A Tale of Two Missionaries
Zip Dobyns
The Pisces 1978 issue of The Mutable Dilemma included an analysis of the horoscope of Ram Dass, a modern missionary of the Counter Culture who moved from the expansion of consciousness through drugs to become a devotee of a Hindu Guru, and a missionary for eastern thought. In this issue of The Mutable Dilemma we offer two other proselytizers who might be considered opposite sides of the same coin. Note that all three of these individuals have a Sun in Aries; Uranus in the 10th house; and Jupiter connected to personal identity and self-will in action. Ram Dass has Jupiter conjunct the Ascendant from the 12th house. Madelyn O’Hair has Jupiter in the first house. Anita Bryant has Jupiter in Aries in addition to Aries in the 9th house. One obvious interpretation of Jupiter connected to letter one of the astrological alphabet would be “I have personally found the Truth and will teach it to you.” Uranus in the 10th house adds the willingness to upset the establishment and change the laws, if necessary, to implement the vision, and the Sun in Aries suggests the leadership, courage, initiative, power to take on the world. Depending on whether we agree with the truth and wisdom of their vision, it is awe inspiring or terrifying to watch a crusader in action.
Anita Bryant’s name will be recognized by most readers as the singer who campaigned against homosexuality, and led the retreat from liberal laws that protected the rights of consenting adults to choose a partner of the same sex. Her initial expressed concern was that homosexual teachers might influence children to emulate them, but the struggle rapidly generalized with the implication that any exposure to affection between members of the same sex might somehow convert impressionable children. It would seem that heterosexuality is a fragile flower to require so much protection from exposure to an alternative. The arena of controversy soon expanded to include a general attack on ideas which were considered in conflict with fundamental Christianity. The Bible supports male supremacy, so the Women’s Liberation Movement became a target. Anita asserted that California was hospitable to a variety of anti-Christian religious cults and that the California drought was God’s punishment for its sins. The message became more and more clear. “Unless you believe as I believe, you are damned, and if God does not immediately smite you, at least I will try to see that the law of the land blocks you from your evil ways.”
What would we expect in the horoscope of a missionary? Certainly one theme would be a focus on the search for absolutes, letters nine and twelve (Jupiter, Sagittarius, 9th house and Neptune, Pisces, 12th house) but connected to letter one (Mars, Aries, 1st house). “I know the absolute and take action guided by that knowledge.” Alone, these combinations might simply be personal idealism, so we would need to add a major emphasis on power (fixed planets, signs, and houses) to show the personal, persisting will and potential for power struggles with others if the person is to extend their personal commitment into interactions with the world. And for the struggle to reach the LAW, letter ten would have to be brought in (Saturn, Capricorn, 10th house). Billy Graham’s chart offers the themes listed except that his tenth house is only recently beginning to be activated by progressions. If letter ten were totally earth and/or water, we would expect the individual described by the chart to simply defend the status quo, so fire or letter eleven (Uranus, Aquarius, 11th house) should also be involved for the urge to change the law. Any of the fire letters (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius, and their rulers and natural houses) may be the key to the urge to change things. The essence of fire is “Now I’ve done that. What else can I do?”
One other theme would also make psychological sense—some variety of personal insecurity. This is the opposite of the “I know the Truth” concept, yet often accompanies it in the complexity of a human being. And it offers the unconscious urgency to push harder in the missionary effort. One obvious example of such a struggle is an unconscious fear that we might, after all, be wrong in our concept of the Truth. Of course the more people we can persuade to agree with us, the more we are reassured that we are right. If the LAW supports us, that is still more impressive evidence of our accuracy and assures that our position will be protected. The keys to psychological insecurity include a heavy emphasis on water (planets, signs, houses) or letter ten (Saturn, Capricorn, tenth house) unless the individual is expressing the nurturant side or water and occupies a power position for letter 10. The dependency side of water invites a sense of impotence, helplessness, and vulnerability. Another common key to self-doubt is the placement of Mars, Aries, or the rulers of any sign in the first house in the seventh or eighth signs or houses, especially in the houses. Such a placement is equivalent to putting our own identity, our right and power to do what we please, into the hands of others. We may give in, fight to get the power back, or run away from the confrontation, until we learn to share the power in teamwork and compromise, to engage in healthy competition in sports, games, or business, and to use our power to help others.
[Note: this chart was run for a slightly different time based on later data.]
Anita’s chart clearly fits this theoretical description of a potential missionary. Both Sun and Mercury (rulers of Leo and Virgo in the first house) are in the eighth house, the Sun in the sign Aries, a natural key to personal power. Anita is obviously trying to work out the issue of sharing power with others, and the message is repeated by the Scorpio Moon and the nodes of the Moon across Aries-Libra. Remember there are three healthy ways to interact in the confrontation of our power and that of equal-others. We can cooperate, compete in appropriate ways, or help people who are weaker than ourselves. Theoretically, both cooperation and competition occur with peers, including marriage partners. Anita’s faith requires that she be subordinate in the marriage, and she has remarked in interview that this has been a very difficult role for her to maintain. In view of the drive for independence and power shown in her chart, it is no wonder she finds it a struggle and seeks to force other women to share her submission and reaffirm the validity of her position. She seeks to solve her personal power struggle by submitting to men and competing with anyone who disagrees with her beliefs, aided by the conviction that she is in this way helping others to find God’s will and be saved.
If her beliefs were really true, her actions would be a beautiful solution to her personal dilemma of immense drive for power combined with feelings that she is or ought to be less powerful than her mate. Are there clues in the chart that suggest her convictions might need a cautious second look? Saturn and the south node of the Moon are the two major keys in a chart that indicate a lesson of some sort. Saturn symbolizes the LAW, from natural law, to cultural regulations, to authority figures who enforce the rules, to our own conscience and guilt. Once we have learned and internalized the limits, learned and are voluntarily manifesting what we can do, and what we have to do, and not attempting what we can’t do, there is no problem with letter ten. In fact, once we have learned to work with the reality of the culture and the world, letter ten becomes our profession, our own handling of power, our status or role in society. Gauquelin found Saturn most often in the 9th house in the charts of Scientists whose profession involved a search for the Truth, many of them professors who offered their version of truth to students. Many of them were also, unquestionably, committed to a materialistic philosophy of highly dubious validity, with Saturn still symbolizing their need to look more carefully at the issue of ultimates. Do we ever know final truth? Letter nine is fire, the urge to keep moving on, discovering more. Premature crystallization of theories is one danger of Saturn connected to letter nine. Or the Saturn lesson may be lack of faith, or misplaced faith.
The Moon’s nodes are always opposite each other, calling for integration of the sign and house polarities into a working partnership which does justice to both ends. The Aries-Libra polarity requires an integration of personal will in action with the will and action of others; personal desires are to be harmonized with a sense of justice that sees both sides of issues, believes in fair play, and does not interfere with the rights of others. The nodes across the 3rd and 9th houses (or in Gemini-Sagittarius) require that the capacity to understand the world around us and communicate that understanding be integrated with the beliefs one holds about ultimate truth, reality, morality etc. Although the south node is more the “lesson” end of the house-sign polarities, the goal is a harmonious blend of both ends. All astrological oppositions are natural partnerships which need each other. To neglect either end is to risk repression, (total blockage which can lead to illness), projection (attracting others who do the neglected part of ourselves to excess), or displacement (the avoided part of the self comes out in the wrong place in life where its lack of fit creates problems). A variation on the total repression which leads to some form of physical breakdown is to express the unfaced part of the nature unconsciously. The person can become totally dominated by that part of the life while consciously denying that it exists in his/her nature.
We note that in Anita’s chart, the south node is conjunct Jupiter (co-ruler of Pisces in the 7th and 8th houses), Saturn (co-ruler of Aquarius on the 7th cusp), and Juno (natural ruler of Libra, the key to partners). With all of these keys to a partner in the 9th house in addition to the Mercury in Pisces in the 8th house, she is clearly in danger of turning the partner into God. This could express as a search for a perfect partner and consequent disillusion, or it could support her religious conviction that she must be subject to him as a superior being. His beliefs would then be true and take precedence over hers. So we have the contradictory potentials so often found in complex human nature—both the dangers of Aries south node as part of the lesson. On the one hand, she is having to learn not to put her own will on others in her religious convictions while at the same time she is trying to learn to recover her independence in the relationship with her husband. She is expressing both the dangers of the Aries south node in different places; over-drive in religious zeal against people who hold different beliefs, and lack of independence and self-assertion where her husband is concerned. A fascinating non-solution to the lesson of the south node.
If we conclude that Anita has a lesson in the area of faith that is connected to her interrelationships with others, then the obvious power drive in the chart shows this will be more than just a personal struggle. A heavy emphasis on letter ten (Saturn, Capricorn, or the 10th house) may lead to self-blocking (if the power is seen in the world) or to some form of over-drive (if the power is internalized). The more fire and earth in a chart (signs or houses occupied or planets strongly aspected), the more we can deduce some form of over-drive. Next to fire and earth, emphasis on letter eight is likely to lead to attempts to control the situation. The primary goal of letter eight (Pluto, Scorpio, and the 8th house) is self-knowledge and self-mastery, but the danger of using that immense and enduring will to master others for personal security is present if the person’s faith is shaky. Remember that Saturn and south node in the 9th house can mean a lack of faith behind the apparent zeal.
In Anita’s chart we have the fixed squares and oppositions so characteristic of power struggles—Saturn-Pluto-Moon in fixed signs as well as the Leo Ascendant square the Taurus stellium in the 10th house. Personal active participation in the power contest is increased when Mars, Aries, and/or rulers of the 1st house are tied into the fixed squares, and letter ten includes the law on some level, rules, power figures, or conscience. Adding Uranus to the 10th house stellium suggests the potential for changing the rules or challenging the power figures, and Vesta in a strong position adds an over-intensity to the picture, a kind of total commitment to what the individual sees as her “work” in the world. Of course this intensity shows in many ways in the chart, including the weakness in air, with only the north node in an air sign plus some activity in two air houses.
There are many constructive arenas for power struggles, including competitive professions. Anita’s choice of the entertainment field is highly suitable for her Taurus emphasis with its potential for singing further emphasized by the Venus trine to Neptune, one geocentric node of Venus exactly on the descendant and the other exactly opposite the Moon. Her part of Fortune in Pisces opposite Neptune may suggest past-life talents associated either with the arts (music) or with religious concerns. The prominence of letter twelve in her chart is further emphasized by the geocentric south node of Neptune and the Arabic Part “Ascendant plus Neptune minus Sun” both conjunct Anita’s West Point hence opposite her East Point. I read the East Point and the Antivertex as auxiliary ascendants, so the Neptune points are similar (though less strong) to Neptune on the Descendant. Factors conjunct the Vertex, West Point, or Descendant, like those in the 7th or 8th house, symbolize the parts of ourselves we discover through relationships with others. It is always important to guard against projection of our own powers into others or imposition of our own nature on others when dealing with these angles or houses/signs. True competition is between peers and includes the potential for winning some contests and losing some. But when we bring the law into the picture, we are operating on a different level. Letter twelve can be artist, savior, or victim. Anita is managing to be a bit of all three; the Neptunian flavor of her current life emphasized by her progressed Ascendant conjunct Neptune; her progresses Midheaven square Neptune; her progressed Moon in Pisces.
There is always more to say on a horoscope, but space and time run out. Mars conjunct Uranus is, or course, often associated with revolutionaries who may turn the clock forwards or backwards. If supported by other factors, Pallas in the 11th house can indicate a fighter for social causes. Its square to the nodes of the Moon adds to the cardinality which supports fixed squares as keys to a power struggle life, and the south nodes of Jupiter and Pluto make a grand cross of the package. The fixed cross of Saturn-Pluto-Moon is simultaneously in the mutable houses, giving us the mutable dilemma which may indicate head goals at war with heart goals; conscious beliefs and ultimate desires at war with unconscious ones; traditional ruts at war with expansive urges toward growth and change, or many other variations.
Perhaps enough has been said to give some of the flavor of a very dramatic life, fully fitting the Leo Ascendant, with the powerful Aries-Taurus (I will do what I please and get what I enjoy) turned into absolute values and the law of the world by placement in the 9th and 10th houses. Consciously, she deeply believes in what she is doing. The unconscious is another story. Much of it is apparently being projected into her husband and her opponents in the power struggles.
[Note: this chart was run for a different time type based on later data.]
Our other missionary is Madelyn O’Hair, the militant atheist who fought her way to the Supreme Court to have prayer banned in schools. Again, the starting point was ostensibly to protect her children against some kind of pernicious influence. Note that Anita has Ceres, the earth mother, in the first house to show her identification with the mother role, while Madelyn has Cancer, sign of home and motherhood, in the first house. But in contrast to the conservative Saturn in Taurus in the 9th house of Anita, Madelyn has Aquarius ruling her 9th, showing her readiness to go beyond tradition and convention. Uranus, one of the rulers of the 9th, is conjunct the Midheaven, connecting her beliefs with the Law (My belief is or should be Law) while the other (Saturn) opposes the MC, and Jupiter, (the natural ruler of the 9th) is semi-square or octile Saturn. The stage is set for an inner struggle over final truth and a great many people simply externalize such a struggle into some form of conflict with others over the issues. Jupiter in the first house asserts the individual’s identity with the search for final truth; Pluto conjunct Jupiter emphasizes the enduring will and need for personal control that can be used to defend her personal Truth and Values; the Aries stellium in the 11th house, including Mercury and Mars, natural and actual rulers of the first house identity in action, show the self-confidence and courage to fight the world if necessary. There is very little of Anita’s need to struggle against giving the power away. Only Madelyn’s Moon in Libra shows her possible vulnerability to others, and its position in the Leo house can usually take the power back unless the individual projects it into children or other loved ones. Here, the placement of most of the chart factors in the signs and houses of personal needs or transpersonal concerns indicates little danger of “giving the power away” in the interpersonal area. Religious teachers are not to be allowed to put their will on her children, but her will can be imposed on the children of others (Aries in the 11th house), for their own good, of course. Like Anita, she does believe in what she is doing. They are genuine crusaders. Whether we approve of their convictions is another matter.
Note that Madelyn’s readiness for a contest with others is repeated by the geocentric south node of Mars exactly on her Descendant, and the node’s position in Sagittarius connects the fight to faith. Her intense commitment to her own, self-chosen “work” is shown by the geocentric north node of Vesta on her Ascendant. The geocentric north node of Mercury conjunct her Mars repeats the message of Mercury in Aries; the possession of the “mind of the debater and the tongue like a sword.” But is her faith as secure as she thinks? Her Sagittarius in the 6th house (the details of work) and Pisces in the 10th house (status, role, power, career in the larger sense) show her urge to be professional savior. She is saving the world from what she considers to be unscientific superstitions about any power or life beyond the material world. But Saturn co-rules her 9th house, showing lessons in the area of ultimate principles, and the south node of the Moon is in the 12th house which symbolizes the search for the emotional absolute and final mystical oneness with the whole. She is not about to give up her self-will and ego (Aries and Leo), yet Saturn squares Venus in the 12th house, and Jupiter (natural ruler of both letter 9 and 12), is semi-square or octile both Saturn and Venus. As in Anita’s chart, we have fixed sign squares in mutable houses, Pallas-Venus-Saturn and Neptune square the Vertex axis, in addition to the Moon’s nodes square Uranus and Ceres in mutable signs and houses. The tendency to a power struggle in the area of faith, beliefs, ultimates, is clear enough, and again the inner struggle has been externalized to precipitate a struggle with the world, while Saturn and the south node call for a second and third look at the premises asserted as absolutes. Also note that where Anita has her south node in Aries, connecting the lesson to personal will and action in the area of absolutes (9th house), Madelyn has her south node conjunct the East Point, an auxiliary Ascendant signifying personal will and action, in this case in the 12th house so still connected to absolutes.
Madelyn is a more abrasive personality, with her minimal concern for or awareness of the feelings of others in inter-personal relationships. Anita’s ambivalence about submission has led her to use the traditional female technique of seduction rather than a naked power confrontation. One key to this basic difference in tactics in their style of interactions with others can be seen in the planetary nodes on their Descendants; Mars for Madelyn and Venus for Anita. But they are still sisters under the skin, in spite of their vast differences. Two sides of a coin. Take another look at your beliefs, Anita and Madelyn.