscope: they
will be highly accentuated, we can be sure. But what are the plane-
tary values we are working with? In our general orientation, we
must be astrologically sure of December 16, 1770 as the date of
birth. To make that judgment, we must cast an eye to the 15th as
well, the reference made by nephew Karl.
Here in Figure 1 (page 307), we see the planets at noon on
December 16, 1770. Let’s get a general feel for the planetary ener-
gies and the aspect groups. With this orientation, we will then be
able to zero in on the Moon position, test the timing of develop-
ment with Solar Arcs and Transits, and then determine an Ascen-
dant. We will be building the root chord of Beethoven’s life tonality.
Beethoven’s planetary positions for the 16th show the Sun and
Mercury and almost surely the Moon in Sagittarius: here is an
extraordinary thrust of opinionation. This is a brilliant Sun-Moon
combination indeed, focusing strongly on nervous cerebral energy,
ideas, spirited devotion to everything one believes in, a tenacity to
one’s personal point of view. With Mercury involved as well, very
close to the Sun, we have a fired up train of thought for sure, a -
series of locomotives!
 BEETHOVEN # 307

Also, we can expect a very strong affinity with the out-of-doors,

with Nature, with exuberance, with the sheer exercise of selfhood.
Mars opposes Mercury exactly at the core of the triple conjunc-
tion in Sagittarius. Mars in Gemini suggests an intense need to
apply energies in communication, to champion diversity and any-
thing cerebral, and to do it always powerfully and drivingly in the
life. This Mars opposition axis with the Sun-Mercury and probably
the Moon in Sagittarius is perhaps the most dramatically impelling

25°
II32

Figure 1
Beethoven/Planetary Orientation
Dec. 16, 1770, 12:00 P.M. LMT
Bonn, Germany
07E05 50N44
Placidus Houses
308 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

drive, thrust, imposition-of-thought picture possible in the astro-

logical lexicon. This is enormous tension expressed in cerebral and
creative pursuits, in arch-opinionation, and self-assertion.”?
Mars is retrograde: there is an important psychodynamic
counterpoint here, which usually corresponds to some rationaliza-
tion, some superiorly conceived justification for one’s energy. The
energy goes in before it goes out, for censorship, adjustment, or
camouflage. There can be a smoldering, a brooding, a delayed reac-
tion. We have already seen the great scope of problems in
Beethoven’s home life and his concerns about lineage. These could
fill out the retrogradation premise of this Mars, especially if this
high-tension axis with the Sun-Mercury and probably the Moon zs
tied in with the parental axis.
On Beethoven’s birth date, Saturn was also retrograde: we can
expect “difficult (even inferiority) feelings taken on in the early
home life through relationship with the father figure, usually the
father, who somehow was taken out of the picture early; or was
there but absent or passive; or was so tyrannical ... one or any com-
bination of these ... so as not to have given the guidance of author-
itative love.”!*
Here we have part of Beethoven’s father-family syndrome (the
grandfather’s shadow, the father’s brutality) which we must capture
astrologically. Additionally, Saturn in Leo almost always suggests
that ambition will be fulfilled through dramatic means, that the ego
center will be put forward strongly, in showy fashion. We can sense
an overcompensatory development here, out of the coercion of the
home and the father’s program and into the freedom of dramatic
self-expression far away from it all. We can feel especially sure
about this deduction because Beethoven’s Saturn in Leo is trining
his Mercury and Sun. Will it also be trining his Moon?
Saturn is squared by Uranus in Taurus: any relationship
between these two planets is always a suggestion of there being new
ways of doing things or the breaking away from tradition and
embracing the avant garde; the modern, the new, and the different
all beckon. This is a forceful identification with a generation gap,

13 Martin Luther King (January 15, 1929 at 11:21 A.M., CST in Atlanta, Jim Lewis rectifi-
cation) had a most pronounced Mars in Gemini, retrograde and opposed Saturn in Sagit-
tarius. It figures dramatically in King’s philosophy of non-violent rebellion. See Ty],
Synthesis & Counseling.
14 Ibid., 40.
 BEETHOVEN # 309

with any new way of looking at things. This is often a backdrop sig-
nificator of rebelliousness, the promise for change.
Uranus-Neptune-and-Pluto comprise a Grand Trine, a classic
defense-mechanism of practical self-sufficiency (in Earth).!5 An epi-
thet to describe this construct would be “I don’t need your help” or
“T can and will do it my way.” It defines individuation and it encour-
ages over-doing things to prove one’s point. It can easily develop
within home life pressures to establish and protect a private sense ofself-
worth, to ward off anxiety about esteem issues. It is very important
to note that with any Grand Trine construct relationships are denied
to a great degree. In other words, self-protecting measures work nat-
urally against relationship and the exchange of resources with oth-
ers. So often we can easily get the feeling through a Grand Trine of
someone being a law unto one’s self.
The way for the defensive energies to get out of a Grand Trine
and into the flow of life development offensively is through a square
or opposition formed with one of the points of the Grand Trine.
We have just discussed that Uranus squares Saturn and that Uranus
is within the Grand Trine. This is a key, then, Uranus: the planet of
electrifying individuality, rebellion, and genius. Beethoven was
indeed a law for himself only to follow.
Here we must make special note of something remarkable: the
planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel in the night
sky over London on March 13, 1781, probably around 11:00 P.M.,
LMT.!¢ At the moment of discovery, Uranus was positioned at 24
Gemini 27, opposed by Mars at 23 Sagittarius, a fitting image of the
symbolism established for all time for Uranus. Now, as we prepare
this rectification of Beethoven’s horoscope, please note that the
planet Uranus upon its discovery for all of time to come was exactly
opposed, in full awareness of, Beethoven’s Sun!
The fact that the Earth Grand Trine exists without the Sun or
Moon’s involvement (statistically more infrequent) suggests that
Beethoven’s defensive construct of practical self-sufficiency existed
separately from the major thrust of his personality. In short, his
extreme independence, while self-protecting on the one hand, will
probably operate as an isolating complex on the other.

15 Ibid., section beginning 282.

16 Jawer, Jeff. “The Discovery of the Outer Planets,” Tyl, How to Personalize the Outer Plan-
ets. Llewellyn, 1992.
310 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Schindler reports that Beethoven had three ancient Egyptian

inscriptions “framed and mounted under glass, on his work table.”!”
They read as follows:
‘

I am that which is.

I am Everything that is, that was, and that will be.

No Mortal Man has lifted my Veil.

He is of Himself Alone, and it is to this Aloneness that All

Things owe their Being.

Solomon states that these inscriptions, so close to Beethov-

en’s feelings, are “poignant reminders of the master’s withdrawal
to an impregnable self-sufficiency, a self-sufficiency which ulti-
mately prevailed against his longings for love.” The formidable
Grand Trine.
Yes, we must ask here, “isolating from what?” Will it be rela-
tionships, from which Beethoven showed early withdrawal? Will
the withdrawal be just because of his deafness? Will the withdrawal
be from a particular kind of relationship? We can see that none of the
planetary bodies in the test horoscope is in a Water sign. If this holds up,
emotional identification will be difficult for Beethoven; characteris-
tically with this astrology, he will want to relate to some exalted
extreme in order to gain emotional orientation. Is it that he will be
isolated then from normal emotional relationships? Is there an emo-
tional relationship complex here born out of the early home life dif-
ficulties, defended by the self-isolation and superiority feelings
(Saturn retrograde in Leo), and discharged in creative genius?
Venus in this noon-test chart, Figure 1 (page 307), is in Capri-
corn and is peregrine, i.e., not in Ptolemaic aspect (or essential dig-
nity) to any other body.'® Usually the peregrine planet trumpets its
symbolic significance throughout all that the personality does,
through what it represents to society. It becomes a most significant
singleton. In effect, it dominates, it permeates, it colors the life
behaviorally, strongly, in terms of the planetary archetype. It can
run wild. Here, Venus is in Capricorn, which usually corresponds to
a delayed socio-emotional maturation. This could be another indi-

17 Schindler-MacArdle, 365; Thayer-Forbes, 481-482.

18 Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology, section beginning 155.
 BEETHOVEN # 311

cation of relationship difficulties for Beethoven, running amuck

with the personality’s development, the tension finally discharging
itself into extraordinary creativity, i.e., relationship fulfillment
through ideals expressed at another level.
Jupiter, the planetary symbol of enthusiasm, of one’s hope
(need) for a particular kind of reward, is also powerful in this horo-
scope: it is also peregrine, also in Capricorn. Jupiter in Capricorn
commands opportunities to prove the Self’s authority and impor-
tance. Jupiter is also the dispositor of the Sun, Mercury, and proba-
bly the Moon, and possibly the Midheaven.
For the Romans and the Italian ancients before them, Jupiter
(Diespiter in early Latin) was the god of the sky, the supreme deity.
Jupiter was also Jove, the Greek Zeus, Yahweh, Jehovah. Jupiter
could influence the course of history and clarify the future. On the
hundredth anniversary of Beethoven’s death in 1927, the musicolo-
gist Hans Joachim Moser, describing a classicistic commemorative
statue to the master, said: “Beethoven is deified; as a ‘superman,’ a
‘Prometheus,’ indeed a ‘Jupiter,’ the naked Olympian is enthroned
above the neo-baroque bombast of highly-colored marble and gold-
en bronze, above Alpine peak, eagle and thundercloud, with the
clenched fists of the C-minor Symphony [the Fifth] and the bitter,
tight-pressed lips of the first movement of the Ninth.” Beethoven
was Diespiter, the Jupiterian archetype.!”
Astrologically, then, we have clear indications so far of the drive
and drama, the developmental tension and the compensatory
behaviors, the potential break away to freedoms, the isolationist
protectionism, the possible psychological complexes about family
and relationships.
But where is the music? Shouldn’t we see something about inspi-
ration, about imagination, fantasy, beauty, idealizations, even the
self-deception and charade that, as we shall see, issued from
Beethoven’s complexes? What about Neptune?
In the noon-test horoscope, Neptune is also within the Earth
Grand Trine. Pluto is placed within it too. Obviously, in our recti-
fication reach for Beethoven’s genius, we want to see if and how
the awesome Grand Trine structure (not involving the Sun or
Moon) is fed into the arena of the personal planets. Uranus squares
Saturn, as we have seen, and this Saturn clearly reaches to relate by

19 Notes, Beethoven/Bernstein, 66, Deutsche Grammophon, 1980.

312 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

trine to the Sagittarius group. When we “move” the Moon within

Sagittarius, we can at best get a semisextile relationship with Pluto
from somewhere near the noon mark, and with a small adjustment
we can clarify the square with Neptune.In this way, the three outer
planets, the grand defensive structure of practical self-sufficiency,
the management of structure (Earth), would definitely have an escape
outlet into the dynamically charged Sagittarian-Gemini axis. This
would integrate the entire horoscope, save for the two peregrine
planets, Venus and Jupiter!
Neptune square the Moon suggests a lack of realism, a day-
dreaming, a romantic reverie, an imagination, a distancing through
idealization. Without Water emphasis in the horoscope, with Venus
peregrine, with Neptune possibly squaring the Moon and—
through the Moon—Mercury and the Sun as well, we easily see the
master alone, inspired, reaching for the unattainable. A key to our
detailed study later will be the formative problems in Beethoven’s
life relationships reflected in the dramatic pathos of his music, the
themes of longing that abound, suggested pointedly, for example,
by his song cycle An Die Ferne Geliebte, “lo the Distant Beloved.”
We shall see that we are guided to some surprising astrology about
Neptune by all of this.

Specifics about the Moon

The Moon entered Sagittarius very early in the morning of Decem-
ber 15, 1770, two and one-half days before the christening ceremony
at St. Remigius Church (see Figure 2, page 313). We must remember
that Catholic tradition in that area of Germany was for baptism to
take place within twenty-four hours of the birth (see page 302).
For Beethoven’s Moon ot to have been in Sagittarius, the birth
would have had to occur at this very early time or earlier, so long
before the baptism.
If Beethoven’s birth had taken place during the very early hours
of the 15th, we would have known about it, I think: this birth time
would have disrupted the household, even late at night the day
before, and the neighbors would have remembered, especially the
Fischers from whom the Beethovens rented and whose children
compiled myriad details about the Beethoven early family life as
reliable source data for biographers. That early morning birth did |
not happen.
 BEETHOVEN # 313

Additionally, Beethoven absolutely could not have had a

Libran Ascendant. It does not fit the “chord.” Summarily,
Beethoven was labeled a “misanthrope” by many, many people all
his life, i.e., as someone who hates mankind. Even at age ten,
Beethoven was described this way, by a local cellist (Bernhard
Maeurer) gathering details of the budding genius for posterity:
“Outside of music he [Beethoven] understood nothing of social
life; consequently he was ill-humored with other people, did not

bs

27°
V8 11°

Figure 2
Beethoven/Time Orientation
Dec. 15, 1770, 2:22 A.M. LMT
Bonn, Germany
07E05 5SON44
Placidus Houses
314 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

know how to converse with them, and withdrew into himself, so

that he was looked upon as a misanthrope.””°
Beethoven was clenched-fist tenacious to a fault—even to his
last gesture on his deathbed—a world to himself. All the sketches,
paintings, and busts of Beethoven portray a stocky, chunky, ruddy-
faced rebel. The Ascendant must be in a fixed sign, and we will
investigate this thoroughly in a moment.
Everything points to the fact that Beethoven was born /ater, 1.e.,
with the Moon in Sagittarius. How much later? Within Sagittarius,
the Moon will make its first aspect only about one and one-quarter
days later, near dawn on the 16th, the square with Neptune, see Fig-
ure 3 (page 315). As we have seen above and will see later in detailed
annotation, the Moon’s square with Neptune is essential in
Beethoven’s makeup as complement to the driving Sagittarian tem-
perament and the earthbound defensiveness defined by the outer
planets in the Earth Grand Trine.
The Moon began its square in orb with Neptune just before
Midnight on December 15. Very quickly, we can note the Virgo
Ascendant, which is absolutely not possible for Beethoven, espe-
cially with the increasingly important Neptune at the Ascendant.
Beethoven was no aesthete; he was a titanic hero—and every single
biography uses this appellation over and over again, conveniently
keyed to his Third Symphony, the Eroica (the heroic), written when
Beethoven was thirty-four years old, changing the course of musi-
cal history.*!
And, of course, as we develop the hours later, we encounter the
unsuitable Libra Ascendant again (twenty-four hours after the con-
jecture on December 15). To consider a Scorpio Ascendant, we
again en-counter the early morning image of Beethoven’s birth,
which surely would have been noted by the neighbors.
It is definite that Beethoven was born on the 16th, which was a
Sunday; that the time did not disturb the night; that the time fit in
with the family day. With Beethoven “needing” a fixed sign Ascen-
dant, we are left with two options: Aquarius or Taurus, in time
sequence, each affording the Moon square with Neptune.

20 Solomon, 20.
21 Autexier’s book (see Bibliography) is entitled Beethoven: The Composer as Hero; Solomon
names Beethoven’s early years in Vienna, “The Heroic Period”; the concept of “hero” is
everywhere, the rapport references to Napoleon, etc.
 BEETHOVEN @# 315

Figure 3
Beethoven/Moon-Neptune Orientation
Dec. 15, 1770, 11:00 P.M. LMT
Bonn, Germany
07E05 50N44
Placidus Houses

The Ascendant Variable

Figure 4 (page 317) is the speculative chart for Beethoven that
appears most in the international archives of astrological data.
There are other speculative times, and what ties most of them
together is the fascination with a Taurus Ascendant and the sense of
structuring music, the fact that Uranus would be rising, Pluto would
be at the Midheaven, and the Sun-Mercury-Moon conjunction
would be locked away in the 8th House, squared by Neptune, and
316 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Neptune itself would be transiting the Midheaven upon

Beethoven’s death (March 26, 1827). All of these points of surmise
are valid starts to rectification, as we are doing in another direction
in this chapter.
Yes, here is the suggestion of ascendant genius, mega-public
exposure and hidden, frustrated personal needs, the anxiety about
finance (which plagued Beethoven lifelong, out of the insecurity of
his early home situation, even when he was very well off in later
years) through Mercury’s rulership of the 2nd.
Certain things bother me about this speculation: peregrine
Jupiter rules and is positioned in the 9th House, suggesting a
tremendous level of formal study, for travel, even religion to per-
vade the life. But Beethoven could not exist in a school setting,
despised teaching others, was himself totally self-taught (except in
the very most elementary school lessons), was not religious, and
Beethoven never went anywhere except to Vienna! He never
returned to Bonn; he was invited to England but never went. He
concertized in Prague, about 200 miles away, and he journeyed to
the countryside every summer, but so did everybody else, after a
fashion. In short, Beethoven was not a learned man, and he stayed
put, while all other great virtuoso musicians and composers traveled
far and wide throughout Europe. Beethoven lived a very solitary,
routined life. He had no social graces; and, except for his music, no
social ammunition, i.e., no resources with which to be attractive.
When Beethoven arrived in Vienna in November 1792, aged
twenty-two, he began a fitful year of study with the old Master
Haydn, a close friend of Mozart who had died just eleven months
before. It is said that Haydn, once very angry with Beethoven,
called him an atheist.?* That was the prevailing view of Beethoy-
en’s religiousness, according to Solomon. Beethoven composed
only two major works of religious nature, the Mass in C and the
epic Missa Solemnis, which has never been at home in Church or
the Concert Hall. Beethoven suggested that the Missa Solemnis
could be performed as a “grand oratorio,” a secular form, which is
exactly how it was premiered.
Clearly, Beethoven had a non-sectarian view about the Missa
Solemnis. While he understood the communication of religious feel-
ings and fervor, it is clear throughout his life that religion was not

22 ‘Thayer-Forbes, 141.
 BEETHOVEN # 317

front and center as a 9th House peregrine Jupiter would suggest. I

feel that Beethoven composed the Missa Solemnis at the end of his
life to show off his ability to master the form of liturgical music, so
neglected was that form in his career output. Music historians, for
the most part, agree.
As well, I am uncomfortable with the Pluto rulership of the 7th
placed in the Midheaven, at the Midheaven. This suggests gigantic
public exposure and, indeed, relationships auguring well for the career,
supporting Beethoven’s place in the sun. It is perfect, we think. But it

16°
V§ 05

Figure 4
Beethoven/Common Speculative
Dec. 16, 1770, 1:29 P.M. LMT
Bonn, Germany
07E05 50N44
Placidus Houses
318 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

is so easy to romanticize the lives of geniuses in retrospect, to endow

them with extraordinary attributes and place them into special set-
tings. The view of the world smitten at Beethoven's feet, of definite
exhibitionism—this Pluto ruling the 7th hugging the Midheaven—is
not Beethoven, who was called a misanthrope even at age ten; who,
when asked to play the piano at social gatherings, even those of his
patrons, would fly into a rage, stomp out of the room and go home,
whose music was often performed in cold, dimly lit, sparsely attend-
ed concert halls, whose symphonies were initially found shocking,
who did not always attract the audience we picture for him. In short,
he did not traffic the world opulently. He would enter a Bierstube
(tavern), take a seat in a distant corner, do nothing but think all alone
for several hours, and then wnthinkingly offer to pay for a meal he
never had! If he ordered a meal and the waiter made a mistake, he
would disgustedly hurl the food back at the waiter!
Pluto is magnificently positioned here and superbly aspected;
there is no tension in sight! Pluto is the only referent to relationships, to
the 7th House. As we shall see, Beethoven’s life was completely dis-
tressed by relationship problems. Our rectification will have to show
this emphatically and offer an explanation through the symbology.
Beethoven’s life was outwardly “so uneventful, yet so full of
inner pathos.” All of this became “inextricably blended with the
particular qualities of his music to produce a composite image
which fascinated the age of Romanticism.””?
I am uncomfortable with this Venus peregrine in the 10th
House: Beethoven’s Venus-concerns running wild through or within
the profession? These Venus issues, concerns (needs) in Capricorn
would have been delayed in maturation aud fulfillment, be unre-
quited somehow (chronically, as we know from his life). Twelfth
House maybe, but not the 10th! Impossible.
And could Saturn retrograde really be the ruler of this Mid-
heaven, this leadership of music history, comprised of sounds of
rebellion and heroism and an “Ode to Joy”?
And, very important now in our study of development, this Tau-
rus-rising chart does not allow major Solar Arcs to angles to transpire
significantly during Beethoven’s lifetime of gigantic achievement
and jagged change.** For example, Uranus can never arc to an

23 The New Grove, 149-150.

24 Please see Tyl, Prediction in Astrology; Tyl, Synthesis ¢ Counseling, sections beginning 204,
3275392.
 BEETHOVEN # 319

opposition with the Midheaven; Pluto can never square the Sun nor
reach the Ascendant; Neptune reaches the 7th only in Beethoven’s
last years of life when relationships were no longer important in his
make-up.
The Midheaven does significantly seem to arc to an opposition
with Saturn, a square to Uranus, and opposition with Neptune.
But this is Pluto more than it is the MC (since the conjunction
arcs together)!
Additionally, major transits to these angles in this chart do not
correspond to major events in Beethoven’s life with drama and clari-
ty, yet Beethoven's life is completely angular and sharply delineated
with powerful turns of destiny. It is a life of distinct eras, clearly
etched in his personal history of activity. This chart appears divined
with only minimal reference to the development of Beethoven’s life
potentials within life time.
What about these major developments: the almost twenty-
three-year-old pianist deciding to make his get-away to Vienna [the
composer’s Mecca] early in November 1792, as his father lay dying,
never to return? Wouldn’t a transit of Uranus conjunct the 7th cusp
fit in here? It does, as we shall see with another birth time. How
about Beethoven’s tortured confrontation with his incipient deafness
in the epic Heiligenstadt Letter at age thirty? Wouldn’t transiting
Neptune square the Ascendant, transiting Saturn simultaneously
conjunct the Ascendant, and SA Pluto simultaneously conjunct the
Ascendant fit in? They do, as we shall see with a different Ascendant.
An apparently innocuous, self-aggrandizing—yet clearly self-
delineating—brace of references caught my eye especially in my
studies, and spoke volumes to put me on the track of Beethoven’s
Ascendant tonality: “From my earliest childhood my zeal to serve
our poor suffering humanity in any way whatsoever by means of my
art has made no compromise with any lower motive” ... “Since I was
a child my greatest happiness and pleasure have been to be able to
do something for others”... “Never, never will you find me dishon-
orable. Since my childhood I have learnt to love virtue—and every-
thing beautiful and good.””°
Beethoven had no such sentiment as a youth: he had no time away
from music practice, he had severe home life problems, he was
deeply withdrawn (“misanthrope,” remember?) and, by his own

25 Solomon, 36.
320 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

description, he was “melancholic.” Additionally, I have not uncov-

ered any act of altruism and kindness at any time in his life.
In these thoughts of Beethoven, we are hearing his Sagittarian
love of virtue and Nature (the latter so powerfully and frequently
expressed throughout his life, and every afternoon when he took
long, long walks, and practically every summer spent in the coun-
tryside; his reading of philosophy) built up by buttresses of the so-
called Enlightened Thought prevalent in the socio-political climate
of his late teenage years. Whenever Beethoven remembered back
into his life, it was always with such se/f-aggrandizing twists as these
thoughts reveal, to ennoble his being, his birth, i.e., to inflate and
continue the defense organization of his Family Romance.
I have listed many keyword concepts that are repeatedly used to
describe Beethoven in the biographical literature. These sentiments
I have just quoted—indeed, sentiments of how he wished he really was
(Ascendant?)—augment and self-consciously try to overcompensate
for or balance this list most significantly: forceful of character, quar-
relsome, outrageously fascinating, magnetic, impatient, dramatic,
intense, eccentric, idiosyncratic, incoherent, radical and still more
radical, demanding, heroic, titanic, turbulent, new and even newer,
creating new forms, bewilderingly original, innovative, witty, un-
tamed, mischievous, extreme, explosive, lunatic, sublimely mad.?°
These describers are obviously, decidedly Uranian. His own
agegrandizing sentiments about himself most definitely embrace the
Aquarian sense as well, at a lofty level. Additionally—and remarkably,
considering how difficult Beethoven was to be with and to deal
with—Beethoven continuously had a large outreach of friends. With-
out trying, he fascinated and endeared himseif to men and women of

26 Schindler wrote: “His head, which was unusually large, was covered with long, bushy
gray hair, which, being always in a state of disorder, gave a certain wildness to his appear-
ance. This wildness was not a little heightened when he suffered his beard to grow to a
great length, as he frequently did.”
The story of his arrest by the Wiener Neustadt (Vienna New-City) police in 1821 or
1822 on the grounds that he had been peering into windows and looked like a tramp was
surely widely circulated.
“In the taverns and restaurants he would dicker with waiters about the price of each
roll, or would ask for his bill without having eaten. On the street, his broad gestures,
loud voice, and ringing laugh made Karl (his nephew) ashamed to walk with him, and
caused passersby to take him for a madman. Street urchins mocked the stumpy and mus-
cular figure, with his low top hat of uncertain shape, who walked Vienna’s streets dressed
in a long, dark-colored overcoat which reached nearly to his ankles, carrying a double
lorgnette or a monocle and pausing repeatedly to make hieroglyphic entries in his note-
book as he hummed and howled in an off-key voice.” Solomon, 257, vignettes similarly
reported in all sources.
 BEETHOVEN # 321

many sorts. “Even when he was often wretchedly ill and his deafness
was impenetrable, there was competition for the privilege of render-
ing him services, and devoted friends were never far off.”2’
Without any doubt or hesitancy whatsoever, the Uranian/
Aquarian sense abounds in the study of indomitably Sagittarian
Beethoven. What does this begin to suggest?
The word “beautiful” (a Taurus or Libra word, to be sure) is
rarely encountered in relation to Beethoven’s music, or, for that
matter, to anything about Beethoven. The “Moonlight” Sonata
was heralded for its avant-garde escape from the traditions of
sonata form inherited from Mozart and Haydn more than it was
for the romantic mood it established; and the sublime lyricism of
the second movement of his “Grand Sonata Pathetique” is lost in
the innovation of the sonata’s whole idiosyncratic form.”® We have
to wait until one of his last string quartets to hear clear talk
about beauty.
Beethoven would even deride his audience for feeling emotion(!),
another part of his denial to others of what was unreachable for
him, as we shall see vividly in this chapter. The expert musician,
pianist, and teacher Carl Czerny wrote of Beethoven’s extraordi-
nary effect upon audiences (indeed including one of the rare men-
tions of “beauty”):

In whatever company he might chance to be, he knew how to

produce such an effect upon every hearer that frequently not an
eye remained dry, while many would break out into loud sobs; for
there was something wonderful in his expression in addition to
the beauty and originality of his ideas and his spirited style of ren-
dering them. After ending an improvisation of this kind he would
burst into loud laughter and banter his hearers on the emotion he
had caused in them. “You are fools!” he would say ... “Who can
live among such spoiled children!” he would cry.”?
1?

Beethoven was frequently criticized as being a poor melodist.

Few of us can hum or whistle a Beethoven tune, if you will—except

27 The New Grove, 139.

28 These Sonatas became very, very popular immediately upon public presentation.
According to music editor Joseph Banoweitz (in the General Words & Music Co. edition
of the Pathetique), Beethoven regretted naming this work this way, “for he came to
regard all his works as ‘pathetic,’ or having pathos and strong emotion.”
29 Solomon, 58.
322 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

perhaps Da-Da-Da Da, which is a rhythmic motif used as a

melody; and a flash of the frenetic “Ode to Joy” from the final
movement of the Ninth Symphony—rather, one feels, senses, is
aroused by, surrenders to the extraordinary, to the Beethoven style
of dramatic statement. Through Beethoven’s music, we become
aware that there is another realm beyond our experience, that he
has recreated it for us and that its gates are opening to reveal
it magnificently.
What are we getting to feel here? Arch individualism, a rebel
with the cause to create.
Beethoven was dedicated to the ethics (Sagittarius) of political
liberty and personal excellence (Aquarius): “To do good whenever
one can, to love liberty above all else, never to deny the truth, even
though it be before the throne.”
And yet, Beethoven could write: “The devil take you. I refuse to
hear anything about your whole moral outlook. Power is the moral
principle of those who excel others, and it is also mine.” (Pluto lead-
ing the defensive structure.)
His Eroica, Symphony Number 3, was a personalization of
political ideals. It was conceived as a tribute to the revolutionary
hero of the age, Napoleon, and was dedicated to him. But when
Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, Beethoven flew into a rage
and, according to Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven’s friend (see Bibliog-
raphy with Wegeler), cried out: “Is he [Napoleon] then, too, noth-
ing more than an ordinary human being? Now he, too, will trample
on all the rights of man and indulge only his ambition. He will exalt
himself above all others, become a tyrant!” Beethoven then went to
his desk, took the title page of the Symphory and tore it in two. He
rewrote the first page as Sinfonia Eroica.*° This is Beethoven’s sense
of individual ascendancy over tyranny; it is confused, volcanic, and
repeated often in his life. In fact, the musically scholarly New
Grove presentation of the story even suggests that the Eroica was
conceived by Beethoven as a tribute to Beethoven himself.>'
We see Beethoven as a powerhouse of Uranian impulse, eccen-
tricity, and innovation. We see him fighting his way out of a house-
hold of rigor and misery, leaving it all behind, championing new
ideas, and knowingly creating a new world of music. We see this

30 Ibid., 132, and most other sources.

31 New Grove, 109.
 BEETHOVEN # 323

gigantic focus of individualism as a Plutonic defense function (em-

powerment) that was formidable. No one could bar the way. Here
is the Grand Trine working among the outer planets, related by the
Neptune square with the Moon (vision) into his inner ethical,
truth-loving, Nature-worshipping Sagittarian core.
Wouldn’t an Aquarian Ascendant reinforce all of this, align the
parental axis to capture Beethoven’s early realities and adjust the
angles for the arcs and transits of development that etched Beet-
hoven into world history? Wouldn’t a birth near midday with an
Aquarian Ascendant put Venus peregrine into the 12th to help us
“see” his lifelong inability to find love, to yearn for the ideal, the
private sense of beauty that seeded extraordinary creative upset of
tradition? Wouldn’t the Aquarian Ascendant establish nobility on
the 7th through Leo, place Neptune there for public masking, put
Saturn retrograde there as well, all again showing the consummate
difficulty with relationship? Wouldn’t the older archetypal ruler-
ship of Aquarius by Saturn loom important? Might the arcs of
development then capture Beethoven’s spiked footholds upon his
private mountain?
All biographical sources point out that the years 1800-1802
marked extraordinary advance in Beethoven’s career. It was the
time of personal crisis as well. While each year brought forth a
cluster of masterpieces and a “Beethoven fever” among connois-
seurs, Beethoven at age thirty to thirty-two had to face the
appalling discovery that he who had already changed the history of music
was going deaf.
pay yur
... Now let us pause ... that pause that always comes in the rectification
hunt, just before important, conclusive decision.... In 1800-1802,
Beethoven was thirty to thirty-two years old. Born in the winter
month of December with a “fast Sun,” his Solar Arc development
would be very close to 1 degree for one year of life.?? So, let’s make a
cursory test of the arc of 30-32 degrees, one sign and two more
degrees. It is very easy. Put a pencil in your hand and look at Figure 1,
the noon chart for December 16, 1770, repeated on page 324.
In rectification, it is always advisable to test the heaviest
arcs and transits to angles and work from there to more subtle

32 Tyl, Prediction; Tyl, Synthesis ¢v Counseling, sections beginning 204, 327, and 392.
324 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

measurements. If we advance natal Pluto by 32 degrees (Beet-

hoven in 1800-02), we come to 18 Aquarius 34. If we advance
Neptune 32 degrees, we come to 15 Libra 59. Note those posi-
tions carefully somewhere.
Now, let us imagine that Solar Arc Pluto actually did come to
Beethoven’s Ascendant at age thirty to thirty-two, i.e., to 18-19
Aquarius. At that same time, SA Neptune would have advanced to
square with natal Pluto’s position in 16 Capricorn. This is a very
important confluence of arc measurements. We must always look

25°
I]32

Figure 1
Beethoven/Planetary Orientation
Dec. 16, 1770, 12:00 p.m. LMT
Bonn, German
07E05 5S0N44
Placidus Houses
 BEETHOVEN # 325

for this type of grouping in rectification tries, especially involving

the angles. Simultaneity.
At that age, thirty to thirty-two, Beethoven would be coming
out of his Saturn transit-return. With an Aquarian Ascendant, tran-
siting Saturn would be just leaving natal Saturn and possibly be
opposing the conjectured Ascendant at 18-19 Aquarius (i.e., Saturn
in 18-19 Leo conjunct the imagined 7th cusp)! Think that through;
let your mind anticipate that movement. See it.
We have established an important lead tying Beethoven’s plan-
etary arrangement at birth to a specifically timed development in
his life. That lead is the axis 18-19 Aquarius-Leo.
Let’s check another set of events against this lead. Look into
your 1770-1827 Ephemeris with me.?? When did transiting Pluto
cross this new hypothetical Ascendant of 16-19 Aquarius (allowing
for the strong orb of application)?3* Pluto made that transit
between March 1787 and January 1791, an enormously powerful
transit as we know—and an extraordinarily important four-year
time period in Beethoven’s life. Here is what happened:

¢+In April 1787, at age sixteen and one-half, Beethoven jour-

neyed for his first time to Vienna. He was sent there by the
Elector as Bonn’s extraordinary virtuoso pianist. He was to
play for the consummate genius Mozart (born January 27,
1756 at 8:00 P.M. LMT in Salzburg, Austria**) and perhaps
take some lessons.

Mozart biographer Woodford records that Mozart, though

very busy with the composition of his opera Don Giovanni, did
receive the “short, stocky, dark sixteen-year-old Beethoven.”
Mozart is said by sources to have been impressed, but, contrary to
some romanticized interpretations, nothing lavishly romantic or

33 The Matrix Blue Star program generates any ephemeris for any length of time.
Beethoven’s lifetime ephemeris was ready within sixty seconds.
34 There is no doubt that the application of planets to aspects with angles (and, indeed, other
planets) correlates with manifestation in real life very strongly, often more strongly than
when the aspect is exact or separating. This is especially observable with the slower mov-
ing transiting planets (and the application of Solar Arcs); change takes time. Orb reflects
that time. Astrology’s measurements must encompass conception, build-up, action, and
reorientation within change. Please see Ty]: Synthesis and Counseling in Astrology, section
beginning 379, “Time Orbs.”
35 Please see my analysis of Mozart’s horoscope with reference to the outer planet align-
ment in Tyl-ed.: How to Personalize the Outer Planets, “When the Three were not aiiverons
326 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

prophetic was said. Mozart and Beethoven never met again;

Mozart died just four years later (December 5, 1791).*°
But almost immediately after his arrival in Vienna, Beethoven
learned by post from his father that his mother’s consumptive con-
dition had worsened; Beethoven was to return to Bonn at once. The
young man brought back no success at all; nothing but debts.*”

+ Beethoven’s mother died July 17, 1787 (transiting Pluto still

on the Aquarian Ascendant, with Secondary Progressed Moon
exactly at 17 Leo, opposed the hypothetical Ascendant; SP
Mars retrograde exactly opposed the Moon). This event critical-
ly affected Beethoven’s entire life, not for any emotional rea-
son, but because of his ensuing ascendancy within the family.

As Solomon points out strategically,’® “after a parent’s death,

the child’s relationship to the surviving parent usually undergoes a
radical change, and often there is a desperate pathetic attempt by
the survivors to put the child in the place of the missing parent. It
was now Beethoven rather than Maria Magdalena who was in
charge of the family finances.”*?
Young Ludwig, just sixteen and one-half, now took over from
his mother the job of keeping together the family of an alcoholic
father and two brothers. He who barely knew arithmetic was in
charge of monies. He had to intervene with the police who wanted
to put father Johann into custody. Beethoven became his father’s
guardian! Solomon says that this did Johann in and that he “largely
gave up his grip upon reality, living a narcotized existence.”

+On November 20, 1789 (still with transiting Pluto on the

Aquarian Ascendant), Beethoven audaciously petitioned the
Elector that one-half the payments for his father be paid

36 And Beethoven’s work was never compared with Mozart’s. The two geniuses were so totally
different. Mozart (and aging Hadyn, with whom Beethoven tried to study for one year upon
his final arrival in Vienna in 1792-93) was the exemplar of the Classical form of the eigh-
teenth century. Beethoven changed the form of music; he created the Romantic Period, not
with lush loveliness, but with dramatic, heroic emotion and the expression of freedom. Com-
parison was almost impossible since the musical languages were so different.
37 Solomon, 29.
38 Maynard Solomon is reputedly one of the world’s most renowned Beethoven scholars.
He is also the editor of the book Myth, Creativity, Psychoanalysis.
39 Solomon, 29.
 BEETHOVEN @ 327

instead to him (transiting Saturn was precisely at 16 Leo!;

Mars was conjoined as well one week earlier). Solomon points
out that Beethoven knew this amounted to “patricide.” Imag-
ine the transformation of Beethoven’s life perspective, the
demoralization within the darkening family circle. Look at
the empowerment of the young man which coincided with
the Pluto transit of the Ascendant. Imagine the lessons he
would learn.
+ As well, a sudden sustained burst of creative work began late
in 1789—with particularly glowing public notices as an
improvisor at the piano—and continued for two years until
his final departure from Bonn to Vienna three years later.

There simply is no doubt that our first tests with the arcs and
transits involving extraordinary times in Beethoven’s early life bring
the area of 18-19 Aquarius-Leo forward as a tenable Ascendant-Descen-
dant axis.
One very important life-observation and astrological insight
seals the package in my opinion: in the eighteenth century, pianists
(clavierists and harpsichordists originally) established their fame in
two ways, through technique (the ability to play adroitly, acrobati-
cally, communicatively) and through improvisation (the inspiration
of playing spontaneously, “by ear” as we say, creating entire compo-
sitions “on the spot,” creating original variations on established
themes, much as jazz musicians do today).
Beethoven’s earliest fame and, indeed, how he became celebrat-
ed in his first years in Vienna, was through his virtuoso piano play-
ing and most dramatically through his skill at improvisation. It was
simply overwhelming what new sounds and treatments of music
Beethoven brought out of the piano. Such improvisation had never
been heard. Special pianos were made for him to give even more
sound and to sustain his fierce playing!
There were more than 300 accomplished pianists in Vienna
when Beethoven arrived in the world’s music capital, and it is esti-
mated that there were some 6,000 students studying the piano
there. Beethoven feared that other pianists might hear him extem-
porize and then copy down the “several peculiarities of my style and
palm them off with pride as their own.”*°

40 Ibid., 58.
328 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

There is no way not to see Beethoven throughout more than the

first half of his life as a pianist and improvisor first and a composer
second, as even a “student of composition.” He studied with Haydn
and Salieri and others for little gain; his “mistakes” in the Classical
way were continuous. But he was a consummate virtuoso performer
of brilliance and power that the world had never heard. For contrast
and ego aggrandizement, Beethoven would imitate the fashionably
sweet and delicate style of earlier virtuosos, their ”cloying and effem-
inate manner,” and then profoundly change worlds for his listeners.
When he played, he always brought the house down!
All of this is Aquarian, not Taurean. The archetype of ‘Taurus
has the unmistakable component of keeping things as they are, as
they should be, to establish unchanging, secure, safe structures.
Beethoven was consummately the opposite: daring, dramatic, rebel-
lious, independent, changing, and inventive to the utmost! Uranus
rising in Taurus is not enough to correlate with the veritable
avalanche of idiosyncrasy one meets in Beethoven’s life, in his every
musical and spoken utterance.
Uranian rulership of an Aquarian Ascendant, on the other hand,
fits like a glove: the Solar Arc Uranus moving on from birth to
square the 18-19 Aquarius-Leo horizon with transiting Uranus
simultaneously opposing his Midheaven at age seven when he gave
his first concert; transiting Uranus opposing the Sun at age ten to
eleven when he outgrew his father’s teaching and began study with
the most influential Gottlob Neefe, whom he succeeded as court
organist a year and a half later(!); the transiting Uranus that traveled
across the 7th cusp as Beethoven prepared his trip to Vienna, to the
great public, to fame ... and so much more.
Uranus, Beethoven’s patron planet: in his life positioned in Tau-
rus, channeling the individualism of genius, creativity and improvi-
sation into the newest structures conceivable, the structures that
reframed the world of music differently than ever before. Uranus in
Taurus, ruling the Aquarian Ascendant, changing form.
Figure 5 (page 330) shows Ludwig van Beethoven’s horoscope
born on December 16, 1770 at 11:03 A.M., LMT, in Bonn, Germany,
establishing the tonality of Beethoven’s life. The Ascendant at 19
Aquarius 08 now joins the Sun and the Moon to complete the chord.
Immediately we see the extraordinary tension axis of the triple
conjunction opposed by Mars within the parental axis. We see the
take-charge Moon in the 10th House; there is a focus on profession
 BEETHOVEN # 329

that is complete, except for the suggestion of psychodynamic

counterpoint underneath it all, which we see in the retrogradation
of Mars. And immediately we can suspect the bailiwick of this
counterpoint, this anxiety: Mars rules the self-worth 2nd, tremen-
dous anxiety about who he was as a person, his genius born not
noble. Beethoven disruptively refused to play at so many parties and
refused many, many gifts, because he wanted to be appreciated for
himself, not as Beethoven the gifted pianist. He wrote: “Am I then
nothing more than a music maker for yourself or others?”*! But
Beethoven did not have any other identity! So much self-worth anx-
iety smoldered in the depressing and punitive shadows of early
childhood, was reconstructed through the Neptunian concept of the
Family Romance (see page 306), and was volcanically discharged
into the unfulfillable idealism that birthed his majestic art.
There is the Saturn retrograde on the Descendant, ruling the
12th, suggesting tremendous development difficulties on the rela-
tionship level, echoing the Mars counterpoint, pinpointing his
interrelationships with his father, perhaps designating the Leonine
nature of Beethoven’s immer nobility. Its square from Uranus, ruler
of the Ascendant, immediately suggests so powerfully that
Beethoven would have to break with the old, leave the family dross
behind and break into new forms of life experience in order to be
free; holding the picture of his grandfather dear for an entire life-
time, erasing his painful father experience completely. His talent
would break free from the limitations of the past.
The counterpoint of Uranus’ retrogradation also links it to the
substratum of Beethoven’s psychological complex driving him up,
up, and away to super freedom, independence, igniting the fires of
the Family Romance. The retrograde Neptune in the 7th shows the
public focus of the entire pretense of lineage, the essential mask of
superiority feelings (motivated by and augmented through Saturn
retrograde in Leo), and the identification of Beethoven as a
“romantic” (certainly unreal on a personal level), as founder of the
Romantic Era in music; Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto monumental-
ly defending the identity through extraordinary power in terms of
fantasy, imagination, creativity, presenting the self through the pro-
fession, through the conduit ofNeptune to the Moon, to Mercury, to Sun
in the 10th.

41 Ibid., 63-64.
330 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Neptune always corresponds to something other than it seems,

and here it is focused in public projection, within the center of
Beethoven’s sanity-saving Family Romance. Note that it is a co-
ruler of Beethoven’s Ascendant: Aquarius and Pisces, Uranus and
Neptune. Through his nobility pretense in public projection (the
7th), Beethoven could identify with the mighty, share the insignia of
supremacy and “conquer the nobility by pretending” to be so.
Beethoven constantly assumed and asserted equality with the aris-
tocrats. [Please recall the Egyptian wisdom so dear to Beethoven:

12° 19"

12° JJ 19°

Figure 5
Beethoven
Dec. 16, 1770, 11:03 a.m. LMT
Bonn, Germany
07E05 5S0N44
Placidus Houses
 BEETHOVEN # 331

“No Mortal Man has lifted my Veil,” page 310]. Additionally, Nep-
tune squares the Midheaven, a reliable, popular part of the signa-
ture of musicality.
The Sun and Mercury rule the 7th, holding Neptune retro-
grade, which squares these significators of the 7th. The extraordi-
nary developmental tension among parental background,
professional ascendancy, opinionation, social pretense, relationship
difficulty, and psychological complex is symbolically and realistical-
ly undeniable.
There is Jupiter peregrine in the 11th, the admiring circle of
friends who were always there in spite of Beethoven himself, the
demand for recognition through publishing and payment for his
works (the 11th is the second of the 10th); contrasting with the
anxiety about finances that was eternally with Beethoven, suggested
by Mars rulership of the 2nd, holding Uranus, and Mars tension
with the core of Beethoven’s personality.
As we can expect, Jupiter in Capricorn is easily manifested as
exploitation, using others for one’s personal good. I think this side of
the expansive, opportunistically driven, self-administrating Jupiter in
Capricorn is seen most openly when Jupiter is peregrine, when the
need thrust is not modified by aspect contact with other need struc-
tures and energies. This particular Jupiter position in the 11th clear-
ly suggests such an exploitation of friends, even a supercilious
disdain for them. At age thirty-one, cresting in his popularity in
Vienna, referring to two of his friends, Beethoven wrote: “[they are]
merely instruments on which to play when I feel inclined ... I value
them merely for what they do for me.”*? Solomon tends to excuse
this attitude, i.e., not to take it literally, but to see in such utterances
“the strengthening of a narcissistic tendency [the common foil for
the Saturn retrograde phenomenon] which was, I believe, a neces-
sary precondition for the formation of Beethoven’s sense of mission
and, consequently, of his ‘heroic’ style.” Beethoven needed to see
himself high and mighty, noble, above all others.
And there is Venus in Capricorn, peregrine in the 12th, echoing
the absence of Water-family accent, symbolizing an all-too-private
sense of beauty, a lost soul in terms of relationships with a beloved,
an idealized infatuation with the unattainable. Every woman
Beethoven pursued in his lifetime was either already married or so

42 Ibid., 86; additionally, Beethoven referred to his audience as “the rabble.”

332 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

young as to be unattainable or absolutely not interested in him. He

suffered. He sublimated. He discharged his pathos in the clenched
fists, gnashed teeth, and burning eyes of his music.”
Beethoven wrote so much of this sentiment in May of 1810,
with transiting Saturn exactly upon his Moon, with transiting Pluto
exactly square his Moon, and Solar Arc Moon conjunct his pained
Venus: “Thus I can only seek support in the deepest, the most inti-
mate part of myself; as for the external world, there is absolutely
nothing there for me. No, nothing but injuries for me in friendship
and feelings of the same genre.”
Additionally, Venus is the ruler of the 3rd, and we shall see how
Beethoven’s idealistic Family Romance finally exploded in relation
to his brother (3rd House) and his son, Karl (the 5th House of the
3rd, i.e., the 7th House once again!).
Venus rules Libra on the 8th, part of one’s sexuality profile
indeed, along with the 5th, suggesting again the unrequited love
and unanswered overtures made by Beethoven to many women. But
there was that one lady, “die unsterbliche Geliebte,” Beethoven’s
“Immortal Beloved,” with a most surprising astrological link with
the master! We will study this in detail.
The Aries Point of a horoscope is defined by the intersection
and widest diversion points of two Great Circles, the Ecliptic and
the Equator. The geometry of it all establishes 0 Libra as the cusp
of the rising sign or Ascendant of the Earth. When a planet is
placed at 0 degree of any Cardinal Sign it is conjunct or square or
opposed the Aries Point, and the planet’s symbolism is given an unde-
niable thrust into public view. There is the potential of public projec-
tion for the person in terms of the planet, point, or midpoint
configured with the Aries Point (see Midpoint table, page 333).
At this birth time, the midpoint of Uranus/Ascendant at 0
degrees 38' of a Cardinal Sign (Aries) is 38" of arc from exact con-
junction with the Aries Point! This is an enormously strong state-
ment of personal, Uranian, idiosyncratic public projection. It is
further determination of what we know of Beethoven. Precisely.

43 We shall see that Venus, by Secondary Progression, assumed retrograde motion when
Beethoven was three and a half (when his beloved grandfather died) and went direct in 1816,
when Beethoven was forty-six, coincidental with the accumulated Solar Arc semi-square.
44 Autexier, 63.
45 Please see Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology, section beginning 312.
 BEETHOVEN # 333

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN DEC 16, 1770

The midpoint of Pluto/Midheaven, signifying reference to

life’s ultimate power position, is also related to the Aries Point
from 29 Sagittarius 27 (i.e., 0 Capricorn), another corroboration of
Beethoven’s dominating professional posture, his fame.
Further midpoint pictures of importance include Saturn square
the midpoint of Neptune/Pluto,* suggesting much grief, weakness,
torment. By rulership, Neptune and Saturn bring relationships into
this gloomy picture, and Pluto keys the 11th, love received, ruling
the 9th, communication from others.
Beethoven’s Pluto=Moon/Saturn suggests isolation, the re-
pression of personal needs.
This horoscope clearly captures the planetary potentials with-
in Beethoven’s life reality. The Ascendant and Midheaven within
Midpoint pictures are consonant with expectations as well. Now
we must test the time of development through Solar Arcs, Sec-
ondary Moon Progressions, and major transits in relation most
particularly to the angles of the horoscope, the determinators of
the where and when in life, in parallel with the key experiences
shaping Beethoven's life.

46 Any planet conjunct, opposed, square, semisquare or sesquiquadrate to the midpoint of

any two planets or planet and point is said to equal (=) the other two reference points,
ive., Saturn=Neptune/Pluto. This equation is called a Midpoint Picture. Ibid., section
beginning 303.
334 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Beethoven’s Development: His Fame and Pain

Biographers organize Beethoven’s life work into three periods: the
first one ending around 1802, the second ending about 1812, and a
“transcendent” third period lasting from 1813 to 1827. They all
agree—and so does this astrologer—that a very close relationship
exists between Beethoven’s creative energies and output and his
emotional life and experience. In fact, they suggest that such enor-
mous musical developments apparently had to have parallel crises in
the personal life. Solomon begins his eleventh chapter with the head-
ing “Crisis and Creativity—The years 1800 and 1801 marked an
important advance in Beethoven’s career.”
Our astrology for this epic transition from his early years into
the period of the hero revolves around prominent measurement
groups that are very easy to see and analyze. These groups conspic-
uously involve the “new” angles we have determined in our rectifi-
cation and, in parallel with dramatic manifestations of events in
Beethoven's life, will work to prove our deductions.
Figure 6 (page 337) shows Beethoven’s birth horoscope in the
inner circle with the Solar Arcs for December 1802 in the outer
ring. The year 1802 signifies the end of the first life-period. Noted
in the 12th House is the Secondary Progressed New Moon for
mid-1801 responding to SA Uranus opposed MC (Uranus=MC)
which took place (along with SA Moon=Pluto) in July 1800, at the
beginning of the transition time between periods. Stimulus, Vision,
Change; one era ended, a new begun.*”
Crossing the Descendant and leaving the 7th and 8th Houses are
notations of the distance transited by Satu, Uranus, and Neptune,
respectively, during the two and one-half-year period of transition.
Finally, embracing all measurements, there is the gigantic Solar
Arc of Pluto conjunct the Ascendant, applying powerfully through-
out 1800-1801 and becoming exact in November—December 1802,
at the same time that SA Neptune would square Pluto. All the other
measurements take place within this enormous mark of time. All
the measurements have come together in relation to one another at
the time we have chosen for Beethoven’s birth.

47 In the Secondary Progressed horoscope for Beethoven’s birthday in 1800 (SP date Jan-
uary 15, 1771), Jupiter is tightly conjunct the Midheaven in 10 Capricorn, trined by
Uranus, and the SP New Moon would take place six months later in June, 1801, from
the 10th House square the SP Ascendant. This is even further corroboration of this epic
success-time in Beethoven's career life, his coming of age, if you will.
 BEETHOVEN #@ 335

Corroboration of this epic astrological period is obvious in

Beethoven's life. Beethoven’s vision, expression, medium, style, and
posture in music changed dramatically and, at the same time, the
torture within the Family Romance became exposed in shattering
fashion. This period saw new energies of pain sublimated into cre-
ativity and fame (SP New Moon conjunct the problematic Venus in
the 12th). There was tremendous “drive and determination toward
success; a love of individual freedom; changing fortunes; dramatic
adjustment of job status; sudden change of direction in every
department of life; arch individuality; relocations”*® (SA Uranus=
MC with transiting Uranus square the Sun).
Beethoven gave his first concert “for his own benefit” on April
2, 1800, in Vienna’s Burgtheater, a very important event signifying
his “emergence as a major creative personality” in Vienna.*? He was
his own master, now clearly distanced from Haydn (with whom he
had studied tempestuously and unappreciatively for a little over a
year, the relationship ending in January 1794). Now, in 1800,
Haydn was published as saying that Beethoven “writes [composes]
more and more fantastically” all the time.*? For such a Classical
Period conservative as Haydn, the word “fantastically” is extraordi-
nary indeed.
In this time period, Beethoven broke away, “was liberated” [note
the Uranian term] from reliance upon the piano as the touchstone of
his compositional style: he mastered the forms of string trios, quar-
tets, and quintets (quartet with added viola).°! This was very, very sig-
nificant: this young virtuoso pianist—surely the finest the world knew
at that time—now was instantly labeled master of new forms in the
very music world he was transforming!
Beethoven changed his lodgings “almost as readily as his
moods. The slightest provocation led him to pack his belongings,
and at times it became difficult to find an apartment for so unreli-
able a lodger.”** Biographers align his frequent moving at this time

48 Please see the “Solar Arc Directory,” Tyl: Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology, Appendix;
also Tyl: Prediction in Astrology.
49 Solomon, 111.
50 Solomon, 77.
51 Beethoven’s String Quintet, op. 29, was written in 1800 and published in 1802. It is the
acknowledged masterpiece in the genre, which medium he mastered in just two compo-
sitional efforts. Ibid., 101-102.
52 Ibias 81.
336 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

with a peripatetic—and pathetic—search for home security and sta-

bility, for something in the external environment that would bring
contentment to the inner spirit.
It is important to note, at this time, that Beethoven showed no
signs of improved exterior polish, i.e., in contrast with his maturing
professional style, Beethoven did not come of age socially in terms
of proper clothing or manners. He was decidedly unmannerly in
both appearance and behavior. He was rebelling in frustration of his
unrequited loves; he appeared to flaunt his uniqueness; to claim
exemption from the rules; changing the music world with every
appearance and publication and yet never seeming to find an inner
peace, to settle in, as it were. The Family Romance was manifested
in this period of creativity and crisis as well (the New Moon, with
the Sun upon the Venus time orb to partile was fifteen months,
August 1802). Since he could not create his own family, he attempt-
ed to participate in the family life of others. This was the basic pat-
tern of Beethoven’s life almost all his years, attaching himself to a
series of families as a surrogate son or brother, relying heavily on
mother-figures in all situations and on all occasions. He searched
constantly for an “ideal” family or a reasonable facsimile thereof,~
and this quest became critical as we shall see, bordering upon
dementia, in the four-year custody battle over his nephew, to make
Karl bis son.
In short, in this period musically, aged thirty to thirty-two,
Beethoven took on the position of a mature master. The qualitative
changes in his style of composition now illuminated what the
sources call a “new path” (the measurements from Uranus). Also, in
this period, on the level of personal well-being and satisfaction,
Beethoven practically crumpled.
Note again in Figure 6 (page 337) that transiting Saturn crosses
the Descendant (exact 5/1801) and, even more significantly and per-
vasively (since Neptune natally squares the Moon, Mercury and Sun),
transiting Neptune squares the Ascendant January through April
1801 and again in November of that year and then, for the third,
strongest time, between June and October 1802. As the Uranian
and Plutonic Arcs establish Midheaven and Ascendant musically,
these Saturnian and Neptunian transits emphasize the rectified Ascen-
dant on a personal level. All these measurements operate within the

53 Ibid., 81.
 BEETHOVEN @ 337

background behemoth measurement of SA Pluto upon the Ascen-

dant (exact 11/1802). Notice how these dates lead one into the other,
like stepping stones across a stream. Time and development are
punctuated in clusters of measurements and life activity.

ARC; 32°37’

Figure 6
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Beethoven Solar Arcs
Dec. 16, 1770, 11:03 AM. LMT Dec. 16, 1802
Bonn, Germany
07E05 50N44
Placidus Houses
338 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

There is great upheaval and development suggested here. In

correspondence to the Uranian emphases and the SP New Moon,
we see great career advancement. Yet, with the accentuation of the
Ascendant, we must ask about some deep, central weakness appear-
ing within Beethoven, some personal debilitation as epic as his rise
to fame.
Solomon records: “Beneath this surface of accomplishment,
however, inner conflicts were converging to form a crisis of major
proportions ... It is as though he were about to be destroyed by suc-
cess itself.”°* We should see the enormity of this period also: here is
Beethoven changing music history, near dementia with private tor-
ment, addressing the prospect of calamity as if fate and he were bar-
tering together, a// at just thirty years ofage! Imagine that.
At this time, late in June 1801, exactly coincident with the SP
New Moon, Beethoven wrote to his old friend Dr. Franz Wegeler
(his eventual biographer) in Bonn a very famous letter. The letter is
long, rambling, moody, and sick. He is asking his doctor friend for
medical advice, and for the first time straight on and exposed,
Beethoven speaks about his hearing becoming “weaker and weak-
er.” He wrote, “For almost two years I have ceased to attend any
social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I
am deaf.”°>
Beethoven mentions other symptoms that he refers to as chron-
ic, involving his abdomen (“wretched”) and diarrhea (“constantly
afflicted”) and more. He speaks poignantly and also angrily of doc-
tors who have tried to help cure these ailments, the failures of all
their remedies, all except the taking of tepid baths.* In these anom-
alous ill-health descriptions, we can see the Natal Neptune square
with the Moon, ruler of the 6th, the difficulty with diagnosis, the
stomach, intestines, the remedies, the sense of personal tragedy. We
can see the planet of deafness, Saturn, looming painfully, eternally
large upon the horizon at birth, opposing the Ascendant, again cor-

54 Beethoven wrote to Baron Nikolaus von Zmeskall, his most constant Viennese friend,
“Sometimes I feel that I shall soon go mad in consequence of my unmerited fame (2nd
House anxiety); fortune is seeking me out and for that very reason I almost dread some
fresh calamity.” The letter is dated July, 1801, coincident with the debilitating personal
pressures of this period.
55 Solomon, 112-113.
56 Beethoven was dependent on these baths, frequently every day. He would spill so much
water onto the floor in accomplishing the baths that lodging keepers simply didn’t want
him around; they literally turned Beethoven away.
 BEETHOVEN # 339

roborating the angles we have established. We see natal Saturn

emphasized by transit in this period (as co-ruler with Uranus and
Neptune of the Ascendant). We see the Ascendant deeply done in,
while at the same time the Midheaven is uplifted by Uranus and the
Sun (SA Sun semisquare the MC, exact 1/1803).
Strangely, after this admission of deafness to Wegeler—really
the central purpose of the letter—Beethoven’s condition seems to
have improved.*” While all our test measurements are still operable,
we have Beethoven’s next letter to Wegeler on November 16, 1801,
saying that the humming and buzzing in his ears is somewhat less,
that while deafness continues to be present, life is more pleasant,
and that “this change has been brought about by a dear, charming
girl who loves me and whom I love. After two years I am again
enjoying a few blissful moments; and for the first time I feel that
marriage might bring me happiness.”°®
The “dear, charming girl” was one of Beethoven’s piano stu-
dents, just sixteen years old! Here was Beethoven’s Venus in Capri-
corn, peregrine in the 12th, reilluminated by the Progressed New
Moon, and the application of SP SA Sun to conjunction with Venus
exact inJune 1802 (just seven months into the future, an arc of35’,
tantamountly already partile), again presenting the vision of ideal
love within Beethoven’s Family Romance. Tragic. Sad. So desper-
ately lonely. So self-deceiving (Natal Neptune in the 7th and the
square with Moon-Mercury-Sun).
Meanwhile in this period, his work output continued to be
prodigious; his publishing income at an all-time high.
To close this first grand period of Beethoven's life—the arcing
Plutonic dimension omnipresent as dictatorial background during
this two and one-half-year time span, “an extremely important
time of life with dramatic changes of perspective, identity transfor-
mation, a life milestone,”°? we see Beethoven once again ailing
with his “malaise” in the spring of 1802, his deafness driving his
intense discontent with life. On doctor’s orders, he repaired to the
quiet village of Heiligenstadt (City of the Holy Ones) and
remained there for six months.

57 So often this happens, it seems: admitting a condition frees up the energies so long used
in denying it! There is a restorative release of tension; e.g., symptoms disappear (momen-
tarily) as one enters the doctotr’s office!
58 Solomon, 114.
59 “Solar Arc Analysis Directory,” Tyl, Synthesis & Counseling, Appendix; also Tyl, Prediction.
340 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Beethoven’s swings between manic and melancholic behavior

were extreme [and this is constantly the manifestation of the rivet-
ing focal point of Mars in Gemini opposed Moon-Mercury-Sun,
and, as well, the counterpoint of the Mars retrogradation, the core
of Beethoven’s critical family issues and the cerebrated reaction to
defend himself through isolation and the psychodynamic Family
Romance]; and intense as well were his thoughts of suicide (an
attack upon the Ascendant, of course). This was revealed in the
famous Heiligenstadt Letter that Beethoven wrote to his two broth-
ers on October 6 and 10, 1802, (SA Saturn=Mercury/ Neptune; SA
Uranus=Moon/MC; SA Saturn=Mars/Neptune), fulfilling SA Pluto
conjunct the Ascendant and SA Neptune square Pluto (exact just
two months later in December 1802, an application arc of 10'; see
data, page 345).
The long, long letter is full of pathos and self-dramatizing the-
atricality: for example, “But what a humiliation for me when some-
one standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard
nothing, or someone heard a shepherd singing and again I heard noth-
ing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that
and I would have ended my life—it was only my art that held me
back.” And, “Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, ‘Speak
louder, shout, for I am deaf.’ Ah, how could I possibly admit an
infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than
in others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection,
a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have
enjoyed.” Beethoven rationalizes that his deafness is the sole cause
of his discontent, his anxiety that had been bordering on panic for
several years.
Very importantly, we can see a psychological testament being pre-
sented here in this letter as well. In the salutation, very boldly,
Beethoven wrote: “FOR MY BROTHERS CARL AND
BEETHOVEN,” and later: “You, my brothers Carl
and , as soon as I am dead ...” And finally: “For my
brothers Carl and to be read and executed after my
death.” In these three places, Beethoven left blank spaces for one of
his brothers’ name. Even in hundreds of references to this brother
in his Conversation Books (books in which Beethoven wrote his
thoughts and people wrote messages to him, since he could not hear
them speak), Solomon reports that there are only two incidences in
which the brother’s name is written! Beethoven avoided, avoided,
 BEETHOVEN # 341

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Solar Arc Midpoint Pictures for Jun 1, 1802to Jul 1, 1803
SPR
L eee eeepc ee ome eee e a e
~ 3 O %/% | Studying one’s philosophy of life; a long trip; speaking with great maturity; studying hard: asking the right
questions,
Od ? Romance; love refationship; illumination of one's sense of beauty; aesthetics; marriage; birth.
Jul 1802} Ax G Q; Hiding one’s light; withdrawing; fear of not being accepted.
Mc Z Di Much excitement about ambition, potential gains; sudden changes of plans,
Qe Shared experiences are particularly rewarding.
Aug 1802} ¢ @ O/§Q | Vigorous drives with others to gain personal importance.
2 @ Ric | Improvement in job situation; dryness in relationships.
Y o&f Dik | Feelings of inferiority, melancholy.
Sep 1802} DO ¥/* | Emotional quandary: emotional indecision because of fear ot losing; frustration; taxing leaming process.
8 ZL O/Q | Communications with others; business contacts: news; commentary.
D & dik | Moodiness; possible depression; feelings about losing something.
BH
Oct 1802) h LZ P/V Ryne reaction to real or imagined circumstances; looking at the down side of things, which may not
8 Vi
High degree of emotional excitement; nervousness in reaction to changes; the sense of vocational
instability or the threat of pending upset; anxiety,
Being taken advantage of; reticence; the sense of futility; persevering in spite of fear.
Nov 1802] % Z D/© | Happy relationship: enthusiasm for life; success. as
% Z P/Q | Forcing oneself into a power position; self-promotion; attaining success through others,
Je ||Dec 1802 |Mc @ &/Y | Peculiar loss of ambition; moodiness; giving up or capitulating to demands of the environment totally.
Bo Ax Extremely imporiant time of life: dramatic changes of perspective are possible; identity transformation;
geographic relocation; taking command of things; a life milestone.
| Yoe The supermatural; other realms seem to be involved with fife’s occurrences; unusual problems; peculiar
experiences; possible concerns about death malters; creative enterprise.
Pian 1803 |Me Oo $/%4 |Wonderment atthe feelings of love and/or success.
/Mc |Maturation through sobering experiences; refinement of ambition; learning from apparent mistakes.
High sensitivity; feeling ostracized; being misunderstood.
Ego recognition; potential glory; usually successful; fulfillment
Excitability of emotions; sudden sexual activities; artistic creativity.
& o& %/2% | Sociability; the exchange of thoughts with others; meetings.
Apr 1803) Q 0] oi/% | Cooperation
with others; getting their support
B ZL $/Mc |Tremendous focus on an artistic career; cultural exposure; publicity; emotional expression; love
relationship.
May 1803] % [1] Q/h | Leaming respect for the status quo; keeping to oneself.
Jun 1803| 9 & h/Y | Deluded love feelings; inhibitions; diminished emotional expression, sexual activity; unrequited love;
longing for attention; lack of popularity; appreciated more by senior people.
©1992 Matrix Software, Big Rapids, MI Text ©1991 Noel Tyl

avoided use of this brother’s name. His only use of it was when he
was forced to do so by legal prescriptions. We certainly can corrob-
orate this with Venus rulership of the brother’s 3rd House, with
Venus peregrine in the 12th, central to the defensive psychic substratum
of the Family Romance. This Venus begins to run away with the
entire horoscope, as suggested by its peregrine state.
Beethoven was loathe to use the name of Johann, the younger of
his two brothers, his father’s namesake.® He could not inscribe that
name, even in the most emotional and poignant letter of his life-
time, “Farewell and do not wholly forget me when I am dead; I
deserve this from you, for during my lifetime I was thinking of you
often [!] and of ways to make you happy.”

60 Actually, Nikolaus Johann; called “Johann.”

342 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

We can just imagine how deep the pain of the early home life
was within Beethoven that his father’s name upon his brother's life
aroused such feelings of avoidance and dread. We can appreciate how
powerfully important the Family Romance—the change of birth-
date (which was repeated in its two-year error within the Hezligen-
stadt Letter) and the imagined nobility—how essential all of this was
to keeping Beethoven sane, to keeping his creative energy explo-
sively cathartic. We can appreciate why marriage was unattainable,
why the “chain of sorrows” his mother spoke of when he was five
should not be repeated.
In the grip of Pluto, Neptune, and Saturn; in the light of the
New Moon and the illumination by Uranus, we have the portrait of
the artist not only as Olympic hero but hermit in a private Hades.
And we have ever strengthening corroboration of the 11:03 late
morning birth time.
os pee
The “heroic” period of Beethoven’s life, beginning around 1802-
03—after the manifestation of SA Uranus=MC and then SA
Pluto=ASC, and the powerful transits of Saturn and Neptune to
contact with the Ascendant—and lasting through the summer of
1812 gives us several undeniably clear and powerful arcs and tran-
sits with which to work further, not only to test the birth time again
and again through the angles of the horoscope but also to reveal the
continuing dramatic dimensions of Beethoven’s genius life.
Figure 7 (page 343) shows Beethoven’s horoscope in the inner
circle and the Solar Arcs for December, 1812 in the outer ring,
marking the end of this second historical period. Written in also are key
transit positions during that time period: Pluto conjunct Neptune
and square the Midheaven for two years (1807-1808), transiting Sat-
urn crossing the Midheaven in 1810 and then transiting Neptune
following across the Midheaven for a protracted period, 1811-1813.
Please refer back to Figure 6 (page 337): look at the Solar Arc
position of the Midheaven in the 11th House at 14 Capricorn 56.
This position for December 1802 is approaching conjunction with
natal Pluto; the conjunction will take place in approximately 1
degree 38 minutes, i.e., one and one-half years, July 1804.6! Now, in

61 The arc to December 1802 is noted as 32° 37'; added to the natal MC, we have SA MC
14 Capricorn 56. Orb to conjunction with Pluto is 1°38', equating to 1 year (1 degree
generality) and 7 months (5' per month). The conjunction is precisely exact inJuly 1804,
indeed one year and seven months later.
 BEETHOVEN # 343

Figure 7 (below), with Arcs noted for December 1812, we see the
SA MC past the conjunction, of course, but that conjunction will
mark the beginning of our discussion of this second historical peri-
od in Beethoven’s life. Since it involves a rectified angle, it is very
important to our proof of the birth time.
In Figure 7, note also how the SA MC, Moon, Mercury, Sun,
and Jupiter have all entered deeply into Beethoven’s 12th House.
The Sun has been there for some eighteen years, entering just after
the Heiligenstadt Letter and Beethoven’s shattering acknowledgment

ARC: 42°47’
Y Sra te
12/11-10/13

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Beethoven Solar Arcs
Dec. 16, 1812
344 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

of incipient total deafness. We can certainly expect a remarkable

pulsation of the Venus-oriented Family Romance neurosis to twist
the life painfully, especially with the Neptunian transit of the Mid-
heaven, transiting Pluto’s accentuation of the natal Neptune in the
relationship 7th, the great tensions signified by SA Uranus con-
junct Mars, opposing Mercury, and opposing the Sun, with SA
Neptune semi-square the Midheaven. This second historical peri-
od promises to be a paroxysm, a convulsion of heroic pain.
We also can note SA Jupiter nearing the Ascendant, usually a
tremendously positive measurement. This measurement is exact in
January 1816, just days before the time when the court will favor
Beethoven in his life-wrenching custody battle for his “son” Karl
(precisely on February 16, 1816), a major confirmation of our
angles as we shall see.
In July of 1804, with SA MC precisely conjunct Pluto and SA
Jupiter semisquare Mercury, Beethoven completed his Eroica Sym-
phony, Number 3. This Symphony dominates musical history still,
but its originality was so great then and the times were so politically
turbulent (with Napoleon’s armies occupying Vienna), people did
not know where to stand in their reactions. The Eroica failed to win
much acclaim upon its early performances in 1805. Astrologically,
after the stupendous feat of inspiration and composition that was
completed exactly with SA MC=Pluto, SA Saturn moved to square
the midpoint of Sun/Moon in March-April 1805, a breakdown in
harmony with others, the time the Eroica was premiered.
Additionally, in this time period of 1804 (still SA MC-Pluto),
Beethoven sketched out his only opera, Fidelio (originally named
Leonore, after its heroine). The creation of Fidelio (the faithful one)
had so many stops and starts, fits, pains, revisions, out and out
rewrites, even three different Overtures. In my opinion, Fidelio for
Beethoven was a symbolic, unconsciously projected exposure vehi-
cle for his deepest personal needs, showing them in veiled human
forms instead of musical; Fidelio was still another extreme overcom-
pensation for the lack of Water accentuation in the horoscope. SA
Uranus was opposed his Moon, exacerbating his most tender and
painfully imprisoned needs: Fidelio (Venus) in the opera is a woman

62 Actually, upon completion it was called the “Buonaparte” (Italian for Napoleon’s last
name). Beethoven formally changed the title to “Eroica” in October, 1806. Beethoven
was all astew about Romanticism and Revolution, individual freedom and tyranny, upset
with Napoleon’s presumption to be Emperor. Solomon, 132-133.
 BEETHOVEN # 345

disguised (Neptune) as a man (to become Beethoven himself?) con-

niving with the jailer of a prison to get to her husband, the political
prisoner Florestan (Sun-ruled 7th) held in chains and alone deep in
the dungeon (Neptune in the 7th). The enemy of the people, Don
Pizarro (Saturn), compels the jailer to kill Florestan. Leonore unites
with Florestan just before his planned death, and the benign Minis-
ter arrives (Uranus, the liberator), saves the day and frees Florestan,
setting right a sorrowful human condition. Deepest darkness is
conquered by brilliant light. Fidelio’s faithfulness prevails; the vir-
tuous wife’s marriage to love, her loyalty to the ideal of freedom
within that love, triumphs.
Only a few friends of Beethoven ventured to hear the opera at
its premiere on November 20, 1805 (even with transiting Jupiter
and Mars upon Beethoven’s Sun, so insecure and stirred up were
the political times).°? Major rewrites took place, Fidelio was eventu-
ally reprieved, and became a success of granite-like, emotional
heroics, greatly influencing Wagner. That success took place in
late May 1814 with his SA MC just 15° of arc from exact conjunction
with natal Venus!
In January 1806 began the protracted transit of Pluto over
Beethoven’s Neptune and square to the Midheaven. Interestingly,
Secondary Progressed Mars assumed Direct motion at 14 Gemini 45
and SP Mercury conjoined Beethoven’s Ascendant exactly. We can
anticipate the extension out of the Fidelio thrust (and symbolism)
even more pressure on Beethoven’s relationship problems, com-
municating perhaps a new freedom(!) in his idealizations, now

63 Reliable records of the first performances of Fidelio are chronicled: typically, “The story
and plan of the piece are a miserable mixture of low manner and romantic situations; the
airs, duets, and choruses equal to any praise ... intricacy is the character of Beethoven’s
music, and it requires a well-practiced ear, or a frequent repetition of the same piece to
understand and distinguish its beauties ... it was much applauded ... Beethoven presided
at the pianoforte and directed the performance himself ... Few people present, though
the house would have been crowded in every part but for the present state of public
affairs.” Solomon, 144.
64 As an opera singer myself for some twenty years, I am very familiar with Fidelio; and I
have sung the role of Don Pizarro often in Germany. Fidelio is among my handful of
favorite operas because of its dramatic impact, its unique sweep of musical conception, its
clear-cut interplay of human values, and because it is emphatic; you know exactly what the
message is. The superb chorus “Leb’wohl, du warmes Sonnenlicht” (Farewell, thou warm
sunshine) sung by the prisoners, later to return to that sunlight, is a great moment in
operatic composition and drama. Because of the meaning of this chorus, its farewell to
the light of freedom, and the plot itself, the hope for its return, the opera Fidelio was used
by many opera houses of Germany and Austria to reopen their seasons in refurbished
halls after the devastation of World War II.
346 @ ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

clearly represented natally by Venus and Neptune. And indeed

there were false reports published about supposed secret betrothals
to Beethoven.
In addition, transiting Uranus squared natal Venus almost con-
tinuously from September 1806 to September 1807.
Intense Romance—There is a long list of real, imagined, and unat-
tainable women—and a reliance upon them—throughout Beet-
hoven’s life. His pursuit of the unattainable is a dominant theme in
all researchers’ work (again a major statement about a 12th House
Venus). We are understanding this as part of the Family Romance
and the interplay of Venus and Neptune astrologically, related by
the minor sesquiquadrate aspect (135 degrees; tension).
As I studied this enormous pain in Beethoven’s life from our
astrological point of view, I could grasp Neptune well—its musical-
ity, its inspiration, the psychodynamic charade, the veil to the pub-
lic, all that was other-than-it-seemed within Beethoven; its
co-rulership of the Ascendant. I could grasp Venus, slow in devel-
opment within Capricorn, idealized and martyred in the 12th
House, alone, without support, and all-pervasive through peregri-
nation. Always, I returned to Saturn: dominant, retrograde, the
father-dysfunction symbolization at the Descendant marshalling
the gate to relationships, administering the isolation (Pluto=
Moon/Saturn; Saturn=Neptune/Pluto), inexplicably enforcing the
relentless suffering of deafness, defining a Leonine ego aggrandize-
ment that was truly epic. And I felt over and over again: there must
be a relationship here between Saturn and Venus, between Saturn and
Neptune, some geometry that synthesizes their positions further
into Beethoven’s undeniable, severe neurosis.
I suddenly saw it: while Saturn is semi-sextile to Neptune, Sat-
urn—161 degrees from Venus (a quincunx, five signs, plus ten)—is
four noniles (noviles) in its relation to Venus, i.e., 4 x (360/9 or
40)=160 degrees. Here was synthesis in terms of the 9th harmonic. I
theorized the significance of this to give “the 160 aspect” the sense
of Neptune. While I was pleased with my geometric paths to this
conclusion (not presented here), I was happier still to have had this
corroborated by two colleagues whom I telephoned immediately
for consultation on the aspect—Michael Munkasey and John Town-
ley, both specialists with harmonics and minor aspects.
Both agreed with me that the 160 was the nature of Neptune:
Munkasey likened it to “Venus and Saturn on the telephone
 BEETHOVEN # 347

together, with Neptune paying for the call.” Townley talked about
the “bleeding heart liberal aspect” of the situation, “the helpless-
ness of never getting what one wants, always wanting more.” Of
course, all of this is intensified by the lack of Water accentuation in
Beethoven’s horoscope.°
The synthesis of these interrelated planets, Venus, Saturn and
Neptune (like the Midpoint Picture Venus=Saturn/Neptune), sug-
gests “deluded love feelings, inhibitions, diminished emotional
expression and sexual activity, unrequited love, and more.”®
Beethoven’s Solar Arc Venus came to just this Midpoint picture (SA
Venus=Saturn/Neptune, at 29 Leo 54) in June 1803 (romantic frus-
trations and his writing of the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives,
just seven months after his Heiligenstadt crisis).
In the overview we are taking of Beethoven’s life through the
prism of astrology, we can not overlook that every major composi-
tional zenith reached in Beethoven’s career was paralleled by a
tremendous nadir of emotional pain. Elliot Forbes, the distin-
guished Beethoven scholar who edited Thayer’s monumental work
in the Princeton edition, comments on Beethoven’s frequent “deci-
sion to plunge into work when faced with the possibility of a per-
manent attachment with a woman.”*” This is a description of what
I call Beethoven’s escape valve, the sublimation of romance ener-
gies into work, the Neptune square to the Moon and to the recti-
fied Midheaven.
It all came to a phantasmic climax with “Die unsterbliche
Geliebte” (the Immortal Beloved), a mystery romance, an idealiza-
tion, that begins strangely in 1806 (with transiting Pluto upon Nep-
tune) and concludes mysteriously yet illuminated in the summer of
1812 (with SA Uranus opposed Sun, SA Neptune square Venus,
and transiting Neptune conjunct the Midheaven), ending this Mid-
dle Period of Beethoven’s life. Not only is this once again a test of
our astrological angles but a stretching of Beethoven’s neurotic
yearning to the end of its limits.

65 It is helpful to recall Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ horoscope (July 28, 1929 at 2:30 p.m.
EDT in Southampton, NY): her dominant Saturn retrograde in 24 Sagittarius (exactly
conjunct Beethoven’s Sun!) in her 2nd House opposed her Venus in 21 Gemini (exactly
conjunct Beethoven’s Mars!) Here is powerful relationship between Saturn and Venus,
ruler of her 7th, not a 160, but a registration of further understanding of the relationship
between two planets in life manifestation.
66 See “Natal Midpoint Analysis Directory,” Tyl: Synthesis & Counseling, Appendix.
67 Reported by Solomon, 158.
348 «# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

In respect for the length constraints of this presentation, we

can cover only the bare outlines of this extraordinary idealistic
quest. It is an intriguing mystery story. First the strange beginning
in 1806:

+ Beethoven wrote a letter dated only “July 6, Monday” to an

unnamed woman in an unspecified location. He wrote
morning, evening, and the next day, expressing intense pas-
sion, naming the lady only as his “Immortal Beloved.”
Copies of the letters were found among Beethoven’s papers
after his death.
+ Initially, Alexander Thayer, the most respected Beethoven
biographer (Berlin 1866), inserted 1806 unknowingly wrongly
into the letter. But July 6 in 1806 was not a Monday—and so
the mystery began. And so it was solved a century later by
biographer Maynard Solomon.
+ Solomon determined the date, the places, and the identity of
the woman who. fully reciprocated Beethoven’s idealized,
explosive, passionate love. “There was no tinge of amorous
charade here; Beethoven, for the first and as far as we know
the only time in his life, had found a woman whom he loved
and who fully reciprocated his love.” Solomon determined
that the affair had climaxed in the summer of 1812 and that
it had been between Beethoven and Antonie Brentano, a
married woman in a family circle which often had Beethoven
as guest.°8
+ Antonie Brentano was born on May 28, 1780, in Vienna.
Her astrology with Beethoven’s was remarkable: her Mars-
Uranus conjunction in 23 Gemini conjoined his Mars,
opposed his Mercury-Sun conjunction and trined his Ascen-
dant tightly; her Venus (and I think, Ascendant) at 22 Cancer
opposed his major Venus in Capricorn; her Lunar Nodal axis
(always a key in synastric contacts) was conjunct Beethoven’s! In
1812, transiting Uranus was conjunct those Nodal axes. She
was the one, and we should note that from the list of possible
women, astrology could have made the right selection and
solved the mystery handily and conclusively!

68 Ibid., 159, Chapter 15 entirely.

 BEETHOVEN @# 349

+ Worship of this woman from afar, through her family circle,

turned into love sometime in the fall of 1811, according to
Solomon, with transiting Saturn—the emissary between Venus and
Neptune, ifyou will—exactly conjunct Beethoven’s Sun! Here was
the crystallization potential for his entire life, the immortality
of the eternal love.
+ Transiting Neptune was upon Beethoven’s Midheaven, and SA
Neptune was semisquare the Midheaven as well, while transiting
Uranus squared his Ascendant(!): inspiration, yes; phantasm,
yes; all senses heightened; but so easily, the ideal lost, the dis-
solution of personality, the identity destructured, the deepest
life tension twisted again into pain and destroyed.
+ Solomon analyzes, “the opportunity was at hand, therefore, to
convert his conscious and professed desires for marriage and
fatherhood into reality. Gratitude toward and love for Antonie,
however, struggled against the ingrained patterns and habits of
a lifetime [and an obsessive complex; his inability to relate, to be
received; in this case, to believe it].” Beethoven did not want to
bring break-up and sorrow to Antonie and her husband and
children, to change the circumstances of their lives. He was
decidedly and fearfully ambivalent, and close reading of his let-
ter(s) shows that.
+ There was a meeting and a platonic resolution into the
future. Solomon feels that the failure of the affair “shattered”
Beethoven’s illusions that he could ever lead a normal sexual
or family life. Solomon sees this as Beethoven’s final renunci-
ation of marriage and an acceptance of aloneness as his fate.
In his diary, underlined, Beethoven wrote: “Thou mayest no
longer be a man, not for thyself, only for others ...”
+ Five years later, looking back, Beethoven told another family
of friends his rationalization, certainly a paraphrase of his
memory of his mother forty-three years earlier: that “he did
not know a single married couple who on one side or the
other did not repent the step he or she took in marrying; and
that, for himself, he was excessively glad that not one of the
girls whom he had passionately loved in former days had
become his wife.”°?

69 Ibid., 188.
350 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Venus, Neptune, Saturn

The final period of Beethoven’s life spans from after the Period of
the Eternal Beloved to his death in March 1827. The very respect-
ed, musically sophisticated New Grove biography refers to this last
period as the “Transcendent” period. Is that because Beethoven was
now over his love quest? While he was over the hurdle on the mar-
riage level, he was not over it on the grand Family Romance level,
and we shall see that drama in a moment. Was it that his works now
took another turn: fewer, bigger, more final somehow? It seems so:
Beethoven’s output had been prodigious in the middle period of
some twelve years, some thirty major works (including Symphonies
3 through 8), some thirty smaller works, and all of them personally
guided through revisions, editing, copyist’s corrections, proofread-
ing, negotiations with publishers, etc. Age, emotional turmoil, the
imponderably severe deafness now had all taken their extreme toll.
In 1813, Beethoven was aged understandably and conspicuously
well beyond his forty-three years.
Figure 8 (page 351) shows Beethoven’s Solar Arc accumulation
in December 1824, twelve and one-half years after the Immortal
Beloved and two years and three months before his death. Look back
to Figure 7 for a moment (page 343): most clearly, SP SA Sun is on
its way out of the 12th House and will arrive exactly upon
Beethoven’s Ascendant in July 1824 (25' of arc back from the
December 1824 position, i.e., five months) as shown in Figure 8.
Beethoven should have a grand Hurrah then in 1823 and 1824!
Now, here in Figure 8 (page 351), note that transiting Saturn
(in the 3rd House area) will square the Ascendant in March 1824
just as transiting Pluto squares Jupiter (simultaneity yet again),
the latter transit to continue until Beethoven’s death in March
1827. Transiting Saturn then goes on to cross the 4th cusp in June
1825. SA Pluto (see outer ring, Ascendant area) semisquares
Venus and squares the Midheaven in 1825. And finally, SA Mars
opposes the Ascendant—representing all of the formative ten-
sions of Beethoven’s life—in August 1826, when Beethoven is
taken into his death illness. At his death, transiting Neptune was
exactly conjunct his Pluto; fantasy and pretense, frustration and
sublimation end.
After the Immortal Beloved affair that climaxed in failure in the
summer of 1812, Beethoven's entire being went into shock. Transit-
 BEETHOVEN @ 351

ing Neptune was constantly on his Midheaven from December 1811

through October 1813: he wrote to Archduke Rudolph (12/12), “I
have been ailing, although mentally, it is true, more than physically.”
And further in January 1813, “As for my health, it is pretty much the
same, the more so as moral causes are affecting it and these appar-
ently are not very speedily removed.” And then in May 1813 (with
SA Neptune 10' of arc from exact semisquare with his Midheaven,
and with transiting Saturn at his Mars/Saturn midpoint), “A number

= : none tel ARC: 54°56’

TrevorO ae
1818-1819 j=

Inner Chart Outer Chart

Beethoven Solar Arcs
Dec. 16, 1824
352 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

of unfortunate incidents occurring one after the other have really

driven me into a state bordering on mental confusion.””°
Solomon and Schindler suggest that Beethoven may have made
an attempt to take his own life after the Immortal Beloved crisis, the
attempt made the spring or summer of 1813 (see paragraph above).
Suicidal thoughts were not uncommon to Beethoven (as we saw in
the Heiligenstadt reference, “I was on the point of putting an end
to my life ...” and in other letters to many friends).”!
All sources report that Beethoven’s mourning his Beloved had
brought him into a mental and physical disorder that was unstable
and also brought his musical productivity to a halt. The connoisseurs
around him started to withdraw their allegiance. Here is the disso-
lution of the ego presented to us practically invariably by transit or
arc contact between Neptune and the Midheaven (and other angles,
but less publicly observable normally). Additionally and symbolical-
ly so poignant, the sources refer to this beginning of Beethoven’s
last period as “the dissolution of the heroic style.”
The accumulation of 45 degrees by Solar Arc is an important
time in everyone’s life. The SA Semisquare”” shows all natal planets
arced uniformly to a strong tension point with their original posi-
tions at birth. It occurred in Beethoven’s life, in 1815, precisely
in February.
At this time, Beethoven was awarded honorary citizenship of
Vienna (it appears like an end-of-career recognition), the revised
Fidelio had been presented to great acclaim. What music writing he
did was “for the public.” Beethoven became a “rude materialist” as
opposed to continuing as a monument for posterity.
The culmination of the Family Romance neurosis now took
place, developing over a five-year period that began with this Solar
Arc semisquare period: Beethoven’s favored brother Carl Caspar
became gravely ill with tuberculosis and then died on November
15, 1815. Carl’s son Karl, Beethoven’s nephew, immediately domi-
nated Beethoven’s mind and life.

70 Ibid., 219.
71 Curiously, this time of deep despondency was also a time when Beethoven made many
references to prostitutes in his correspondence with a friend. They had a code word for
the prostitutes, “fortresses.” Soon Beethoven came out of the reaction formation (Nep-
tune) to the horror of his crushed ideal and exhibited a sense of guilt and even revulsion
concerning sexual activity, i.e., “bestial.”
72 Bill Clinton precisely in election—November, 1991; O. J. Simpson precisely in double
murder—June, 1994.
 BEETHOVEN # 353

Beethoven detested Carl Caspar’s wife (widow) who was named

Johanna (we can note again Beethoven’s extreme discomfort with an
echo of his father’s name, Johann, as we saw in the Heiligenstadt
letter to Caspar and the younger brother also named Johann). On
his deathbed, Caspar designated that Johanna and Ludwig were to
be co-guardians of son Karl, who was nine at the time. Ludwig
insisted he be made sole guardian. Then Caspar added a codicil to
the will for emphasis: “I by no means desire that my son be taken
away from his mother ... guardianship should be exercised equally
by my wife and my brother.”
Beethoven went to court, and in February 1816, precisely with
Solar Arc Jupiter conjunct his Ascendant (see page 343), he was
awarded favorable judgment to be Karl’s sole guardian!7* Johanna
then went continuously to court for almost five years, with
Beethoven ultimately winning again, based upon his colossal repu-
tation. The fight was bitter and scandalous.
Beethoven’s ideal love had escaped him, his sexuality was gone,
his hearing had abandoned him, his music had “failed” him (in
terms of halted output indeed). He had to have family, a son. He
had to gain that structure and security. This attachment to Karl
overwhelmed Beethoven’s personality. It raced into the vacuum of
identity. Solomon states bluntly the consensus of all biographers
that Beethoven apparently approached the borderline of irre-
versible pathology.”
Figure 9 (page 355) shows the tie between Ludwig and young
Karl:’> Ludwig’s critical relationship trauma shown through Nep-
tune is conjoined by Karl’s exact Sun-Mercury opposition with
Pluto which, in turn, tightly squares Ludwig’s rectified Midheaven;
Ludwig’s awesomely pained Family Romance Venus is squared by
Karl’s Saturn-Uranus conjunction; and Karl’s Nodal axis is precisely

73 Autexier, 80; Solomon, Chapter 18; and other sources.

74 So extreme was this attachment to work out his Family Romance neurosis, that books
have been written solely about Ludwig and young Karl’s relationship; deep psychoana-
lytic treatises that do not affect our astrology, but do delineate the pained vortex of
Beethoven’s emotional disintegration.
75 Ihave done a general rectification of Karl’s horoscope, based upon details of his tortured
early life and his later suicide attempt (two shots to the head) to rid himself of Ludwig’s
dominance.
354 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

conjunct the master’s Sun!’® This is extraordinary corroboration of

everything we have shared astrologically about Beethoven’s neurot-
ic life development and vulnerability to obsession.
Within Beethoven’s horoscope alone, we see Venus rulership of
the brother-3rd; we see the brother’s child (fifth of the 3rd) bring-
ing the 7th House forward, ruled by the Sun and Mercury, both so
severely under stress, with Saturn retrograde upon the cusp and
Neptune retrograde within the 7th referring to deepened patholo-
gy and contrapuntal themes.
It was during a high-court hearing about Karl on December 18,
1818 that Beethoven’s tacit nobility pretense was finally completely
shattered. In response to direct questioning, he confessed that nobility
was not his. In exactly that month, transiting Pluto was exactly
square Beethoven’s Sun, transiting Uranus and Neptune in con-
junction conjoined his Sun, transiting Saturn exactly squared his
Midheaven on that day, transiting Jupiter conjoined his Pluto, and
Mars was exactly conjunct his Moon ... two days after his birthday,
the day before his mother’s.
Johanna continued to fight.
On March 29, 1820, a final hearing on this issue began. “The mag-
istrates, aware that political influence had been brought to bear,””’
ruled on April 8 that Beethoven should be appointed guardian. Then,
Johanna appealed the decision to the emperor(!), but to no avail. On
July 24, 1820, the case was closed (Ludwig’s SA Venus had come to the
square with his Moon just 25 minutes of arc earlier, and his SP SA Sun
was applying to opposition with his Saturn).
An extraordinary wrinkle in this story is that Karl’s mother,
Johanna became pregnant in the spring of 1820 (to replace her
“stolen” child?). She then named her new daughter Ludovica, the
feminine form of Ludwig.
After all of this and Beethoven’s public demeanor on his walks
and in his minimal social interaction, peering into people’s win-
dows, ranting and raving in the streets, Vienna thought Beethoven,
its greatest composer, was a “sublime madman.” Goethe was told

76 The Lunar Nodal axis tie with a planet or point in someone else’s horoscope is extreme-
ly important and even obsessing; Hitler and Eva Braun, Prince Ranier and Grace Kelly,
and so many more famous couples and tragic pairs. Recall the congruence of Nodal Axes
with the “Immortal Beloved” (p. 207). Please see, Tyl: Synthesis & Counseling, sections
One-C and Two-E beginning 207.
77 Solomon, 249.
 BEETHOVEN @# 355

Figure 9
Inner Chart Outer Chart
Ludwig Van Beethoven Karl Van Beethoven (Rectification)
Dec. 16, 1770, 11:03 AM.LMT Sept. 4, 1806, 11:244.M. LMT
Bonn, Germany Vienna, Austria
07E0S SON44 16E20 48N13
Placidus Houses

+ 0:00 UT Geocentric Tropical Longitudes for DEC 1818

5:32:12 | 22728 54
5:36:08 | 23 2950 | 29 3%
5:40:05 | 24 30 55 26 36
5:44:02 | 25 32 00 | 23 33 | 26 32
5:47:58 | 26 33 06 | 05143 6 01 | Ow 4

5:51:55 | 27 34 13 | 18 07 17 14

Copyright (C) 1987 Matrix Software, Big Rapids MI 49307

356 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Beethoven had become a lunatic. Schindler wrote that Beethoven

looked to be seventy years old.
In early 1821, with SA Sun opposed Saturn exactly, and,
simultaneously, SA Uranus in opposition with Beethoven’s
Jupiter, Beethoven developed the first symptoms of jaundice, the
ominous sign of liver disease (Jupiter). Also, transiting Pluto
would begin to square that Jupiter, a most sensitive spot now in
the ending of Beethoven’s life. Beethoven ultimately did develop
cirrhosis of the liver and died from it, which condition was no
doubt accelerated by a substantial intake of alcoholic beverages.’®
At the same time, Beethoven began to reconstruct his profes-
sional life, the SP SA Sun applied to his Ascendant in 1822-1824 (see
Figure 8, page 351). The volcano stirred once again and the lava
flowed; the world would still again recognize Beethoven for his
genius. He worked ploddingly and incessantly; he was described as
“one of the most active men who ever lived”;’? he was rarely seen,
even for meals. Along with numerous smaller works, Beethoven
completed the tortuous, enormous, and profound Missa Solemnis
and made substantial progress on what was to be his Ninth Sym-
phony, a gargantuan mark of genius innovation and dramatic
impact upon the world, the first performance of which was on May
7, 1824, just 10 minutes ofarc before SA Sun=ASC partile!*®

Special Note: We know rectification to be a most difficult task. It is

creative composition with astrological notes and chords and
themes, working within prescribed rhythms of time and forms of
history. Our astrology emphatically fits Beethoven’s life reality in
the substance of analysis and the duration of time. Over and over
again, we have seen transits and arcs to angles and to the Moon coin-
ciding naturally within life activity and psychological development.

78) bid., 25/7,

79 According to Johann Sporschil, historian and publicist studying in Vienna at the time,
reported by Solomon.
80 The Ninth Symphony utilizing vocal soloists and a massive chorus along with the orches-
tra in the final movement—an extraordinary break with form, style, tradition—was
extremely influential on another genius, Richard Wagner. Wagner, who was only eleven
years old at the time of the premiere, would credit the Ninth as inspiration for his own
grand break from operatic traditions with his original form-concept of “Music Drama.”
Wagner himself conducted the Ninth Symphony in concert many times.
Additionally, Beethoven received a gold medal, weighing one-half pound (21 Louis
d’or), from Louis XVIII of France. Schindler suggested that this medal was “the great-
est distinction conferred upon the master during his lifetime.” Schindler-
MacArdle, 242.
 BEETHOVEN # 357

The true test of birth time is indeed the orientation of the

angles of the horoscope within time. When we aiso inspect the Sec-
ondary Progressed Moon in relation to the angles, we have a triple-
bind check on the birth time, as it were, since the Moon and the two
angular axes a/l are sensitive to the slightest change of birth time;
each determines and depends on the others.
Within the three major periods of Beethoven’s life, the follow-
ing angular contacts were made by the Secondary Progressed Moon:

+ SP Moon conjunct Ascendant (19 Aquarius) June 1804: this is

precisely to the month when Beethoven completed the
Eroica Symphony Number 3, the monumental, giant state-
ment that established his personal position within music his-
tory and changed the course of that history forever.
+ SP Moon conjunct the 4th cusp, opposed MC (12 Gemini-Sagittar-
ius) July 1812: this is precisely to the month when
Beethoven’s rapture for the Immortal Beloved came to full
development, realizing his enforced pattern of failure in rela-
tionships, ending the interpersonal romance charades of his
life, the difficulties stemming from his early parental trauma.
SP Moon conjunct the 7th cusp, opposed ASC (19 Leo-Aquarius)
November 1816: this time coincided with the Progressed Full
Moon as well, the period when Beethoven neurotically com-
pleted his Family Romance relationship delusion, imagining
he actually was Karl's (his nephew’s) father, gaining custody of
Karl, and, a bit later, succeeding in his demand that Karl call
him ”Father.”®!
+SP Moon conjunct the MC (12 Sagittarius) February 1825: in
this month exactly, Beethoven completed the first of the five
great works that ended his compositional output, exclusively
in the medium of the String Quartet (which he had begun in
May 1822 and had put aside in favor of the Ninth Sympho-
ny). “The five late string quartets contain Beethoven’s great-
est music.”°?

8 pene “But Beethoven’s central delusion in this pathological sequence was even more extraor-
dinary: he began to imagine that he had become a father in reality. [There are many let-
ters and diary entries to this effect throughout 1816.] ‘I am now the real physical father
(wirklicher leiblicher Vater) of my deceased brother’s child.’” Solomon, 235.
82 New Grove, 133, and all sources.
358 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

At this time in 1825, Beethoven was experiencing as well the

penultimate powerful arc to an angle in his horoscope: SA Pluto
square the Midheaven (see Figure 8, page 351), exact in October 1825,
certainly a milestone in one’s life, yet for Beethoven, so grievously
wounded, also the beginning of his final breakdown and death.
The greatness of the final Quartets is attributed to profundity
of thought and feeling. Again, Beethoven changes the course of
music history with his originality, always going beyond the bounds
of tradition and accepted style. Finally, we see some mentions of
lyrical beauty in the critical descriptions of his work. We also hear a
dramatically dissonant fury in some movements of the works as if
myriad ideas were scrambling to be heard at the same time. Some
singular movements from the Quartets played by just four musi-
cians have been compared in weight of impact with the Ninth Sym-
phony finale, marshalled by forces usually 200 strong! To the
Quartet in B-flat, op. 130 (citing the original last movement, the
Grosse Fuge), Stravinsky responded: “this absolutely contemporary
piece of music will be contemporary for ever.”°?
Look again, please, at Figure 8 (page 351). Note that Solar Arc
Pluto (in the Ascendant area) when square the Midheaven is sizmul-
taneously semisquaring the problematic Venus. The musical inspira-
tion and career power are clear, but so is the painful revival of
Beethoven’s problematic ties to family/sexual neurosis. At this time, all
sources report that “Beethoven had now become obsessed with
Karl’s sexuality,”®* (clearly a transference of his own). Beethoven
exerted every effort to block his nephew from sexual opportunities
of any sort; he spied upon the boy and continued to attempt to sep-
arate him from social interaction that could become intimate.
Finally, Karl could not take Beethoven’s confinement any longer.
On July 30, 1826, Karl wrote suicide notes, bought two pistols, went
to Baden to the top of a mountain, and shot himself in the head.
Miraculously, he failed to take his life. This suicide attempt occurred
exactly coincidental with the final major Arc in Beethoven’s life: SA
Mars conjunct the 7th cusp, opposed the Ascendant.
It is most telling to recall that Beethoven’s rectified Ascendant
of 19 Aquarius 08 is almost precisely square the midpoint of

83 Ibid., 135.
84 Solomon, 280.
 BEETHOVEN # 359

Venus/Neptune (ASC=Venus/Neptune). Here is the music thrust,

yes, but also statement of the contrapuntal theme we have been fol-
lowing throughout this analysis, the love-relationship frustration
and the Family Romance defense. At the time of Karl’s suicide
attempt, SA Mars arriving to opposition with Beethoven’ rectified
Ascendant also conjoined its midpoint relationship to Beethoven’s Venus
and Neptune.
At the same time, throughout the month of June 1826, thirty
days before Karl’s suicide attempt, transiting Saturn opposed
Beethoven’s Sun.*° His health worsening for three months,
Beethoven became gravely ill: inflammation of the lungs (Gemini,
Mercury); his “respiration threatened suffocation” (Mercury); and
his liver (Jupiter).
On December 7, 1826, Beethoven seemed to rally. He could sit
up and correspond (SA Mercury conjunct Ascendant). He wrote to
long-time friend, Dr. Wegeler about—above all things—a renunci-
ation of the rumor about his royal birth, “being the natural son of
the late King of Prussia!” While Beethoven had denied this fantasy
in court during the custody proceedings about Karl, he had yet to
bring the issue to personal closure on his own. Realizing his immi-
nent death, this was the time. He asked Wegeler “to make known to
the world the integrity of my parents and especially of my mother.”*°
On that day, Beethoven’s SP Moon was precisely upon his pere-
grine Jupiter, dispositor of his Moon and ruler of his Midheaven.*’
Following this short remission of his illnesses, Beethoven’s con-
dition once again rapidly deteriorated. He was trembling and shiv-
ering and was bent double because of the pains that raged in his
liver (Jupiter) and intestines (Mercury, Virgo) and his terribly
swollen feet (Jupiter, Neptune, Pisces). His abdomen was tapped to
release enormous amounts of fluid, and he was given frozen alco-
holic beverages to relieve discomfort. From December 20 on,
Beethoven was confined to his bed.*?

85 “Karl’s suicide attempt thus bespoke his shattering rejection of Beethoven’s presumed
fatherhood. Beethoven wrote: ‘all my hopes have vanished.’” Solomon, 285.
86 Ibid., 286.
87 And interestingly, the SP SA Sun was upon the Ascendant of the SP horoscope for that
SP date (February 10, 1771, at birth time and location; i.e., symbolically Beethoven’s
birth year picture beginning in December, 1826).
88 The underlying pathology became evident on December13 when Beethoven developed
jaundice and ascites (dropsy). The abdominal taps to relieve the enormous amounts of
fluid were done on December 20, January 8, Febrvary 2, and 27. Autexier, 88.
360 @# ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

As Beethoven’s end quickly approached, one lovely scene tran-

spired in his chamber: two young singers, an engaged couple who
“worshipped” Beethoven, came to pay their respects. Beethoven
asked the tenor, Luigi Cramolini, to sing for him. Writing to
Beethoven in his “Conversation Book,” adoring pleasantries were
exchanged and the little recital was arranged. Schindler (the biogra-
pher himself) who was regularly present, sat down at the piano, and
Luigi tried to sing. However, he found that he was incapable of
making a sound, so emotionally overwhelming was the situation.
When Schindler explained (wrote) the situation to Beethoven, the
master laughed heartily and said to them: “Sing, sing then, my dear
Luigi; unfortunately I can’t hear you, but I would like at least to see
you sing!”
Finally, Luigi gathered himself and sang Beethoven’s adored
song Adelaide. Luigi’s own report continues: “When I had finished,
he called me to his bed and said, tightly squeezing my hand: ‘I saw
from your breathing that you sang it the way it should be, and I
read on your face that you felt what you sang. You have given me
great pleasure.‘”®?
Karl had been at Beethoven’s bedside throughout December.
Their conflicts were over. Karl, in the military and apart from
Beethoven, then wrote: “My dear father[!] ... [am living in content-
ment and regret only that I am separated from you.” On March 23
(1827), “Beethoven wrote his last testament, willing everything to
‘My nephew Karl.’ Beethoven put down his pen, saying, “There! I
won’t write another word.’””” In the will, upon Karl’s death, Johan-
na, his mother, would be the heir[!].
Schindler wrote a letter on March 24 saying that Beethoven
“feels the end coming, for yesterday he said to me and H. v. Breun-
ing, ‘Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est.’” (Applaud, friends, the com-
edy is ended, a well-known Latin epithet).”!
On the wall of Beethoven’s chamber was the oil painting of his
beloved grandfather, the Kapellmeister Ludwig van Beethoven.
On the same day, some wines arrived that Beethoven had
ordered some time before his critical illness, and Schindler brought

89 Autexier, 95, and other sources.

90 Solomon, 292.
91 Ibid., 292.
 BEETHOVEN # 361

the bottles to Beethoven’s bedside. Beethoven whispered, “Pity,

pity—too late!” and spoke no more.
Beethoven fell into a coma that evening.
On March 26, 1827, there was a strange turn in the weather:
snow was piled outside, it was very cold, and there were snow flur-
ries, with thunder and lightning. This unusual weather was
described as a “revolution in nature.””
Anselm Huettenbrenner, an esteemed composer and music
lover, had come to pay his respects to Beethoven, the master, before
his death. Although he was not personally known to Beethoven,
Huettenbrenner was known to Beethoven’s friends. They had given
the comatose Beethoven up for dead and therefore allowed the
devoted musician in to view Beethoven. Late in the afternoon of
that final day, Huettenbrenner and a woman were alone with
Beethoven. Huettenbrenner reported an enormous crack of thun-
der and bolt of lightning which illuminated the “death chamber”
with a harsh light. “After this unexpected natural phenomenon, at
about 5:45,””3 Beethoven momentarily opened his eyes, lifted his
right hand, and clenched it into a fist. When his hand fell back from
this effort, Beethoven was dead.”*
Figure 10 (page 362) is the chart for the moment of Beethoven’s
death, i.e., “at about 5:45 P.M.” What is truly remarkable about this
chart is that all four angles are at the Aries Point, almost precisely; if
Beethoven indeed died at 5:46:40 P.M., one and one-half minutes
later, the four angles would measure 0 degrees of the Cardinal signs
precisely. Additionally, the Saturn in this chart “equals” the mid-
points of Moon/Pluto and Sun/Moon,; transiting Saturn had come
to opposition with Beethoven’s natal Pluto/Midheaven Midpoint,
“circumstances of death.” Finally, note the Sun-Pluto conjunction
in Aries, projected to the world at the Descendant. At that moment
in time in Vienna, indeed—with a bolt of lightning—an historic
hero had died.
Figure 11 (page 362) shows the death chart in the outer ring of
Beethoven’s rectified horoscope. The remarkable conjunction of
transiting Venus precisely upon Beethoven’s Ascendant fulfills our
wish that Beethoven died with inner peace.

92 Detailed person, on-the-scene reports; Landon, 232-234.

93 New Grove, 88; and other sources, from Huettenbrenner’s description.
94 Solomon, 292; Robbins, 232.
362 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

@ 297 138" Figure 10

50" 24° Beethoven’s
M Death
Mar. 26, 1827
: 5:45 p.M. LMT
Vienna, Austria
06° 16" 16E20 48N13
Placidus Houses

s sR29 %
ro)

42' *D/ 42"

24° 05'
x
05°

Figure 11
Inner Chart
Ludwig Van
Beethoven
Dec. 16, 1770
11:03 A.M. LMT
. Bonn, Germany
.07E0S SON44

Outer Chart
Beethoven’s
Death
Mar. 26, 1827
5:45 P.M. LMT
Vienna, Austria
16E20 48N13
Placidus Houses
 BEETHOVEN # 363

But note transiting Uranus and Neptune as well. Here are

sharp, dramatic reiterations of the struggles of Beethoven’s entire
life: the triumph of the heroic rebel through the veils of Family
Romance neurosis (tr. Uranus with Venus, 160° natal Saturn; tr.
Neptune with Pluto quincunx natal Saturn). In the death chart’s
congruence with the potentials and actualities of life, we can see
corroboration that Beethoven did come to grips with it all finally,
recanting his noble-birth rumor, projecting his estate through Karl
to Johanna.
Johanna is Beethoven’s Pluto here, the ruler of his 9th, the sev-
enth of his 3rd, i.e., his brother’s wife, another embodiment of the
unattainable woman and the final reference perspective of his life’s
dream of family. With transiting Neptune exactly upon his Pluto at
his death, it is no surprise that “the woman in the room” at the
moment of Beethoven’s death—the identity suppressed by
Schindler and unknown for almost fifty years until given correctly
to Thayer—was indeed Johanna van Beethoven. Schindler had
thought such a [an implicit?] reconciliation to have been impossi-
ble; he was antipathetic to Johanna and Karl because of the upset to
Beethoven’s life. In fact, Schindler urged Huettenbrenner, the only
other witness to Beethoven’s death, to reconsider the fact about
Johanna being the woman in the room, and himself substituted the
name of Therese van Beethoven, the younger brother Nikolaus
Johann’s wife, into the account of Beethoven’s death.”
But it was indeed Johanna who cut a lock of Beethoven’s hair
and gave it to Huettenbrenner, the sole other witness, as a “sacred
souvenir of Beethoven’s last hour.”
aay ets
The crowd attending Beethoven’s funeral on March 29 was formi-
dable, estimated variously from 20,000 to 30,000 people—an enor-
mous gathering in those times—including eight Kapellmeister as
pallbearers. At the gate to the cemetery in the suburban village of
Waehring, the actor Heinrich Anschuetz delivered a funeral ora-
tion written by Franz Gillparzer. At the grave site, a choral Mis-
erere was sung to the somber accompaniment of four trombones.
Sixty-one years later in 1888, Beethoven’s remains were moved
to the Central Cemetery in Vienna.

95 Ibid., 293.
364 + ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Beethoven was born at 11:03 in the morning, local mean time

on Sunday, December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. I must believe
the details of biography, the confluence of astrological measure-
ments, the analysis of life and astrological deductions, and how all
these come together to sound the chord, to establish the tonality of
Beethoven’s being. My conviction must prevail in the respect I have
for my craft, my work with it, the labor of love this research has
commanded, and what the hunt has provided: the emphatic astro-
logical sound of the master.
 BEETHOVEN # 365

Bibliography

Listed in order of 1994 bookstore/library accessibility:

Autexier, Phillipe A. Beethoven: The Composer as Hero. New York: Harry N.

Abrams, Inc., Discoveries, 1992.
Kerman, Joseph and Tyson, Alan. The New Grove BEETHOVEN. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983.
Solomon, Maynard. Beethoven. New York: Schirmer Books, 1979, Paper-
back Edition.
Schindler, Anton Felix. Beethoven as IKnew Him; Editor. Donald W. Mac-
Ardle. New York: W. Norton & Company, 1966.
Landon, H. C. Robbins. Beethoven: His Life, Work and World. London:
Thames and Hudson, 1992. [Particularly important for the thirty-seven
pictures of sketches, paintings, and sculpture of Beethoven from age
thirteen to his death.]
Wegeler, Franz and Ferdinand Ries. Beethoven Remembered. Arlington,
VA: Great Ocean Publishers, 1987.
Thayer, Alexander W. The Life ofLudwig van Beethoven, Volumes J and 1;
Editor. Elliot Forbes. Princeton, New Jersey, 1964. [The master
source, but hard to find, even in libraries.]
Elliot Forbes is the renowned Beethoven scholar and editor of this
epic Thayer biography of Beethoven, in the Princeton Edition, 1964,
1967. I knew professor Forbes —“E]”—at Harvard and reached out to
him before preparing this rectification to see if there were any hidden
birth details that would help my research.
In my telephone discussion with El about this astrological project, he
was respectfully startled, momentarily bemused, and clearly delighted
with the fresh approach. With great charm, he said, “Well, Noel, this
won’t be the first time that superior powers have been brought into the
discussion about the Master!”
In his “review” letter to me after studying this astrological profile, El
voiced a “Bravo!” and with my permission presented the chapter to the
Edna Loeb Music Library at Harvard.
Kendall, Alan. The Life of Beethoven. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group
Ltd., 1978.
Woodford, Peggy. Mozart: his Life and Times. Kent, England: Midas
Books, 1977.
Recording Notes. Beethoven/Bernstein 9 Symphonies. Deutsche Grammo-
phone, 1980.
366 # ASTROLOGY OF THE FAMED

Index
Aging, 350, 354 Herschel, Sir William, 309
Aquarius thrust, 323, 326, 327 Huettenbrenner, Sir William, 361
Ascendant variable, 315 Illnesses, 321, 350, 359, 360
Baptism, 302, 312 Immortal Beloved, 332, 347, 348,
Beethoven and the avant 550, 3525357
garde, 299 Immortal Beloved mystery, 347
Birth horoscope, 334 Improvisation, 321, 327, 328
Birthdate confusion, 302 Jupiter symbolism, 311, 332
Brothers of Beethoven, 306, 326, Last words, 361
332, 340, 352-354, 364 Learning at school, 306
Character descriptions, 320 Learning music, 305, 306
Concert, first, 328, 335 Lineage, 300
Conversation Book, 340, 360 Madness, 354, 355
Court trial for custody of Karl, Missa Solemnis, 317, 356
302, 336, 344, 357, 359 Mother Marie, 300-301, 326, 342,
Deafness, 319, 321, 338, 339, 340, 359
344, 346, 350 Mother’s death, 326
Deafness, acknowledgment, 338, Mozart, 325-326
339 Munkasey, Michael, 346
Death moment, 350, 361-363 Napoleon, 322
Death period, 350, 358 _ Nephew, Karl, 302, 332, 336, 344,
Deathbed concert, 360 352, 353, 354, 358-359
Egyptian inscriptions, 310 Nephew, Karl, synastry, 353, 355
Eroica, Symphony No. 3, 314, Ninth Symphony, 304, 322, 356,
322, 344, 357 337
Family romance, culmination, 352 Noble birth denied, 354
Family Romance, The, 303, 306, Noble birth presumed, 303, 304
S205 AR0. 250, 232; 08); 200, Noon test chart, December 16,
339, 340, 341, 342, 344, 353, 310
357, 359, 363 Periods oi development, 334
Father Johann, 300, 305, 306, Peripatetic habit, 336
308, 326 Quartets, 357, 358
Father’s death, 317 Ries, Ferdinand, 322
Fidelio, 344, 345, 352 Royal birth denied, 359
Fischer family, 301 Saturn retrograde, 310, 318, 323,
Forbes, Elliot, 347 329, 354
Funeral, 363 Secondary Progressed Moon
Grand Trine Defense Mecha- Check, 357
nism, 309, 310, 311 Self-aggrandizement, 319, 322
Grandfather (paternal), 300, 301, Sexuality, 332, 353, 358
302, 305, 306, 329, 360 Sister-in-law, Johanna, 353, 354,
Heiligenstadt, 319, 339, 347 363
Heiligenstadt Letter, 319, 340, Solomon, Maynard, 303, 305,
342, 343, 353 310, 316, 326, 331, 334, 338,
Heroic period, 342 340, 348, 349, 352
 BEETHOVEN @# 367

Suicide, 340, 352 Uranus, discovery of, 309

Suicide, Karl’s, 358, 359 Van or Von, the confusion, 300
Sublimation, 347 Virtuosity, 328
Thayer, Alexander, 302, 347, 363 Wegeler, Dr. Franz, 302, 304,
Tonality, explanation/ 338, 359
demonstration, 297-298 Will, last, 360
Townley, John, 346, 347 Year of birth in doubt, 299
 4
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Mail orders to:

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0383, U.S.A.

For customer service, call (612) 291-1970.

 “SYNTHESIS &
COUNSELING |
IN ASTROLOGY |
| The Professional Manual

SYNTHESIS & COUNSELING IN ASTROLOGY

The Professional Manual
by Noel Tyl
One of the keys to a vital, comprehensive astrology is the art of syn-
thesis, the capacity to take the parts of our knowledge and combine
them into a coherent whole. Many times, the parts may be contra-
dictory (the relationship between Mars and Saturn, for example), but
the art of synthesis manages the unification of opposites. Now Noel
Tyl presents ways astrological measurements—through creative syn-
thesis—can be used to effectively counsel individuals. Discussion of
these complex topics is grounded in concrete examples and in-depth
analyses of the 122 horoscopes of celebrities, politicians, and private
clients.
‘Tyl’s objective in providing this vitally important material was to pre-
sent everything he has learned and practiced over his distinguished
career to provide a useful source to astrologers. He has succeeded in
creating a landmark text destined to become a classic reference for
professional astrologers.
1-56718-734-X, 924 pgs., 7x 10, 115 charts, softcover $29.95
 { Master Volume of
7 echnique and Practice

Great Predictions in History

PREDICTION IN ASTROLOGY
A Master Volume of Technique and Practice
by Noel Tyl
No matter how much you know about astrology already, no matter
how much experience you’ve had to date, you'll be fascinated by Pre-
diction in Astrology, and you'll grow as an astrologer. Using the
Solar Arc theory and methods he describes in this book, the author
was able to accurately predict the Gulf War, including the actual date
it would begin and the timetable of tactics, two months before it
began. He also predicted the overturning of Communist rule in the
Eastern bloc nations nine months in advance of its actual occurrence.
Tyl teaches through example. You learn by doing astrology, not just
thinking about it. Tyl introduces Solar Arc theory in terms of “rap-
port” measurements, which you begin to do immediately, without
paper, pencil, or computer, dials, or wheels. Just with your eyes! You
will never look at a horoscope the same way again!
Tyl, in his well-known, very special way, also gets personal. He pre-
sents 30 Aphorisms, the keenest of maxims, the most practical of
techniques, to create predictions from any horoscope. And as if this
were not enough, Tyl then presents 20 Aphorisms for Counseling.
Look for Tyl’s “Quick-Glance” Transit Table, 1940-2040, to which
you can refer more quickly than a computer. The busy astrologer will
use this Appendix every day for many years to come.
0-87542-814-2, 360 pgs., 6 x 9, softcover $17.95
 NaTROCaGt
fal LOOKS AT a

ig TOs

ASTROLOGY LOOKS AT HISTORY

edited by Noel Tyl
This book shows astrology performing at its very best through recti-
fication (working backwards to determine someone’s correct birth-
time), capturing in astrological terms the fascinating lives of geniuses
who have touched the development of the arts, sciences and govern-
ment in Western history. Astrology Looks at History reveals the details
of personal development in the lives of 10 notables, and illuminates
their interactions with the world as they changed it.

Scholars are one day off on Shakespeare’s birth;

astrology establishes that he was murdered! — Maurice McCann
Why such a powerful man named Machiavelli was so withdrawn,
reclusive, and realistic — Basil T. Fearrington
Astrology studies with keen historical grounding the many times
lightning struck in the life of Benjamin Franklin —’Tim Lyons
The meanings between the lines of Edgar Allen Poe’s tortured
life, sensitive spirit and wondrous imagination — Doris Hebel
Historical detail about Slavery, Jamestown, and Lincoln reveals a
country in the making —Marc Penfield
What do the Creation of the World, the horoscope of astrology
and Jack the Ripper have in common? — Nicholas Campion
Astrology times Nelson Mandela’s past and projects into the
future —Noel Tyl
1- 56718-868-0, 464 pgs., 6x9, 92 charts, softcover $16.95

Prices subject to change without notice.

 ASTROLOGY'S
SPECTAL
MEASUREMENTS
How to Expand the
Meaning ofthe Horoscope

Edited by
Noel TyL.

ASTROLOGY’S SPECIAL MEASUREMENTS

How to Expand the Meaning of the Horoscope
edited by Noel Tyl
Every new student of astrology looks with bewilderment at that first
horoscope and asks, “What’s it mean when there’s nothing in my 7th
house? Won’t I ever get married?” The student feels the strong need
to measure. He needs something to define the space in the house and
give meaning to the picture. Measurements are the lenses that help
us see nearer, farther, and with greater contrast and clarity. In the
process of analysis, measurement becomes diagnosis.
In this volume, ten experts discuss the finer points of measurement
and meaning, analysis and diagnosis. How many measurements do
you need? How many should fortify you for meaningful conversa-
tions with clients? Not all measurements work in every horoscope or
for every astrologer—and too many can present so much data that
you lose confidence within the multiplicity of options. Furthermore,
no matter how precise the measurements, they still rely on the
astrologer to adapt them to the human condition. Astrology’s Special
Measurements will be a tremendous resource for putting those special
measurements to work easily and without fear.
1-56718-864-8, 6 x 9, 352 pgs., charts, tables, softbound $12.00

Prices subject to change without notice.

 Wendy Ashley « Christian Borup
@ Susie Cox ¢ Donia Cunningham «
Karen M. Hamaker-Zondag « Jeff Jawer
e Haloli Q. Richter # Diana Stone

Edited by Noel Tyl

COMMUNICATING THE HOROSCOPE

edited by Noel Tyl
Help your clients reach personal fulfillment through thoughtful
counseling! Each person’s unique point of view functions as a badge of
identification that can alert you to what you should listen for during a
consultation. The horoscope presents a portrait of each person’s per-
spective, which the successful consultant will use to communicate and
counsel clients more effectively.
Communicating the Horoscope presents the viewpoints of nine con-
tributing astrologers on factors crucial to a client’s successful analy-
sis: the importance of the timing of the consultation for both client
and astrologer; how to help clients explore major issues and how to
use the insights of their charts to sort out problems; suggestions for
reading the client’s behavior and unspoken messages; ways to simpli-
fy chart interpretations for clients unfamiliar with astrology and
translate the horoscope into terms they can grasp; techniques for
empathetic listening; and how interpreting the chart in terms of its
possibilities opens clients to making the changes necessary for their
own growth. Includes many insightful chart examples.
1-56718-866-4, 6 x 9, 256 pp., charts, softcover $12.00

Prices subject to change without notice.

 Stewen formset Sandy Hughes AT.
David Pond. Lacy Pond F
Diane Stone _Noel Ty! Be

Edited by
Noel Tyl

EXPLORING CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE HOROSCOPE

edited by Noel Tyl
When Llewellyn asked astrologers across the country which themes
to include in its “New World Astrology Series,” most specified at the
top of their lists themes that explore consciousness! From shallow
pipedreaming to ecstatic transcendence, “consciousness” has come to
envelop realms of emotion, imagination, dreams, mystical experi-
ences, previous lives and lives to come—aspects of the mind which
defy scientific explanation. For most, consciousness means self-real-
ization, the “having it all together” to function individualistically,
freely, and confidently.
There are many ways to pursue consciousness, to “get it all togeth-
er.” Astrology is an exciting tool for finding the meaning of life and
our part within it, to bring our inner selves together with our exter-
nal realities, in appreciation of the spirit. Here, then, ten fine
thinkers in astrology come together to share reflections on the elu-
sive quicksilver of consciousness. They embrace the spiritual—and
the practical. All are aware that consciousness feeds our awareness of
existence; that, while it defies scientific method, it is vital for life.
0-87542-391-4, 256 pgs., 6 x 9, tables, charts, softcover $12.00

Prices subject to change without notice.

Be the Best Astrologer
You Can Be!
Certification
Correspondence
Course for Astrologers
challenging lessons — for those who already
io) know the basics of astrology — to build your
analytical and counseling strengths; each
written lesson accompanied by a test and followed by an
evaluation! @ That’s 22 tests, one every step of the way to
professionalism, with Noel Tyl’s personal audiotape evalu-
ation to help polish your performance on each one! @
And then the Final Examination, 30 text-pages to fulfill
Tyl’s certification as “Practicing Professional Astrologer.”

NOEL TYL’S Certification Correspondence Course

for Astrologers is your opportunity to be the apprentice,
associate, and colleague of one of the world’s most skilled
astrologers. This demanding course builds your strength at
your pace, through 22 lessons and over 150 case studies, to
the culmination of learning that certifies you as a practicing
professional astrologer.

This 1s Your Chance of a Careertime!

For full details, call: (602) 816-0000. Or write:

TCC, 17005 PLayer Court, Fountain Hitts, Az 85268-5721
Astrology / Biography/ History

+ ADVENTURE, DRAMA, AND GENIUS +

Astrology of the Famed is a ground-breaking synthesis of astrological
analysis and historical fact that takes you on an amazing journey
into the past through the lives of five of the most fascinating and
provocative people in history:
Cleopatra—Witness the shrewd political maneuvering, calculated
seductions, and secret murders which made Cleopatra the incomparable
Queen of Kings.
St. Francis —Follow the startling and adventurous path of St. Francis
from wayward youth to sublime sainthood and the challenges he met on
his way.
Dracula —Discover the tragic life and twisted rage that drove Vlad
Tepes—Dracula—to become a blood-thirsty tyrant infamous for his
wanton cruelty.
da Vinci —Uncover the truth behind the Mona Lisa’s perfect smile and
the incredible genius of Leonardo da Vinci.
Beethoven—Learn the true identity of Beethoven’s “Immortal
Beloved” and relive his inspired and rebellious life—and the music that
transformed the world.
Astrology of the Famed will enthrall you with its fast-paced and
revealing look into the hearts and minds of these incredible people,
whose lives still influence the world we live in. Noel Tyl uses the
technique of chart rectification to fill in the gaps in the historical record
and to unravel the pattern of these unique people’s lives back to their
most probable dates of birth.

One of the foremost astrologers in the world,

Noel Tyl is the author of over 20 books on astrology,
including the landmark Synthesis & Counseling in
Astrology. A graduate of Harvard, Tyl has revolutionized
the field of astrology with his pioneering adaptation of —
modern psychological insights. He is a much sought-after
lecturer, a worldwide media personality, and a private
counselor to individuals as well as corporate clients.

ISBN 1-5b718-735-84 $19.95 US

51995> $27.50 CAN
|| Llewellyn Publications
St. Paul, MN 55164-0383.
9°781567°187359 | PRINTED IN THE USA