Sinclair Lewis, textbook Aquarian ?

SINCLAIR LEWIS. Born 7 February 1885 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.

Sinclair Lewis is the eldest of my "Super Six". He is somewhat different in style from the other five. A satirical novelist rather than a humourist, far more serious than the others, in fact, yet reading extracts from his novels brought a wide smile to my face.

This man is a textbook Aquarian ! I recognise him!

Sun and Mars in Aquarius

Mercury and Venus in Capricorn,

Moon in Scorpio,

Saturn and Pluto in Gemini,

Jupiter in Virgo,

Neptune in Taurus,

Uranus in Libra.

Moon at 28 Scorpio opposes both Pluto at 00 Gemini and (widely) Neptune at 20 Taurus.

Sun and Mars conjunct within 1 degree square Neptune.

Uranus and Pluto are closely trined in Air signs.

Oddly - no Fire in his chart.

Sinclair Lewis, after a short period of unsuccessful novel writing, financed by mundane desk jobs and working as a journalist, eventually found his signature style. It was one which fits beautifully with his astrology. His style might be described as 'dispelling myths and unveiling hypocrisy.' Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930 - the first American writer to be so honoured.

"His central characters are the pioneer, the doctor, the scientist, the businessman, and the feminist. The appeal of his best fiction lies in the opposition between his idealistic protagonists and an array of fools, charlatans, and scoundrels - evangelists, editorialists, pseudo-artists, cultists, and boosters." (from The Quixotic Vision of Sinclair Lewis by Martin Light, 1975)

In his Nobel Lecture in 1930 Lewis said:
"I have, for the future of American literature, every hope and every eager belief. We are coming out, I believe, of the stuffiness of safe, sane, and incredibly dull provincialism. There are young Americans today who are doing such passionate and authentic work that it makes me sick to see that I am a little too old to be one of them."

That quote personifies, for me, one aspect of Pluto in Gemini. A coming transformation in the world of literature.

Sinclair Lewis was one of the first American writers to address feminism. In his 1920 novel "Main Street", a classic satire of small-town America he tells the story of young Carol Kennicott who arrives in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, with dreams of transforming the provincial old town into a place of beauty and culture. She runs into a wall of bigotry, hypocrisy and complacency. The book was the first bestseller to attack conventional ideas about marriage, gender roles, and small town life, establishing Lewis as a major American novelist.

"Main Street" is available on-line at http://www.literaturepage.com/read/main-street.html

Reading a few chapters again, after not having seen the book for many years, I was struck by his firm yet delicate writing style. He seems to understand women, has an innate understanding of life in general, and expresses himself lightly and easily without pretentious wordiness (Mercury in Capricorn ?)

An Aquarian writer worth his salt is going to approach politics at some point. Sinclair Lewis didn't disappoint. He wrote " It Can't Happen Here" (1935). A tale of newspaperman Doremus Jessup struggling against the fascist regime of US President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip. It serves as a warning that political movements akin to Nazism can come to power in countries such as the USA when people blindly support their leaders. Oh my!!!!! Was Sinclair Lewis a prophet? I guess so!

Although he ridiculed the values, the lifestyles, and even the speech of his characters, there is affection behind the irony. In some ways I see in Sinclair Lewis the novelist who describes in words what Norman Rockwell expressed pictorially. Lewis had a rather more jaundiced eye, however. Both men were Sun Aquarians.

I suspect Mars so closely conjunct Lewis' Aquarian Sun added vim and vigour to the way he expressed his views. He was said to be always "angry". He tilted at sexism, religious bigotry, political hypocrisy, small town attitudes, materialism, and anything else which offended his code of equality and fairness.

He is said to have taken to excessive drinking, and died alone, in Rome, at the age of 66. I admire this man even more now than I did back in the 1950s when I first saw an example of his writing. His wisdom and courage still shine through today, his work is as meaningful as ever.