"Stardust" and Neil Gaiman

A name for movie buffs to watch in the near future will be Neil Gaiman, born November 10 1960 in Portchester (Portsmouth), UK. He's the author of "Stardust" a book made into a movie, just released. A couple more films based on his writing are due for release later this year. He has lived in the USA since the 1990s.

Gaiman is another writer of the J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett style. Fantasy, magic, fairytales, all spiced with humour and a soupcon of modern-day "cool", are his stock in trade. He started out writing for comics (known to the elite as graphic novels). I felt I'd seen Neil Gaiman's name somewhere before - he wrote "Don't Panic", which is the story of Douglas Adams' wonderful "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", and its rise to fame.



(12 noon chart above, no birth time available)
The planets fall into one half of the chart - this configuration is known as a "bowl" pattern by astrologers. I've noticed that it's quite common among famous people. This may be due to the energy of the chart being concentrated on just six zodiac signs - more intense focus on the chosen career or interest, perhaps?

Sun, Mercury, Neptune all in Scorpio at 18, 11 and 9 degrees respectively. And some synchronicity here - I wrote about planetary nodes yesterday - well Neil Gaiman's natal Sun is on the planetary South node of Mercury at 18 Scorpio ! What better line-up for a fantasy writer? Mercury (writing planet) and Neptune(fantasy) in Scorpio (magnetic) conjoin to give his pen, or typing fingers, that essential touch of magical know-how. I don't know his time of birth, but whatever it is, the Moon would have to be in showy Leo.

I was at first surprised to find there are no planets in Air signs in this chart. The element of Air in astrology is usually connected to communication, e.g. writing. Perhaps the unknown ascendant provides some balance. But on second thoughts, Neil Gaiman isn't a cool airy intellectual, he's a storyteller, a weaver of magic, as described by those Scorpio planets.

This author is prolific, in addition to his other work he even writes a blog daily (HERE) - how surprising is that? Saturn in the sign it rules, Capricorn, is opposite Mars in Cancer, forming the base of the "bowl". Mars trines and Saturn sextiles Sun, indicating that energy for, and application to his work are permanent factors in this man's personality. Venus in Sagittarius trines Uranus in Leo. I wonder if Venus in Sagittarius relates to his immigration (I have this placement too).

We saw "Stardust" at the weekend. I enjoyed it, but didn't feel it was a good as it could have been. The basic plot was fun, but I was jarred by some of the dialogue and a few of the performances were definitely second-rate. I'd have preferred to see unknown actors playing the lead parts. Claire Danes (the fallen star) and Charlie Cox (the hero) had little appeal. A couple of unknown amateurs could probably have brought more magic to these characters. Ricky Gervais's dialogue, and costume for me, was way out of place. I felt quite embarrassed! None of this is the fault of the author, of course. I haven't yet read the book "Stardust", but I intend to do so, as well as another of Mr Gaiman's works "American Gods".

There's an illuminating article about Gaiman, from 2005 in the UK Daily Telegraph HERE, also an hour long YouTube presentation "Google Authors" featuring Neil Gaiman . I found it fascinating. He comes over as a very likeable guy, and he looks SO Scorpio! An audience member asks him, towards the end of the interview, whether he's interested in Tarot. He is. Of course!