The Dalai Lama: Happiness as a Way of Life

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

There are a million places where you can to read about the 14th Dalai Lama. That became obvious when went to Google and typed in his name.

One thing I hadn't (somehow) noticed before is the Dalai Lama's full birth name. It's Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso. (Just try getting that on an ID bracelet.)

Like all Dalai Lamas, this one is considered a reincarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. And yes, he lives in exile - his whole government-in-exile is seated in Dharamshala, Himachal Prodesh, India.

Like I said...all that, you can read elsewhere. What you come here for is the astrology, so let us proceed to just that.

Born on July 6, 1935 in Taktser, Quinghai (Tibet) at 4:45 (GMT) gives us the following chart...

...and the beauty of the personality written in this picture of the unfolding universe is told like this:

Just behind the personalizing Ascendant of the Dalai Lama is the symbol 'House'...which here speaks to being comfortable in your own skin. Positioned in early Libra, this tells us the Dalai Lama is a man who people feel comfortable with because he's comfortable with himself - and with whoever you may be.

He's willing to experience who you are (Eurydike), be made happier for his encounter with you (Polyhymnia) and to share the struggle we all have as humans to use our gifts for others when in truth, human instinct instills in us undeniable need and at times, a wonderful, frightening want (Sisyphus) which can lead us to our glory or to self-delusion (Diadem/Drakonia).

Interestingly, just at the far edge of conjunction behind House we also have Ixion - the very embodiment of entitlement born of lack of gratitude. And that would seem to be a really odd description of the Dalai Lama except for a couple of things.

For one, when we accept living in our skin, we have to recognize that with comfort comes a discomfort which by working past, creates in us a sense of peace in feeling we actually are ourselves. That we can master who we are and be who we want ourselves to be. Part of this interpretation comes from Ixion being in the 12th house of limitations. Ixion is in Virgo and the Dalai Lama's actual Ascendant is in Libra, giving us a picture of his 'putting Ixion behind him' in a sense.

And yet we live in all parts of our chart. His 12th house is Virgo and Virgo is an earth sign all about doing service. In Ixion conjunct Lust (fixation), we see the Dalai Lama's rejection of life as a materialistic competition. We see his life in exile. We hear him trying to teach us  not to focus on what we don't have - the ingratitude - but to treasure what is given to us with each breath, each day, each bee buzzing by a flower, each chance to be with each other. 

There's also the fact that Virgo is ruled by Mercury. The Dalai Lama's Mercury is in the 9th house of teaching and religion. At first glance this would seem to be a negative, as Mercury in the 9th is famous for haste, sloppy work and arrogant dogmatism.

But a second look at this Mercury reminds us what it means for any symbol to be positioned in the 3rd decanate. Third decan symbols (anything positioned in degrees 20-29 of any sign) have to do with how others react to what we do. With Mercury being about communication and here positioned with Bellatrix (difficulty in reaching goals), Echo (repeating that you are taught), Industria (industriousness), Betelgeuse (ease of effort) and poetic Sappho (love for everyone) we see the Dalai Lama working against the tide.

The depth of what he would so like to convey is difficult to get across (Bellatrix) in a world where people tend just to repeat what they've heard (Echo) amidst the hustle and bustle of life and all they need to get done (Industria). It takes work to really connect ideas in our minds (Industria). And it takes patience and perseverance (Industria) to reach a point where we understand that loving everyone isn't about definitions, roles and functions in each others' lives, but about the privilege of being in each others presence (Sappho) and enjoying the experience of life as a whole...a great rhythmic poem of which we are but part.

When and to the degree that we fall sort of understanding this idea, we all live in exile - from ourselves most of all. The Dalai Lama probably understands this well...just as he's probably long learned that even exile has its purpose.

This is not to say the man is angelic. With Tantalus (temptation) on one side of his IC and Klotho (beginnings) and Circe (the ability to enchant/reduce others to creatures which simply follow by instinct) it would seem the Dalai Lama is well aware of his appeal and charisma. This is a man who knows what he could do - especially with Tantalus opposition Sappho, sexuality is powerful implied.

But with the chart's public end of the vertical 'who I am in my own mind' axis (a Cancer Midheaven) being ruled by a Virgo Moon positioned not merely in a spiritual and often reclusive 12th but conjunct Neptune? Moon/Neptune is one of the clearest signatures of platonic love a chart can present. Strangely, it can also backfire - we will assume there are those who have misunderstood the Dalai Lama's universal affinity for his fellow humans. And there is here also a potential for great imagination, visionary potency and fantastic imagery....but not in public. At some level, the Dalai Lama feels he is one with mankind, and he will not risk himself for to him, that is to accept a risk to all.

This is not sainthood - rather it is an acceptance of human mortality, the strength of frailty in the human spirit, and how both are completely necessary if anyone is ever to by accepting their vulnerability become impervious to spiritual destruction.

The calculated form of a Virgo Lilith standing with this group underscores this idea of the mortal shadow. And in the opposition to a Pisces Saturn/Eros in the 6th house of responsibility, we know this man grapples with the understanding that even in all we think most ill about ourselves lies a measure of our potential.

Being that astrological planets (Neptune, Saturn and Moon) trump asteroids (Eros) as asteroids trump anything calculated (Lilith) in a chart, this Neptune/Moon opposition Saturn tells us this man will hold to his vows because vows are an expression of one's faith in the necessity of an ideal. That he will hold himself to first and last, even if on occasion his feet stumble as he walks his long road.

Great as he is in the eyes of the world, that the Dalai Lama is so apparently one of us is a huge reason why we accept him. That he admits his human vulnerabilities to us earns him great respect, which is why we venerate him even as we embrace him as our equal.

His humanity and humanness gives us hope in ourselves.

Another really interesting, thought provoking image is presented in his chart by Eris at the Descendant (article on Eris). It's a picture of discord (Eris), which on the Descendant would be what he presents to us, what he sees in the world, and part of the legacy he will leave as social reformer (discord in positive form), as a spiritual head of state in an ever-more secular world...and as teacher to those who would learn, and example to those who won't listen.

Even more information is found when we follow the astrological rule to see how a  chart house works (and often what it's really 'about') by looking to the ruler of the sign on its cusp. Seeing that in this case the Dalai Lama's Descendant is ruled by Aries, that means we look to Mars.

The Dalai Lama's Mars is in the 1st house of 'what I do and who I am.' It is positioned in an emotional degree of Libra, telling us he cares about others, is an emotional man unafraid of expressing his feelings and that when moved by others, he responds.

And what is his Mars set up to respond to and through? That's directly across the chart: Juno and Sedna in the 7th house, conjunct asteroid Child.

Seeing this, we see how this man is willing to embrace his own emotions in being with us. And how he teaches us to be the child we are. This is the signature of his caring for all of Earth's children, no matter what form their existence may take. In this man is both witness and teacher that we are all caretakers and all needy, helpless people in need of protection and love.

Emotionally, we are all those things. And we should be all those things - that's part of being a human being. Maybe even the better part of being a human being.

As you can tell from his birth date, today is the Dalai Lama's birthday. So here is his solar return chart....

Dalai Lama's Solar Return chart 2010 

This is a particularly interesting chart as it occurs a day after a Uranus station, telling us that there are some changes going on with the Dalai Lama himself - and since his birthday comes just after the station, he is evolving out of events rather recently passed.

With Tantalus (temptation) at the Ascendant opposition Algol (responsive power), Kassandra (lack of belief) and Capulus (cutting focus) we are likely to hear much from the Dalai Lama on the subject of the wrongful use of force this year.

Since the Ascendant-Descendant is an axis, it actually pays to look at both sides. Here the rulers are Mars and Venus, immediately giving us a creative...even procreative image.

The return's Mars sits in the 4th house in a proactive degree - yet in 4, Mars exhibits a lack of 'ability to act.' Conjunct the 5th house cusp, the subject is likely to be creative or having to do with children, and with Eris (discord) in an emotional degree just across that 5th house boundary, this would appear to be the Dalai Lama concerned about the plight of kids...not to mention needing a little time for the kid he is to rest and play and relax!

The actual ruler of the Taurus Descendant being a Leo Venus in the 9th house of education, travel and efforts again votes for children and the 'lighter side of life.' Venus and Mars are in aspect by trine (a 'flowing' connection) and yet Venus is opposed by an Aquarian Jupiter in the 3rd. Are people really too focused on the constructs of this world to be happy? Have we become so much the children of society and not humanity that we have lost some of our ability to free ourselves up to avail ourselves of our full potential and value?

It may be all of this and more. With Venus is sitting between imprisoning sorceress Circe and haunting Mnemosyne, this is an image redolent of not just what happens and what we learns during the early years, but how that continues to affect us. And how we continue to all be so easily persuaded throughout life, for the child within us never dies.

Fortunately for us, the youthful wellspring which is in the Dalai Lama is more than fertile: with Pisces Child, Edisonia and Huya (article on Huya) at the foundational position of this chart this is a year in which the Dalai Lama will perceive that beautiful sweetness which no matter how hard or hardened our lives come to be still resides in our hearts.

He knows, because he can feel it in his. And with this configuration at his Pisces Nadir we may be sure his Holiness understands that love is expressed in billions of ways... and each one of us is a unique expression of that love.

Yet, he will face his tests this year - we all do. And with the initiating ruler of Pisces (Jupiter) in the Dalai Lama's 3rd house of thought/communication, he will be thinking about what innocence is, what humanity means, why we have the problems we have as people...and he will tell us to reside in the gifted blessedness of our nativity...

...which comes to think of it, is what astrology teaches too. The fate we encounter, as challenging as i may be, is an opportunity. Sometimes in disguise, yes. And sometimes it is not the easy thing but that which tries our temper, mind and temperament which enriches us most of all.

We are our efforts, not our acquiescence...we are blessed by our patience, and cursed by that fear which causes us to demand. Only in accepting ourselves can we begin to harness our gifts and only by harnessing our gifts for the good of others and the healing of this world in its own terms (not ours) can we be blessed with ecstatic love which surpasses all personal definition.  

Will the world listen to the Dalai Lama this year? With secondary ruler of Pisces (Neptune) positioned in the first with Ceres Nurturer and Juno Protector, if you ask the Dalai Lama he will probably tell you that all ears can hear, but we don't know how many minds and hearts will listen.

But we can watch. And we can hope. And we can encourage each other by learning to love ourselves enough to free the light within our smile.

P.T. Barnum: The Greatest Show(man) on Earth

Most of us think of PT Barnum as a showman. And in that, we would all of us be so very  correct. What he may also be is the grandfather of all advertising, great uncle of  propaganda and great grandfather of spin.

PT's first big act of promotion was to buy a disabled and blind African-American slave in 1835, claiming she was nurse to none other than George Washington, a claim which would have made her about 160 years old.

But apparently a lot of people were interested enough that he made back his money with a 50% profit in something just under a week, proving that old adage about 'a sucker being born every day' which there's some question about Barnum actually having said.

On the other hand, apparently he didn't argue with it, either. 

Other Barnum-isms: 'Money is a terrible master but a wonderful servant'.....'Without promotion, something terrible happens - Nothing!' and that saying we all know so very exotically well, 'every cloud has a silver lining.'

One supposes in PT's case, that silver was coinage.

Interesting in a man who founded his fortune on being able to buy another human being, Barnum spoke eloquently and publicly about the evils of slavery in a day when not everyone was willing to do so. But then, the modern-day quip 'any PR is good PR' would pretty much fit under PT Barnum's big top, so having people talk nasty about him might have well suited him just fine.

Some of his 'exhibitions' were pure hoaxes like the 'Fejee Mermaid,' the body of a dead monkey with a fish tail sewn on. Others, like Siamese twins, were indeed oddities which fascinated people then and which still fascinate us today.

So why do we care about PT just now? First of all because July 5th is his birthday. And I'm sure PT would be happy to know he's 200 years old today!

Maybe he can be his own exhibition?

Actually, that's very much part of my point - but first a few PT pointers, so we get just a taste of why he is who he is to us, even two centuries later.

With Scheherazade the tale-spinner and 'ease of access' Betelgeuse just at Barnum's critical degree Ascendant, we know he was fast on his feet and more than swiftly quick of tongue. And that he needed to be; any time we see any axis at 29 anything circumstances will change and we must change with them. (The same goes for planets and other symbols at 29 degrees but less globally.)

At the other end of the horizontal axis we have MakeMake just above (and thus in Capricorn) with Typhon positioned below at the tail end of Sagittarius in prime position to make a statement, as all objects placed just before an angle will. Typhon being our 'primal urge' and MakeMake a fertile creator of mankind, this pictures Barnum as a guy who put himself out there as the one who 'knew more' and 'knew better' - who could invent a world and life for people they could feel enhanced by.

Or to put it another way...he had the ability to in many ways make us what we, and he not only knew it, he took pleasure in learning how to do it better as he went along.

With Virgo at the foundational IC point of his chart, Barnum was both crafty and willing to work at his craft. Sphinx there spoke of his patience and Thuban his belief in and his possession of a treasure which was his to exploit. With fixed star Fomalhaut joined by Huya and Bali at his Midheaven he had dreams, and wonders he did sell.

Not that all was so pleasant. Even without the history books the presence of ingratitude, distrust and betrayal (Ixion) vie with issues of passion (Eros), morality (Deucalion), not being believed (Kassandra), having to placate (Panacea), disapproval and rejection (Scheat), immaturity/entitlement (Sedna) and karmic transformation (Pluto) in his public 10th house. 

But in the end, none of that really counted. And that we see because Typhon is at his Descendant, position of legacy. He got us where we live - in our desire to experience the unknown (part of Sagittarius' legendary potency), servicing our need to dream which in turn served his (Huya/Fomalhaut/Bali). 

He really showed us how its done - how it's the harnessing of our whole selves which sells us, and which rewards us in kind.

So above is PT's natal chart. And here below is his solar return (birthday chart) for 2010:

See those zeros on all four axis points? Zero being the first degree of a sign, they always signal beginnings. So whether we see them on a cusp or with regards to a planetary position, we say that's the sign of 'something new,' a 'new start' or the point when something comes into focus...or gets noticed.

The axis points being what we are all best 'seen as,' to have zeros on all four structural points of one's solar return is rather a public thing. So don't be surprised if you hear ol' PT (or his activities) getting talked about this year. It would be a good year for a movie, or a book about his life.

Yes, charts live on when we're long gone...an idea which I'm sure Barnum himself would approve of.

One thing he apparently didn't approve of (or wouldn't admit to publicly) was a publicity photo apparently taken of him which he later disavowed. Considering the time and how hard it would have been to fake such a thing in PT's day, it seems more likely that the image is real...which would make PT Barnum also the great-great granddaddy of those photos which just somehow go viral.

He's so still a modern guy.

Saul David: My Father the Producer

When in the early 1990's my dad announced to me that he had no intention of going into the 21st century, that struck me strange. After all, he had made Logan's Run, the epic welcoming everyone to the 23rd century.

Right up to the moment when I started digging up clips and posters to write this, all I'd really remembered about Logan was how it had been so on the cutting edge of Special Effects (known in Hollywood abbreviationland as 'FX') - though only bits and pieces got into the movie, there was a whole effort to see maybe sections of the film could be done in holographic imagery. When dad died I found that test reel in his house. And like any dutiful daughter and handmaiden to the film industry, I delivered same to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for preservation - along with his personal copies of The Wizard of Oz and Behind the Green Door and much else.

But as I say...I'd mostly remembered Logan for its effects, it's wonderful color palate (dad was a trained artist, after all) and the Peter Ustinov character at the end of the movie. The character was that of an old man living outside the bustle and bliss of the controlled city environment, a man who though plainly freed by his exclusionary lifestyle was tinged with a haunting loneliness which...well, was very much my dad.

Strange too was how through total coincidence I ended up going to school with Ustinov's daughter Pavla for two years. No, we weren't friends. But at least we weren't enemies - and in an upper crust girl's boarding school/high school, that's saying a lot.

My thanks to Pavla, wherever she may be.

Besides Logan, dad was probably best known for Fantastic Voyage...

...the making of which was notable in my world for strange stories of effects experiments (many of which were simply total 'no go's), dad's continuing fights at the studio (particularly when over one weekend the crew from Lost in Space snuck on his brand new set to film without so much as asking 'may I?') and Raquel Welch's not infrequent visits to the house. 

Raquel was very kind to me, which in the pantheon of women in my life puts her way up near the top. When I wrote my 'early years memoir' nothing would do but to immortalize her encouraging words to me in a budding teen moment when I had just been humiliated by my parents. 

Dad really liked Raquel - and not just for the obvious. There was a begrudging respect in his voice when he talked about her at the dinner table, as if he was impressed that a woman that beautiful could also be intelligent and sensible.

Looking back, when I think of Fantastic Voyage the last thing I come to is how dad had doctors from nearby UCLA Medical Center come to the stage and 'approve' what he had built. Did it look like the real thing - the real human body? 

I gather these MDs had a great time wandering around a 'lung' which filled an entire mammoth sound stage. 'If only...' they probably said in their minds, never knowing microsurgery was soon to be in hand.

But one great truth about this movie never gets talked about - that in many ways its a tribute to my father's desperate fight to keep my sister alive. Debby had Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and from the time I was born my whole live revolved around his fight to keep her alive. That's why he knew those doctors from UCLA. 

Dad lost that fight when I was 14. He never quite got past it.

  

The Flint movies (there were two of them) were very fun. Dad didn't take a writing credit but he noodled with every line. As the original editor-in-chief who helped build Bantam Books, he had literature in his blood...not to mention the sharpest editing blue pencil on the block.

This being at the tail end of Studio System Hollywood, dad had a few perk cards to play. One of them allowed him to put his savvy artistic fingers (not to mention his twenty-five cents worth) into set design for the two flicks. Because of this, he had made and installed on...I think it was the first Flint set a very beautifully made reproduction of Rodan's Hand of God.

  

Yes, dad the artist at work.

Following the natural 'way of doing things' of the time, that statue ended up in our house after the picture was finished. I spent my early teen years dusting it once a week - and when dad passed away, that was the first thing I wrapped up ever so thoroughly to have brought to my home. 

Where yes, I continue to dust it once a week.

Dad's first picture was Von Ryan's Express...

...shades of Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, Edward Mulhare and a host of talented others. Von Ryan provided me with my first trip overseas - to Rome - and four months of eating flan (otherwise known as creme caramel or caramel custard) for breakfast. Much in the famous mold of Bill Cosby's routine where he's been assigned breakfast 'dad duty' and figures 'hey, chocolate cake is made of wholesome things like eggs, milk and flour, right?', my sister made a brilliant case for 'crema caramella' (as it was known) as the perfect breakfast food, leading to Tony, a handsome, gracious and highly tolerant hotel maitre'd becoming a virtual flan pusher.

The big thing about Von Ryan was not just the elegance of its cast (it was a really good cast) or the great locations, but that 20th Century Fox needed a hit and dad supplied it, becoming - for a time - the studio 'golden boy' until his naturally rebellious nature wore that welcome out.

As I look back now, I get that Ryan was my dad's ode to his own WWII experiences, just as Flint was the embodiment of his personal alter ego - a citified, smart-ass James Bond who didn't just date all the girls but who kept a personal harem devoted only to him.

Oh, how those loyal acorns do fall close to their tree, too...

Dad made two others films, Ravagers...

... and Skullduggery...

...which few people seem to know about. Ravagers was his ode to 'what's happening to this world?' and Skullduggery a display of his endlessly restless intellectual bent - a quality I have inherited to the max, if not always to my benefit. There's a very interesting question dug into Skullduggery, namely: if you found the missing link, would it be man, and therefore entitled to the rights and privileges of humans - or would it be an animal, and therefore to be consigned to being treated as a beast or beast of burden?

There's a whole lot of personal history in that question which I won't go into here, but that would be obvious. Artists, be they writers, producers, painters, musicians - we all write from the well of personal history and internal qualm, quest, confusion or agony. That's just the way it works. If we were happy people, we probably wouldn't be artists - we'd be living in oopsie-poopsie town, USA and repainting our white picket fence once a year would be the highlight of our season.

All this brings me back to Logan's Run. Back when it was made (and dad was head of production at MGM, snarling about the insanities which come with movie studio life) I got that a good portion of Logan was about his own feelings of having been betrayed by society. When he was born, the world venerated the wisdom which only comes with age. So that's what he worked for and looked forward to - he wanted to be a venerated, wise elder in the tribe of mankind.

But somewhere along the way, the rules changed. Old and wise was out, young and naive if filled with promise came in. So if you ever see Logan, wonder not that dad made a film about everyone's life being over at thirty. Astrologically, thirty is just when we emerge from the end of the first Saturn round - the growing up cycle. Society has all sorts of markers about when we become adults: religious tradition puts this in ancient terms around age 12 (one Jupiter cycle being 11.86 years), schools and the military tend to pick 18 (one round of the societal lunar nodes being 18.6 years long) and there's the lingering but still popular notion of 21 - the first Chiron square (to its natal position) which is a clear indication that at 21 we have to figure out how to be adults whether we feel like we know how or not.

But it's really Saturn's 29.46 year-long cycle (and it's half cycle at 14.73...and it's plural cycles) which maps life's 'structure.' And that's  fitting, seeing as Saturn represents time, maturation, dedication, responsibility, earning and achievement and ultimately, the 'as far as we can go' thing. When we reach 29.46 years of age it dawns on us that we're not going to be young forever...so we marry. Or we get serious about a career. Or we settle down and buy a house. Or we do all that, plus the family thing. 

Being that dad was born in 1921, this (let's call it) thirty-year mark came in 1951, which is when my sister was born. That says so much which is so plaintive, so sad and so real about my father's life that I scarcely know how to express it. 

Released in 1976, Logan's Run was the first film to be made using Dolby Stereo and it won a bunch of awards, one of which is an interestingly odd 'goddess-robot' statue from the Science Fiction Award people which (no disrespect intended) I tend to think of as my household Buddah. What can I say...? I inherited my father's love of science-fiction and fantasy. I'm just not as good at getting business to listen to me as he was.

(Hello? Book publisher or literary agent needed for memoir and epic fantasy manuscripts. Anybody got one on tap?)

(Dad's probably chuckling. I can almost feel him patting me on my little coconut head.)

The astrological point here is that Logan's Run was made when my dad was 55 - almost at his second Saturn return. It was pretty much the culmination of his work - after that his career...and life...began a slow unraveling which ended with his death in 1996.

I hadn't looked at anything about Logan's Run in plural decades when I decided to write this piece. But as I watched the clips on youtube I was struck by how creepy the Carousel scenes actually are. When I was young, all I thought about was how cool it was to fly all those actors on wires - and how interesting it was that Stefan Wenta (former master of the Warsaw Ballet) was brought in to literally choreograph the scene.

Now all I can see is the haplessness and cruelty of any society which would throw its people away - and the sadness of the Peter Ustinov character who though freed of societal tyranny, did so at great cost to mortal self.

My dad was a very 'old style' guy who valued strong emotions over all else. He hardly was comfortable with love. From my family I learned longing, which finally blossomed not long ago when someone written about elsewhere on this blog finally took the patience of his time to gift me with the warmth of human sanctuary...in which I finally learned to love.

The last solar return of dad's life (1995) pictures him having the exact Ascendant-Descendant line of my natal chart. Given that the Asc/Dsc is how we reach out in the world, our relationships to others and the legacy we ultimately leave, this is a perfect picture of his last-minute attempt to connect and make peace in a father/daughter relationship he had endlessly postponed and criticized relentlessly, treating the child on the other end of the stick (me) as possession, object and utterly less than perfect.

And when he reached out, I took his hand because for all the strain between us, my father had rescued me when life itself was at stake. So I would happily...if tearfully...stand with him in kind. Even if I was an 'also ran' to my sister - his pride and long-dead joy - he was someone I respected and yes, feared, but also someone I understood was someone who had undone and undermined himself.

As so many of us do, yes. At some level we are all Logan living in that city under threat of dying at thirty, we are all Logan running from vulnerability or inevitability, we are all in some way that old man living outside the knowing of anyone but ourselves.

And when any of those becomes all we are, that probably becomes our waste. So often what we really need is right there in our own back yard and yet we neglect it, throw it away or undervalue it in some misguided search for richer, newer pastures. It's so what Dorothy (of ruby slipper fame) learns at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

And maybe why dad owned a print of the film. I don't know. But it seems worth thinking about.

I miss my father. He was more than a bit of a tyrant, but I knew I loved him then and can...finally...feel myself loving him now.

So happy birthday dad. Your daughter of blood and soul and talent misses you...as does the world, I'm sure.

Okay, so maybe not the studio heads. But the world? Yes indeed.

Or 'indeedie-do,' as you would say.

Dahmer's All-Consuming Mentality

Granting that the tale of the person, company (or whatever) is the whole of any chart, in the prime vertical and horizontal axis lines we can see very important basics.

The vertical axis is composed of the Midheaven or MC (the top of the chart)  and the Nadir or IC – the bottom of the chart. This is the internal line – who we think we are on the inside...where we have 'come from' and who we want to ‘grow up to be.’ 

The horizontal axis being literally the horizon line (Earth revolving into time as the present and past), the Ascendant (the left end - "9 o'clock") is Now: who we are being. The Descendant (the right end - "3 o'clock") is the impression we create – the legacy we leave in our passage or (after death) in our passing. 

Because the Earth isn't a nice round ball, these two axes are not always in a perfect, 90-degree square. But the distance between them - large or small? That is pretty much the difference between who we think we are and who we're seen to be. 

They're so not always the same thing. And oh, what a sobering thought that is, right? But educational - especially if you're someone who keeps wanting to be one thing and who so consistently gets seen as something else. 

Not that you're Jeffrey Dahmer - at least we hope not. For one, if you were Dahmer, you'd be dead. And if you're dead, why are you reading my blog? 

(Should I ask you to comment in that case? Oh, decisions, decisions...!) 

Back to the point - that being that the distance between who we mean to be and who we are seen to be can get changed. But to change things we have to recognize and reconcile differences which (yes...) we would so often like to think are 'about' or 'in them' but which in reality are in us. To paraphrase someone who was not very happy with this idea, if the problem keeps happening, it really is all about us. 

So with this said, off to the chart of Jeffrey Dahmer - a man most people know of as one of the most bizarre serial killers of modern time (making the term 'off' very apt). Appearing to many as a moody, almost shy guy, Dahmer killed male lovers though a variety of gruesome acts...which was apparently his way of trying to keep them from leaving him. It’s a story all the more horrible for being truly pathetic – and universal; his was a need for love expressed in a (literal) stew of bloody violence totally lacking in compassionate recognition of anyone else as a valid human being replete with the right to exist. 

Dahmer’s Ascendant is fairly unremarkable expect for being marked by the presence of Arcturus, a fixed star all about doing ‘the different thing.’ We begin to feel a bit of his desperation however, when we think of his Libra Ascendant as being ruled by Venus - Dahmer's Venus being at 22 Taurus in the 8th house. 

Venus is notoriously ungraceful in the 8th house. At home in the (opposing) 2nd where (if not afflicted) it manifests through self-worth as an ability/willingness to initiator a profitable exchange known as human ‘give and take.’ But when Venus appears in the (oppositional) 8th we have someone who needs to get from others. 

Even more potently, with Dahmer's Venus being in Taurus (native sign of the 2nd) he felt his self worth came from others. Or that through the possessing of others, he would feel his own self worth. He would 'find himself' in others - as many people do with all things 8th house. People with such placements (as sometimes happens with planets in Scorpio, native sign of the 8th)...there is a need to 'achieve self through others.' Dahmer needed input or validation (maybe both) from others to allow him to even begin feeling something about himself in order to then make something of himself, this being maybe a better way of putting the difference between planets in 8 and in Scorpio. The 8th house planet/symbol seeks to understand the self, the Scorpio planet wants to make something of the Self through wherever it happens to be placed (that "department" of life as indicated by the house). 

Bottom line, the 8th house is where we interact with others and test our emotional choices and risk ourselves emotionally. It's INTERACTIVE. 

So with Dahmer’s Venus conjunct Industria (industriousness), Sabine (forced imprisonment) and Fanny (the behind, literal or figurative), his way of putting his self-worth demons behind him and to work was expressed by taking his lovers captive. And sex of that particularly 'putting it behind me' sort, of course. 

(So to speak...) 

Just a side comment here, before we get back to specific axis points....In Dahmer’s 8th house was also a Sun at 0 Gemini. That defines him at least at some level as a mental naïf - any symbol at zero of any sign is at an initiation point, however you want to take that. In conjunction with headstrong Phaethon, this Sun speaks to Dahmer's need to keep doing what he was doing despite all: its mental compulsion in an interactive setting. 

To this we then add the other asteroid closely present: Charybdis – a sea monster (water=emotion) which says you have to keep trying and trying lest you get eaten up and spit out. 

(Yes, I said that.) 

The other end of the horizontal axis – the Descendant – of Dahmer’s chart is 19 Aries, a degree known for difficulties often including a ‘dark and fearful life’ which includes an early end (Dahmer was murdered in prison at the age of 34). The solution for  conditions expressed in this degree would seem to be compassion but with Dahmer, that apparently was not forthcoming – at least for others, though we can guess his choices were a gigantically convoluted attempt to make himself feel better!

But with the ruler of the Descendant – Mars – in Aries and the 6th conjunct Chaos, the effort was futile in the extreme. Astrologically, Chaos is ‘the void’ the great ‘undefined’ from which comes both the highs of artistic and spiritual inspiration and the total emptiness of fear, grief, loss and helplessness. 

As always – this being an important note in astrology – we need to look to the symbol ruling the house to see how all in that house will “behave,” good and bad. With Pisces, the first place we look is (primary) ruler Jupiter. Dahmer’s Jupiter is ill-placed in the 3rd house, telling us his was a mind which cannot be quieted. In Capricorn, we have the indication that he was capable of doing ‘hard things’ and going beyond ‘hard limits,’ which in Dahmer’s case involved murder by skull drilling. 

And why SO aberrant?

One explanation given by the chart would be the direct opposition from Jupiter to calculated Lilith. There are two forms of Lilith – the calculated one (which has to do with social/societal morays) and the asteroid Lilith (which has things to do with things in ourselves we don’t approve of). This being the calculated form, we know Dahmer would deny societal ‘rules’ – that ‘hardness’ image in the Capricorn Jupiter would ‘bar’ such things from his thoughts. It wasn't (in other words) hard for him to do at all - that we know from Lilith also being conjunct Betelgeuse, a fixed star about ‘ease of process.’ So we can bet that either Dahmer had little trouble ignoring societal values or that they didn’t really occur to him either way, for good or bad.

So saying, back to that Descendant. The Moon in Dahmer’s chart is exactly conjunct the Descendant. So those dark and fearful feelings are not only what he felt every day of his life, it is what he has left us with as his legacy. In the greatest and karmic sense, that he lived is a lesson to us all.

A very distasteful lesson to be sure, but a lesson nonetheless.

And that’s not all. The Descendant also highlights Icarus: rash actions and, reckless choices. Because the Descendant is not only what we do and how we are seen but about those drawn to us, this also speaks to Dahmer’s victims and why they became his victims. Also present here: Typhon, a TNO (Trans Neptunian Object) all about our most primal states and urges. (Link to article on Typhon.)

These qualities – the naïf, the primal urges, the fear and sadness in Dahmer…they would also be qualities he was drawn to. And that his lovers were drawn and which they possessed at some level -  defining the eternal like attracts like of human relationship inevitability. We will attract people who ‘fit,’ emulate or ‘set off’ most of all what we haven’t dealt with (in full) in ourselves.

And while sometimes those qualities are good, often it’s not so good. Why? Because how else is life going to prompt us to do the work we need to do on ourselves? 

Ouch. What that says about us as much as a Jeff Dahmer is simply distressing.

Moving on to his vertical axis, it expresses as 23 Capricorn/Cancer – with Cancer at the MC. Cancer being ruled by the Moon and the IC the other point in the chart most known as ‘public recognition’ this surely gives us the picture of someone ultimately known for a chaotic and fearful legacy. 

More important maybe…that that’s what Dahmer’s life was. When will we learn that to have such things not happen we have to care about human beings beyond their childhood years? 

People say once we’re adults we can’t be changed – at the same time everything in life causes us to evolve. We can’t have it both ways and the truth is that people don’t change maybe because they don’t want to, yes. But probably also because they don’t know how to.  

Am I my brother’s keeper? That’s SO very too biblical. How about am I a fellow human? Is it really okay to ignore and desert others out of preference when they're displaying a plaintive need. Aren't the Jeffrey Dahmers and other horrors known to dark histories an example of what comes from just that?

Even worse, when we don’t care about others (or the world) is that US being our own tiny version of the Dahmer who didn't value the lives of other people? 

All points appear in all charts. 

The foundation of Dahmer's chart (23 Capricorn) is a degree about excesses and difficulties controlling one’s passions. It’s a degree I happen to wrestle with myself in my own chart (no, I'm not a mass murderer!)....plenty of people have plenty of planets at this and other trying degrees. My comment about this one is merely that it's no  better uncontrolled than totally controlled – it’s the balance which counts. 

And which is hard. But that's a valuable lesson to us all, since all degrees occur in all charts - and considering the number of celestial objects out there, what do you think the chances are that NOTHING is in your chart at 23 Capricorn?

That's right - slim and next to zilch.

Ruled by Saturn, ultimately this is a degree which can only be learned through structured responsibility – which Dahmer evidently has perilously little of. His Saturn is in Capricorn. So Saturn ruled he was: his was a literally and figuratively ‘fearful foundation.’ That this Capricorn Saturn is sitting in a 3rd house tells us it functioned mentally and through his choices – and this is the Saturn ruling the Jupiter involved in that Jupiter/Lilith/Betelgeuse conglomerate.

I’d ask how scary is that except we all now know how scary that turned out to be.

And that this 3rd house had Sagittarius (sign of knowledge) on the cusp with the Sag ruler (Jupiter) in that very 3rd house? This is the snake not just eating its own tail by being consumed by the knowledge that it’s eating its own tail. This is torment and self-torment of a maximal, cognizant form. If you’ve seen any of the filmed interviews with Dahmer, it’s apparent: he knew what he was doing. He knew that it was wrong. He knew he was doing harm. But he simply could not fend off his own mentality.

Do we know that his aims were? That would be told at Dahmer’s MC, where we not only see 23 Cancer, but also Nemesis (a warning often ignored) and Rhadamanthus (dispassionate fair judgment). He wanted someone to stop him. Twenty-three Cancer is degree from Cancer’s third decanate. All third decan degrees are about things we have to put out into the world to see if they work. To see how they work or how to fix them. There is a danger of falling here, but only when like children, we have not been taught to climb.

Again…it’s a busy world. But at what point to business and the preference to pleasure one’s self become harmful? It’s not just parents and its not just Dahmer – it’s all of us.

He’s paid. His victims have paid. His family has paid. Do we all have to pay in our own way too not just for him, but for our own lack of balance?

It's that all points being in all charts which gets me. This doesn't mean that if you have Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn in your 3rd house that you're going to be like Jeff Dahmer - it's the whole of the chart which counts and charts only repeat every 25, 920 years (even without all the 'new' points being used - the asteroids, TNO's and all that).

But there are no 'perfect' charts. That's one of the first things I ever learned when I started attending lectures with astrologers who had been in the biz for plural decades. And what that means, like the fact that all of these points are in each of our charts is that we all have challenges, some of which are nasty.

It's how we cope with having them which counts.  So there we leave it. I go off to continue being me and you go on coping with being you. 

And I wish us all well.

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Dennis Hopper: 1936 – 2010

Most people know Dennis Hopper for movies like 'Easy Rider' and 'Blue Velvet' - among many, many others. I’ve heard about his interest in art, and the depth of feeling he had for his community…not just the professional one, but the lives of people rich and poor in and around Venice, California where he lived – and everywhere else.

Dennis Hopper died as his progressed Moon reached the Nadir of his chart. The Nadir (or IC) is the bottom-most point in the chart. Astrology thinks of it in many ways – it’s everything which forms and challenges the ‘foundation’ of our life. It’s our family and our childhood, our nation and our heritage. It’s that thing we rise from and that to which we ultimately return as the IC and 4th house are often referred to as ‘the house of endings’ and death. It is the firmament on which we stand, and the earth to which we return.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

The Moon is an image of personal clockwork. As the Sun is the image of life as a whole and the whole of life we are part of, so the Moon represents – in some sense – or individuality. Certainly our individual feelings about our incarnation. It is neither unusual nor unfitting for this symbolism to mark the passing of a person – especially someone as human as Dennis Hopper.

My first memories of Dennis are at the home of a lady named April. She was good friends with the woman my dad was dating at the time – a woman he would eventually go on to marry. 

I liked April, though in general that was a troubled, tumultuous time in my life. So when I snuck into the kitchen and there was this friendly looking man sitting on a straight-backed chair, as shy and mistrusting as I was of most people, I walked over and put my hand in his. I looked up and as his bright eyes met mine his gaze softened. His expression gentled. He seemed to know how lost I certainly felt…and maybe how I hadn’t yet learned I even existed.

He didn’t talk down to me, but he was careful, inquisitive and kind. It took time, but eventually I crawled into his lap and felt protected as he put his arm around me and bounced me on his knee.

Time went by…situations changed. My father married and eventually divorced again, after which I left home. A decade later I was introduced to work in the movie business. It was natural to me as dad had been a producer and I got a job in production accounting.

When the day came to be promoted from assistant to key accountant, the studio of that day sent me off on location. The film was 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2' ...and Dennis Hopper was one of its stars.

As most everyone does, he eventually came by the accounting office to say ‘hi,’ get his per diem and sign paperwork. Thanking him for his cooperation, I gave him regards from the step-mother.

He fixed me with a stare. “What…?" A beat... "NO!” He stood up, plainly horrified, holding his hand out at just under waist-high. “But you’re…you were…” 

He turned around and left.

Days later we came across each other on set. He looked at me with definite pleasure...and maybe even something close to pride. “I just never knew you were going to grow up.” He hugged me and I hugged him back – the years melted away and I was again protected in the warmth of his regard.

The world will miss Dennis Hopper – the actor, the friend, the patron of the arts and the all too human person. Personally, I will miss him for his honesty...and his simple acts of kindness.

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