Temper and Anger

"We boil at different degrees", a quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Respected British astrologer C.E.O. Carter, wrote an "Encyclopaedia of Psychological Astrology" (reprinted between 1924 and 1976) in which he lists, in alphabetical order, psychological traits, spanning "Ability" to "Youthfulness", and describes astrological configurations which he had found often present in people who exhibited certain traits. Under the heading Temper Mr Carter, investigating boiling points, wrote:


"Temper must be judged from the rising sign, Mercury, and the general appearance of the horoscope. The usual characteristics of the signs when rising are:

Aries (rising) ....... Easily angered and then often go to great lengths.

Taurus (rising).......Not readily moved, but may when aroused become furious.

Gemini (rising)...Not bad tempered, but can be "waspish" and malicious.

Cancer (rising)...Not easily angered, though soon hurt. Timid.

Leo (rising)......Often hot tempered, though affectionate.

Virgo (rising)....Temper is usually controlled and seldom violent. Often uses "the retort courteous". Tends to shun conditions that are liable to upset it.

Libra (rising)....Seldom the first to quarrel. Easily appeased.

Scorpio (rising)....Hot-tempered, especially when its affections are touched. Implacable and rarely forgets.

Sagittarius (rising)...Good tempered.

Capricorn (rising)....The temper is generally cold, and the tongue controlled.

Aquarius (rising)...Courteous.

Pisces(rising)...Good tempered.

(Note from me: to calculate rising sign it's necessary to know one's exact time of birth)

In cardinal signs the temper is usually sharp; in mutable nagging, and in fixed, sudden and violent. The above remarks apply, of course, to ordinary everyday persons. Mercury and to a somewhat less extent the Lights or ascendant afflicted by malefics usually corrupts the temper. Fiery signs are usually the most explosive. Mars afflicted by Uranus in Fire generally causes bad temper, and Mars and Saturn are also often evil. On the other hand, Venus conjunct Mercury, the Lights or ascendant will usually cause the moods to be harmonious and equable. Jupiter in similar circumstances, inclines to good spirits and bodily health.

It must not be forgotten how often a bad temper is really the direct result of some functional disorder, such as liver trouble or nervous derangement.

Often the signs of good and bad temper are contradictory and in such cases a person's disposition will vary."

Was C.E.O. Carter correct? I have Cancer rising, natally. That description is accurate for me, or was. I'm no longer as timid. Obtuse with a tendency to come over all cold, determined and menacing when angered would be a better description these days. Husband has Leo rising. He can flare up, usually temper comes and goes quickly. He also has Mercury conjunct Saturn, and a tendency to use sarcasm as a defence, rather than frequent hot temper.

The term "losing temper" has a rather frivolous, selfish, superficial feel to it, and usually indicates a short-term condition, whereas seriously displaying anger on a deeper level could, in some cases, be worthy of more respect.

Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.
(Lyman Abbott)

Bill Hicks - anger with humour

A few words about the late Bill Hicks will fit in well this week. I must be under the influence of the current Mars/Jupiter opposition! I've blogged about angry writers, the Johns Steinbeck and Osborne (here), about how anger is integral in human nature (here), another Aries/Saggittarius character, Van Gogh, yesterday, and now I'm looking at a chart with Sun plus 3 planets in Sagittarius closely conjunct Mars, the chart of a wonderful, angry comedian. None of this was planned, by the way. I'm just "doin' what comes naturally"!



(12 noon chart - no birth time available).


When I first came to the USA I'd never heard of Bill Hicks, in spite of the fact that he had made some very successful appearances in the UK . Surprisingly, HeWhoKnows hadn't heard of him either. So when we rented a DVD of his, out of curiosity, soon after I arrived in the US, we were impressed - well HWK was impressed, I was well and truly hooked. We were puzzled that at the end of the DVD there was an implication that Bill Hicks was no longer with us. Searches on the net informed me that he had died in 1994, aged only 32, of pancreatic cancer. What a tragedy!

Just this week we listened on-line to an excellent BBC programme about Bill's life.(HERE). I often think about him, his views and his jokes. What would he be saying about the current situation in the USA and the world ? The air would be well and truly blue!

"Bill was part social critic, part comedian, part preacher. As he himself said, he was Chomsky with dick jokes. Hicks stripped away the lies and deceit our governments have woven for us, laying bare grim truths, laced with his biting, trademark wit. Bill's humour though sometimes harsh, was not intended to upset, more to bring people together: "The best kind of comedy to me is when you make people laugh at things they've never laughed at, and also take a light into the darkened corners of people's minds, exposing them to the light. I thought the whole point of it was to make you feel un-alone." "http://sazmatazz.users.btopenworld.com/

Bill Hicks was born 16 December 1961, Valdosta, Georgia, USA.

Four personal planets in Sagittarius, three of them very closely conjoined. Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius in Aquarius (within minutes of my own natal Sun, by the way). You could hardly concoct a better astrological line-up to match the description above ! Add Saturn, at home in critical Capricorn and you have "the full set"!

The chart shape is "funnel" or "bucket", with the spout or handle at Moon in Aries - all that Sagittarian and Aquarian energy channelled through an impatient restless, often aggressive, Moon in Fire.

When Bill died on 26 February 1994 Uranus and Neptune at 24 and 22 Capricorn lay just 3 degrees from his natal Saturn. Those outer planets would have been hovering there throughout the time between diagnosis of terminal cancer and his death.

Another side of Bill:

The Bill Hicks Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned and injured wildlife, predominantly in the Austin hill country area -- an area that Bill loved. Many people think of Bill as a bitter cynic, but nothing could be further from the truth. Bill loved wildlife and was a strong advocate of fighting the overpopulation crises that threatens all of our existence.
The Bill Hicks Foundation for Wildlife Rehabilitation gives us a way to make a difference, in a place that Bill loved, and we can still belong to the "People Who Hate People Party." http://www.billhicks.org/billandanimals.html

There are several video clips from his performances on YouTube. Many are not for the delicate of ear or faint of heart! Here's a link to one that I especially enjoyed - I think it's from one of his UK performances back in the early 1990s. The more things change, the more they remain the same! Bill Hicks

Some quotes from the man himself:

"So there, we have figured it out, go back to bed America, your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed America, your government is in control again. Here, here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed America, here's American Gladiators. Here's 56 channels of it. Watch these pituitary retards bang their fuckin skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go America, you are free... to do as we tell you. You are free, to do as we tell you."

.........................

And my favourite:

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride..." And we... kill those people.

"We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real. Just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great."

Bill Hicks December 16, 1961 -- February 26, 1994.

I say again - what a tragedy!

Angry Writers

I'm feeling pretty angry these days, and from articles and comments regularly appearing in the (liberal) press, so too are many others. Anger is always with us, I guess. After watching "The Grapes of Wrath" on DVD recently, and reading a little about John Steinbeck's other novels, I thought, "Now here's a REALLY angry author". Then I recalled English writer, John Osborne, playwright and screenwriter, known in the 1950s as the original "angry young man".

He is best known for writing the play "Look Back in Anger" which captured the angry and rebellious nature of the postwar generation in the UK, who were unhappy with things as they were in the decades following World War II. John Osborne was a constant critic of the establishment in Britain, the monarchy, the pretentions and affectations which came with the class system.

I'm not altogether sure that John Osborne "walked the talk", and he does strike me as being very self-centered, whereas John Steinbeck's focus was always outward, towards the poor and needy.

Steinbeck was very, very angry. He wrote about the apalling conditions under which many ordinary folk in the USA had to struggle to live, especially during the time of the dust bowl in Oklahoma, during the Great Depression, and of the stoic determination of those good people. What they faced in those days make our concerns seem petty by comparison.

I wondered if I'd find any common thread in the natal charts of these two writers whose anger shone through their work.

John Steinbeck born February 27 1902, Salinas, California, 3pm.




John Osborne born Dec. 12 1929, London. No time known.




There are some similarities, the most significant is that Osborne's natal Sun lies just 3 degrees from angry Mars, in Sagittarius. Steinbeck had natal Sun within 6 degrees of Mars, in Pisces.(Both Sagittarius and Pisces were traditionally ruled by Jupiter)

Osborne had Mercury(the writers' planet) conjunct hard-headed, critical Saturn (at very end of Sagittarius and 1st degree of Capricorn(Saturn's home sign). Steinbeck had Mercury in humane and idealistic Aquarius, semi-sextile Saturn in Capricorn.

Those links between Sun/Mars and Mercury/Saturn are what I was hoping to find. There are some other similarities. Osborne's Sun is at 20* Sagittarius, and Steinbeck's Uranus is in exactly the same degree of that sign. (My own natal Venus is there too -and I'm writing about them both!)

Both men had Uranus (revolutionary, rebellious) trine Venus (in Fire, or Fire/Air)

The nodes of the Moon in both charts are Taurus/Scorpio, 7* for Steinbeck, 9* for Osborne, but they are reversed, Steinbeck's North node is in Scorpio, Osborne's in Taurus. I'm not sure whether this has any relevance or not. Steinbeck's natal Moon lay very close to his Scorpio North node, which probably served to emphasise the passion he felt for his concerns. Without Osborne's time of birth it's not possible to say how close his natal Moon was to Taurus North node, a birthtime of 9pm or later would put them quite close though.

...........................................

(Wonderful, passionate writing from from Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath")

"Then from the tents, from the crowded barns, groups of sodden men went out, their clothes slopping rags, their shoes muddy pulp. They splashed out through the water, to the towns, to the country stores, to the relief offices, to beg for food, to cringe and beg for food, to beg for relief, to try to steal, to lie. And under the begging, and under the cringing, a hopeless anger began to smolder. And in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger, and anger at the hungry people changed to fear of them. Then sheriffs swore in deputies in droves, and orders were rushed for rifles, for tear gas, for ammunition. Then the hungry men crowded the alleys behind the stores to beg for bread, to beg for rotting vegetables, to steal when they could."

From a review HERE"People discuss the impact this play had to this day. Books have been written about it. At the time, in the 50s in England, there were a group of writers who were referred to (and perhaps they referred to themselves as such) as 'angry young men'. They took a rebellious stance towards society, they were critical towards handed-down mores and beliefs ... not just critical. They raged against them. Not only did these writers rage against society - they raged against themselves, their disappointments in their own achievements, in who they were, in how they turned out. The play Look Back in Anger became a lightning rod for that generation."

There are some YouTube presentations about both authors. Here are links to a couple:

Grapes of Wrath

John Osborne