Writer Jane Austen is having a moment with the 250th anniversary of her birth this year causing a flutter of excitement amongst her fans. Author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park and others, she stands head and shoulders above other novelists having stood the test of time with constant revival TV and film renderings of her works. ‘Her use of social commentary, realism, wit, and irony have earned her acclaim amongst critics and scholars.’
She was born 16 December 1775 11.45pm Basingstoke, England, with a rector father into a genteel though poor family. She started writing in childhood and never left her family, dying at 41 a spinster, having had little success or money from her books.
She had a home-loving 4th house Sagittarius Sun square Neptune on her Virgo Ascendant. Her Mercury in Sagittarius in her communicative 3rd would give her a quick witted mind and ability to get her ideas across especially since it opposed Uranus and Jupiter in her 9th house of ideas and publishing. Her Moon Saturn in Libra opposition a 7th house Chiron hinted at a less than vibrant emotional life, especially since they also squared a frustrated, trapped, utterly determined Mars Pluto in Capricorn on the cusp of her 5th house. A Libra Moon conjunct Saturn square Mars Pluto might suggest health problems.
What intrigued me about Austen’s chart is that modern-day novelist Iris Murdoch, 15 July 1919 8am Dublin, Ireland, also has a Mars Pluto conjunction, in her case in Cancer. She was a professor of philosophy, influenced by Sartre and had a skill for black comedy – “Under The Net,” “A Severed Head.” Very different from Austen but with the same driving determination which started her writing as a child, she wrote 26 novels, four plays, four books on philosophy and one book of poetry and had a long and happy marriage, dying ultimately of Alzheimers in her late 70s.
Her Sun Jupiter in Cancer were in her creative 12th house along with Neptune; and her 11th house Mars Pluto was in a Water Grand Trine to Uranus and her IC. With her Uranus opposition Venus. With her Cancer Sun inconjunct an Aquarius Moon and her Venus in aspect to Mars Pluto and Uranus she would not be emotionally at ease – perhaps the wound out of which her writing came. Both she and Austen had their Chiron in Aries which can be a sign of a pioneer, one who leads the way as a compensation for feeling powerless or wounded in a the area of identity.
It got me searching amongst other women writers and how many have afflicted Mars – Emily Dickinson, the influential American poet, 10 December 1839 4.50am Amherst, MA was another Sun Sagittarius with a Mars Pluto conjunction in Aries in her ‘entertaining’ 5th house with her Mars Pluto sextile Uranus inconjunct a 10th house Saturn.
Charlotte Bronte was a Sun Taurus with her 10th house Mars square Pluto and opposition Neptune with her Mars also trine Moon Saturn conjunct in Aquarius. Her sister Emily a Sun Leo had her Mars in Virgo opposition Saturn square Uranus.
Which is not dissimilar to Doris Lessing (The Golden Notebook) with her Mars Saturn in Virgo sextile Pluto. Also Chiron in Aries as had PD James, the crime writer who also had a Mars in Scorpio North Node trine Pluto trine Uranus with Uranus opposition Saturn,
Talent comes at a cost.
The post Austen & Murdoch – driven by a ferocious Mars first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
