Wilson & McCartney - Similar Yet Different - Why?

Twenty years or so of the internet and access to astrology software means that there's not a lot that hasn't already been written about just about any facet of astrology. Most well-known individuals' natal charts have been dissected over and over again. It's not easy to be "fresh".

I encountered this problem again when discovering, for the first time, that two modern musical geniuses, Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson were born just 2 days apart.

We watched a DVD of the recent movie Love and Mercy, about The Beach Boys, and Brian Wilson in particular. The movie's focus is on Brian Wilson's mental and emotional states. Interesting enough to set me seeking his natal chart (it's available at astro.com). A note there states: Born 2 days after Paul McCartney.

Oh, thought I, comparison of those charts could make an interesting post, especially as Brian Wilson has suffered so severely mentally yet Paul McCartney seems like the most level-headed person in pop music. I find, of course, that such a comparison has been done already, by Victor Kahn:

Curious Events: The Astrology of Rock Music - The strange coincidences between The Beach Boys & The Beatles.

A dual natal chart is included there. It's a good article, but the author's astrological conclusion doesn't completely satisfy me.

Yes, Brian Wilson's Virgo Moon has a lot to answer for, regarding his self critical nature and constant striving after perfection, but that's not enough to convince me - there has to be more. The most glaringly obvious factor is that the two guys were born some 5000 miles apart, and almost certainly have different rising signs.

Astro.com gives an AA rating (= accurate) to their time of birth for Brian Wilson, putting it at 3.45 AM. Taurus is rising, ascendant angle at 27 degrees of that sign. Bells ring in my astro-head. The dreaded "demon" star, Algol! In 1942 Algol was less than 2 degrees from Brian Wilson's ascendant angle. Enough said! Paul McCartney's exact time of birth isn't known, but it's highly unlikely that he also had Taurus 27 on his ascendant angle.

Music Monday ~ Briefly Mulling over McCartney

It'll be Paul McCartney's birthday this week - he was born on 18 June 1942 in Liverpool, UK. His natal chart is available at astro.com.

Apart from his massive contribution to the music of The Beatles, I've always loved a song from 1977 he recorded with his "other" band, Wings: Mull of Kintyre. The song is a tribute to a location in Scotland where McCartney has owned a farm since 1966. The song was a hit in the UK and in several other countries, but excluding the USA for some reason. It was written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine. The music video below was filmed on location at McCartney's farm on the Kintyre Peninsula and was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The film features Wings members Linda McCartney and Denny Laine as well as the Campbeltown Pipe Band.




Paul became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2010, Steven Tyler paid tribute with a super performance of some of Paul's songs:




A couple of archived posts feature Paul McCartney himself (rather than his work with The Beatles):

Divorce of the Week
When Jane Told Paul

When Jane told Paul (McCartney)

Here's a fairly inconsequential trifle I stumbled across at The Beatles Bible website - "not quite as popular as Jesus". It is noted that on this day 20 July, 42 years ago in 1968, Jane Asher announced to Britain, on BBC TV that her engagement to Paul McCartney was over.




Maybe astrology will show itself here.

From The Beatles Bible website:

8.00pm, Saturday 20 July 1968

In an appearance on the BBC Television show Dee Time, Jane Asher told host Simon Dee that her engagement to Paul McCartney had been called off.
I haven't broken it off, but it is broken off, finished.
I know it sounds corny, but we still see each other and love each other, but it hasn't worked out. Perhaps we'll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we're about 70.
Jane Asher
Dee Time

I pulled up a chart for 8pm on 20 July 1968, London (centre chart) compared it with Jane Asher's natal chart (outer circle) with detail from Astrodatabank. Ah yes! Jane was inwardly feeling "mad as hell" as transiting Mars (anger) crossed close to her natal Mars and Saturn, and transiting Saturn (limitation) was heading towards her natal Venus (love).





More from Beatles Bible: Paul's reaction -

I always feel very wary including Jane in The Beatles; history. She's never gone into print about our relationship, whilst everyone on earth has sold their story. So I'd feel weird being the one to kiss and tell.

We had a good relationship. Even with touring there were enough occasions to keep a reasonable relationship going. To tell the truth, the women at that time got sidelined. Now it would be seen as very chauvinist of us. Then it was like: 'We are four miners who go down the pit. You don't need women down the pit, do you? We won't have women down the pit.' A lot of what we, The Beatles, did was very much in an enclosed scene. Other people found it difficult - even John's wife, Cynthia, found it very difficult - to penetrate the screen that we had around us. As a kind of safety barrier we had a lot of 'in' jokes, little signs, references to music; we had a common bond in that and it was very difficult for any 'outsider' to penetrate. That possibly wasn't good for relationships back then.
Paul McCartney
Anthology

McCartney and Asher had been together for five years, since meeting at the Royal Albert Hall in 1963. However, McCartney had a string of other girls, mainly while The Beatles were touring - and in 1968 began an affair with an American woman, Francie Schwartz. Asher arrived unexpectedly at McCartney's home in Cavendish Avenue, London, where she found him in bed with Schwartz. She walked out and sent her mother to collect her belongings, signalling an end to the relationship.

I think inevitably when I moved to Cavendish Avenue, I realised that she and I weren't really going to be the thing we'd always thought we might be. Once or twice we talked about getting married, and plans were afoot but I don't know, something really made me nervous about the whole thing.............

Now well known as an author, Jane Asher has written three best-selling novels: The Longing, The Question and Losing It. She has also had more than a dozen lifestyle, costuming, and cake decorating books published. Asher runs a company making party cakes and sugar crafts for special occasions, and still acts on television and in the theatre. More at Wikipedia.

Stars of the Debate & Divorce of the Week.

Two bandwagons continued their roll this week - the US presidential debates and the Mills-McCartney divorce. Good fodder for media and blogs - what would we do without this mayhem?

We watched the Democratic candidates' debate on TV, Tuesday evening, but came away with little new information. It seems to me that the candidates act like pre-programmed automatons, whatever question they are asked, their program seeks out the most appropriate response, often barely compatible with the question.



After a while I started to concentrate on the candidates' astrology (or what I could remember of it).

Joe Biden showed a nice bit of Scorpio punk and determination, I thought. To be honest, of the 7 individuals, I felt that he appeared the most presidential. A new insight for me!

Hillary Clinton was her usual hard-faced self - another Scorpio Sun, with a little too much of the scorpion and not enough of the eagle for my taste.

John Edwards and his hairdo were as smiley and do-goody as ever - typical Gemini Sun, trying to please everyone. He did take a pot-shot or two at his nearest rivals, it was nice to see the Goody-two Shoes image slipping for once.

Chris Dodd, another Gemini Sun, played his experience card once again (it's getting a little worn now). He plays hard on the fact that he has experience of "bringing people together" - Geminis are good at that part....but what then?

Bill Richardson, our 3rd Scorpio Sun option also keeps pushing his past negotiating experience in foreign parts. I wonder if he's angling for a position as the new president's Secretary of State ?

Barack Obama, the only Leo King on the platform, didn't look very regal on Tuesday evening. He also trotted out many well-worn phrases with hardly a new thought amongst them.

Dennis Kucinich, a personal favourite, the candidate without a snowball's chance, but with plenty of balls - the one who should be way out in the lead, was given but a fraction of speaking time compared with the rest of 'em. He did get the only applause of the evening though. He has Sun in Libra, with three personal planets in Scorpio. In a thinly disguised attempt to discredit Kucinich, the presenter saw fit to ask him a question in connection with Shirley MacLaine's book, in which she mentioned that Dennis once saw a UFO. Really important presidential stuff, this! Yawn. (See HERE) "NBC anchors Brian Williams and Tim Russert meticulously avoided following up on Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s three references to impeachment but somehow found time to grill the contenders on UFOs and what costume Barack Obama would be wearing on Halloween." Dennis handled the silliness with Libran grace, dignity and humor, I'm happy to say (but I'd bet that his well-hidden Scorpio bits were very annoyed!)

PS - also this (from the article by John Nichols, linked above):

"Frustrated by the refusal of Democratic leaders to set up a process for holding hearings on his proposal(to impeach Dick Cheney), Kucinich will use an arcane House rule allowing for the prodding of the process with privileged resolutions to try and force consideration. Once introduced, a privileged resolution must be addressed within two legislative days.

Kucinich is expected to offer his privileged resolution on Tuesday. He expects to continue pushing it until the House acts. That action is likely to be a successful move by Democratic leaders to table the measure. Such a vote could be instructive, however, in that it would provide a rare measure of the willingness of at least some House members to respond to the popular will — which is that Dick Cheney be held to account."


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So, on to Mills v. McCartney. I'm not leaping onto the critical bandwagon - either way. And I'm not hauling out their natal charts either - it's been done before by competent astrologers. What I've done, is what I always do when I'm considering a question of relationships, I turn to Robert Camp's "Love Cards" book. Why? Because I've found that it works. It has connections with astrology, so why wouldn't it?


Their birthdays are 18 June (Paul) and 12 January (Heather). That, amazingly, is all the information we need to consult "Love Cards". Paul's birth card is Queen of Clubs ("The Mother of Intuition Card"). I've known one of these - my late partner. Lovely, warm and loving, intense with, when provoked, a fiery temper and very stubborn side. Heather's card is 2 of Spades( "The Friendship Card"). I don't recall ever meeting one of those.

Moving on to the compatibility rating for these two: the primary connection between them is coded CLR/CLF - which, being translated means -

From Heather's point of view, Paul is her "Lifetime Cosmic Lesson" - brief excerpts from "Love Cards":

"This person plays the role of 'teacher' for you in some fashion in your life.....a reminder of some great lesson that you must learn regarding your role here on the planet. For this reason you may not always appreciate their presence in your life. They may remind you of some of your own shortcomings, or play the role of a critic in some manner. .....associated with Saturn, but Saturn taken to a higher octave....these relationships can be difficult and heavy feeling."

For Paul it's the reverse of the above - he is the "teacher". "Even if you don't say anything, your presence in their life is teaching them invaluable lessons that they may someday express gratitude for. In the meantime there may be personality conflicts as these lessons are learned."

I'll refrain from giving my own opinion as to what lesson is being learned by this paticular "2 of Spades" !

The secondary connection is via Uranus. Paul is Uranus to Heather in the Life Spread. He wants complete freedom to be himself....she may experience this as his being unpredictable or unreliable.....he may scare her or leave her uncertain about his affections at times. The same influence could make them the best of friends, if freedom is allowed.

The primary and secondary connections are said to be the most significant, but there are others too. The overall rating for compatibility is better from him to her than from her to him. Him to her is a 3 (quite good), her to him is minus 1. Not an impossible match by any means, but a more challenging one for her.

(Introductory graphic by G.Grow)