Astrology and Poetry

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Astrology and Poetry

Post by Mersenne »

For the attention of the Forum.

In a recent exchange with Admin, the topic of Owen Barfield's Poetic Diction came up. Barfield was a member of JRR Tolkien's and CS Lewis' circle, and his thoughts on the nature of poetry and meaning profoundly influenced these two, much more famous, writers.

Barfield argued that languages originally expressed truth poetically, and that prose is a modern (post-Homer!) debasement of language. A successful poem employs a "true metaphor", a profound connection between things which seems right and obvious when properly expressed. One of his examples is from Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound":

My soul is an enchanted boat
Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float
Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing;
And thine doth like an angel sit
beside a helm conducting it
Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing...


The astrologer would immediately recognise that the comparison of the soul with "an enchanted boat" is more than beautiful and evocative. It is correct; the soul and the boat are both ruled by the Moon. Indeed, the whole passage is replete with Lunar imagery; sleep, the swan, silver, waves, singing, helm, melody, ringing.

The "true metaphor", then, is what we would call a "correct correspondence". Of course, there is more to a successful poem than this, but this is still the essential point. This is something which, perhaps, the avowed critic of Astrology Mr. S. Fry should bear in mind when he writes the follow-up to his "The Ode Less Travelled".

The topic arose when Admin mentioned a transit, Neptune square Mercury, in a recently studied nativity. This proved difficult to express precisely because Neptune square Mercury spurs us to find words for what is inexpressible- in prose. Poetry, however, isn't stumped. Consider, as an opener;

(Neptune square Mercury)

Declaiming Waters none may dread —
But Waters that are still
Are so for that most fatal cause
In Nature — they are full —

Emily Dickenson (1884)

Poetry, in fact, demands more of the reader than the poet, and so it wouldn't be appropriate to present an analysis entirely in quotes. Nevertheless, a vocabulary of poems relevant to particular aspects may indeed be useful. For instance, the example from Shelley is very evocative of Moon in conjunction with Venus.

I hope, therefore, to occasionally post examples of poetry expressive of particular aspects. I will not attempt to do so in any particular order, nor to do so regularly. Instead I will post what I come across that seems particularly appropriate, and if, in the future, a sufficient number is built up, organize them then. The reader is encouraged to do the same- it may be possible to build up a useful "vocabulary" of poetry, which may assist and illustrate otherwise difficult interpretations. At the very least, it will supply some nice quotable material to break up a passage of prose.

For my second suggestion I have randomly chosen Mars Square Neptune. As an aspect of discontent, loss, regret, and sorrow, it immediately called to mind A.E. Houseman's "Into my heart an air that kills..."

(Mars square Neptune)

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.


From A Shropshire Lad (1896).

Admin notes that the aspect is also reminiscent of two tarot cards, “5 and 8 of Cups (Rider-Waite deck)”.
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by Mersenne »

Today’s poems. First, and quoted in full (which I’ll do whenever there aren’t copyright issues), we have a poem that screams a Pluto chart ruler, in any of the water signs. Expect the following to apply whenever a natal Pluto in Cancer notices (or suspects, or imagines) a slight against a member of the family; or if Pluto with a Neptune involvement feels that justice must eventually be done; or if Pluto in Scorpio acts because, well, that’s life and it sucks to tick off a Scorpio.

A Poison Tree by William Blake (1794)

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I summoned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veil'd the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.


One can quote the lines:
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow

To anyone with these involvements. It won’t dissuade them, but they might appreciate the effort.

The second poem is by Betjeman. While I can’t quote it in full, I can give the useful lines- and it is available online for reference.

Youth and Age on Beaulieu River, Hants John Betjeman, (1945, excerpt)

Cool beneath a garden awning
Mrs Fairclough sipping tea
And raising large long-distance glasses
As the little sharpie passes,
Sighs our sailor girl to see…
Clemency, the General's daughter
Will return upon the flood.
But the older woman only
Knows the ebb tide leaves her lonely.
With the shining fields of mud.


This poem is absolutely replete with Piscean imagery, bringing in ruler, sub ruler and the Pisces-Virgo axis. Clemency (the name means “merciful”) is a young (virginal, Virgo) sailor (Neptune); Mrs. Fairclough (the name means “living in the hollow”) a prissy (Virgo) and isolated (Pisces) older woman. Clemency is adventurous and hopeful (Jupiter), Mrs. Fairclough lonely (Neptune). The tide is with Clemency, and against the older woman. Even the oaks belong to Jupiter.

It is, however, Mrs. Fairclough that observes Clemency, who is oblivious to the older woman. The poem is thus evocative of any strong opposition across the Pisces-Virgo axis. I suggest transiting Neptune opposite the chart ruler, or Saturn returning to its natal position with Neptune.
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by Mersenne »

Vergissmeinnicht by Keith Douglas (1944)

Three weeks gone and the combatants gone
returning over the nightmare ground
we found the place again, and found
the soldier sprawling in the sun.

The frowning barrel of his gun
overshadowing. As we came on
that day, he hit my tank with one
like the entry of a demon.

Look. Here in the gunpit spoil
the dishonoured picture of his girl
who has put: Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht.
in a copybook gothic script.

We see him almost with content,
abased, and seeming to have paid
and mocked at by his own equipment
that's hard and good when he's decayed.

But she would weep to see today
how on his skin the swart flies move;
the dust upon the paper eye
and the burst stomach like a cave.

For here the lover and killer are mingled
who had one body and one heart.
And death who had the soldier singled
has done the lover mortal hurt.


The poem was made famous by Lawrence Olivier's rendition in the series The World at War. The imagery is split between Ares and Scorpio; that is, it depends on the mutual reception between these two "martial" signs.

From Mars: combatants, soldier, frowning, gun, tank, gunpit, Steffi, equipment, hard, killer, body, lover, hurt. The name Steffi is short for Stefani, "crown" or "garland", the reward of the champion, here never achieved. Assuming this was not a conscious choice on Douglas' part, the pervasiveness of the astrological imagery is striking- at most this is an ironic intrusion from Leo.

From Scorpio: nightmare, entry, demon, spoil, dishonoured, gothic, abased, paid, mocked, decayed, weep, swart flies, burst, cave, lover, killer, mingled, "one body and one heart", death, mortal, hurt. And of course, the photograph with its wish of "forget me not" becomes a memento mori.

Any strong Scorpio involvement, with reception from Sun, Mars or Pluto in Aries will give a native that reacts strongly to the final stanza. This makes two of the deceased, the lover and the killer. Death- which, be it remembered, is narrating in the person of the allied soldier- aimed for the killer, the soldier, but killed also the lover. The lover, however, remains in the thoughts of Steffi just as the soldier remains in the thoughts of the narrator.

A contrast in attitude towards war is Vitaï Lampada by Sir Henry John Newbolt (1892).

There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night -
Ten to make and the match to win -
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red, -
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

This is the word that year by year
While in her place the School is set
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"


Here it's Leo's imagery that dominates, even over that of Aries- the title means "Torch of Life". It is poem which I once thought reflected the naivety of a time before the First World War, when battles were won "on the playing fields of Eton". But then, what should we make of "The river of death has brimmed his banks/And England's far, and Honour a name"? This isn't a confusion of war with sport, it's war as a game: the highest-risk type of sport. Leo can be every bit as brutal as Aries, and its expansiveness gives it an "imperial" ethos. There's no suggestion that death is a loss; it seems almost as devalued as the "life" of a player in a video game. Did the fallen soldier of Vergissmeinnicht consider himself as passing on a torch to those who must fight on ("falling fling to the host behind")?

The author's biography is worth investigating; his private life was interesting by today's standards, and scandalous for the time.

A strong Leo (a stellium, of course, but certainly any combination of Sun, Moon and Ascendant) will probably be capable of taking the last part of the first stanza without any irony.
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by Mersenne »

Admin pointed out an interesting astrological fact about Henry Newbolt, author of last week's Vita Lampada; the lack of overt Leo connections in his chart. Investigating this, I unfortunately couldn't find a birth time- Leo rising or a Sun/5th house connection would account for things- but his 5H chart (creativity) has does indeed have some interesting Leo connections.

However, we shouldn’t expect the poem to represent, necessarily, the astrological elements within the chart of the poet. It's possible for a poet to work with imagery quite out of his/her experience; Newbolt was a lawyer, not a soldier or explorer, and, say, Henry Taylor Coleridge was no "Ancient Mariner" himself. Also, there is the possibility that a poet would write ironically, or at least, not wholly true to his heart. Still, I will make shift to poke around the poets' (or the subjects') horoscopes for any interesting titbits.

In attempting to get away from martian imagery this week, I tried a couple of love poems and, as you can see, failed miserably to escape the warrior lord.

My Wife by Robert Louis Stevenson (published posthumously in 1896).

Trusty, dusky, vivid, true
With eyes of gold and bramble-dew
Steel-true and blade-straight
The great artificer
Made my mate.

Honour, anger, valour, fire;
A love that life could never tire;
Death quench or evil stir,
The mighty master
Gave to her.

Teacher, tender, comrade, wife,
A fellow-farer true through life,
Heart-whole and soul-free
The august father
Gave to me.


Written for Frances Matilda (Fanny) Stevenson, a lady who from this description seems the epitome of Aries. Tender though the description is, the imagery is overwhelmingly Mars and Aries. I don't have to list individual words; the complete lines

"Trusty, dusky, vivid, true"
"Steel-true and blade-straight"
"Honour, anger, valour, fire"
could come straight from a list of key-words. As an exercise in synastry, anyone with a very strong interchart connection made by Aries/Mars to Venus/7th house will recognise their spouse in this poem.

Alas, I can find no birth time for Fanny, but she had Mars conjunct Mercury in Aries, very appropriate for a self-confessed "tomboy". "Francis" has at least a punning connotation, "frank".

Writing of the romantic love between his mother and father, George Crabbe employed some very strong Capricorn imagery in the following single-stanza poem.

The Marriage Ring by George Crabbe (1812)

THE ring, so worn as you behold,
So thin, so pale, is yet of gold:
The passion such it was to prove—
Worn with life's care, love yet was love.


A ring "worn" exhibits a contract (Saturn), and is of course a pun on "worn (out)"." Worn with life's care, love yet was love"; the repetition of "worn" doubles up on this pun, but also lets one read the poem in two ways. "Thin" and "pale" are Saturn words. Capricorn's romantic involvment is of course one of long-term, unfailing commitment; "The passion such it was to prove", where "prove" is another Saturn pun*.

George Crabbe had a Capricorn Sun, Saturn and Venus, though here it is perception of his parents that matters. Venus is trine an exalted Moon.

Capricorns needn't write of love at one remove, of course- we have our moments. The following cocks a snoot at our major concerns, health, wealth and (successful) old age;

Jenny Kissed Me by Leigh Hunt (1838)

Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in.
Time, you thief! who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in.
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad;
Say that health and wealth have missed me;
Say I'm growing old, but add-
Jenny kissed me!


Leigh Hunt had Saturn in Capricorn opposition to Uranus in Cancer, with Venus greatly easing the connection by making a sextile to Saturn and a trine to Uranus. "Jenny" is the familiar form of "Jennifer", meaning "White Ghost" (it comes from "Guinevere"), and so is a "Capricorn" name... but it's also the name for a female goat.

*In UK usage, "prove = to make a test of" has been largely superceded by "prove = to establish beyond doubt". When we use the expression "the exception proves the rule" we tend to interpret it paradoxically as "the exception confirms the rule" rather than the intended "the exception chanllenges the rule". So we often miss this pun.
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by Mersenne »

This week’s topic is Mercury, the Messenger, who is recognisable at once as the subject of Alfred Noyes The Newspaper Boy (1909, from The Enchanted Island And Other Poems);

i Elf of the City, a lean little hollow-eyed boy
Ragged and tattered, but lithe as a slip of the Spring,
Under the lamp-light he runs with a reckless joy
Shouting a murderer's doom or the death of a King.
Out of the darkness he leaps like a wild strange hint,
Herald of tragedy, comedy, crime and despair,
Waving a poster that hurls you, in fierce black print
One word Mystery, under the lamp's white glare.


ii Elf of the night of the City he darts with his crew
Out of a vaporous furnace of colour that wreathes
Magical letters a-flicker from crimson to blue
High overhead. All round him the mad world seethes.
Hansoms, like cantering beetles, with diamond eyes
Run through the moons of it; busses in yellow and red
Hoot; and St. Paul's is a bubble afloat in the skies,
Watching the pale moths flit and the dark death's head.


iii Painted and powdered they shimmer and rustle and stream
Westward, the night moths, masks of the Magdalen! See,
Puck of the revels, he leaps through the sinister dream
Waving his elfin evangel of Mystery,
Puck of the bubble or dome of their scoffing or trust,
Puck of the fairy-like tower with the clock in its face,
Puck of an Empire that whirls on a pellet of dust
Bearing his elfin device thro' the splendours of space.


iv Mystery- is it the scribble of doom on the dark,
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, again?
Mystery- is it a scrap of remembrance, a spark
Burning still in the fog of a blind world's brain?
Elf of the gossamer tangles of shadow and light,
Wild electrical webs and the battle that rolls
League upon perishing league thro' the ravenous night,
Breaker on perishing breaker of human souls.


v Soaked in the colours, a flake of the flying spray
Flung over wreckage and yeast of the murderous town,
Onward he flaunts it, innocent, vicious and gay,
Prophet of prayers that are stifled and loves that drown,
Urchin and sprat of the City that roars like a sea
Surging around him in hunger and splendour and shame,
Cruelty, luxury, madness, he leaps in his glee
Out of the mazes of mist and the vistas of flame.


vi Ragged and tattered he scurries away in the gloom:
Over the thundering traffic a moment his cry
Mystery! Mystery!--reckless of death and doom
Rings; and the great wheels roll and the world goes by.
Lost, is it lost, that hollow-eyed flash of the light?--
Poor little face flying by with the word that saves,
Pale little mouth of the mask of the measureless night,
Shrilling the heart of it, lost like the foam on its waves!


The first four lines can be quoted to anyone who asks what Mercury is about; this newspaper-boy is Mercury incarnate. The world-shattering news he conveys means nothing to him- he is solely the conduit, the messenger. The constant juxtaposition of the small and the great, the trivial and important resonates with both the Gemini-Sagittarius and Virgo-Pisces axes. Consider from the first verse:

Mercury, Virgo: Elf of the City, lean, little, boy, Ragged, tattered, lithe, runs, “wild strange hint”, Herald.
Pisces, Neptune, Jupiter: “a murderer's doom or the death of a King” tragedy, comedy, crime and despair, Mystery.

Dark though the imagery is, the newspaper boy himself is quite unaffected by it. This is a poem that would be appreciated by anyone with Mercury rising opposite Jupiter or Neptune. Such a person might be given to some self delusion- a Walter Mitty?- unless the mercury aspect is properly expressed in constructive fiction (which is what the best journalism is). Careful- a square to Pluto or Mars from either of these might make concrete the darker imagery, involving the native who would otherwise be only a repoter or an observer of the events.

Lighter matters, now. My yearly commute to my day job having recommenced, the 3rd house topic of transport is on my mind. Mercury delights in puns and wordplay, and so the ABCderian poetry form springs to mind. Here's an example on a Gemini/3rd house topic which quickly becomes very Virgo/6th house, as it accumulates petty (and not so petty) causes for complaint. It's taken from "Mr. Punch's Railway Book" (1910, subtitled; "Reading Between the Lines"... ouch).

A is the affable guard whom you square:
B is the Bradshaw which leads you to swear:
C is the corner you fight to obtain:
D is the draught of which others complain:
E are the enemies made for the day:
F is the frown that you wear all the way:
G is the guilt that you feel going third:
H is the humbug by which you 're deterred:
I is the insult you'll get down the line:
J is the junction where you '11 try to dine:
K is the kettle of tea three weeks old:
L are the lemon drops better unsold:
M is the maiden who says there's no meat:
N is the nothing you thus get to eat:
O is the oath that you use and do right:
P is the paper to which you don't write:
Q are the qualms to directors unknown:
R is the row which you '11 find all your own:
S is the smash that is " nobody's fault:"
T is the truth, that will come to a halt:
U is the pointsman who 's up the whole night:
V is the verdict that says it 's " all right."
W stands for wheels flying off curves:
X for express that half shatters your nerves:
Y for the yoke from your neck that you fling,
and Z for your zest as you cut the whole thing!


There's a nice interplay between the strictly Virgo/6th house (guard, square, Bradshaw, swear, corner, complain, “enemies made for the day”, guilt, frown, insult, junction, lemon drops, maiden, oath, paper, qualms, points, man, nerves, yoke) and the Piscean/12th house (humbug, deterred, nothing, “directors unknown” and “nobody's fault” (both hidden enemies), truth, “verdict that says it's 'all right'", “wheels flying off curves”, “cut the whole thing”). Notice that the resolution of a Virgoan dilemma is found in its opposite.

Quote to anyone with a strong Virgo influence, or someone whose Mercury is frustrated by a square from Mars in mutable signs. Buses and trains are always late for such a one.

A macaronic poem is one that mixes languages for the sake of bilingual puns, making it the Mercurial poem par excellence. Unfortunately, you do need to know a little of both languages. For instance, Richard Porson (undated, but before 1808)
When Dido found Æneas would not come,
She mourned in silence, and was Di do dum.


Pretentious? Well, yes, but pretentiousness is the guilty pleasure of the academic. Living in the 9th house most of the year it’s nice to let our hair down in the 3rd. In any case, you’ve seen nothing yet- the following example is Motor Bus by A.D. Godley (1914).

What is this that roareth thus?
Can it be a Motor Bus?
Yes, the smell and hideous hum
Indicat Motorem Bum!
Implet in the Corn and High
Terror me Motoris Bi:
Bo Motori clamitabo
Ne Motore caedar a Bo--
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live:
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
Thus I sang; and still and still anigh
Came in hordes Motores Bi,
Et complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
How shall wretches live like us
Cincti Bis Motoribus?
Domine, defende nos
Contra hos Motores Bos!
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by Mersenne »

Today I'm focussing on a single poet, Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886). Dickinson published little, writing for herself not public consumption, and so we can rely on her work being an expression of her own horoscope. In this, Jupiter and Neptune conjunct in Capricorn, governed by Saturn in a powerful 10th House position, alerts us to her major concerns, death and immortality. Uranus in the third house of speech and writing tells us how unconventional her poetry was for the day- many, including my examples, have no title. Her few published works were edited in line with convention. I selected the following three poems at random... if that's possible. My sources don't date them.

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there was
A time when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.


Pain is usually depicted as Saturnine. When we are in pain, we become "...a solid little lump of ego weighing a ton" (J.B. Priestley, quoted by Dennis Elwell in Cosmic Loom). But Priestley refers, I think, to commonplace pain, pain that we know is happening to us. Dickinson's pain is rather more profound; it is Piscean. Dickinson's Pisces is untenanted, but reflex action from Saturn, again controlling Pisces' ruler and sub-ruler, gives her acess to all the Piscean imagery she needs. This pain is universal, infinite; there is no longer someone the pain is happening to, there is just pain. It is characterised not by ego but by the dissolution of this- a self-imposed exile from the self. Pisces, as the natural twelfth house, rules the concept of exile. Similarly forgetfulness, and the dissolution of the ego into the environment, is characteristic of Pisces.

But Dickinson has a Sagittarius stellium, with tenanting Sun, Venus and Mercury conjunct, so Jupiter is also powerful.

"Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.


Jupiter is also powerful, but prefers Pisces to Sagittarius in Dickinson's view. This hope is self-sacrificing, giving all and asking nothing in return. It is eternal (And never stops—at all—) and inclusive (That kept so many warm—), but inarticulate (the tune without the words).

In my last example, Dickinson evokes the intoxication of true poetry.

I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove's door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!


There is a Norse legend- appropriate given the mention of the Rhine, I think- telling how poetry is a divine mead, brewed from the blood of the wise god Kvasir. This poem taps into the same Piscean archetypes of sacrifice (And saints to windows run) and intoxication. Traditionally, Mercury is the ruler of language. I suggest that Mercury rules prose, for communication in Gemini and recording in Virgo- but that Jupiter rules poetry, as prayer in Sagittarius and invocation in Pisces.
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by admin »

Those of Emily Dickinson's works quoted here by Mersenne, are surely relevant to her horoscope.

I’m particularly taken with the specific choice made re her expression of ‘pain’ as associated with Saturn, and more particularly, as Mersenne notes, that it is in her 10th and rules her Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in Capricorn, in the 3rd House.

I note her Saturn in the 10th is in the 2nd Deg. of Virgo (and for those interested in such, the ‘Degree Symbol’ for Saturn there is: “A large white cross stands alone on top of a high hill” * which surely suggests her sense of ‘alone-ness’, added to the depth and range of her pain so succinctly and achingly, and then expanded by her Jupiter conj. Neptune in the third house. Then of course, there is her Scorpio Asc., the Degree Symbol of which is: “On the tideline, there where the sea reaches the sand, lies a carcass washed ashore. Birds of prey are just finishing the last remnants of the flesh...”**

How frustrating for someone so unconventional (as Mersenne noted re her Uranus in the 3rd), to be so constricted, not only by the ‘times’, but also by that stellium in Sagittarius in the 2nd House - wherein one finds the ways to value oneself, and to value ‘life’ per se. Her capacity to express this was surely in:

“Hope" is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.”


Here too, she surely expressed her 3rd house especially in the last line (with Saturn in VIRGO, ruling Jupiter/Neptune).

And in all of this, her Moon in Libra (conjunct her 12th House – depending on House System used), septile her Saturn (‘fate/destiny’), square her Jupiter/Neptune, but... sextile her Sun and Mercury in Sag.: Her Moon Deg. Symbol: “A beautiful solid tree is placed on a rocky height. A centaur passes under it, shooting arrow after arrow at serpents fleeing in the long grass...”. **

* Sabian Symbols
** The Zodiac Image. Helene & Willem Koppejan

Chart attached.
emily dickinson chart.png
emily dickinson chart.png (16.89 KiB) Viewed 5536 times
"Don't let the illusions of your past or future rob you of the infiniteness of your present." [Unknown]
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by admin »

Mersenne wrote: "Barfield argued that languages originally expressed truth poetically, and that prose is a modern (post-Homer!) debasement of language. A successful poem employs a "true metaphor", a profound connection between things which seems right and obvious when properly expressed. One of his examples is from Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound":

My soul is an enchanted boat
Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float
Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing;
And thine doth like an angel sit
beside a helm conducting it
Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing..."


Should others be interested I thought to post Owen Barfield's chart here. (Unfortunately his birth-time isn't available, so this is his 'Solar Chart)'.
Owen Barfield chart.png
Owen Barfield chart.png (18.19 KiB) Viewed 5507 times
Unfortunately from this chart, we don't know where exactly the Moon is, but given its Solar position, I think we can assume that it is in Virgo. This raises another question as to where that Moon would be in his chart.

Admin.
"Don't let the illusions of your past or future rob you of the infiniteness of your present." [Unknown]
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Re: Astrology and Poetry

Post by Mersenne »

admin wrote:Unfortunately from this chart, we don't know where exactly the Moon is,...
I think we can rely on Admin's instincts here. Note the Moon's novile aspect with Mars in Leo, highly suggestive of Barfield's novel for children, The Silver Trumpet.
See on this Forum:
Mersenne’s Astrological Statistics & Datasets
Mersenne’s Microcosm
Mersenne’s Transneptunians
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