Monday, January 22, 2007

Paul Klee and Lewis Carroll - An Odd Couple















Intending to write a line or two about Paul Klee, his art and his natal chart, I started to read about his paintings. As I read, for some reason Lewis Carroll kept coming to mind. .

Reading Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky", and looking at a Klee painting arouses in me similar sensations. Curiosity mixed with puzzlement !

"`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe"

Klee's paintings have always been a mystery to me. I've discovered today that he was heavily influenced by Transcendentalism, and by the art of children - a strange combination, indeed.

http://www.acquavellagalleries :
"Klee is a difficult artist to categorize, for he incorporated into his generally small-scale paintings, drawings and watercolors, allusions to dreams, music and poetry with a complex language of symbols and signs of arrows, letters, words, commas, and musical signs in a form of writing. He especially valued the art of children, for he felt they revealed the mysteries of the creative process, relying on signs for things in the natural world............ Rather than describing an object, person or place in traditional pictorial forms, Klee gave us a personal sign system in works that are abstract and figurative at the same time." (Personal sign system? - Sounds familiar!)

Paul Klee and Lewis Carroll both had "spiritual" connections, one with transcendentalism, the other with the church, for Charles Dodgson was also an Anglican clergyman, as well as an author and mathematician.

I've looked at 12 noon charts for both these men. I chose to ignore birthtimes given at Astrotheme and Khaldea, because I'm not confident that in the mid-19th century accurate birth times were recorded.

Paul Klee born 18 December 1879 in Munchenbuchsee, Switzerland.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , pen name Lewis Carroll born 27 January, 1832, Daresbury, England.

I didn't expect to see any overall similarity in the two charts, and I know nothing about their personal lives and true personalities - but I was looking for SOMETHING.

I found this: both men have Uranus closely inconjunct Saturn.
Klee- Uranus 9 Virgo, Saturn 9 Aries.
Carroll -Uranus 14 Aquarius, Saturn 14 Virgo.

Saturn inconjunct Uranus = rebellion competing with, and not understanding, discipline. The new trying to find a way through old structures and restrictions which it fails to understand. The established order struggling to get to grips with new ideas. Avant garde meets status quo - and vice versa.

Lewis Carroll's Aquarian Sun underlined a rebellious, and somewhat eccentric streak. Klee's Sagittarian Sun inclined him to a more philosophical approach, while still trying to forge ahead into "the new". Both writer and artist were certainly treading new paths in their respective arts, and probably met resistance, criticism and, in Lewis Carroll's case gossip, along the way.

There are two other odd similarities in the charts. I'm not sure whether these are significant. Klee's Saturn is at 9.00 Aries, Carroll's Pluto is at 8.52 Aries. Klee's Sun at 26.14 Sagittarius, Carroll's Mars at 25.55 Sagittarius. Those degrees ARE within the same decanate and duad of Aries and Sagittarius. Saturn or Pluto in the first decanate of Aries in both charts might point to the influence of children in the work of both these men. First decanate of the first zodiac sign indicating youth, springtime, new life ?



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