Stephen Lewis: Special Man, Special Chart.

Yesterday rumours circulated on the net that Senator Hillary Clinton is being considered by President-elect Obama for the post of Secretary of State (see here). What a wonderful appointment that would be! Please, Obama - do it! What a message! Following on from the current female Secretary of State - another woman - and a stronger more determined one! The message would reach the dark corners of the world where women are still treated worse than animals - and that segues nicely into my today's post.

After reading about Canadian humanitarian and supporter of women's rights, Stephen Lewis this week on one of my regular blog-stops : Wisewebwoman's "The Other side of Sixty" ( post is dated 11 November) I resolved to look at his natal chart.

We, as a nation, and we, as a group of astrology fans, tend to inspect our own navels a lot of the time, worry about petty inconsequential matters. Some women on this planet do not have such luxury. It's important that an inspired and inspiring individual like Stephen Lewis is prepared to stand up against injustices meted out to women all over the world, but particularly on the African continent. I urge any passing reader to visit Wisewebwoman's blog and read Mr. Lewis's words describing the horrendous atrocities women in parts of Africa have to suffer.

Stephen Lewis was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on 11 November 1937. I can find no indication of time of birth, so below is a chart set for 12 noon. The ascending sign and exact Moon degree will not be accurate, though Moon will remain somewhere in Aquarius whatever time he was born.



Hmmmm this is an extreme "splash pattern" chart - planets scattered throughout the zodiac. What makes this different from some other scattered charts though is regularity. I spotted this even before my software highlighted it among a whole screenful of aspect patterns (diagram on right).
See how the links trip around the signs, in the 20 to 28 degree area, linking via harmonious sextiles, semi sextiles and/or trines ? Some are just into the 00 degree of the next sign, but still within orb to be included. Every sign of the zodiac in this chart contains one or more planets, or a sensitive point (Part of Fortune, Moon's Nodes) within it.

This is truly "A Man for All Seasons"!

That's the overview then, a well integrated, positvely oriented personality, who uses his skills in the most productive way possible.

His Sun and Mercury in intense Scorpio and Moon somewhere in socially conscious Aquarius provide the basic brush strokes depicting a passionate (Scorpio) humanitarian (Aquarius).

The Mars/Jupiter opposition to Pluto, Sun opposition to Uranus, and Saturn opposing Neptune provide dynamic energies to drive the harmonious aspects which surround the chart. This man isn't ever going to sit calmly on the front porch with his dog, staring into the sunset. He is driven, driven through the whole gamut of experience, not as Dorothy Parker once put it in critique of an actress, "from A to B" but in his case, from A to Z.

My blogging buddy Wisewebwoman has commented

"I had the good fortune to meet with him and his good wife (Michele Landsberg, feminist journalist) a few years ago at a dinner commemorating the massacre of the female engineering students in Montreal. There is something magical about him, the capacity for undivided attention to whomever he is speaking (much like Bill Clinton who has that gift also) and a natural humility. One of my brothers met him in Africa and has been shouting about him from the rooftops ever since."

There is something special about the chart - its integration. I doubt there are many like this - just as there are not many men like Stephen Lewis - more's the pity.

A single paragraph from the recent talk featured at Wisewebwoman's blog, linked at the top. Please, do take a few minutes to go read the article in full.

"And in the case of the Congo, you have a war on women. You know, if I may make a somewhat more intellectual observation, rape is no longer a weapon of war. Rape has become a strategy of war. You rape women in such numbers, so savagely that you humiliate entire communities through the women. The women hold the communities together. On the continent of Africa, nothing happens without the engagement of the women, particularly at the grassroots, particularly on the ground. And what happens is that the entire community is subdued, oppressed, overcome by these roving bands of marauding militias, who rape the women, move the community off the extractive resources, which is what they want, or turn the women into sex slaves and the men into the laborers who do extract the resources. And it’s hideous, the consequences, and it’s been going on since 1996. More than a quarter of a million women have been raped. And what is so unfathomable about it is everyone in a position of power knows, and it continues. I’ll never never comprehend."