Gary Gilmore & Barbara Amiel, Baroness Black of Crossharbour : Whodathunkit?

What to write about... what to write about? Well...tomorrow, 17 January, in 1977 was the day on which murderer Gary Gilmore was executed.

U.S. 1977 U.S.A. Gary Gilmore 17th January, 1977 : Gary Gilmore, convicted in the double murder of an elderly couple, is shot to death by a firing squad in Utah. (See here)

Wikipedia

Gilmore was the first person in the United States executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, his story had immense cultural resonance at the time. It continues to influence the works of writers, artists and advertisers in the early 21st century.

Hat-tip Daily Mail

Could I find an angle that nobody else has approached on this?

I've mentioned the TV drama The Executioner's Song, based on Gilmore's story, in a post comparing Tommy Lee Jones (who played the part of Gilmore) and Oliver Stone (who wasn't involved)- that post is HERE.

In Rachel Monroe's interesting article about Norman Mailer's book upon which the TV drama was based she mentions that during her researches she discovered that "in folder 192.6 of the Mailer archive, I found something unexpected: A 20+ page horoscope analysis of Gilmore from astrologer/numerologist Daniel Wexler, along with Wexler's bill for $250. (That's nearly $1000 in 2015 dollars; for comparison purposes...)." Astrologers have already referenced Ms Monroe's article and, unsurprisingly, offered their own interpretations of Gilmore's natal chart.

From Rachel Monroe's article:

Gary grew up to be a leather jacketed reform school kid with a disdain for authority and a strong anti-authoritarian streak. He chugged cough syrup and took hot-wired 57 Chevys for joyrides, abandoning them when they ran out of gas. He robbed pawnshops, grocery stores, and his friends' houses. He went to prison for the first time at age 16, and didn't spend more than two years free for the rest of his life. In prison, he was trouble, too. He spat on guards and flung his food on the floor when it wasn't to his taste. He displayed a visceral, undiscriminating hatred for anyone in uniform.

Despite his rage and selfishness, though, there was something about Gary that made people want to give him another chance. The flip side of his cruelty was his sensitivity; he was a man who'd been deeply wounded by the world, and it showed. Despite his long history of criminal behavior, Gary could seem almost innocent at times. He was a talented artist, and he produced dozens of sketches of his favorite subject: sad-eyed children, "round faces with a bewildered, inviolable innocence," Mikal Gilmore writes. But then again, he drew a lot of porno scenes, too.

Scratches head.

Glancing at Gilmore's natal chart (see below), it looks seriously uncomfortable. Look at those oppositions between Scorpio and Taurus, and the slightly listing Grand Square (the red lines). We know that Gilmore's youth and family background wasn't pleasant, that has to factor in.

Hmmm. Different angle?

Another person whose life story we know, who was born on the same date, same year as Gary Gilmore? Moon and rising sign would be different, but maybe a similarity of some kind would show through - not that I'd be expecting to find another murderer you understand - astrology ain't that good!

There is another person who shares Gilmore's date of birth and, importantly, whose life is documented online: Barbara Amiel. She was born across the Atlantic, in England. She's still around: "Barbara Joan Estelle Amiel, Baroness Black of Crossharbour (born 4 December 1940) is a British journalist, writer, and socialite. She is the wife of former media baron Conrad Black". Her marriage to Black was her fifth (some sources say 4th).

From a Guardian profile: She was the scourge of the left and the darling of the right - a powerful woman lusted after by powerful men - and she snared one of the most powerful when she married Conrad Black, the Canadian media tycoon and then owner of the Telegraph group, in July 1992.

Gilmore and Amiel - there could hardly be two more dissimilar people. He an impoverished youth, no stranger to violence and petty crime, family often "on the run" from the law; in adulthood he added the murder of two people to his resumé - and for no apparent reason. She from a disrupted family background, her father committed suicide in 1956. As life progressed she educated herself, used feminine beauty and seductive sexiness to drive her life in what she saw as better directions. She became a journalist. There were multiple marriages, her last to wealthy, powerful former media baron Conrad Black. In spite of her eventual obscene wealth, as described in newspaper and magazine articles, her life was not all plain sailing. Conrad Black was disgraced and jailed for several white collar crimes. Details at this NPR website. He served prison time: sentenced to six and a half years' imprisonment. In 2011, two of the charges were overturned on appeal and he was re-sentenced to 42 months in prison on one count of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He was released on 4 May 2012 (Wikipedia) Barbara Amiel, his wife, stood by him initially, but according to this 2004 piece from The Herald Scotland

"I HAVE an extravagance that knows no bounds." Journalist, author and society queen Barbara Amiel's words have returned to haunt her. Akin to Marie Antoinette's let them eat cake, they will go down in history as a memorable show of arrogance made by a powerful woman before her cut-glass world cracked around her.

To Amiel's horror, she and husband Conrad Black, former chairman of the Telegraph Group, are accused of using the New York-based publishing company Hollinger International, which he built from scratch, as a "piggy bank" to fund their lifestyles.

Such is Lady Black's upset over her fall from grace that she has abandoned Lord Black in the US and remains 3000 miles away in their palatial Kensington home with only two butlers, three maids, domestic staff, chef and chauffeur for company.

From the same piece:

Amiel took journalists from American Vogue through her London mansion and couldn't resist showing them her eye-popping collection of designer belongings. Furs, evening gowns, casuals, gloves, belts and shoes spilled out of two rooms and an area in her private gym.

One closet contained 12 Hermes crocodile bags, with a value of more than (pounds) 50,000 and an even more valuable collection of 40 Pellegrino jewel-handled evening bags. Other shelves groaned under the weight of more than 100 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes costing from (pounds) 250 to (pounds) 800 a pair. She was quoted as saying she thought nothing of spending (pounds) 35,000 on a cocktail dress and showed the Vogue team a necklace worth (pounds) 100,000.

And

Her [earlier] private life remained eventful. In her autobiography, Confessions, she admitted having been addicted to anti-depressants and painkillers. There was also a back-street abortion aged 24, which left her unable to have children. This fact has often been used by commentators to explain her need for material objects to fill her life.

 Conrad Black and Wife Barbara Amiel -"it's Fashion" Macmillan Cancer Relief Charity Hosted by Vogue Magazine at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire. ( Dave Benett 2001)

Their natal charts:


Gary Gilmore, born 4 December 1940, McGamey, Texas at 6.30 AM (Astrodienst, AA rating)

Barbara Amiel, born 4 December 1940, Watford, UK, time unknown, chart set for 12 noon.

Reconciling these two, astrologically, entails standing well back. Crucial data is missing for Amiel - her exact Moon placement, rising sign/degree, and house positions. Her Moon though, amazingly enough, is going to be somewhere in Aquarius, to match Gilmore's. Standing back, subtle and not so subtle correspondences could be discernible in spite of these two characters' only too obvious real life differences.

Those Scorpio-Taurus oppositions, and many square aspects are common to both. In Gilmore's case Scorpio translated more as darkness and death, but for Amiel Scorpio's other attribute, sexiness, dominates. Venus-ruled Taurus in Gilmore's case is reflected in his latent artistic ability - he is said to have been keen on drawing while in prison. In Amiel's case Taurus, in its other guise manifested in her acquisitive tendencies to own luxurious clothes, jewels, homes, etc.

Those uncomfortable square aspects common to both charts manifested with extreme intensity for Gilmore, both in his youth and his adulthood. They manifested to a lesser degree for Amiel in her youth, but mainly probably related to her husband's disgrace in her adult years.

I notice that Uranus at 23.24 Taurus was a couple of degrees from "demon fixed star" Algol, so could (just) be counted as a conjunction. Uranus is a generational planet though, only of interest natally if linked to personal planet(s). Gilmore and Amiel had Algol opposing their natal Mercury, with both Uranus and Mercury squaring natal Moon (not certain in Amiel's case) forming a T-square. I'm not sure whether a Uranus/Algol conjunction in aspect to a personal planet "counts" in astrology, but if it does, then Algol's more traditional attributes manifested for Gilmore, in Amiel's case the "female passion and power" side of Algol surfaced.

Here, and always, we're dealing with astrological potential versus real-world opportunity, and the way similar charts of near astrological twins can manifest in very different ways, but with subtle resonance.

Arty Farty Fri: Gemini Twins: Christo & Jeanne-Claude

A pair of artists with Sun in Gemini who were astrological twins, and married too: Christo & Jean-Claude, creators of environmental art. Full names: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon.



Jean-Claude sadly died in 2009. Both were born on 13 June 1935, he in Bulgaria, she in Morocco. A matched pair. Their story is told, briefly in an obituary for Jeanne-Claude, by Christopher Turner in The Guardian, here

SNIP

Their relationship lasted 51 years, and they did everything together, Jeanne-Claude said, except three things: "We never fly on the same airplane… I do not draw. Christo is the one who puts on paper our ideas… And I have always deprived him of the joy of working with our accountant." She described their union as passionate and volatile. "We are terribly argumentative and scream and criticise each other non-stop," she admitted. "It is very helpful. It makes us think. Christo is right 75% of the time."

Samples of their work~
The Wrapping of the Reichstag (former German parliament building)



Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado.



Video showing some of their work from the air -

In an interview, fully detailed at a website here the pair explained to the interviewer the thinking/philosophy behind the fleeting nature of their huge works of art which take so long to plan and bring to fruition but remain in view for such a short time. I found this interesting:

SNIP:

Mantegna: Can you tell me more about the element of time in your projects?

Christo: ..... I and Jeanne-Claude would like our projects to challenge and question the people's notion of art. The temporal character of the project challenges the immortality of art. Is art immortal? Is art forever? Is building things in gold and silver and stones to be remembered forever? It is a kind of naiveté and arrogance to think that this thing stays forever, for eternity. It probably takes greater courage to go away than to stay.

All these projects have this strong dimension of missing, of self-effacement, that they will go away, like our childhood. our life. They create a tremendous intensity when they are there for a few days. When they are there for 14 days, they create an urgency and sympathy because they are going to go away, they will disappear. All this is translated into a nomadic quality, like the tribes in the Sahara and Tibet. It is translated by the biggest amount of material in this project. This project has fabric, ropes, steel, aluminum, but the biggest amount is the fabric, the cloth. The cloth is the principal element to translate the vulnerability, the temporariness and the fragility of the work, very much like a nomadic tribe that moves through the desert. They fold their tents and overnight they could build an entire village and the next day they would be gone. This is why this project is prepared off-site for several months, but the final installation is a very fast, very fresh operation. It happens at once, like the Umbrellas that opened in a matter of a few hours and the whole project was completed. But, at the very bottom, immortality is linked with a very essential part of this project.

All these projects are about freedom. They happen not because some president of the country liked them, some minister of culture, or some corporate executive or some major of a city; these project happened because the artist liked to have them and, of course, they have this incredible proportion and presence. Nobody can own this project, nobody can buy the project, nobody can possess the project, or charge tickets. This project is a demonstration of freedom. A demonstration of absolute freedom and total irrationality. The world can live without Umbrellas, without Valley Curtain or Running Fence. They have no other reason to be there except poetical creativity, total creativity. That freedom is the most important part of this project and this is why they cannot stay, because freedom is the enemy of possession and possession is equal to permanence …

Jeanne-Claude: … Possession is equal to permanence, so freedom is the enemy of permanence.

Christo: Of course, to keep that freedom to exist absolute, we pay for our projects. No strings attached, no bowing to anybody, no sponsors, no compromises …

Jeanne-Claude: It is very expensive to be free …

Jeanne-Claude: Did we explain that we recycle all the material used in every project? We don't reuse it, of course, but is reused by other people for other purposes, industrial, agricultural , or ecological use, like in sandbags to contain the floods of a river. For instance, the aluminum of the Umbrellas, which was a big part of the cost of the project, today has been melted, there are no Umbrellas and the aluminum is probably part of an airplane flying in the sky, or a can of Ginger Ale.

ASTROLOGY

Christo, born 13 June 1935 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, at 10.00 pm (data from astro.com)

Jeanne-Claude born 13 June 1935 in Casablanca, Morocco, at 6.00 pm (data from astro.com)

Hmmm - it's hard to know what to say about this! But it's nice to know that two individuals so similar in nature managed to sustain such a long and loving relationship. It's often the differences that cause a spark between two people, here any difference relies on rising sign and house position. That indicates Christo's Capricorn rising reflected a somewhat steadier, businesslike nature, while Jeanne-Claude's Sagittarius rising was more adventurous, risk-taking and lively overall. Another factor could be that their charts are of the "splash pattern" variety - no excess of emphasis anywhere, leaving lots of leeway for a variety of moods, interests and ideas. Two people with "bundle" charts with planets squeezed into just three or four signs - the same three or four signs, might not fare so well together - just a thought.

As for the unusual style they were drawn to in their artworks - where's an indication of that in the charts? I look first to Uranus (eccentricity, the unusual) and find it in challenging square to Venus planet of the arts - Uranus could be seen to be saying to Venus, "Come on....do something different!" There's Neptune (imagination, creativity) opposing Saturn - here Neptune's imagination was itching to do something to solid traditional Saturn - like wrapping it in oodles of coloured fabric?

Their natal Moon conjunct expansive Jupiter in Scorpio speaks of big ideas involving some kind of transformation.

Music Monday ~ Musical Astro-Twins: Daltrey & D'Abo; King & Byrd

Here are two sets of musical astrological twins from different generations, one set from the UK one from the USA.

From the UK:
Roger Daltrey of The Who & Mike d'Abo of Manfred Mann both born on 1 March 1944 - both have a birthday tomorrow!





Daltrey and D'Abo led broadly similar professional lives early on, though Daltrey has maintained a higher profile for longer.

Roger Daltrey CBE, singer/guitarist was one of the founding members of the British hard-rock group The Who. While Peter Townsend was at first the head man of the group, Daltrey quickly emerged as the lead singer, with a particular gift for all-stops-out "soul" interpretations. Daltrey assumed the central role of the deaf/dumb/blind pinball wizard in The Who's rock opera Tommy when the piece was adapted for film by director Ken Russell in 1975. He then portrayed a very revisionist Franz Liszt (bare-bottom scenes and all) in Ken Russell's outrageous biopic Lisztomania (1975). Roger Daltry has continued accepting occasional film roles into the 1990s, and played Judas in the 1996 production of Jesus Christ Superstar.







Mike D'Abo replaced Paul Jones as Manfred Mann's lead vocalist in 1966. The band broke up in 1969 . D'Abo went on to appear in U.S. productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, and later became a session musician, songwriter and BBC radio host. He wrote the song Handbags and Gladrags which was a big hit for the Stereophonics in the UK a few years ago.

Interesting tid-bit emerged there - both D'Abo and Daltrey appeared in Jesus Christ Superstar.


I've pulled up a chart for the date of their birth, 1 March 1944, set for London where Daltrey was born. D'Abo was born in the south of England also, so one chart, set for 12 noon, will suffice for a casual glance. We must ignore Moon position and ascendant as shown as these will be inaccurate. (According to Astrodatabank Daltrey has Gemini Moon and Scorpio rising, but I can find no time of birth for D'Abo).

These guys have a predominance of planets in Air signs, none in Earth. There's a Grand Trine in Air signs linking Uranus/Venus/Neptune. This Airy circuit links generational planets Uranus and Neptune to personal planet Venus, planet of the arts. This indicates that the guys were "wired-up" astrologically to take advantage of the generational pull from Uranus (avant garde) and Neptune (creativity) via their natal Venus in inventive Aquarius. Not surprising, then, that one of the arts became their common chosen career path.








From the USA:
B.B. King legendary blues singer and guitarist and Charlie Byrd famous guitarist specialising in Latin styles
- both born on 16 September 1925. B.B. King is still with us, still playing I think. Charlie Byrd died of lung cancer in December 1999.

B.B. King is "King of the Blues" -a legend in his own lifetime, said to be the single most important electric guitarist of the last half century. "His bent notes and staccato picking style have influenced legions of contemporary bluesmen, while his gritty and confident voice -- capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric -- provides a worthy match for his passionate playing." (More here.)






Charlie Byrd is best remembered for the work he did with Stan Getz, and for his work with Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel, as The Great Guitars. He brought to the concert guitar both a high degree of sophistication due to his classical training and a kind of down home quality that came through when he played blues and straight ahead jazz.
It was said he could play a Bach Cantata with the same ease as a Gershwin song, but he delivered each in its own unique way. (More here.)






This pair of astro-twins are of a different generation from the first pair, and are quite different in "make-up". Whereas the first pair were predominantly Airy, these two have no Air planets at all - they have Earth and Water based personalities.
Two oppositions stand out: Virgo Sun opposing Uranus in Pisces, and Jupiter in Capricorn opposing Pluto in Cancer. Two personal planets opposing/balancing two slow-moving, generational planets. How to translate that? You know, I'd like to think that it symbolically indicates a kind of timelessness in what they do, or have done. Their kind of music is timeless for sure, untramelled by gimmick-du-jour or pop charts.

These guys have a Grand Trine in Water signs, a configuration or circuit laying emphasis on emotion: easy to see how that worked out: the highly emotional blues (BB King) and sentimental and/or steamy Latin music (Byrd).

Rather than litter the blog with 4 videos, I've chosen just one: a personal favourite - Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave played by the Charlie Byrd Trio

AQUARIUS NOTES ~ (My Astro Twin ~ Keith Olbermann's departure ~ What's in a name?)

A glance through the Aquarius links via Label Cloud in the sidebar refreshed my memory on previous posts concerning the sign itself, as well as people with Sun in Aquarius to whom I'm related or acquainted; and about some characters in public life born on the same day as I was, but in different years.

As far back as 2006, I wrote about an almost exact astrological twin of mine, born same day, year, with same ascendant sign and Moon/planets placements. We were born on opposite sides of the Atlantic though. I discovered him at astro.com's VIP Astro-Twins section.

I discovered when drafting this post that the gentleman in question, Brugh Joy, sadly died in December of 2009.

Ordinarily news of the death of an astrological twin might have un-nerved me somewhat. However, I'd been told, years ago, by Brugh Joy's assistant that Dr. Joy had a biological twin brother. So I was less worried. (Brugh Joy is on the left of his fraternal twin brother in this, more recent, photo, borrowed from a blog HERE.)


A Google search indicated that the brother, Bob, seems to have led quite a different lifestyle from that of his twin. He has been a teacher and adminstrator; whereas his twin was originally a doctor then, in 1974, a life-threatening disease led to a spiritual transformation and the writing of his best-selling book Joy's Way. He continued his explorations into healing, meditation, dreams and their interpretation, and the influence of the unconscious. His last book Avalanche: Heretical Reflections on the Dark and Light tells how his "once-revered values finally crumbled under an avalanche of new insight into the dark and disowned portions of the human psyche."

"For more than twenty years, Brugh Joy has been a teacher of Heart Centered Transformation and Spiritual Enlightenment. His courses deal with body energy fields, healing techniques using energy transferred through the hands, and Self-discovery. His teaching includes shadow work (seeking insight into an individual's unconscious side), understanding dreams and projections, and exploring high-intensity sound, rituals, collective energy dynamics, and intuitional states of consciousness."

Archived post is HERE.

Something immediately came to mind as I belatedly read of Brugh Joy's 2009 death. Back in January 2009 there was a solar eclipse which hit our Sun's Aquarius degree exactly. I am skeptical about the influence of eclipses on the lives of people. I could be wrong though. Anyway, Brugh Joy's twin brother and I seem to have weathered that eclipse-related storm, but Brugh Joy, perhaps (?) with a link back to his 1974 health problem, didn't. RIP.




Keith Olbermann (with whom I share a birthday this week- 27th January) has been in the news in the last few days. His contract with MSNBC and his nightly political comment show Countdown is no more.

I didn't watch Countdown regularly, hardly at all in recent months. It is an MSNBC offering and MSNBC is part of the GE (General Electric) empire. Keith, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and others were/are there to pull in viewers who support the Democrats, so that commercials carried can reach their eyes. MSNBC commentators are necessarily hobbled by their corporate bosses. They can only get away with so much "lefty talk". Keith may have been the bravest of the bunch, over-stepping their lines on more than one occasion. For my taste he spent far too much time criticising "the other side" and conservative commentators. There is no "other side" in the USA. There is one side only - the corporate side. A brave commentator ought to say THIS on some TV channel - but they can't because the whole of the media is owned by corporations whose aim is to present the illusion of a two-party situation. Until more Americans realise what is going on nothing will change, no matter who is in the White House, for the incumbent is as hobbled as MSNBC presenters are.

The astrological slant on Keith's departure has been covered by several astrologers already. What struck me first from his natal chart was that transiting Pluto had passed over his natal Saturn, at 2 Capricorn, last September and is still within range - now being 3 degrees further along. Whenever Pluto "hits" a personal planet one can expect some kind of transformation to follow.




Aquarius is popularly illustrated as "a water bearer", interpreted by astrologers as bearer of knowledge rather than water, Aquarius being one of three Air signs, and Air connects to mental process. So there's something of a water/air disconnect, and the same applies to the commonly used Aquarius symbol: two wavy lines depicting water (some astrologers depict the lines as more zig-zaggy to better represent electricity, as a connection to the sign's modern ruler Uranus).

Delving into the origin of the name Aquarius can be pretty confusing, due to the diverse, yet related, threads of the DNA of astrology itself.

In terms of constellation, not zodiac sign, Aquarius is thought to be one of the oldest. It is located in the region known as The Sea because of surrounding constellations associated, by name, to water: Eridanus The River, Pisces The Fishes and Cetus The Whale.

Babylonian star catalogs name the Aquarius constellation after "The Great One", said to embody the god Ea (aka Enki) - one of the three primal gods of Sumer. Ea = god of water; Enlil= god of earth; and Anu = god of heaven.

Originally a local deity in the city of Eridu, he evolved into the lord of the fresh waters beneath the earth, the god of ritual purification, and a patron of sorcery and incantations. Ea/Enki is the basis for the half-fish, half-goat form from which the astrological figure of Capricorn is derived. In sidereal astrology, based on the constellations, most of tropical Aquarius IS in sidereal Capricorn.

The Air/Water disconnect remains when considering the alleged origin of the name Aquarius from Greek myth. According to that tradition the constellation Aquarius was named for either:

1) Ganymede, a beautiful prince from Troy, son of king Tros. Ganymede was considered to be the most beautiful of mortals. He was carried off by the gods (in one story by Zeus himself, or by Zeus in the form of an eagle) to Olympus as Zeus's lover, and to serve as cup-bearer to the gods, a position previously held by Hera’s daughter Hebe, goddess of eternal youth. Zeus replaced Hebe with Ganymede after she spilled a flask of nectar. Zeus immortalized Ganymede, his favorite server, with a heavenly constellation in the form of the eagle he had assumed when abducting Ganymede to Olympus: 'Aquila' (eagle), also 'Aquarius' (water bearer). One of Jupiter's many moons is also named after Ganymede. (Note: The Zeus/Ganymede myth is the first indication of male homosexuality in Greek literature.)

The Rape (kidnapping) of Ganymede. Early 16th-century Renaissance ceiling panel, Villa Farnesina, Rome, by Baldassare Peruzzi.

OR

2) The myth concerning Deucalion, son of Prometheus and king of Phthia in Thessaly, also husband of Pyrrha and father of Hellen, mythical ancestor of the Hellenic race. When Zeus, king of the gods, resolved to destroy all humanity by a flood because of their godless ways, Deucalion constructed a boat in which, according to one version, he and his wife rode out the flood and landed on Mount Parnassus. According to a story found first in the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book I, upon offering a sacrifice and enquiring how to renew the human race, they were ordered to cast behind them the bones of their mother. The couple correctly interpreted this to mean they should throw behind them the stones of Mother Earth, and did so. The stones thrown by Deucalion became men, while those thrown by Pyrrha became women.

Deucalion is known as the ‘Water Bearer’. He not only lived through the flood, but he helped to bring life to a new generation. Similarities between this myth and the Judeo-Christian legend of Noah’s Ark are clear.

Deucalion and Pyrrha: Marble relief in the Parc del Laberint d’Horta in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain).

What's in a name? In astrology: sometimes confusion!

All in all, constellation Aquarius and history of its somewhat watery origin, mythologically speaking, presents a clear disconnect from our tropical Aquarius - sign of Fixed Air.



MANY HAPPY RETURNS TO ANYONE ELSE WITH A BIRTHDAY COMING UP WHILE THE SUN IS IN AQUARIUS.

Blog will be on hold for a few days after today.

Lena Horne ~ Susan Hayward: Astrological Twins

Tomorrow, 30 June, would have been the birthday of Lena Horne, who died this year, and Susan Hayward who died in 1975. Both women were born in Brooklyn, New York, at 11:45 PM and 4:01PM respectively. Astrodatabank has given Susan Hayward's birth time a DD rating though, which means it's not verified.

Their charts are very similar, rising signs being the only major difference. Aries rising for Lena Horne, Scorpio for Susan Hayward (if time of birth is correct). Just 5 degrees of Scorpio separates their natal Moons.

These two are almost astrological twins. It's an interesting exercise to compare significant points in their lifestories, noting whether they coincide with any planetary transits.




Both women were glamorous, exuded sensuality, and both had early ambition to act, though Lena Horne's African American background prevented the same meteoric rise in that sphere as was enjoyed by Susan Hayward. In those days, racial and social integration in the USA still had a long way to go. Lena, though, had an alternative talent, and in her case one that was far more valuable: music.

For the purpose of this brief post, I'll concentrate on just two periods when events in these women's lives show them to have been in tune with the same astrological transits.



In the mid 1950s Susan Hayward was filming in Utah, starring with John Wayne in the movie The Conqueror.

Of the 220 persons who worked on The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it, including stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell. Experts say under ordinary circumstances only 30 people out of a group of that size should have gotten cancer. The cause? No one can say for sure, but many attribute the cancers to radioactive fallout from U.S. atom bomb tests in nearby Nevada.(See HERE)

That event set the scene for Susan's too early demise in the mid 1970s when she succumbed to the brain cancer diagnosed a few years earlier.

In the mid 1950s Lena Horne's civil rights activism and friendship with (Paul)Robeson and others marked her as a Communist sympathizer. Like many politically active artists of the time, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to perform on television or in the movies. For seven years the attacks on her person and political beliefs continued. During this time, however, Horne worked as a singer, appearing in nightclubs and making some of her best recordings. (See HERE)

In the early 1970s, around the time Susan Hayward received that fatal diagnosis, Lena Horne

... had found in her growing audience a renewed sense of purpose. All of this came crashing down when her father, son and husband died in a period of twelve months during the early 1970s. Horne retreated almost completely from public life. It was not until 1981 that she fully returned, making a triumphant comeback with a one-person show on Broadway.

In the mid 1950s and mid- 1970s transits of Saturn reflected challenging times in both women's lives. In the mid-1950s Saturn was transiting the middle degrees of Scorpio where both women's natal Moons lay. In the early to mid 1970s Saturn transited Gemini and early Cancer where both women had Sun and three personal planets, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter.

QED (as we used to write in school):
quod erat demonstrandum = which was to be demonstrated.

(Click on charts to enlarge)

Astrological Twins in Fiction

A mention of Jeffrey Archer's novel Kane and Abel set me off on a train of thought. I read the book years ago, and later saw the TV adaptation. Recalling the main thread of the plot - how the lives of two men, born on the same day, on different continents become entwined, I began to think along lines which had, more or less, eluded me years ago.

The two leading characters were astrological twins, or nearly so. We are not told whether they were born at the very same minute of 18 April 1906 - allowing for different time zones - one in Massachusetts, USA, the other in Poland. It's an engrossing tale. I don't intend to spoil it for anyone who hasn't yet read the book or seen the TV adaptation, but anybody curious about the story can read more detail HERE.



I wonder whether Jeffrey Archer had advice from an astrologer when deciding on the birth date of his lead characters? Here's the chart, set for Boston MA. Planet-in-sign positions (apart perhaps from Moon) would have been the same for USA and Poland whatever the birth time.

Bare bones of the plot include a rags-to-riches tale, a born-with-silver-spoon (in appropriate orifice) tale, a common thirst for power and wealth, a common passionate love of respective offspring, and a whole lot of misunderstanding.

Giving the guys Sun in Aries was a good move - especially for the Polish character who had to really pull out all the stops of his Sun's Mars rulership to escape a dreadful scenario in the country of his birth. Giving them Mars and Venus in Fixed Earth Taurus was appropriate too. They are both very fixed in mindset, extremely stubborn, and enthralled by possessions and property.

Of course, it's fiction, but still interesting to think on these points. Those thoughts led me to ponder on another work of fiction, Ben Hur. I haven't read the book, but the 1959 movie is my favourite film of all time. This might be thought an odd choice for an atheist (agnostic on a good day) like myself, but I love its epic quality, its adventure and scope, but most of all its messages, clean and unsullied by the powerful organised religion which came after. Anyway.... I may be wrong, but I feel certain that right at the start of the movie there's some indication that Judah Ben Hur and Jesus were born at or around the same time. I can't find any evidence of this having been stated in the book, so my memory might be faulty and/or astrology-ridden these days. It's unlikely that author Lew Wallace, in the late 19th century, would have entertained thoughts about astrology, so this is probably just my memory playing tricks. It is mentioned (I think) that both Jesus and Judah Ben Hur were around Judea at the same time though, and were about the same age. Their lives did touch at two or three points in the storyline. This isn't a good example of astrological twins in a novel, but it's one which sprang immediately to mind.

Mark Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper, a novel about astrological twins, identical in appearance but from very different backgrounds. They change places in the England of 1547. I haven't read this book, but the Prince of the title is Prince Edward who at the tender age of 9 became King, on the death of his father Henry VIII. Edward's date of birth, was 12 October 1537 - Sun in Libra. Pauper Tom Canty's would have been the same. Libra the sign of balance seems rather appropriate for these two boys who each found out what life was like on the other side of the scale.

If a passing reader knows of any other novel or movie with a theme involving astrological twins (born the same day, different parents, different place, maybe at the same time of day), do please drop a comment below.