Mystery Chart #19, Revealed!

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft

The wiki article is quite informative. I'd like to thank everyone who participated. Many of you had sharp delineations, which I feel strengthens the accuracy of the birth time. That time comes directly from the subject, and I don't know if there is any other corroborating evidence, so it could stand some rectification, but nothing too radical.

It would be interesting to continue to play around with the chart, now knowing who it is and having a timeline of events to use. Yes, it is the dreaded "hindsight", but then again astrologers are supposed to be in possession of knowledge of the past as well as the capacity to predict the future.

4
I've not read any of his stuff but going by wiki then this 12th house unaspected Mercury articulating the tight Moon Uranus conjunction is interesting.

''Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality and the abyss''.


There's a case here to put the time at 8.55 to enable Mars to go into the 3rd even though it takes Mercury away from forming a sextile with the MC.

Co-incidenntal conundrum as we have just been chatting about this before the cusp in the next house idea.

5
Sadly I knew who it was from the basic data so I wasn't able to play and I didn't feel like pretending to be brilliant! :wink:

Some very astute comments on the thread I agree.

Anyway, another biography on HP Lovecraft. The wikipedia commentary seems utterly obsessed about Lovecraft's discrminatory views on other ethnicities. http://www.hplovecraft.com/life/biograph.asp

One thing nobody mentioned in the thread that I think is quite interesting is that Lovecraft has the fixed star Algorab in close proximity to that prominent Venus. Algorab is in the constellation of Corvus the Crow. According to Ptolemy it is of the nature of Saturn and Mars. This star has an association with death and was on the ascendant of the Twin Towers event chart. In Babylonian belief this constellation was known as the Raven and symbolised the bird carrying the souls into the underworld. A nice link considering the macabre and supernatural themes Lovecraft wrote about.

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

6
I am confident that his unlived life was that of a thief and embezzler. :) Who knows how many potential lives we may have waiting inside.

When writing up my delineation it was banging around in my head that I was maybe ignoring Saturn at my peril. Consideration of almutens seems to be often by-passed. I get the impression that they are somewhat looked down upon as an Arabic invention, an idea fueled by the recent attention given to Hellenistic astrology. Some folks don't seem to like the idea of adding them up with a weighted system. But in this case Saturn is the ASC almuten through exaltation, triplicity and face. Saturn's state of entering combustion (and I'm sure he's fighting it) is so much more important in light of the fact that Saturn relates directly to the temperament and vitality of the native through the ASC. He's also the almuten of the 1st house Moon and Venus. Just as several members considered the importance on the early home life of Saturn as IC ruler, I now realize that I should have listened to that voice and worked with Saturn as the almuten of the ASC and the 1st house planets.

So, Mercury is extremely important in this chart after all. We hear so often that planets need to be in a position where they can act if they are going to have power and influence. Sure, Mercury has a lot of potential with essential dignity by domicile, exaltation and face. But ruling and located in the cadent 12th, and ruling the cadent 9th? It gives the impression of a lot of potential gone to waste. I think I was correct in granting importance to the fact that Mercury was located in the house it ruled. Perhaps being located near the Placidus cusp of that house gives Mercury more prominence and strength. But the key to Mercury's importance, I think, is the fact that he is the ruler and almuten (rulership, exaltation and term) of Saturn, the ASC almuten. Mercury gets a strong connection to the Ascendant. Saturn and Mercury are too far apart for conjunction within orb, but Mercury is at home in Virgo with Saturn as visitor, so Saturn is able to shout over to his host for a bit of help with the combustion problem. Mercury starts writing.

Mercury writes about 12th house hidden and dark areas. Another link to such matters would be through Venus as the 8th house ruler. Several of us talked about 8th house issues of death and the resources of others, but I don't remember anyone bringing up the other traditional 8th house matter: fears. There's more to the 8th than death and money, and it looks like he kept himself busy with it.

7
Hello all,

Yuzuru, thanks! Did it for the original, totally forgot about linking back there from this one.

Margherita,

?Ph?nglui mglw?nafh Cthulhu R?lyeh wgah?nagl fhtagn.? :D

Just don't break loose from the bounds of sanity looking at it ...

Tarnia,

One of the things I thought was interesting was that both Mercury and Saturn cast their antiscia into Aries, thus, in a way, opposing the Asc, Venus, & the Moon.

Admittedly I'm one of those people who doesn't much use divisional houses ...

Mark,

Oh that's why you didn't play!

Yes, it seems quite a bit of the wiki article is lifted from Joshi's. I picked up his Lovecraft bio, quite detailed.

Any fixed stars named after giant anthro-cephopods? :D

Kirk,

Well, being exalted lord of Libra, Saturn should have a significant say already without resorting to the Indo-Arabic modification of Ptolemy's innovation. Plus, in the translation of Book of Aristole, part of Dr. Dykes' Persian Nativities series, exaltations are refered to as kingdoms, which I think helps to better characterize that relationship.

8
It seems that I had several things completely wrong. Now I have a look at his picture in the Wikipedia article, I doubt whether he could be called good looking (a thing I was almost certain of because of his Venus on the Ascendant).

As a man I may not be capable to judge about another man's looks so perhaps the female participants over here could judge about him being handsome yes or no.

9
GR wrote: Well, being exalted lord of Libra, Saturn should have a significant say already without resorting to the Indo-Arabic modification of Ptolemy's innovation. Plus, in the translation of Book of Aristole, part of Dr. Dykes' Persian Nativities series, exaltations are refered to as kingdoms, which I think helps to better characterize that relationship.
I agree, here Saturn is very important. The usual scheme of significators of the mind, like this it's easier to see which planets are stronger :
Image
I included the Ascendant, because many Renaissance authors do. It's quite logic for me, because temperament should have some influence on mind.

Please notice that Moon and Mercury have no aspect between them, so he could suffer some mental problem, or depression, but Venus keeps them together, it is a way out. Venus is very well placed in this chart, mitigates Saturn which is very strong , it is the almuten of the chart, and gives the temperament too.

Saturn and Venus when both let's say not armonic ;) are not very nice to meet, I believe, here they find some composition- even if a little unusual, considering Lovecraft's style.

margherita
Last edited by margherita on Fri May 21, 2010 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Traditional astrology at
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11
Hi Gr
What orb are you allowing for antiscia?

I think Saturn is more relevant here than it immediately seems as he was someone who produced, he has no water or much earth by sign so we can deduce he's fundamentally living in his head not his body. Plus he had this short and painful relationship with his father, as others have noted it rules the IC, as well as having no harmonious aspects.

Marks article mentions his 'precocious' prodigious output from a young age which I imagine is due to Mars forming an opposition with Pluto in the 8th, as here Pluto is delineated as tending to compulsive behaviours, and Mars is presumably what's getting him to put his ideas to paper with such apparent energy.

12
Hello all,

Eddy,

Well, everything in his face is well-proportioned, how about that? :D

Margherita,

Yes, it does help to see what is going on. I avoid the calculation, and my concern is the temptation to substitute arithmetic with judgment, though also the procedure itself reduces all lordships to simply degrees of the same, and I don't believe that is true. I admit to over-reliance on the math in the past. You just use it as a starting point, then you have to judge the planets accordingly.

Herman,

lol, well enjoy and do post anything interesting.

Tarnia,

I don't really focus on the degree of the antiscion and am not sure if that is the most important part of it, more that the sign into which the planet casts its shadow is given import as relating to the planet's actions. But, in the example that comes to mind from Firmicus Maternus' Mathesis, he does allow the degrees to the antiscia to receive a planet's rays and judges accordingly.