Arty Farty Friday ~ David Lynch

A couple more days will take us into what I sometimes think of as astro-wierdo country....aka Sun in Aquarius. On Sunday we'll be at the Capricorn/Aquarius cusp, it will also be the birthday of a guy who I see as displaying clear Aquarian tendencies: David Lynch. He was, though, born around 5 hours too soon to qualify as a true Sun Aquarian, and has no planets in that sign. I've always believed that the signs, at their cusps, can bleed into one another (most astrologers don't agree). David Lynch offers a good manifestation of this possibility, in my opinion..

An interviewer HERE described Lynch like this: "In conversation Lynch proves to be a living, breathing analog to his art: a beguiling combination of the cosmic and the mundane, the surreal and an abnormally normal-seeming normal."

As well as being a maker of films with a distinctly surreal edge and dreamlike qualities, occasionally dipping into the macabre, David Lynch is also an internationally acclaimed painter, photographer and sculptor, he designs furniture, composes music and lyrics, and writes books too - in his spare time, you understand.

His films include an adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, (didn't do the book justice); The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and a peculiar TV mini-series, Twin Peaks. We have the DVD set of Twin Peaks and declared it to be a kind of hybrid of Psycho, Monty Python and The Three Stooges. To be fair, I think Lynch was attempting to parody some of the more hokey soap operas of the time. Here's a quote from the man himself:

"The whole Twin Peaks series wouldn't have been possible without the trust in the power of subconsciousness. I show in my movies thoughts and situations that preoccupy my mind. And I'm mainly interested in the dark side of life, the unknown, the frightening. That leads automatically to the controversy about violence. I'm tired of the perpetual arguing about the alleged brutality in my films. Violence exists in our world and you can't simply ignore it. You have to show it, especially if you want to tell powerful stories as I want to. Those who only want to tell about the joys of being and the art of picking cherries shouldn't start making films at all. Because good people are boring. Only the bad guys have style."

Hmmmm. Only bad guys have style? Can't agree with him there!

His rather unsettling artwork can be sampled at The City of Absurdity. There's more unsavoury detail at BBC News "David Lynch's Dark Side Laid Bare" ..." much of it resembles blackest nightmares or darkest hidden fears splattered onto canvas".

From the catalogue of a Tokyo exhibition of Lynch's artwork:

"When it comes to painting, it´s the darker things I find really beautiful. All my paintings are organic, violent comedies. They have to be violently done, and primitive and crude, and to achieve that I try to let nature paint more than I paint and stay out of the way as much as I can. In fact, I don´t paint with a brush too much any more - I prefer to use my fingers. I´d bite them if I could."

Four examples of David Lynch's artwork:

David Lynch was born 20 January 1946 in Missoula, Montana, at 3:00 AM

Scorpio ascendant definitely relates to the preoccupation Lynch seems to have with death and life's darker side.

Sun is right on the cusp of Capricorn/Aquarius, and conjoined to Venus planet of the arts, with Mercury also in Capricorn. In opposition there's an exact conjunction of Mars and Saturn, Capricorn's ruler, in Cancer. I'd guess that it's this opposition which is Lynch's driving force. The Capricorn planets reflect a capacity for hard work and a well-honed business-sense; a little bleeding over of Aquarian quirk allows for a less staid manifestation than unadulterated Capricorn would present. Opposition of Mars and Saturn drive the energetic work ethic feel of the chart, with a potential fascination with violence(Mars) thrown in.

The Capricorn/Cancer opposition already mentioned also forms part of a further configuration known as a T-square, linked as it is to Jupiter in Libra by two 90* square aspects. This configuration indicates stress, but manageable stress, once harnessed. In this case the configuration occurs in Cardinal signs - its owner is likely to thrive on crisis and excitement. It seems that David Lynch has successfully harnessed his T-square.

Yet another configuration occurs in Lynch's chart: I like Yods (Fingers of Fate) - there's one here linking Pluto(darkness) and Uranus(quirky/surreal) in sextile to Mercury via two 150* aspects, at the apex of the configuration. Being translated: elements of darkness and the surreal are blended and channelled through the planet of communication, Mercury. Exactly what Lynch is doing in his movies and paintings!

There's more: Neptune (creativity, illusion, dreams) Uranus (quirky, surreal) and the Sun (self) form a slightly out of kilter Grand Trine = harmonious flow between imagination, illusion, the unexpected and quirky, and the inner self.

Without a single planet in Aquarius, David Lynch does leave one with the distinct feeling that Aquarius is there - somewhere, around the edges.