Algol, Master of Oz, and Master of Space & Time - Oh my!

The Wiz Live! was aired on NBC last week - we watched and enjoyed. Performances, costumes and scenery were excellent - a wonderfully colourful and artistic production of a new adaptation of the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz, a soul/R&B reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The show reminded me that years ago I'd looked at L.Frank Baum's natal chart, read a little about his life and discovered a coincidence with another natal chart I'd been preparing, a coincidence involving Fixed Star Algol.

L. Frank Baum was born 15 May 1856 in Chittengo, New York. Chart (below) is set for 12 noon - no time of birth known.

In 1856 Algol would have been at 24.05 Taurus, conjunct Baum's natal Sun.

From a bio of Baum at Biography.com

Baum's education began with tutors at home in his early years. At the age of 12, he went to the Peekskill Military Academy. Baum left the school after a health crisis two years later, apparently suffering from some type of heart condition. Never earning a high school degree, he spent his early adulthood exploring his interest in acting and writing for the stage.

 L. Frank Baum chart

And here, at Literary Traveler

A rather sickly child who was both timid and shy, he kept to himself and made up imaginary places and playmates since he had to refrain from any kind of strenuous exercise due to his faulty, weak heart. Throughout Frank”s life, his health was a constant impediment, which became a looming presence and a major controlling factor. Although, it never impeded his creativity, drive and talent.

While preparing a 2007 post about Leon Russell, it emerged that he suffered a birth injury, causing a physical disability. Natally he has Saturn conjunct Algol.

Born on 2 April 1942 in Lawton, Oklahoma at, according to Astrodienst 1.22 AM.

 Leon Russell chart

Russell credits his artistic development to a birth injury that damaged his upper vertebrae and left him slightly paralyzed on the right side of his body. “It gave me a very strong sense of duality,” he says. “It gave me an outlook into this plane that we live on and if I hadn’t had that, I’d probably be selling cars in Paris, Texas.” Russell became one of the most sought after session musicians in Los Angeles during the 1960s, working with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Phil Spector and from Glen Campbell to the Byrds.
From PRI.org here

So, it appears that both the Master of Oz and the Master of Space & Time had something in common. Hardly conclusive evidence of Algol's potential, but it does make one pause and think. There are probably other combinations of factors which need to be in place in any astrological chart for Algol's influence to come to the fore. No doubt many people live all their lives in Algol's shadow without as much as a headache.