Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Aquarius, Astrologers, Uranus, Urania.

Sun's in Aquarius again, I'll soon need to add another year to my age! I've written more than enough posts about zodiac sign Aquarius over the years - they are easily available via the Label Cloud in the sidebar - click on "Aquarius". I have a special interest in the sign, and its modern ruler Uranus, being a Sun Aquarian-type myself.

Occasionally I ask myself what's the source of my longtime interest in astrology. My parents had no knowledge of the subject, nor did any close relative that I know of. Is Aquarius the source? None of my contemporaries, even among those born within a few days of me, and in the same town as myself, has ever shown the slightest interest in the planets.

There's a list of astrologers at Wikipedia, with handy click-through links to further detail. Many of the names come from eras long gone, many are foreign to me. I found only three astrologers whose names are familiar, with natal Sun in Aquarius. I'll concentrate on two of them initially because of interesting similarities. ~~

The pair: Evangeline Adams (8 February 1868) and Russell Grant (5 February 1951), one from each side of the pond, as it happens. Their natal charts are available at Astrodatabank, and linked to their names above. It was fascinating to compare them. Look at the similarities!

Evangeline Adams had Sun at 19 Aquarius, Mars at 10 Aquarius; Mercury Venus and Jupiter in Pisces; and Uranus (ruler of Aquarius) at 9 Cancer.

Russell Grant has Sun at 16 Aquarius, Moon at 10 Aquarius; Venus, Mars and Jupiter in Pisces; Uranus (ruler of Aquarius) at 5.58 Cancer.

That's pretty amazing! Because they were born 83 years apart, Uranus ruler of their Aquarius Sun had almost completed its 84-year cycle, and was back in the same sign, sensitive, intuitive Cancer - and within a few degrees for Russell Grant as it had been for Evangeline Adams. Both astrologers have two planets in Aquarius (both have one on the 10 degree spot); both have three personal planets in instinctual, ephemeral Pisces, with Venus and Jupiter common to both.

Airy, mentally-oriented Aquarius may not be particularly astrology-oriented without support from Watery signs (Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio).

The third Aquarius-type astrologer I found in Wiki's list: Charles Carter - often referred to as C.E.O. Carter - one of my favourites. Chart available at Astrodatabank. He had three personal planets in Aquarius (Sun, Mercury, Venus) and three in Water signs (Mars, Saturn and Jupiter).

My own natal chart isn't closely comparable with those of Adams, Grant or Carter. I have only Sun in Aquarius, with Watery input from Jupiter in Pisces, Mars in Scorpio and Cancer rising - so I guess it could be said that I have a less intense amount of the same "flavours" they did/do. My natal Uranus is in Earthy Taurus though, and conjoins south node of Moon.

My natal Moon in Aries seems unhelpful in this regard, but Asteroid Urania lies very close to it. This celestial body was named for the Muse of Astronomy, and by association astrology. Astrologically, this may mean nothing at all - but it pleases me!


"In Greek mythology, Urania (Ουρανία), which means "heavenly", was the muse of astronomy and astrology. She is usually depicted as having a globe in her left hand and a peg in the right, and her foot on a turtle, symbol of silence. She is able to foretell the future by the position of the stars. She is often associated with Universal Love and the Holy Spirit. She is dressed in a cloak embroidered with stars and keeps her eyes and attention focused on the Heavens. Those who are most concerned with philosophy and the heavens are dearest to her." (See here)
Illustration from HERE

Last year we found a wee town named after her on our travels in Louisiana:


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

harneGP: Very nice post, especially that you mention Urania. But we ought also to think of Hindu astrology. There is a lot to be found there.

Shivapuribaba's grandfather was a remarkable astrologer who not only predicted that his grandson would be the last of the line, make (on foot!) a pilgrimage around the world - which took him 40 years to accomplish, and grow old. He died at the age of 135(!!!) Lucid to the end, as one would expect from his grandfather's predictive abilities.

No doubt, Urania must have given an extra help there!

PS. For the English reading this blog: Shivapuribaba was a friend of Queen Victoria (well documented).

Mary English said...

Hiya,
Many Happy Returns,

I Hope Your Special Day is Full of Bright Blessings....

I have lots of Aquarians in my family, SO many in fact, I wrote a book about them! How to Bond with an Aquarius-Real Life Guidance on How to Get Along and be Friends with the Penultimate Sign of the Zodiac...
http://www.amazon.com/How-Bond-Aquarius-Mary-English/dp/1846944333
Do let me know if you'd like me to write a piece for your blog:)
In peace
Mary
www.maryenglish.com

Twilight said...

Anonymous/Gian Paul ~~

Thanks, GP.

Hadn't heard of Shivapuribaba, but read a little online just now.
It's a pity there's no exact birth date available for him (or info about his grandfather's chart).
:-)

Twilight said...

Astrological Activist ~
Hi there! Many thanks for your good wishes.

I'm a little sensitive about the term Aquarian - or any other sign personified (Taurean, etc.)
I've started using "Aquarius-type" instead, or maybe "Sun Aquarius" because I feel it's a more accurate description. I doubt there's such a person as "An Aquarian" - sorry, AA! The usual descriptions allocated to "Aquarians" irk me more than a little too.

I've known quite a few people born late January to mid-February and they have little in common to be honest. The key, for me, is in finding out how and why, astrologically and otherwise.

Sorry ! I'm grateful for your comment though. :-)

Anonymous said...

GP: Urania, the observatory in Zurich, is responsible for observing sun-spot-cycles since around 1850.

And that's astronomical, uncontroversially scientific, but for whom knows about astrology very interesting also. E.g. Jupiter's 12 years to circle the zodiac, the El-Ninho phenomenon of the same duration, agricultural commodity cycles linked to that etc.

So, "mother Urania" is quite something. Even exactly today as we observe a major sun-spot eruption hitting earth (and the net probably as satelite communication gets affected).

Anonymous said...

GP: To AA

Beware of free advice, but here it is anyway (I have Mars in Aquarius).

If you wish to promote something, books, ideas etc. better chose a moment when there are no inner planets retrograding, as presently Mars is doing. Cirio.

PS. I am not heeding my own advice, but it's not from me originally. Comes from Henri Gouchon, a French astrologer and presumably he said it "when the time was right". I have tested it.

Mary English said...

I agree, that there is no such term as 'an Aquarius' because we all have over 10 'planets' in our chart... an Asc, a Moon and a Sun placement....but that's not how people 'get into' astrology to start with....that comes much later when they've learned all about chart process.

Don't be sorry!

My writing is for beginners, everyone has to start somewhere and all astrologers will have started learning about their Sun sign first, before all the other things kick-in....

I appreciate your blog is a bit more advanced so apologies for mentioning Sun signs..

....have a beautiful birthday:)
In peace
Mary xx

James Higham said...

How do you feel about the Chinese signs, for example, the Water Dragon? How does it fit into the overall picture?

Twilight said...

Anon/Gian Paul ~~

Yes, "Mother Urania" can be my patron saint. ;-)

Twilight said...

Astrological Activist ~~ Hi again!

I got into astrology via Sun signs myself. I always think of Sun sign astrologers as "the Gatekeepers". But once through the gate it's not good to stand still and gaze - so I moved on - a bit - not all the way, because I'm convinced there are swamps of suppostion a little further on.

Thanks for coming back - am relieved I didn't offend. :-)

Twilight said...

James Higham ~~ I've never felt to be "on the wavelength" of Chinese astrology.

Chinese is based on the lunar calendar, western on the solar year.

The Chinese "year of" thing doesn't seem, to me, to work well. It's even worse than assuming Sun signs are
all there is to western astrology.
Getting into Chinese astro much deeper than "year of" would probably help. One verison is more than enough for me though!

Vanilla Rose said...

No mention of Mr Grant's ... interesting dancing on "Strictly Come Dancing"? Is that unknown on the other side of the pond?

Twilight said...

Vanilla Rose ~~ I knew of that only through a couple of Twitter tweets I'd noticed. Didn't get into detail about his "doings" here though as I was really just comparing charts.

I have seen a couple of videos of Mr Grant's terpsichorean efforts - looks like fun - but he oughtn't to give up his day job. ;-D

We don't get UK's Strictly Come Dancing here - don't know whether it's available in other parts of the USA. I think the US version of Strictly is Dancing With the Stars, but I've never watched it. (Have enough trouble keeping up with all the singing contests!)