Thursday, June 21, 2012

Astrologers with Natal Sun in Cancer

Sun is now travelling through zodiac sign Cancer. I think I've exhausted what there is to say about the attributes of Cancer, the sign; relevant posts from past years can be accessed easily by clicking on "Cancer" in the Label Cloud in the sidebar at right.

This year I'm highlighting well-known astrologers born with Sun in the sign-of-the-month. Wikipedia's list (my source) threw up only three astrologers recognisable to me:

John Dee 13 July (23 July New Style) 1527

Michael Erlewine 18 July 1941

Rob Brezsny June 23 (year of birth not revealed by the astrologer).

Then, while searching for something elsewhere I accidentally came across one more:
Shelley Von Strunckel 15 July 1946.



In John Dee's day astrology was held in much higher esteem than it is in today's world. There could be much to say about Dee. I've mentioned him before in a post about "Magick".

For now, Astrodatabank's nutshell description will suffice, along with a couple of links to websites with more detail.
"British astrologer and a double-agent for Queen Elizabeth I to thwart Spain; signing his messages "007"! Gifted as a child, he was educated in math, philosophy and the occult, the author of two books before he was 21. Dee studied astrology with Cardan from 1552, gaining fame as a lecturer. Married three times, he produced eight kids. Dee died in 1608, Mortlake, England."
More athttp://www.johndee.org/DEE.html
and
Britannica.com



Dr. John Dee had 5 planets in Water signs: Sun, Mercury, Jupiter (Cancer), Mars (Scorpio), and Neptune (Pisces).
2 in Air signs: Moon (Aquarius) and Uranus (Gemini). My theory that astrologers fare best when they have Air (mental acuity) and Water (sensitivity) predominant in their natal charts holds good for Dr. Dee.
Mars and Neptune are in the signs of their rulership too, giving them more relevance.




Michael Erlewine:
Extract from Astrology.com
Entrepreneur Michael Erlewine, an internationally-known astrologer, has studied and practiced astrology for over 40 years, as an author, teacher, lecturer, personal consultant, programmer, and conference producer. Erlewine pioneered computerized astrology, the first astrologer to program astrology on microcomputers and make those programs available to his fellow astrologers. This was in 1977. He founded the first astrology software company, Matrix Software, in 1978, and that company, along with Microsoft, are the two oldest software companies still on the Internet.

Michael, joined by his astrologer-brother Stephen Erlewine, went on to revolutionize astrology by producing microcomputer software for the first written astrological reports, first research system, first high-resolution chart wheels, geographic and star maps, and on and on. Erlewine has a least two other careers. In the 1960s, he was a musician. He hitchhiked with Bob Dylan, was the lead singer for the Prime Movers Blues Band (Iggy Pop was his drummer), and opened for bands like Cream at the Fillmore in San Francisco, during the Summer of Love. An expert in blues music, Erlewine interviewed and documented dozens of blues musicians.
Astrodatabank

His natal chart is at Astrodatabank

Watery input from Sun and Mercury in Cancer. Air from Jupiter in Gemini. So, Michael Erlewine does have planets in Water and Air in his chart, but in his case this may not be not the over-riding factor. What stands out in his chart is a stellium (tight cluster) of three planets: Moon, Saturn, Uranus in Earthy Taurus, all harmoniously linking by trine aspect to Neptune in Virgo. It's as though Neptune (creativity) is being harnessed to Moon (inner self), Saturn (business, career) and Uranus(technology, the avant garde) to produce exactly what Mr Erlewine turned out to be, as described above, a visionary entrepreneur with talent for both astrology and business.




Rob Brezsny is one of the growing band of astrologers sensitive about publishing full birth data - and who could blame him? Without more information all we can be sure of is that he has natal Sun in early Cancer. Mercury and/or Venus in nextdoor Gemini would fit him well, and provide some Air to support my theory. Mercury can be found only in the same sign as the Sun or in one of the adjacent signs (in this case Gemini or Leo).

Mr Brezsny is another multi-talented astrologer - also writer, poet, and musician. His weekly horoscope column and website Free Will Astrology has been published for almost 30 years in numerous magazines and periodicals, as well as latterly on-line. His style is quite different from most other Sun sign writers, which is what first attracted me to his work . I remember writing a review about Mr Brezsny's Free Will Astrology (one of the only two Sun sign sites I read) for a website called Sign Show - I checked - it's still around!




Shelley Von Strunckel
from Astrodatabank
"American-British astrologer who writes for the British papers, a column and Sunday supplements. After the death of Patric Walker, she took over some of his columns, most notably in the London Evening Standard. She also appears in TV interviews.

Von Strunckel first went to England in 1985. Very attractive, she married an English barrister in 1990. They are London residents but she keeps an apartment in New York City and travels between the two cities often."

Ms Von Strunckel has Sun and Saturn in Water (Cancer), Moon (Aquarius)Jupiter and Neptune (Libra) and Uranus (Gemini) in Air signs - she's a good example of Water and Air predominant in an astrologer's chart!

2 comments:

DC said...

WOW..that Brezny is certainly an interesting guy...and thanks so much for introducing me to the world of Zippies and pronoia via this post!!...I'd not heard of this sub-culture before!

Twilight said...

DC~~ Yes - witn Mr Brezsny it's "now for something completely different". :-)