Arty-Farty Friday ~ Erté

Erté. Not a universally well-known artist, but once seen, his work is easily identifiable. I first became aware of him via, of all things, a Franklin Mint catalogue, back in the UK. We used to be inundated with those catalogues! At one point they offered a set of decorative plates featuring Erté's artwork. His is a distinctive style from the Art Deco years, 1920s to 30s. I see in it also a trace of the previous era's style - Art Nouveau. The sinuous delicacy employed by Erté isn't usually part of true Art Deco. He's a crossover! Oddly, I see a trace of Aubrey Beardsley's style too.


Erté was the pseudonym of Romain de Tirtoff (or Tyrtov), born in Russia in 1892, moved to Paris, France in 1912, and died at age 97 in 1990. His career as illustrator, theatrical stylist and fashion designer, spanned nearly all of those ninety-odd years. The name by which he became commonly known, " Erté", is the French pronunciation of the initials of his real name R and T (air-tay).





There's little detail on-line about Erté's personal life.An article in "TIME" from 1982 gives the most I've been able to discover, apart from the nuts and bolts of his career.

In 1926, when Erté made an electrifying appearance at the Paris Opera costume ball, he was dressed in a toreador outfit of varying shades of gold lame. "That night," he recalls, "the huge cape I designed was completely lined with fresh red roses which I tossed, one by one, at my audience as I descended the grand staircase."











"For all his theatrics, Erté has always been a prodigiously hardworking artist who, for nearly seven decades, has spent virtually every night, all night, at his desk. He habitually sketches and paints in a dark room under a single spotlight, listening to recordings of Beethoven and Schubert.




Since 1935 he has lived in an apartment in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, with a succession of cats as companions. "Being alone is vitally important for me and my work. I'm like a cat, solitary, independent and quiet by nature," he says. To keep in shape he works regularly with weights, even carrying a light set in his briefcase. Says he: "It's almost a duty to keep your body svelte—for other people's sake."

A blog called "Gay for Today" featured Erté in a piece last November, and notes that

"In 1975, he published a memoir, Things I Remember: An Autobiography. While discreet, the book is frank about the number and nature of his romantic liaisons, including descriptions of the homosexual demi-monde of 1920s Paris."

Unlike Tamara de Lempicka or Augustus and Gwen John who appeared in two previous Arty-Farty Friday posts, Erté managed to avoid scandal, as far as I can tell.

Born 23 November 1892 in St.Petersburg, Russia. No time of birth known, the 12 noon chart below will show an inaccurate ascendant and degree of the Moon, but Moon would remain in Capricorn whatever the time of birth.



Where is the "special" placement or aspect in this chart which could account for Erté's work standing out from that of the crowd?

Sagittarius Sun and Mercury link to his over-the-top love of excess, as described in the "Time" article already quoted. His artistic talent no doubt connects to Venus ruler of the arts in Libra, one of Venus's home signs. Saturn also in Libra emphasises that sign of beauty and balance. Moon in Capricorn brings in a more down to earth feel to things, and reflects his dedication to work and business also mentioned in the "Time" article.

Neptune and Pluto were conjoined in Gemini for quite a few years in the late 19th century (1885 to1897) including the year Erté came into the world. This period spawned several well known artists - Georgia O'Keefe, Norman Rockwell, Tamara de Lempicka, Joan Miro among them.

In Erté's natal chart it'd be a good bet that, even not knowing time of birth, the Moon in Capricorn and Uranus in Scorpio formed a Yod configuration with the Neptune/Pluto Gemini conjunction at the business end. Neptune, the planet of creativity blended with the transformative power of Pluto combined to make a force to be reckoned with, especially when linked to personal planets in a natal chart. In a Yod two quincunx (150*) aspects linked by a sextile (60*) form a sharp pointed triangle or arrow shape, the engergies of the two planets in sextile are said to be focused through the planet(s) at the Yod's apex. In this case "energies" of the Moon sextile Uranus (depending on birth time, but more likely than not) bringing about a sensitive but rather avant garde blend focused through the powerfully creative mix of Neptune/Pluto in communicative Gemini.



I feel pretty sure that this is what made Erté special. Pluto, at the time in question was also conjunct Aldebaran one of the "royal" fixed stars, which might also have significance.

Erte designed a set of zodiac sign motifs see all 12 of them here

This is Aries















One of his posters - this more typically Art Deco in style:



More at erte.com

Prophecy, Astrologers, Carmenta.

On the topic of prophecy British astrologer C.E.O. Carter had this to say in his Encyclopedia of Psychological Astrology (in print continually from 1924):

PROPHECY
It is probable that such prophecy as may truly be the result of inspiration or revelation from higher entities would be shown horoscopically by a strong 9th house, and by Jupiter and Neptune, as well as sometimes Uranus. Such cases, however, are rare, and their possibility is admitted by comparatively few at the present day. Natives of watery signs and also Sagittarius are prone to have presentiments, but it is probable that in most cases these are purely fanciful.

Astrological prophecy, properly so called, has nothing to do with such methods, but depends upon the interpretation of present and future influences mathematically obtained and intellectually apprehended. At the same time it is undeniable that many astrologers, and particularly those with strong Jupiter 9th house influences, develop an intuitive accuracy of judgment that may in time act so promptly and surely that it may appear to partake of the nature of inspiration.

On the other hand, those in whose horoscopes Mercury and Jupiter are afflicted should be cautious in making forecasts, especially when under bad directions to these planets.

I flicked very quickly through Astrotheme's lists of well-known people with Jupiter (and other planets) in 9th house, and found a few well-known astrologers:

Patrick Walker (Jupiter Neptune, Mercury in 9th)
Alan Oken (Jupiter and Pluto in 9th)
Julia Parker (Mercury, Jupiter and Neptune in 9th)
Jonathan Cainer (Jupiter in 9th + Sun in Sagittarius)

And I have a lonely Jupiter in 9th, as it happens!

Staying on the subject of prophecy, in Rome today, 15 January, marked the second day of a 2-day festival honoring the goddess of prophecy, Carmenta. The first day of Carmentalia was 11th January. Carmenta, as well as being a prophetess was goddess of childbirth and midwifery. There was originally one Carmenta who was worshipped by the "flamines," her priests. Later there were said to be many Carmentes, female deities who appeared to assist women in labor and to tell the fortune of the newborn child. Romans made offerings of rice to the goddess and feasted on cream-filled pastries shaped like male and female genitalia or triangle-shaped pastries filled with raspberry jam.(Link)

Carmenta (known as Nicostrata to the Greeks) was famous for chanting her prophecies in verse.She is also credited with naming the Palentine Hill and in a vision predicted it would be the future site of the Roman Empire. She laid the city's first stone, instituted a system of laws for the surrounding region, and invented the Latin alphabet and language. Quite a gal!

Illustration, right: ‘Typus Gramatica’ showing Carmenta/ Nicostrata holding a hornbook and key, introducing a child into a tower of learning with six storeys.


The arches to the right of the photograph form the remains of the ancient gateway Porta Carmentalis, close to the site of Carmenta's temple at the foot of the Capitoline Hill.

Wednesday's "Why?" ~ The Glyphs

When I started to study astrology in earnest one of my first jobs was to commit to memory the glyphs used to represent the signs. To understand a natal chart the first essential is to recognise the glyphs. Sign glyphs are better known than planet glyphs, they often appear in newspaper and magazine Sun sign columns, because of their relative familiarity they are easy to memorise.


Planet glyphs are less familiar, but there are only seven major ones to remember, and Sun and Moon are easy-peasy. I used to draw the shapes continually until I had them locked in. It helps in memorising the planet glyphs to have some idea of why they are as they are. They're not simply shapes dreamed up at random, each part of the odd looking symbols has significance. Astrologer Alan Oken explained this in his book "Complete Astrology", from which I started to dutifully copy before discovering that the work has already been done by Carole Somerville at Suite 101- see Glyphs of the Planets .


In typical Aquarian fashion, I've wondered about the origin of the planet glyphs. Water Carriers accept very little at face value y' know! There's not a lot of information available though, other than that the glyphs seem to date back to at least mediaeval times. I found this interesting page at a site called Purple Hell: "Alchemical Symbols"


It would seem then that the link between astrology and alchemy can still be identified from the planet symbols we use. I found it interesting to look through the whole page at the large collection of alchemical symbols. Some of them are strangely beautiful.

Bob Dylan & "I'm Not There"

HBO threw up the movie "I'm Not There" the other night - we caught it. It's a peculiar brand of bio-pic on the life and times of Bob Dylan. People who like Fellini, surrealism, abstractions and suchlike, as well as knowing Bob Dylan's body of work and life story quite well, would probably enjoy the movie. It was directed by Todd Haynes. We struggled to keep up!

I was a fan of Dylan's lyrics back in the day, but was always uneasy about Dylan the man, he was a bit of a mystery. This movie partially solves it. If nothing else it goes some way to explaining his astrology.

For an article on Dylan by a professional astrologer I'd recommend
Neil Spencer's piece - see here.
I'm adding my own two penniworth in connection with the movie "I'm Not There" which hadn't been released at the time of Neil's article.

Bob Dylan born 24 May 1941 in Duluth MN, at, according to Astrotheme, 9.05 pm.



The movie depicts Dylan as a group of six different personas which develop throughout his life and career.



First he's a runaway black child with a guitar and the spirit of Woody Guthrie, I like this persona best of all, but it's not really his essence. In his natal chart the Woody-like persona is reflected most by the Taurus cluster - earthy, real, sincere. He evolves into a linked pair of facets - an evolved Taurus - the "real" man with his lovers, children, homes, and on the other side the musical phenomenon we knew best: awkward, uncommunicative, slippery, but with a certain genius - his Gemini side.

A fourth facet is explored briefly, his literary side, in tribute to his idol French poet and anarchist Arthur Rimbaud. This could be said to link to natal Neptune, which although a generational planet, in Dylan's chart is very close to North Node of the Moon, a sensitive chart point. It links to his ever fertile writing talent - imaginative, creative Neptune is in helpful trine to his four Taurus planets.

Two later facets of Dylan develop. He is depicted as a Born Again Christian, possibly reflected in his Sagittarius ascendant, Sagittarius links to religion. And finally as an ageing Billy the Kid. I found this to be the least convincing facet of all. It perhaps could be linked to his Mars in Pisces squaring Gemini Sun. Mars in Pisces seems to me to be the odd one out in his chart which consists mainly of a large Taurus/Gemini cluster, one sign blending into the otherwhen Jupiter @ 29 Taurus meets Sun @ 3 Gemini.

As in the chart of Tom Jones, shown in a recent post, most of Dylan's planets are clustered around the descendant on the right side of the chart - the side said to relate to others rather than self (self connects to the ascendant on the left side of the chart). In the case of musicians, the right side of the chart probably links to their ability to relate to their audience as well as to their success, or lack of it, in personal relationships.

The question I was left with, and which I'd never thought to ask before: was Bob Dylan sincere in his early protest songs, or were they cynical money-making opportunities? I regret to say that I suspect the latter is true. A line in the movie brought it home to me. A British reporter asks him if he really meant those protest songs, and he replies "What if I thought I could do them better than anyone else?" These were the movie-maker's words, not necessarily Dylan's, though they may have been culled from an old recording, I don't know this. But the words rang true enough for me. However, whether or not the words were sincerely felt by their author doesn't detract from their meaning to an audience. We attach our own emotions, at the time of listening or reading, to the words of poets and lyricists, irrespective of the writer's own motives.

A Rolling Stone review of the movie probably gets the point of it all far better than I did.

A lot of the credit for the movie's success must go to a surprising and inspired piece of casting which helped to hold our interest throughout - Cate Blanchett as the quintessential Bob Dylan, the musical phenomenon (she's at bottom right in the group of 6 photographs above).

The real Bob Dylan, then and later....











His "Masters of War" with appropriate images added - I hope, that in this song, he was sincere.

"VALKYRIE" & Claus von Stauffenberg

I can't say I enjoyed the movie "Valkyrie", and Himself, whose idea it was to go see it wasn't impressed either. Perhaps the subject matter doesn't lend itself to enjoyment, but is meant to inform rather than entertain.

The movie tells the true story of a plot by German officers to assassinate Hitler during the last year of World War 2. I was left with questions. Why did it take so long for Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his supporters to do something, if they felt so incensed by the direction in which Hitler had led their country? Stauffenberg had to sustain horrific injury himself, losing an eye, one hand and several fingers of the other hand before he galvanised into action against the Fuehrer. Having read a little background since seeing the movie, it does appear that Stauffenberg had been trying to persuade others to join him in his efforts for at least a year before the movie action begins. This might have been hinted in the dialogue, but if so, I failed to catch it.



It appears that the explosive devices used in the assassination attempt were far too weak to do the necessary damage. I'd have thought that high ranking officers would have had more know-how and better materials at their disposal. The plot to assassinate Hitler seemed terribly amateurish. Too late, too little. The Germans were already losing the war by 1944. Were these high ranking officers seeking to save face, rather than save humanity?

Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but these were my impressions. The temperature in the almost empty cinema was frigid, which added to my jaundiced view of the movie!

The acting was adequate, Tom Cruise in the lead, along with many familiar British faces in unfamiliar guises did as well as could be expected with the material. The movie could have benefited from a slight change of pace now and again. It was unrelenting in its gloom. The end titles told us that Stauffenberg's wife and children survived the war, she died only in 2006, presumably well into her 90s. A rather more uplifting ending would be to have been to include a scene showing his family at some later date, in peacetime. Walking out of the cinema with the executions and hangings still stinging our eyes wasn't pleasant.

Astrology: Claus von Stauffenberg's chart - born 15 November 1907 in Jettingen, Germany at 1.00 am according to Astrotheme.



Sun and Mercury in intense Scorpio, in challenging square to Mars in Aquarius. Moon conjunct Saturn in compassionate Pisces, with Virgo rising.


There's a Grand Trine in Water signs linking Sun/Mercury, Moon/Saturn and Neptune/North Node. This isn't the chart of a warrior, I'd expect it to belong to someone with artistic or spiritual leanings, but Stauffenberg was born into an aristocratic Roman Catholic family with very strong military ties. Astrology doesn't let us down though:

"After contemplating careers in music and architecture, von Stauffenberg finally opts for military service, entering the army as a cadet officer in his family's traditional regiment, the 17th Cavalry Regiment of Bamberg.
1930 - Graduating first in his class and receiving a special ceremonial sabre for "outstanding achievements", von Stauffenberg is commissioned as a lieutenant. His military superiors variously describe him as "highly intelligent and of above average ability, both tactically and technically", and "an expert at settling differences, acting as go-between and smoothing out quarrels."
One of his peers says, "I would say that he had an extraordinary gift for making others feel naturally and completely at ease. This was all the more remarkable seeing that he was generally recognised as being well above average intellectually." Another peer describes von Stauffenberg as "a man of extraordinary personal charm." " (Link)

Who can tell how individuals will react in extraordinary circumstances, when bound by family ties and tradition. Stauffenberg, like many men and women on both sides of all wars, should never have been in the military. Since circumstances sent him in that direction, he did act, as far as he was able, in all the circumstances, in accord with his astrological blueprint.

Losing To The Light ?

Look Ma,
What's that star?
It's just a passing plane.
Grandma sighs so sadly,
The nights just aren't the same;
I'm sure they used to be darker;
Wonder filled the skies;
Where have all the stars gone?
Could it be my failing eyes?
Too many of our children
Haven't known a true dark night;
Will they ever see the beauty
We're losing to the light?

Poem: "Blinded by the Light" by Sarah Williams.

Around New Year (I think it was New Year's Eve or the day previous)we read that there'd be a good chance to watch the Moon and Venus close together, soon after sunset, with Jupiter and Mercury appearing shortly after. We drove westward out of town, so as not to "lose anything to the light" and parked in a deserted country road at around 5.30pm. We blinked into the rapidly setting Sun, then, as it grew dark the Moon appeared with Venus shining very brightly, a short distance below. Then, straining at first, we identified Mercury and Jupiter by following the line of the ecliptic. My husband tried to get some good shots of the lovely sight. It wasn't possible to get all in one frame, so he has here combined two photographs,
click on it to enlarge.




Earth's lights




And.....a golden oldie touching on the same theme: from 1969 "Light Flight" - by Pentangle

LINDA LOVELACE ~ A Star Is Porn

My last two posts have featured famous sexpots (Tom Jones and Tamara de Lempicka), they say things come in threes. Today would have been Linda Lovelace's birthday - my sexpot #3. Linda's claim to fame came from her performance in the 1970s pornographic movie "Deep Throat", a few other porn movies and her three autobiographical books.

Sun and Jupiter in Capricorn = sexpot? Unlikely - there's more to it!




Linda, real surname Boreman, was born on 10 January 1949 in Bronxdale, NY, at (according to Astrotheme) 6.23 am. Her father was a policeman, her mother reputedly strict, the family Roman Catholic. Linda attended Roman Catholic schools, and earned the nickname "Miss Holy Holy" - so apparently not a sexpot from an early age! However she was pregnant by age 20. Her mother had the child adopted much to Linda's dismay. She later married a violent a controlling husband who, it seems, led her to make her film debut. Wikipedia states that:

"Boreman was soon performing as Linda Lovelace in hardcore short movies. She starred in a 1971 bestiality film (titled Dogarama), and later denied appearing in the film until several of the original 8 mm "loops" proved otherwise.
In 1972, Boreman starred in Deep Throat, the most financially successful pornographic movie ever made."

She divorced her first husband, married again, had two children, and became a prominent member of the anti-porn movement. In 2002 she died in an accident, after losing control of her car.

"As the first woman to become famous purely for having sex on film, Linda Lovelace was at once a sexual fantasy for millions of men and a social pariah to millions of burgeoning feminists—until she joined their ranks with the publication of her third autobiography, Ordeal, in which she claimed she had been beaten and coerced into a life of pornography and prostitution." (Link)

What I'm looking for in her chart is the trigger for her pornography success, which was quite probably unsought for by her. I doubt it was her chosen profession, but she must have displayed some natural ability to achieve the success she did.

Sun and Jupiter in Capricorn lay in first house, with Mars and Mercury conjoined in Aquarius. While Capricorn isn't overtly sexy, it has a nose for business, and after her movie success Linda showed her business acumen by making sure she capitalized on her expeeriences by pedalling three biographies, two pro-porn, and one ("Ordeal") anti-porn.




Mercury and Mars in unconventional Aquarius loosened her strait-laced Catholic background, but cool Aquarius isn't famous for eroticism. There has to be more. Moon in Taurus - ruled by Venus - getting warmer. Venus in Sagittarius at 26 degrees, close to the Galactic Center, with Uranus in opposition to Venus from Gemini. Venus isn't usually thought to relate to pornography, it connects to art and beauty, but with unconventional Uranus opposing, I guess what passes for art and beauty here could be radically different!

Saturn in Virgo is quincunx (irritable aspect) Mars and Mercury in Aquarius - putting something of a damper on her unconventional, though reportedly forced, lifestyle, so much so that once freed from her controlling husband she did a complete about-turn as regards pornography. This reflects Saturn in Virgo coming into his own!

Uranus at 27.40 Gemini is is conjunct two Fixed Stars with unfortunate reputations:

Polaris *
The Pole Star Sickness, trouble, loss, affliction, spiritual powers 28° Gemini 34 Unfortunate Saturn/ Venus
Betelgeuse *
Orion's Right Shoulder Calamities, danger, violence 28° Gemini 45 Unfortunate Mars/ Mercury. (Link)

Millions of people were been born during the time Uranus conjoined these two stars, but not all would have the opposition to Venus and the Galactic Center which appears in Linda's chart. Her life, as recounted, contained violence, trouble and affliction, and, as we know, her relatively short life ended with a calamity.

Arty-Farty Friday ~ Tamara de Lempicka

Tamara de Lempicka was an artist and celebrity of the Art Deco era, the 1920s and 30s, well-known for her wild and decadent lifestyle. Reviewing a biography of Lempicka by Laura Claridge "A Life of Deco and Decadence" writer Glyn Vincent reveals that

"In the Paris salon of the poet Natalie Barney, she sniffed cocaine and drank sloe gin fizzes laced with hashish among the likes of Andre Gide. On the banks of the Seine, she picked up sailors and female prostitutes.
After her nocturnal debauches, she painted until dawn. Her life style (and her "affair" with the Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio) sent her first husband, Tadeusz Lempicki, packing into the arms of a plump heiress."
And

"Lempicka's success allowed her to mingle with avant-gardists like Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali and Filippo Marinetti, but she remained disengaged from the progressive, leftist artistic climate of her time. Aloof and wild, she was fundamentally anti-intellectual. At home, too, she remained at sea. An absent wife, she used her artistic life to excuse her infidelities. A rigid perfectionist, she abused her daughter, Kizette.
After her first marriage fell apart she suffered from
severe bouts of depression that were to plague her for the rest of her life."

She is quoted as saying: "I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don't apply to those who live on the fringe."


Tamara de Lempicka was born into a wealthy Polish family, married a Russian lawyer after moving to live with an aunt in Russia. The couple fled from the Bolsheviks to Paris where her reputation as a sought-after portrait painter was established.
She had beauty and poise, described as rather aloof and Garbo-esque, but gathered a colorful reputation on the French social scene after several love affairs - with both sexes. When World War 2 seemed inevitable she moved to the USA with her second husband, a wealthy baron. Her popularity declined slowly after the war, before enjoying a renaissance in the 1970s.


As an artist Lempicka flirted with cubism and eventually settled on her own version of it, which some sources have called "soft cubism". She was, in the main, a
portrait painter, to the rich and famous. Her highly stylized portraits are immediately recognisable as hers - though whether they resemble the sitters, I can't say.



Astrology here is tricky, for it's said that the lady frequently lied about her age as well as her place of birth, for reasons of vanity or safety, perhaps both at different times. She was born in either Warsaw or Moscow on 16 May (the day and month seem fixed) in either 1898 (as she preferred it known) or 1896 or even 1895. I'll take Warsaw as her place of birth, as her parents were from well to do Polish families. She went to live with her aunt in Russia sometime in late childhood.

Natal Sun was at 25 degrees of Taurus whatever the year of birth, so is conjunct Fixed Star Algol, the star with the most malefic reputation of all. When researching for a piece about Algol I found that modern astrologers have sought to attach a less drastic meaning to this Fixed Star. Some connect it to energies of "the feminine" (presumably a link to Medusa's powers), others prefer a much diluted version of the traditional interpretation. The latter group surmises that anyone with Algol conjunct natal Sun or other personal planet is likely to be intense, perhaps prone to violence if provoked, and passionate in all enterprises (similar to Scorpio traits).
(See my post here) .

Pluto and Neptune remained in Gemini in 1895 to 1898, but the personal planet close to them in Lempicka's chart changes : Mercury in 1895 or 1896 ; Venus, between the two outer planets in 1898. That's not sufficient to be able to pinpoint which year is most likely her true birth year.

In the 1895 chart there's a Cancer stellium including Venus/Jupiter/Mars which doesn't fit her personality as described in her biography. She seems to have been a less than Cancerian motherly mother, and a less than sensitive character all round, with no hint of Cancerian shyness. The 1896 chart though has Moon in Cancer, so the sign is difficult to discount. Perhaps her reputation for aloofness links to Cancer.

In the 1896 chart Venus was in Taurus, with the Sun, Taurus is ruled by Venus planet of the arts, which is appropriate for her. The 1898 chart is reasonable too, but if she was inclined to lie about her age, as is suggested, then the 1896 would be the better bet.

It's a mystery, and a pity that her birth data is so unclear. She'd have been a fascinating character to investigate. The only definite factor I can pull out of what's available is the Sun/Algol conjunction, which is interesting in itself.

Self-portrait



More detail on Tamara de Limpicka at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamara_de_Lempicka
http://www.answers.com/topic/tamara-de-lempicka
http://www.paloma.ca/gallery.html

TOM JONES

An article by Tony Sachs at Huffington Post a couple of weeks ago jogged my thoughts about Sir Tom, so I took a look at his chart. He's of my generation, and still going strong - I'm a little curious.

What first comes to mind about Tom Jones is that he has always had the reputation of being "Sexy" with a capital S. So much so that gals in his audiences have been inspired to throw items of underwear at him during his performances on stage. He must be transmitting on a wavelength I'm not tuned in to, because I've never found him at all sexy. I do appreciate his powerful voice, and if he sings a good song, I enjoy it, and can partially appreciate what Tony Sachs has to say in his article, linked above.

Tom is one of an army of Welsh singers. As mentioned when writing about Duffy a while ago, almost everyone born in Wales can sing. It's in their DNA. Coal miners, who at one time made up a large proportion of Wales' population, would form themselves into male voice choirs, whose voices echoed around the Welsh hills and mountains - probably still do to this day, even after most mines have long been closed down. Tom avoided having to "go down the mines" to make a living. A bout of tuberculosis left him with a weakness in his lungs, so a life among the coal dust was out of the question. This could be said to have been his saving grace. Tom Jones might otherwise have been just one more powerful voice in a Welsh choir.

Tom Jones was born on 7 June 1940 in Pontypridd, Wales, at, according to Astrotheme, 12.10 am.



Sun and Moon were in sociable Airy Gemini, if time of birth is near enough accurate. Mercury, Mars and Venus were in sensitive home-loving Cancer. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus in steadfast Taurus, ruled by Venus planet of music - a link to his natural vocal talent. Neptune in Virgo is in Earthy trine with Uranus - it's the same for many War Babies -but he lacks the third aspect to make up a Grand Trine in Earth which many of his contemporaries have. Instead he has extra Earth coming from his Capricorn ascendant. Pluto in the earliest degrees of Leo provides the only Fire in his chart - a little surprising, and could this be why I personally don't "get" his sexiness. I like a bit more Fire.

Without knowing to whom this chart belonged I'd have said it's "a fairly comfortable chart", its owner is grounded, friendly, but has not particularly wide-ranging interests - focused, sensible yet sensitive. I wouldn't have immediately tagged it as the chart of a person seen as a sexpot.
That sexy reputation of his probably links to Mars and Venus closely conjoined at 13 Cancer, but in 6th house of service - ahem!! Oh, and if the time of birth is accurate, Pluto, known for its erotic connections, lies on the descendant, at one of the strongest positions in the chart, that'll be the culprit! Most planets are in the western area of the chart connected to relationships rather than self. His sociable and communicative Gemini Sun and Moon also reflect an innate ability to relate - which he does, very obviously and easily, from the stage. His Sun is in 4th house of home, but his Moon in 5th house of creativity and pleasures - symbolic of the seeming anomaly between his philanderings which always, eventually, end in his return home.

Tom has a home in Los Angeles, it's interesting that when his chart is appropriately relocated Pluto in Leo moves to midheaven, putting his sexyness on the public stage.

In an article in the UK's Daily Mail in November this year the author remarks in a couple of places on Tom's ability to recall exact dates of events -

"Jones has an incredible memory for dates. 'I recorded It's Not Unusual on November 11 1964, it came out on January 22, 1965, and it was number one by March 1, which was St David's Day. Tremendous!"

This is a Cancerian trait, an exceptionally retentive memory is often found in those with the sign emphasised natally.

His private-life philanderings are the stuff of legend, yet he has remained married to Linda, his wife for over 50 years - Taurean staying power and loyalty, Cancerian attachment to family. Tom's only son, Mark, has helped in his father's career, instrumental in keeping him up to date and in the public eye.

Tom's career spans four decades. He's still going strong, singing with the same power and looking not too bad for his age. He admits to some help on this front, a tuck here, a nick there, some color and a goatee beard all aid his attachment to a youthful appearance. It's said that Pluto in Leo people will not give up their youth easily - here's an example !

A few years ago Sir Tom's fortune was said to be in the region of 175 million pounds - in dollars nowadays, $250 million-ish. A story comes to mind here. My late partner had a good friend, a Welshman, who had been a national boxing champion in Britain, and later at the start of Tom's career, did a short stint as his bodyguard. My partner met Tom Jones casually on a couple of occasions, and once remarked on a huge diamond ring Tom wore. "That's my pension!" he responded. Now, he'll certainly not need to sell that ring to supplement his pension!

The video, from his appearance on Canadian Idol, includes a few words from him, a rapid rundown of his career and brief performances of an old song ("It's Not Unusual) and a new one, which I reckon is one of his best ever, "If Ever He Should Leave You".