Ingmar Bergman, the film director, was widely hailed as a genius for The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, and Fanny and Alexander amongst many others. Martin Scorsese said “it’s impossible to overestimate the effect that Bergman’s films had on people”. Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen both proclaimed him “the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera.”
Like all creative types he had his dark side with allegations (from himself) that he raped a former partner; an arrest for tax evasion and his youthful adoration for Hitler, whom he mourned when he died. Bergman first saw Hitler when he was 16, on a school exchange trip to Germany in 1934 and described him as “unbelievably charismatic.” Bergman’s father was pro-Nazi who believed that Hitler was the answer to the world’s problems. Bergan said “The Nazism I had seen seemed fun and youthful. The big threat were the Bolsheviks, who were hated.”
Yet he underwent a seismic shock in 1946 – “When the doors to the concentration camps were thrown open, at first I did not want to believe my eyes,” he would say. “When the truth came out it was a hideous shock for me. In a brutal and violent way I was suddenly ripped of my innocence.” “My feelings were overwhelming and I felt great bitterness towards my father and my brother and the schoolteachers and everyone else who’d led me into it. But it was impossible to get rid of the guilt and the self-contempt.”
It changed the course of his life and career and thereafter many of his films and stage productions dealt explicitly with the evil caused by the Nazi regime.
Bergman was born 14 July 1918 12.15am Uppsala, Sweden, and had a quick witted, communicative 3rd house Cancer Sun with an independent-minded Uranus in his 10th, a charming Venus in Gemini on his Ascendant; and a dynamic Mars in Libra in his entertaining 5th in an ultra-, can-be-ruthless square to a super-confident Pluto Jupiter conjunction in Cancer. Mars Pluto is a hint of his experience of his father as is his 4th house filled with deceptive, can-be-neurotic Neptune, Mercury, Saturn in Leo.
Bergman’s Saturn in Leo exactly conjunct Lilith was also conjunct Hitler’s 10th house Saturn with Hiter’s MC conjunct Bergman’s 4th house Neptune; with Hitler’s Moon Jupiter in Capricorn falling in Bergman’s 8th – so there would be a deep, nebulous and father-issue connection.
Hitler’s Chiron was also closely conjunct Bergman’s Pluto which could be allied to Bergman’s healing journey after his youthful idealism was shattered. In this combination Pluto can show a poisoned Chiron that what they think is good isn’t so. And (in this case unwittingly) Chiron can activate Pluto’s desire for self-transformation, reminding Bergman that his Pluto (= power) could be a force for evil and would hold him back.
What interested me was what was going on in Bergman’s chart when his misplaced idealism (devotion) of Hitler flipped to total disillusionment.
At that point tr Uranus was crossing his Ascendant setting him off on a new path and one where the views of others would not be so persuasive. Tr Pluto was also wading its way through his 4th house pulling him away from past family attitudes and father, having just made the disorientating conjunction to Neptune and then on to Mercury. Tr Saturn was also conjunct his Solar Arc South Node and Sun – also a separating aspect from father and unevolved attitudes.
His relationship chart with Hitler at the point of his unwelcome realization had tr Uranus conjunct the composite Pluto for a total upheaval. Tr Saturn conjunct the composite Mars for anger. Tr Pluto moving into the composite 8th aiming to conjunct the composite Saturn for a period of deep depression.
The post Ingmar Bergman – flawed genius first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
