“Twins” by Birth Date and Place
Zip Dobyns
My thanks to Sonja Foxe, a Chicago subscriber to The Mutable Dilemma, who wrote to me about two men born in Brooklyn, NY on the same day (January 17, 1899) who both became famous in Chicago, Il. Unfortunately, we have no birth time for one man and very dirty data for the other man (three times and two birth dates). But their careers are so strikingly different, I thought it would be fun to do a brief discussion of the planetary patterns, pointing out how differently the astrological symbolism can manifest in life. Of course we have to ignore house positions, and realize that the Moon could vary quite a bit.
Both men have a Capricorn Sun, a combination of the Leo urge to be King with the Capricorn urge to be an Executive. The King feels that his own will should be Law. The Executive carries out the Law which is bigger than personal will. The combination can be very ambitious, climbing to the top of whatever organization becomes their target. Of course, it is also possible to project the power and feel inadequate and helpless or to overdo the drive and hit a stone wall harder than one’s head. The potential for “head meeting wall” is emphasized by the fact that Mars, retrograding in Cancer, opposes the Sun. An Aries Moon makes the opposition into a T-square if either man was born very late in the day or if the man with the questionable data was actually born a day later. Pallas completes a wide cardinal grand cross, enhancing the likelihood of a life concerned with power issues: independence, dependence, equality, and power. The nodes across Cancer-Capricorn also support a concern with dependence versus power, and Mercury in Capricorn adds to the ambition.
Jupiter is sextile-trine the Nodes, and a stellium in Sagittarius includes Uranus, Chiron, Juno, Venus, and Saturn. Pluto and Neptune in Gemini add to the emphasis on the mind. Pluto is closely opposite an exact Venus-Juno conjunction while Neptune is opposite Saturn within three degrees. Combining Venus, a key to Taurus, with Juno, which seems very Scorpio, and Pluto, the presumed ruler of Scorpio, gives us a Taurus-Scorpio issue in the nature, whether it manifests around appetite control or around respect for the rights of others in the handling of material resources and pleasures. Ceres in Scorpio is widely conjunct Jupiter and square Vesta in Aquarius to further emphasize the fixed dilemma; the handling of pleasure, possessions, and power.
The Ceres-Vesta square shows some kind of tension around work since both asteroids seem at least partly Virgo in nature. It might involve freedom, the need for variety, intellectual stimulation, and independence with a willingness to take risks, versus stability and security in a traditional job situation. It might involve the rights of humanity versus a major focus on people who are close to us.
Faith, beliefs, values, goals are important in the work with Jupiter conjunct Ceres and square Vesta as well as Saturn in Sagittarius. Saturn is also a key to our career in the larger sense of how we fit into the society, our status and role and way of relating to the “rules of the game.” Saturn in Sagittarius (or Jupiter in Capricorn) always remind me of a talk given by a famous astrologer who said, flatly, “People with Jupiter in Capricorn always hate their fathers and people with Saturn in Sagittarius are criminals.” Of course, the same principles are involved in both combinations, though the nature of the planet is more important than the nature of the sign. I assume that the astrologer was speaking from anecdotal experience rather than understanding principles, but we can say that Capricorn signifies the father, and Jupiter there would suggest that he could sometimes leave to pursue his own aspirations or he might just disappoint the child by being human, leading to the anger. Saturn, as a lesson, placed in Sagittarius which signifies the morals and ethics based on one’s religious beliefs, could mean lessons in morals, hence resisting the law. These details do occur often, but as with all astrological principles, many other details are also common. Either Jupiter in Capricorn or Saturn in Sagittarius may signify a revered and idolized father, a religious father, a father who came from a foreign country, etc. The child may expect too much of the father as often as the father expects too much of the child. The individual may have morals which flout the law (Capricorn is potentially a lesson just as much as Saturn and the tenth house, and Jupiter is a key to morals based on beliefs just as much as Sagittarius and the ninth house) or the person may teach, preach, write, or travel in his/her career.
The mental emphasis was very strong on this day with aspects between all the mental planets and asteroids. Chiron is conjunct Uranus, semisextile Jupiter on one side and Mercury on the other, as well as sextile Vesta in Aquarius. The Sagittarius and Gemini show a wide-ranging mind while the mental planets in Scorpio and Capricorn show a retentive memory and a good ability to handle detail and to organize material. Mercury in Capricorn is similar to Jupiter there, pointing to either lessons involving the mind or to a career using the mind. When the potential power of letter ten is projected, the person may be denied much education or may feel mentally inadequate even after extensive schooling. Where the power is claimed though realistic work, the mental ability can lead to a position of power and responsibility. Letter ten can become personal power so long as we stay voluntarily within the “rules of the game.”
For those who have not already peeked ahead, the two individuals born on the same day in the same place and moving to the same alternate city to earn their fame, are Al Capone and Robert Hutchins. The Britannica offers only a couple of lines on Alphonse Capone, giving his birth and death years and stating that he became the most famous gangster in the U.S. by dominating organized crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931 when he was sent to jail for income tax evasion. He was only 48 when he died in 1947.
I did get some additional data on Capone from three other references. Warfare went on intermittently between rival Chicago gangs throughout the 1920s, killing an estimated 250 persons between 1920 and 1927. On September 20, 1926, eleven cars full of rival gangsters drove by Capone’s headquarters in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago, and sprayed the buildings and a large number of cars with bullets from a variety of weapons. Capone was eating in a restaurant next door, heard the shots and ducked, and escaped injury. By 1929, Capone managed to defeat most of his rivals but he faced a more powerful rival in the U.S. government. On May 17, 1929, he was sentenced in Chicago to a year in prison for carrying a concealed weapon, his only conviction prior to the one for income tax evasion. In Miami, FL, on June 13, 1930, he was arrested for perjury, but apparently not convicted. He was convicted on October 17, 1931 for income tax evasion and sent to prison for eleven years. He was originally jailed in Atlanta, but was transferred to the high security prison on Alcatraz on August 22, 1934 because of fears of a possible jail break. He was released from jail in 1939 when seriously ill from syphilis, with his mind “destroyed” according to one reference. (An ancient metaphysical precept says “Use it or lose it”). Capone retired to his estate at Miami Beach to vegetate until his death on January 25, 1947. He is reported to have taken in 105 million dollars in 1927 when his earnings may have been higher than any other U.S. citizen, but the vast wealth was never found.
Robert Maynard Hutchins rates almost a half page in the Britannica, including a picture. He became President of the University of Chicago at the young age of 30, in 1929. He was a very innovative leader, insisting on a broad-based knowledge for beginning students, delaying specialization until the third year of college. He held the Presidency until 1945 and continued as Chancellor until 1951. He then became Associate Director of the Ford Foundation, a post he held until 1954 when he switched to become President of the Fund for the Republic. The main accomplishment of the latter institution was the founding of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions which is located in Santa Barbara, CA. The Center is a “community of scholars,” with a focus on individual freedom, the rights of women and minorities, international order, ecology, and philosophical questions such as the nature of a “good life,” and how relative values can be determined and defined. Hutchins has written extensively all his life, and has been chairman of the Board of Editors of the Britannica since 1943. Clearly, his life demonstrates the career in writing, teaching, examining cultural values and ethics, and the rights of humanity, while Capone illustrates the criminal and destructive potential of the same planet-sign-aspect patterns. Venus in Sagittarius can be manifested as the worship of money-possessions-pleasures or as pleasure and financial security derived from the search for Truth and sharing it with others.
Character creates Destiny.
The Rodden-ISAR-Databank offers two possible birth times for Al Capone (6 A.M. and 9:30 A.M.) and Rodden’s American Book of Charts adds a possible time of 12:17 P.M. The book offers the option of January 17 or 18 as his birth date. Even though the data is really questionable, I decided to include the charts for both of the times given in the Databank on both the 17th and the 18th, so readers who have time can try their hand at rectification. Of course, it is a rather idle pastime since we will probably never know the answer. All four Capone charts are progressed for the “Valentine’s Day massacre.” On February 14, 1929, it is generally assumed though never proved that Capone (or his men following his orders) killed seven rival gang members by lining them up in a garage and shooting them down with machine guns. The gang wars were fought to control the “big three” income producers for gangsters: drugs (alcohol in the 1920s), gambling, and prostitution, with “insurance” also providing a steady income. The gangster form of insurance is better known as extortion. Businesses had to pay a few dollars a week to avoid having their windows broken, or other damage done to their property.
In addition to the four charts for Capone, I am including a noon chart on January 17 with the heliocentric planetary positions in the outer circle of the wheel for the aficionados of helio. In horoscopes for births before 1900, I have no asteroids except for the first four and Chiron. Local houses are included for the two possible birth times of Capone. When birth time is unknown or uncertain, it is possible to supplement the planets, signs and aspects with other tools such as midpoints, planetary nodes, and helio positions. Of course, we would not have reliable midpoints for the Moon. The 9:30 A.M. charts put P Saturn conjunct the MC for years of Capone’s life, as well as square the East Point and/or the Antivertex. The Venus-Pluto opposition is also closely square the Ascendant, and this time also puts the Moon in a closer T square to the Sun-Mars opposition if the birth actually occurred on the 18th. But my hunch is that the 17th is the right day, and 9:30 A.M. looks good on the time. Note that for the massacre, P Moon was square a conjunction of P Mercury and P Vesta as well as quincunx Saturn and sextile P Mars to form a yod. P Mercury and P Vesta formed another yod with Saturn and P Mars. That combination can be pretty ruthless! P Ascendant was opposite Jupiter in the eighth house and quincunx P Uranus, forming another yod with the south lunar node. When we have reliable birth data, it can be very useful to study the charts of famous (notorious) people even when they are “ancient” history, but at this point it seems more useful to spend time trying to rectify the charts of current power people in the world.
