At the Lodge - 9th October 2006

Lodge Lecture | Class | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

Tonight Neil Spencer, gave us three clues in order to discuss what we might find in the horoscopes of J. J. R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The talk was entitled 'When Middle Earth Meets Narnia'. The clues we would expect would be 1. An exceptional Chart, 2. Signatures of literary brilliance and 3. the creation of other worlds.

They were both the most successful writers of the 20th centry. Both loved myths.
Tolkien's birth details are 3 January 1892, 11:22 Bloemfontein, S. Africa. and C.S. Lewis's details are 29th November 1898, Belfast, North Ireland .

Both of them had difficult childhoods, typical of the era, Tolkien losing his father aged 4 and his mother aged 12, and Lewis mother died when he was 10. They both served in Word War 1, Tolkien coming home with 'Trench Fever' . He was a gifted language student as was demonstrated in his 'middle earth' books and became Professor of languages at Oxford University. C. S. Lewis taught at Magdalen College Oxford and the two were part of the informal group of scholars known as 'the Inklings'. Eventually Lewis moved on to Cambridge and the two men drifted apart.

C S Lewis wrote Science fiction, was a Christian Apologist, liked a drink, was noisy, humourous, bawdy, overbearing, popular and a children's writer. What was fascinating was you could read all of this in their charts.

Neil Spencer, writer, broadcaster, journalist with the Observer newspaper and Sun sign Astrologer with the Observer magazine is the Author of 'True as the Stars Above'.

Class

Week two of the Harmonics Classes was taken by Pete Watson. This is his own write up
Introducing the subject through the pairing of Sun-Pluto, Pete looked at people with these in conjunction. These included the politician Enoch Powell (conjunction in Gemini), famous for his intellect and “Rivers of Blood” speech on immigration; Kate Winslet, who has the conjunction in Libra (and starred in the Plutonian blockbuster Titanic with Leonardo Di Caprio (Moon conjunct Pluto in Libra) which was directed by James Cameron (Sun conjunct Pluto in Leo)); and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross who started the hospice movement and first “defined” the stages of acceptance of death (conjunction in Cancer).

He also looked at the transit manifestations of crises in the lives of Stephen Fry (conjunction in Virgo) and Richard Hammond (square in Sagittarius-Virgo). With Sun and Pluto in hard aspect to these factors, Fry walked out of a play and nearly committed suicide before fleeing to the continent, whilst Hammond was in a near fatal crash at circa 300 mph under these transits.

Turning to those with a Sun-Pluto quintile (72 degrees) or biquintile (144 degrees) he pointed out that such people can have deep cultural impact through working with the combination in the manner of the fifth harmonic.

This manner was defined thus:

• Creative self consciousness. The number five, and so the fifth harmonic, is the marriage of form with matter. “The union of the idea with the material that embodies that idea” (Charles Harvey).
• Bringing thoughts into manifestation in the material world.
• “The soul at work amidst the four elements of nature” (Charles Harvey).
• “Our place in the order of art” (John Addey).
• “Making, arranging, building, constructing, structuring, forming” (David Hamblin).
• “Knowing what we are doing” in any field.

Examples given included:

Joseph Conrad, whose books “Heart of Darkness” and “The Secret Agent” spell out the idea of Sun-Pluto (Sun being heart and agent, Pluto secret and darkness). The “template” of “Heart of Darkness” and the book itself have become very powerful; it is taught in many schools across the world and was the basis for the film “Apocalypse Now” as well as episodes of “Star Trek” and “Lost”. “Fifth Harmonic People” influence the world through their ideas.

JRR Tolkien who had the Sun biquintile a close Neptune-Pluto conjunction. Tolkien created a deep (Pluto) fantasy (Neptune) mentally constructed world (5th harmonic), with its own logic and language (Mike Harding has put forward the idea that the fifth harmonic concerns language), Tolkien invented languages and was a great linguist.

Lonnie Donegan, who promoted skiffle music, the precursor and vital spark to the 1960s UK pop boom.

Russell Crowe who portrayed mathematical genius John Forbes Nash and his experiences of schizophrenia in the film “A Beautiful Mind”. The film shows what it might be like to live with an overdeveloped ability to impose ones ideas onto the world. Nash sees things that aren’t there, but also discovers powerful patterns that are.

Arsene Wenger who, as manager of Arsenal has had perhaps the most revolutionary and deep impact on British football management, footballers’ diets and habits, and was instrumental in the design and manifestation of one of the largest building projects in London this year, the new Emirates Stadium.

Turning to the fifth harmonic chart, Pete specified some criteria for when we might look at the chart though the example of John Lennon.

He said that harmonic charts come into their own when there are aspect patterns that bring together elements not together in the conventional natal chart. An example of such is seen in the 5H of John Lennon who has the Sun, a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction and a Moon-Pluto opposition in his natal chart, all unconnected to each other. Here we can see the loner-individual desperate to find people he can relate to (Sun apparently unaspected apart from a semisquare to Venus – indications of indulgence/laziness), but we don’t see Lennon’s strong 5H pattern, we don’t see the way out.

In the 5H all these factors integrate in a tight aspect pattern, bringing his pragmatic and driven desire to make a mark (Jupiter-Saturn), his profound emotional angst and intensity (Moon-Pluto) and his sense of purpose and focus (Sun) together in a powerful style (5H). The crucial factor is that these come together in the 5H. It is also telling that a Mercury-Mars opposition comes into existence in this chart, Lennon’s Mercury in Scorpio is a focus in this chart, but it’s also very appropriate that in this chart we see this “verbal assertion” factor coming to the fore. Lennon was notoriously caustic.

Other charts where the fifth harmonic showed aspect patterns together not seen in the radical chart which were examined included Adolf Hitler (whose style, will and mentality shaped Europe), Marilyn Monroe (who had a Sun-Neptune-Uranus conjunction and a Moon-Pluto conjunction. Monroe physically (Sun-Moon) embodied the style of these aspects), Alfred Hitchcock, who found the planning and writing of films to his taste but the actual filming a chore, Spike Milligan who put comedy writing through a revolution and suffered ten mental breakdowns in the course of this. Boy George’s fifth harmonic, which has a Sun-Saturn-Pluto conjunction was also examined. George’s style and ideas made him an icon in the 1980s.

The last natal fifth harmonic chart to be examined was that of a highly successful businesswoman and client who has a very strong fifth harmonic chart. She is extremely organised, keeping her home in what can only be described as immaculate arrangement and has worked successfully to achieve great things through her amazing sense of order and powerful ideas.

Fifth harmonic transits were looked at through the example of John Lennon’s meeting with Yoko Ono (who has a Sun-Pluto biquintile). They met when Lennon was undergoing powerful transits in the fifth harmonic. There was a meeting of minds and the coming together of the two completely changed the way Lennon lived his life, his ideas and ideals – all facets of the fifth harmonic. The meeting took place at one of Ono’s art exhibitions, full of her highly abstract art, which appealed to Lennon. All in all a highly fifth harmonic event!

The last charts to be looked at were the 25th harmonic charts of John Lennon’s murderer, Mark Chapman and “Star Wars” film director George Lucas. The 25th details a deeper level, of fiveness, of mind, of organisation and of imposition of ideas on the world. Chapman, who created a constructed reality based on his obsession with Lennon, with the novel “Catcher in the Rye” and with the concept of the Catcher in the Rye in relation to Lennon, has a phenomenal 25th harmonic with the Sun, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune all in one huge hard aspect pattern (no doubt an extremely rare occurrence). Lucas has a tight Sun-Uranus conjunction as well as Moon exactly conjunct Jupiter and Neptune, and sextile Pluto. Highly appropriate for the man who brought science fiction films into the blockbuster era through the creation of other worlds and beings he put together in the depths of his mind. All the charts can be found on the slide show

Suggested further reading:

“Working with Astrology” Michael Harding and Charles Harvey, Arkana 1990.
“Harmonic Charts” David Hamblin, Aquarian, 1983.
“Harmonics in Astrology” John Addey.

Charts Discussion

The charts discussed were mainly personal charts and we had a quick chance to have a look at the chart of North Korea

Carole West

Lodge Lecture | Class | Charts Discussion