SIGN LANGUAGE No.4

How To Be Famous

(To view charts relating to the text, click on the red links)

I remember when David Icke was just a local sports presenter on TV at teatime. I don’t know if his fame has spread to Europe, the States or the Far East, but now in the UK his name is synonymous with Aquarian turquoise, defiant New Age teaching, healing on the footie field, and a scandal over the non-PC implications of karma for the ‘differently abled’. Ah me!

What happened? Well, he got to be born on the right day at the right place. Please note I said ‘day’ not time. And now you are thinking, “but not everyone born on April 29th 1952 was heading for the limelight, let alone appearing in the tabloids as a famous loony!” No - but the potential was heightened on that day and specifically around the 52N38  latitude of Leicester, because the Moon, strong in Cancer, nearly square an Aries Mercury and less than 2 degrees ̊from Uranus, almost perfectly opposed Chiron at her culmination, at the same moment as Saturn came onto the Ascendant. This is a day and a place with a passion for unorthodox teaching - and no sense of humour!

These coincident angularities first caught my eye way back in the 1980s; my name for them was the “Associate Angles”. Later the older term “Paranatellonta” was brought to my attention and its shortening to “Parans”. When key planets occupy angles simultaneously at a given latitude their combined energies freely express in the outer world through individuals and through events. To be famous, you have to express yourself not only distinctively but so as to grab the world’s attention; to be famous for more than 15 minutes, the planets that find themselves on angles together in your home town on your day must be less fleeting than the Moon; to be really, really famous you also need these powerful Parans in your natal chart.

And here is the quandary - where are they??? All of us have looked up a favourite celebrity expecting to find the glamour and pizzazz of Sun with Jupiter and/or the outer planets illumining Meridian or Horizon, and been sorely disappointed. Let me show you where they are. They are hiding!... but not very far away.

David Icke was actually born with the current Venus-Jupiter conjunction setting. But that gift of grace alone is not enough. That maverick missionary lunar Grand Cross needs outlet along angles - and here it is: at 19h15 BST the tropical Moon/Uranus-Chiron sits perfectly on his Sidereal MC-IC, and his Sidereal Aries Sun picks up the cross through a conjunction  to tropical Mercury. Every public interview has been a verbal battle! ... Because the Sidereal takes us out into the public realm and forges the Personality that is often all that the viewer, the fan, the client or the subordinate gets to see. Without an angular Sun or Moon, there can be no personal celebrity. (And this is surely one reason why throughout history great leaders and teachers have typically had their births recorded as at noon, midnight, sunrise or sunset. Interestingly and appropriately, when the moment of precise conjunction between the Moon’s true Node and the Spring Equinox in 5BC revealed the nativity of Jesus, he too was born under a Sun setting with Jupiter in coelo.)

Twice on David Icke’s birthday when the Sun - opposed to Mars - was rising and at the IC, the Moon/Uranus-Chiron was angular, first on the IC, and then setting. Twice again, when the Sun met the Midheaven and the Descendant, Pluto and the South Node rose, and then culminated. David’s Sidereal ASC at 0̊Libra linked with the essential 0̊Libra position of the Draconic South Node. He threw himself with abandon into his extraordinary mission and has hardly looked back.

Now we see what is going on, does it hold true for other popular gurus, and the famous in other walks of life?

Another David - David Koresh - was born on 17th August 1959, the day Sun squared Jupiter, and drew that great planet close to the IC and ASC at Houston at sunrise and noon. Opposite the Sun was Chiron the maverick messiah again, and the fateful Moon’s nodes lay along his birth horizon. Again 0̊Libra rises! This time tropical. And humourless Saturn angular again, this time weighing down the radix IC at 8h49 am. Draconically we find another echo of Icke: Uranus is right on his Moon, while the Moon conjoins Mercury. As Koresh’s Draconic Sun contradicts his tropical from Aquarius, he was spiritually driven to beat a different drum; but what will be seared into public memory is the Sidereal Moon conjunct Mercury and Venus/Mars on his Leo Sun - the grainy videos of the self-appointed preacher, the naive, doomed families he seduced, and the terrible, promised fire that engulfed them all before our eyes.

Of our most respected - indeed loved - church leaders Desmond Tutu is of particular interest. I have no birth time for him, but again the parans are striking. Not only does transforming, empowering Pluto exactly set at Klerksdorp, SA as the Sun culminates on October 7th 1931, but his setting Sun in its cardinal Grand Cross with SaturnMC mirrors the Aries Sun/Cancer Saturn square at the sunset lunar eclipse of Christ’s crucifixion on April 3rd 33 AD. Here is just one example to show that not only do the parans invite fame, but these solar charts also disclose the sphere in which that fame may be found. If for instance you look at Nelson Mandela’s SunMC chart (born July 18th 1918, Umtata, South Africa), although this has no parans, its ruling Mars is in the 12th house - and his fame began with that long imprisonment on Robben island for militant conspiracy against the apartheid regime. Mandela, with Sun setting as that Mars rode the Midheaven, continued to fight from a position of power for his country and the welfare of his neighbour. The 14th Dalai Lama, also an exile, has non-violently endured invasion and attack by open enemies on his country and culture, and shares with the South African leader a Sun/Mars paran - this time from IC to Descendant. You see how the angular placements here precisely outline the circumstances writing these lives into history.

I would like to return to further walkers on the spiritual wild side - but there is no space here. So before leaving this rarefied air, let me waft you a refreshingly sweet breeze. Here is the chart of the Indian avatar, Mother Meera. I wish I knew where I put the book in which I found her 2am birth-time! It’s by Andrew Harvey, who later angrily denounced her. This is her Helio chart - essential in testing the integrity of any mentor or exemplar. And it’s lovely, with the setting Venus at Delhi, and harmonious symmetry of midpoints to the Earth-Mars conjunction.  Back on Earth, her birthday on December 26th 1960 was graced with three really powerful angular Moons, twice with Jupiter firmly on the Meridian and one at her sunrise. In the Sidereal, public version of her chart we see the spiritual teacher we recognise, with a Sagittarian Sun and a Pisces Moon. A doubly angular Sun means her cult is assured - Sidereal Sun lights the IC and Draconic Sun crowns the MC. Transformative love at the service of humanity pours from Aquarian Venus on the Draconic MC and Draconic Venus with Pluto and the Moon’s North Node.
Why did Andrew desert her? Although I have no time or place for him, look what happens in Delhi on his birthdate of  June 9th 1952 when we move his early Capricorn Moon to exact conjunction with her Sun. It is approaching the IC - and a tightly angular T-square of UranusMC-ChironIC-SaturnASC, an intractable emotional block that undoes all the spiritual goodwill of his Gemini Mercury/Sun/Venus on song with the outer planets. He needed a Mother - then needed to throw her away.

Saturn in paran or interdimensional alignment with the Sun means that with fame comes responsibility. In secular life, to really enjoy the fruits of your celebrity it helps instead to find Jupiter here! Lucky old Lloyd-Webber - Sir Andrew’s birthday on March 22nd 1948 had that Great Benefic on the MC at sunrise; and then he was born at 4pm, Moonrise in Westminster, with starry tropical-draconic alignments of Aries Sun on MC and Venus, and Leo Moon/ASC with Neptune. (Data to me from his Mum.) How’s that for creative enterprise? The culmination of his Sun puts its ruler and the related ASC-ruler the Moon together in the 2nd house in Leo. Getting on with what he came to do and selling the public a banquet for the senses has made Andrew Lloyd-Webber very, very rich.

You won’t be surprised, then, to find that another prosperous entertainer has similar patterns - Bob Geldof (behind whom I have queued in Tesco’s occasionally) was always destined for public performance with a Sagittarius Moon rising as the Libra Sun found the MC. (‘Ole Blue-Eyes’, Frank Sinatra, has the same paran with Sag. Sun and Pisces Moon) Aries  Jupiter fell close to the IC at the same time. This rules the chart; and Bob has become as known for the dramas in his private life as for his career. However, opposite Jupiter is Saturn, near the Sun in the 9th house. How can this man, in his time of success, ignore the plight of the world’s poor? His birth chart for 14h20 BST in Dublin on October 5th 1951 brings this insistent, spiritually-driven and life-changing vision fully into play by placing the draconic Saturn-Jupiter axis firmly on his meridian with the Scorpio Sun close by and a generous, mobile late Sag. Moon with Chiron close to his Ascendant. “Feed the World”, indeed!

And then there’s the King - Elvis. The culmination of his Sun on January 8th 1935 in Tupelo, Missouri, coincided with Uranus rising in Aries to bring an amazing new energy into popular culture. His reputation was hugely enhanced by his refusing to dodge the draft and letting the ruling 6th-house Mars take him into the armed services. It is the exuberant, smouldering, public Presley whose voice and image have left their trace in every corner of the globe; so it is the Sidereal chart that holds centre stage at 04h35 CST, with a Sagittarian (‘the Pelvis’) Sun, Scorpio Ascendant conjoined by Jupiter (‘the Pelvis’ again) and his sensitive Pisces Moon angular to the Sidereal IC. Elvis’ home and mementos have become a shrine; legions of fans still make their pilgrimage to Graceland.

Other favourite folk with Sun/Jupiter parans are Ringo Starr, Sean Connery, Prince William (at birth!), Charlie Chaplin, Dolly Parton, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna (a double paran), Michael Palin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Peter Sellers. Diana Ross has Moon/Jupiter. So has the spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti. Many of the foregoing also enjoy the extra publicity of Sun/Moon on associate angles. In some cases it has almost been rags to riches ... but the reverse for poor Mozart, whose Jupiter enriched his IC as the Sun set, bringing wealthy patronage that often evaporated under the rising Neptune and Saturn near the Sun. He continued to ‘take dictation from angels’ until his soul left his death-bed.

If you are a ruler, then the profile absolutely has to be high. The birth chart will usually begin to point this out - witness our Queen’s ASC-ruler on her Midheaven - but that strong Sun can go unaccountably missing until we explore elsewhere. Ah, here is the true Queen!... as her Taurus Sun crowns the London meridian, the Leo Moon rises - and of course the Leo Ascendant-ruler is that crowning Sun. At sunrise on April 21st 1926 (joined by Chiron, with much to endure) Pluto is right at the IC. People with Pluto/Sun parans have a lot of clout! (But see later...) Then at sunset when Elizabeth’s Moon is on the MC it is part of a strong angular alignment with Neptune, Mars and Jupiter, reinforcing her wealth, charisma and power. These may compensate for the dominant theme in her nativity at 02h40 BST: the Moon’s South Node rises, and she can never call her life her own. That Scorpio Saturn/MC, aligned from the dominant public Sidereal chart with her Taurus Sun, places the heaviest of burdens on her shoulders; and with her Draconic Sun in Capricorn conjunct the Sun of her country, she is so  spiritually identified with her destiny that she can never lay it down. Just before we move on, take a look at one of Princess Diana’s patterns - she also has Sun/Pluto/Chiron parans at sunrise. No wonder the power struggle brought such suffering and tragedy.

Not quite a queen, but the nearest the USA gets to royalty, was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, later Jackie Onassis. Like the Queen, she was born with the South Node rising, set for a karmic life. True to form, Sun and Moon coincide on angles - the wifely Moon is enthroned on the Midheaven as the Sun her husband rises. As it is in Leo, the ASC-ruler is on the Ascendant, and thus totally identified with her leading man she finds fame through high-profile marriage (twice!) As we have come to expect, across the zodiacs her birth Sun at 14h30 EDT on July 28th 1929 in Southampton, NY was doubly on angles: the Leo Sun conjunct her sidereal MC/Neptune, and the sidereal Cancer Sun on her Draconic MC/Neptune. Add to this the sidereal Moon in Aries on her draconic 7th and you have a very glamorous First Lady.

Her rival for the heart of shipping magnate Aristotle Socrates Onassis was the celebrated diva Maria Callas (born December 2nd 1923 in New York at 7h07 am.) Hers was an extraordinary gift - and just like the King of a totally different music, she was born with a Sun-Uranus paran, on IC and Descendant. Her legendary status is seen everywhere in her charts - Sun MC as Neptune sets, Moon MC as Sun and Jupiter embrace the Ascendant, Moon Ascending with Mercury - her voice - at the IC, Moon setting as Venus crowns her sky. Her physical and vocal beauty are her glory not only in this last pattern but also its fulfilment at the time of her birth - sidereal Venus graces her Ascendant and tropical Venus her draconic 7th . But just like Jackie, when her Moon culminates, the ruler of the ASC and Sun (Jupiter) conjoins them, throwing all her deepest identity eggs into one basket. With Aries Chiron on her passionate draconic Moon, she never was free of the pain of losing Onassis to Jackie; she had invested herself in him too deeply, and died alone, clinging to her memories.

Rarely out of the limelight and still high-profile several years since his US presidency is William Jefferson Clinton. We have two birth times for him on August 19th 1946 in Hope, Arkansas, the accepted one giving a Libra Ascendant, the other favouring Leo. The latter has been in my file for more years than I can remember, and pre-dates the propagation of the former, so I very much favour the Leo ASC chart of 03h44 CST because we acquired it before his political protection measures were in place. And it behaves itself! - the Sidereal Sun (still Leo) aligns tightly with the Ascendant at the same time as the Sidereal Moon in Aries conjoins the MC, right opposite angular Jupiter. This of course fulfils the promise of his sunrise chart with its culminating Moon; and this dominant political animal with his idealistic social agenda and desire to broker peace shines brightly under the MC Sun, Mars, ruling its Ascendant, with Neptune in Libra in the 11th. At the same time, the Moon sets in Taurus, and here with him enthroned is Hilary!

His replacement in the White House, George ‘Dubbya’ Bush (on July 6th 1946 just 44 days older than Bill Clinton) shares with his predecessor an early Leo Ascendant and Jupiter at the IC. And here’s another 11th-house ASC-ruler of the SunMC chart! This is fulfilled by his Draconic Aries Sun which conjoins the Tropical MC, and this time it’s the Sidereal Ascendant that meets the Tropical Cancer Sun. These combined energies make this man not a peace-broker but a patriot and a fighter. You can see in the differences Clinton’s left and Bush’s right wing bias.

The dark side of fame is notoriety. You will find little sign of Jupiter here; the parans of the paranoid and the vicious are heavier going. These are people burdened with Saturn’s gravity, Pluto’s destructiveness, Chiron’s pain, Mars’ adrenalin or Neptune’s delusions with no defence except attack. Irresponsible, unregenerate, cowardly and deceptive, this powerful negativity is turned away from themselves (and any foreseeable hope of redemption) and onto their victims, who bear similar cosmic scars. Gianni Versace is one such renowned victim - at his sundown, with the fateful South Node nearby, the Sun ruled the very cusp of death - the IC, the end of life - and conjoining this was Pluto. Powerful in life; helpless in death. His murderer, the serial killer Andrew Cunanan, has Neptune rising as the Sun culminates, and Mars on the MC as the Virgo Sun sets - and in 18̊ Sagittarius this Mars is in the identical degree to Versace’s Mars! Faced with his ‘enemy’, this man will not hesitate to attack - especially when you see the state of that Mars when it rises on Cunanan’s birthday, August 31st 1969; it coincides with Uranus/MC opposite Chiron/IC. Somehow he finds relief in the surprise inflicting of pain - but how can it last? He repeats it again and again until that pain comes home where it belongs.

Jeffrey Dahmer, born May 21st 1960, consumed his victims. You could call this an act of transformation. This potential is found in the presence of Pluto in Virgo opposite a setting Chiron as the Sun came to the Midheaven in 0̊Gemini. That Sun rules the 12th in this Solar chart, appropriately enough for acts that for years remained a disgusting secret.
Jim Jones, the instigator of the horrific massacre at Jonestown was born on May 13th 1931, a day when, as the Aries (sidereally Pisces - a gullible public) Moon met the MC, Pluto was rising as Saturn set ... trine his Sun/Chiron conjunction in Taurus (but sidereal Aries!) It goes to show, trines don’t necessarily make you a good person!

The obnoxious Ted Bundy was another serial predator. His Sun, culminating on November 24th 1946, brought with it Saturn and Pluto conjunct the Descendant in Leo. This charming, erudite Sagittarian was a sidereal Scorpion. The Ascendant ruler of this solar chart in either zodiac was Saturn on the 7th, and Bundy’s career was obsessively to seduce, rape (with Mars on his draconic 7th), beat and despatch unaccompanied and unwary women. We may possibly deduce from this that Saturn represents blunt trauma, and Mars sharp objects and fire-power. This should show up in the next example ...

Lee Harvey Oswald, born on October 18th 1939 allegedly to assassinate President John F.Kennedy, had Sun opposite Saturn by 4̊. When the Sun was on the meridian, the Capricorn Moon was rising in his birthplace New Orleans; at the IC, Pluto was exactly rising; setting, Moon on the MC and Chiron at the IC by 4̊. This chap wasn’t going to get the sort of publicity or final curtain most people hanker for. But I have to say that strong enough clues that he actually pulled that trigger are not immediately apparent ... I wonder, was he a patsy after all?

There is so much to explore and to learn from in these patterns!

To summarise:
(1) Days when strong parans appear at any given latitude involving Sun and Moon, and/or Sun or Moon and other significant planets, offer to their offspring the possibility, even the promise of fame.
(2) For that promise to be fulfilled, identical, similar or at least supportive alignments must be found in the birth chart itself between any pair of the Tropical, Draconic and Sidereal zodiacs.
The examination of nativities in the light of both conditions (1) and (2) can yield surprising and provocative insights.

You may also find out how to be famous ...

* * * * * * * * * * * *