Robert Burns is celebrated every year on the anniversary of his birth on January 25th with suppers, haggis, bagpipes, accordions and renditions of his best known songs – “A Red, Red Rose”, “A Man’s a Man for A’ That”, “To a Louse”, “To a Mouse”, “Tam o’ Shanter”, “Halloween” and “Ae Fond Kiss”. Hogmanay the world over is welcomed in with his “Auld Lang Syne”. What is extraordinary about him is his prolific output of 300 to 400 songs crammed into a short life which ended when he was 37, especially given his poverty stricken childhood which damaged his health and his struggle to earn money as a bookkeeper and excise man in his adult life. And the global reputation he has sustained since.
He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and a source of inspiration to the founders of liberalism, expressing sympathy with the French, and American Revolutions, for the advocates of democratic reform and votes for all. And became popular even in Russia.
Born on 25 January 1759, at 7am (unverified) in Ayr, Scotland, he was the eldest of seven children of a self-educated tenant farmer. He grew up in hardship, and the severe manual labour of the farm left his constitution weakened.
He had an eye for the ladies and is believed to have fathered a total of 12 children with four different women, though some sources suggest up to 13. Nine of these children were with his wife, Jean Armour. He died on 25 July 1796, a few days before his son Maxwell was born.
Three strands stand out clearly in his chart. He had an Aquarius Sun, Venus and Mars with its humanitarian leanings, inclining him to libertarian and democratic ideas. “A Man’s a Man for aw that” and “We are all Jack Thamson’s bairns” which latter translates as we are all equal in the eyes of God.
His Venus Mars conjunction would give him a strong passionate and sexual drive.
He also had an exact Uranus in Pisces square Pluto giving him a revolutionary fervour.
On this birth time his 8th house creative Neptune would also help to project his reputation far and wide; and in opposition to Mars attract publicity.
When he died tr Saturn was just into his 6th house suggesting the birth time may be accurate; with his Solar Arc Neptune square his Sun.
The post Robert Burns – an Aquarius trailblazer first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
