WRITINGS & ARCHIVES ON ASTROLOGY
John Marchesella has been sharing his thoughts, humor, and unique point of view on the topic of astrology for many years, through various publications and internet posts. Here is a collection of a few of his favorites..
Back to the Future: An Epimethean Look at Uranus in Pisces (continued)
Film devotees would agree nowhere else was Uranus in Pisces so evident as in the advances of motion pictures. It began with United Artists, ended with the talkies, and in between we saw “Potemkin,” the merger of the Mayer and Goldwyn studios to create MGM, Abel Glance’s “Napoleon,” the phenomenon of Valentino, and in the last year of Uranus in Pisces, Cecil B. DeMille began filming his religious epic, “King of Kings.” Another great
film of this era was “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” which deals with an insane psychiatrist who uses hypnotism to commit murder, and it is a masterpiece of German Expressionism.
Also in that final year, while Uranus was weaving into Aries, Mae West was found guilty of indecency for her Broadway production of “Sex.” And all our current movie-making and movie-going generation seems to be able to do is invent more computer-generated images and change the date of the Academy Awards so as to give the Golden Globes a run for their money!
Lastly, just as an irresistible bit of sports trivia, on the last day of Uranus in Pisces, Johnny Weissmuller, in his pre-Tarzan days, set three world records in one day and became the holder of every freestyle mark in swimming, a great phenomena of the time.
Another way to look at Uranus’ influence via Pisces is to see who was born during that era and what came about in their lives. Of course, He brought us such legends in the Piscean way as Marlon Brando, Judy Garland, John Glenn and even Henry Kissinger.(Remember Neptune was passing through Leo at the same time too). However, the frontrunners of the Uranus in Pisces “revolution” we see at the very start of the sign.For instance, Ray Bradbury, Montgomery Clift, Margot Fonteyn, Betty Friedan, Timothy Leary, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Pete Seeger were born during Uranus’ ingress to Pisces.
So, was Liberace, hardly a musical legend, but a good representative of Uranus in Pisces for other reasons. (By the way, New York State just passed SONDA on the most recent Uranus station in Aquarius).
Interestingly, Frederico Fellini, Isaac Asimov and Jackie Robinson were born in the final days of Uranus in Aquarius, which progressed into Pisces in their young adulthoods. (Ingmar Bergman was born with Uranus in the final degree of Aquarius too, but it never progressed out of the sign, as was the case with southern politician, George Wallace).
In His final degrees of Pisces, almost as a rally, Uranus brought the births of Harry Belafonte, Chuck Berry, Cesar Chavez, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Allen Ginsberg, Marilyn Monroe, Sidney Poitier and Tony Bennett.
As for the mutual reception between Uranus and Neptune, those who thought only our generation could see such an occurrence, might be shocked to see who was born with that combination in the mid-1880’s. Cezanne, Monet, Rodin, Renoir, Winslow Homer, Thomas Hardy, William James, Emile Zola, Tchaikovsky, and the entrepreneurs, J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller. The list reads like your art history class in college!
Just as noteworthy of the Uranus-in-Pisces births are the deaths during that time, and these names seem like a “passing of the torch” to a new generation of revolutionists in their fields: Modigliani, Eleanora Duse, Robert Peary, Rudolf Steiner, Annie Oakley, and most notably, Claude Monet, perhaps the most well-known of the Impressionists, especially for his water lily paintings, who died on his Uranus return in the sign of the fishes.
Finally, let’s not get so caught up with Uranus in a new sign that we forget His leave-taking of Aquarius is just as significant (and He’s not really leaving for another year). When an outer planet exits a sign (or a house in your personal horoscope), there are reverberations with its entrance from some years ago. This is true on the collective level as well as the personal, so you can put it to your own test. Uranus entered Aquarius on April Fools’ Day of 1995 (third time’s the charm), weeks before the Oklahoma City bombing. He wove back into Capricorn for the second half of that year, and remained in Aquarius since January 12, 1996, when internet use became so jammed that Attorney General Louis Lefkovitz threatened legal action against AOL. Compare that with the recent change of power at this mega-firm. So where were you back then? And how does it compare to today?
In closing, I’d like to share with my mutable-signed friends what I’ve learned from my time spent with a chart full of hard aspects from transiting Uranus: give up caffeine now because you’re not going to get a good night’s sleep for seven years!
Seriously, though, I hope this list of Uranus-in-Pisces names and events helps us to inspire our clients who are artists, caution the ones who are bigoted, and give courage to those who live their lives in fear. On to the next frontier!