Yip Harburg, "rebel by birth"

Leigh Donaldson, in a piece written in 2011, called him "Father of the Socially Conscious Lyric", I knew of him via the lyrics of two of his best-known songs: Brother Can You Spare a Dime and Over the Rainbow. Yip Harburg (Edgar Yipsel Harburg). He was born on New York City's Lower East Side in 1896, son of Russian-Jewish parents who were employed in a garment sweatshop. Yip worked there briefly too. He is reported to have said: “We didn’t know we were poor, we were too busy living life to the fullest.“ Leigh Donaldson, in his piece HERE wrote:
"....few appreciate his deeper dreams of democratic socialism behind so many of his lyrics and poems."


Yip Harburg In his own words:

I am a rebel by birth. ... I contest anything that is unjust, that causes suffering in humanity. My feelings about that are so strong, I don't think I could live with myself if I weren't honest.

They used to tell me
I was building a dream
with peace and glory ahead.
Why should I be standing in line
just waiting for bread?

Brother Can You Spare a Dime has long been a favourite song of mine. This is one of the best modern versions, and accompanying visuals - had me in tears. Bett Butler sings:



Another good one:

Dr John, Odetta and, again, some apt visuals:



Because of its poignant reflection of workers during the Depression who had been forgotten or misplaced, Brother Can You Spare a Dime became a jumping off point for Harburg's further success. The melody, composed by Jay Gorney is based on an old Russian lullaby.

Others have called Harburg outspoken, liberal and uncompromising but also sentimemntal, romantic and humourous.

"He was a man of strong moral and political beliefs who exhibited great tolerance toward those whose politics differed from his own. He believed in the power of lyrics and used that power to move audiences both emotionally and artistically.
Yip Harburg was a victim of the Hollywood blacklist when movie studio bosses blacklisted industry people for suspected involvement or sympathy with the American Communist Party"

See HERE


He died in March 1981. A list of his best-known song titles can be seen HERE

A quick look at his natal chart then - can we spot the rebel ingredient?

No birth time is available so the chart is set for 12 noon.

I'd like to bet that he was born before 10:00 AM, which would put natal Moon in late Aquarius conjunct Mars.
That'd be a recipe for a rebel! Sun and Mercury in impulsive Aries would blend well and intensify his urge to
outspoken criticism of whatever he saw as unjust.

It's really Uranus, the rebel planet, I'm looking for here. It's in Scorpio, conjunct Saturn. It forms a Grand Trine - like the one in Abbie Hoffman's chart in yesterday's post? Not exactly, but there are similarities. In Hoffman's chart Uranus/Venus/Neptune were linked, in Harburg's it's Uranus/Venus/Jupiter, with Saturn conjunct Uranus. Harburg was getting his Jupiter pulls via this Grand Trine; Hoffman got his via his trio of personal planets in Sagittarius, including Jupiter in its home sign. Harburg's Grand Trine is in Water signs - emotional, whereas Hoffman's were in Earth - practical.

George Michael sings us out with another version of that song:

Abbie Hoffman - He Made His Own Revolution

Among events listed at Wikipedia for 24 August, through history, is the following"

24 August 1967 – Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the NYSE by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them.

More about that incident from a chapter from Hoffman's autobiography. See HERE.

It reminded me of an old post of mine from early in 2010 dealing with Abbie Hoffman's natal chart, an edited version of the old post follows:


Described as flamboyant and colorful, Abbie Hoffman emerged from 1960s counterculture, prominent in demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, he founded the "Yippies" (Youth International Party). His trademarks were sharp satirical humour and a flair for organisation. These were effectively used on behalf of many causes, including civil rights, anti-war and ecology.




Snips from HERE:

At the end of the 1960s Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman became an American celebrity and the wild-and-woolly face of youth activists protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. A graduate of Brandeis University with a Master's degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, Hoffman was a co-founder of New York's "Yippie" movement, a loosely-organized anti-war group called the Youth International Party. Their 1967 anti-establishment pranks included dumping dollar bills (mostly fake) onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and surrounding the Pentagon in an attempt to levitate it.

After a street fight with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Hoffman and his cohorts were arrested and charged with conspiracy to incite a riot. The trial was a media sensation, and the so-called Chicago Seven (originally there were eight, including Black Panther Bobby Seale) spent more than a year mocking the court of Judge Julius J. Hoffman with shenanigans that resulted in more than 150 contempt citations. In the end it all amounted to acquittals and convictions overturned, and Hoffman became known more as the guy who wrote Steal This Book (1971) or the guy who was arrested for wearing a shirt that looked like the American flag (1968).

Hoffman was arrested in 1973 on drug charges, but he skipped bail and spent the next seven years on the lam, going by the name of Barry Freed. In the early 1980s he resurfaced and, after a little jail time, embarked on a career as an organizer, activist, author and lecturer. At the age of 52 he was found dead of what a Pennsylvania coroner called a "massive overdose" of phenobarbital. His books include Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), Woodstock Nation (1969), Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980) and Preserving Disorder: The Faking of the President (1988, with Jonathan Silvers).

The coroner ruled Hoffman's death a suicide, saying the amount of the overdose suggested that an accident was unlikely.

Abbie Hoffman was born in Worcester Massachusetts on 30 November 1936 at 1:30 AM (Astrodatabank).



Sun, Mercury and Jupiter in Sagittarius (Jupiter's rulership). Jupiter, planet of excess and philosophy; I guess one could say that political activism consists of expanding philosophical ideas to their limit - to excess.

Two tight oppositions: Jupiter/Moon and Saturn/Neptune reflect inner on-going conflict which may eventually have contributed to his bi-polar disorder.

Uranus, the rebel planet, not unexpectedly has a part to play here. There's a Yod (Finger of Fate) configuration linking the sextile between Sun and Mars (Mars in a strong position, close to the ascendant) via two quincunx aspects of 150 degrees to Uranus. Astrologers consider that the sextiled planets' attributes are channelled through the planet at the apex of the Yod, in this case what could be more appropriate than Uranus? Sun(self) & Mars(energy and aggression) chanelled through Uranus (rebellion/revolution).

Uranus is also part of a loose Grand Trine with Venus/Neptune forming a circuit of harmonious connection between rebellion, dreams/imagination and well, Venus? Venus can represent emotional contracts such as marriage, love affairs. Hoffman's love affair was with rebellion.

“The only way to support a revolution is to make your own.”

“Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.”
― Abbie Hoffman

Question: Where is our Abbie 2013-style? Is it, perhaps, Edward Snowden ?

Another Radical ~ Abbie Hoffman

More coincidence/synchronicity emerges! First, I'm Alright Jack, next, Reds, then, on Tuesday evening HBO presented us with Steal This Movie. It's a biopic with another American rebel and political activist as its central character: Abbie Hoffman. My attention keeps being drawn to left-wing rebels! Hmmm - I shall not resist!

I'll have a peek at Abbie Hoffman's chart to discover whether there's anything in common with John Reed's which appeared in yesterday's post.

Described as flamboyant and colorful, Abbie Hoffman emerged from 1960s counterculture, prominent in demonstarations against the war in Vietnam, founded the "Yippies" (Youth International Party). His trademark sharp satirical humour and a flair for organisation was effectively used on behalf of many causes, including civil rights, anti-war and ecology.


See here

At the end of the 1960s Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman became an American celebrity and the wild-and-woolly face of youth activists protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. A graduate of Brandeis University with a Master's degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, Hoffman was a co-founder of New York's "Yippie" movement, a loosely-organized anti-war group called the Youth International Party. Their 1967 anti-establishment pranks included dumping dollar bills (mostly fake) onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and surrounding the Pentagon in an attempt to levitate it.

After a street fight with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Hoffman and his cohorts were arrested and charged with conspiracy to incite a riot. The trial was a media sensation, and the so-called Chicago Seven (originally there were eight, including Black Panther Bobby Seale) spent more than a year mocking the court of Judge Julius J. Hoffman with shenanigans that resulted in more than 150 contempt citations. In the end it all amounted to acquittals and convictions overturned, and Hoffman became known more as the guy who wrote Steal This Book (1971) or the guy who was arrested for wearing a shirt that looked like the American flag (1968).

Hoffman was arrested in 1973 on drug charges, but he skipped bail and spent the next seven years on the lam, going by the name of Barry Freed. In the early 1980s he resurfaced and, after a little jail time, embarked on a career as an organizer, activist, author and lecturer. At the age of 52 he was found dead of what a Pennsylvania coroner called a "massive overdose" of phenobarbital. His books include Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), Woodstock Nation (1969), Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980) and Preserving Disorder: The Faking of the President (1988, with Jonathan Silvers).

The coroner ruled Hoffman's death a suicide, saying the amount of the overdose suggested that an accident was unlikely.

Abbie Hoffman was born in Worcester Massachusetts on 30 November 1936 at 1:30 AM (Astrodatabank).



Sun, Mercury and Jupiter in Sagittarius (Jupiter's rulership). Jupiterian emphasis is a link between the charts of John Reed and Abbie Hoffman. Jupiter, planet of excess and philosophy - I guess one could say that political activism consists of expanding philosophical ideas to their limit - to excess.

Two tight oppositions: Jupiter/Moon and Saturn/Neptune reflect inner on-going conflict which may eventually have contributed to his bi-polar disorder.

Uranus, the rebel planet has a clearer part to play here than in John Reed's chart. There's a Yod (Finger of Fate) configuration linking the sextile between Sun and Mars (Mars in a strong position, close to the ascendant) via two quincunx aspects of 150 degrees to Uranus. Astrologers consider that the sextiled planets' attributes are channelled through the planet at the apex of the Yod - and in this case what could be more appropriate? Sun(self) & Mars(energy and aggression) chanelled through Uranus (rebellion/revolution).

The charts of Reed and Hoffman bring the realisation that Uranus is not necessarily the astrological key player in such activists' life stories, it can be...but Jupiter is one to watch!

I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.
Abbie Hoffman