The most difficult chart I've ever seen: Charles de Foucauld

What would you say, if you saw this chart without knowing it’s Saint Charles de Foucauld?

He was called ‘Marabout’ (Holy Man) by the Tuaregs, even though they were Muslims and he was Christian. Not a single one converted though. They had their faith. He didn’t think of himself as a missionary. He wanted the ‘last place’. He wanted to be poor amongst the poor, to follow in the steps of Jesus of Nazareth, and abandon himself completely to God. 

If I didn’t know whose chart that was, I would think… Someone in a psychiatric hospital maybe? 

Two grand crosses, if you include aspects with Chiron. No sextiles, no trines, unless you include Chiron. Only tensions. Neptune all over the place, Aquarius Rising with Uranus unaspected and Venus ringing the bells of heartache. 

When he was five, his mother died of a misscarriage. (It was the 13th of March 1864). A few months later, his father died of tuberculosis. The father had mental health issues. The mother may have died of exhaustion actually. 

The same year, Clothilde de Foucauld, his grandmother, who had taken him and his little sister Marie with her, died in front of them. She was anxious that a herd of cows would trample on the children. It upset her so much that her heart failed.

He and his sister would then live with his maternal grandfather. He was warm and loving. He would die when Charles was 20 years old. He left him a tremendous fortune. At the time, Charles was attending a military school to become a cavalry officer.

He was obese. He was called Fatty Foucauld. He was said to have absolutely no sense of duty, no discipline. He organised huge parties, champagne, foie gras and so on. He spent so much that his aunt obtained judicial control of his finances. And, what a scandal, he had a mistress, a woman of low birth and ill repute, an actress and courtesan, ‘Mimi’. He was called a libertine. I’m pretty sure his reputation went far beyond what he was actually doing. 

He would stay two years with Mimi. When he was sent to Algier, he took her with him. He tried to pass her off as his legitimate spouse in receptions. The scandal was huge. The social elite of the 19th century was not ready for rock and roll. His superiors ordered him to send her back to France. He refused. He was suspended. 

Back to France with Mimi, he learned that his regiment was sent to fight in Tunisia. He wouldn’t let his comrades face danger and stay behind. He left Mimi and went to fight. He proved himself to be a good soldier after all.

With Venus in Scorpio, opposite Pluto, square Saturn and Chiron I wouldn’t expect him to find it easy to get girls and easy to let them go. 

When grief has nested in your heart, parting is painful. 

He would resign from the army the next year, learn Hebrew and Arabic and explore Morocco disguised as a rabbi. He would have been executed as a spy if he had been identified as French. He would take notes in a tiny book hidden in the palm of his hand, record ethnologic observations and chart the territory.

He would get a gold medal from the French Geographical Society for this work. Sagittarius and Virgo working well together here!

After this, was it love that he was feeling? Or needing to find an anchor? She was called Marie Titre. He met her in Algiers. Her father was a French army officer and a geographer. He seriously considered marrying her, but… Charles’ family was dead set against it. He was a Vicomte, and she had no title of nobility. 

Under pressure he would renounce… Later, he would write to his cousin, Marie de Bondy: 

‘I needed to be saved from this marriage, and you saved me’.  

Since his teenage years, Charles had declared himself an agnostic. When exploring Morocco, the deep faith and contentment with life of the people he met struck him. 

He came to utter a strange prayer. "My God, if You exist, make Yourself known to me." 

The 30th of October 1886 is the (most probable) date of his dramatic conversion, provoked by his encounter with a charismatic priest. 

From then on, this tormented man had found a radical path to match the radical demands of his radical chart…. 

There would be much more to tell, but not now. I was wondering about his life story ‘before’ he became a monk and a priest living in the desert.  

He died on the 16th of November 1916 killed by rebels in Tamanrasset, Algeria. 

He is remembered as a saint, but he could also be remembered as a fantastic linguist. He translated thousands of Tuareg poems and produced a massive Tuareg-French dictionary. 

He was quite ahead of his time: he valued the culture of the people he met, and the people themselves, instead of trying to impose, with a colonial and missionary mindset typical of his days, his own culture and beliefs.

In Aquarius style, he wanted everyone—Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others—to regard him as "their brother, the universal brother”. 

The last words are from Neptune, from the heart of an orphan, the ‘prayer of abandonment’. 

Father,

I abandon myself into your hands;

do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do,

I thank you.

I am ready for all, I accept all...                   

Homepage

The scariest chart: Josef Mengele

Could you believe Josef Mengele, aka ‘The Angel of Death’ in Auschwitz, a doctor who performed terrible medical experiments on inmates, had the sweetest placements? 

He was a Cancer Rising with a Libra Moon (Oh my God, like me!) and a Pisces Sun. 

And he had a great water trine involving the Sun, Neptune and Jupiter. You would want to find this in the chart of a mystic saint or an inspired artist. Or a psychic medium… 

A torture instrument wrapped up in velvet remains a torture instrument: this is one way to explain the embarrassing facts away. He definitely had much harsher placements. I’ll comment on them in a minute. 

Another way to come to terms with finding a central Pisces, Cancer and Libra bundle in the chart of a huge scale tormentor is to understand the signs better. 

I have no doubt that they often manifest in very soft ways. Give me a Pisces-Cancer-Libra shoulder to cry on, their arms to feel wrapped up in love and their lips to whisper in my ears… 

Don’t dip such a sponge into poison though. Their nature is to absorb. 

Especially the Water signs. Especially a Pisces Sun trine Neptune, with a Cancer Rising conjunct Neptune, and a Libra Moon square Neptune. 

Cancer is the sign of the vulnerable, of children and mothers, and by extension of family and tribes, and by extension, of motherlands. Of where you belong. Along these lines, how about a superior race with the best genes?

Cancer can also focus on the only vulnerable one who matters, like a baby: oneself. And beat it up to make it stronger, for safety. 

Harmony loving Libra, all focused on balancing opposite poles, doesn’t have to be heart centered. All you need to do Libra are two sides and a balance of power to seek. It’s a good sign for love but not only. 

Mengele could appear outwardly polite or even charming while committing atrocities. 

As for Pisces, as wonderfully sensitive as it may be, at times, it’s also a malleable energy. Like playdough, it can be anything. Prince, monster, whatever. The Water element takes the shape of what contains it. 

Neptunians, beware what you absorb and who you’re spending time with. 

Also, the more sensitive you are, the lower the threshold of disconnection from your sensitivity is. 

Can you imagine a highly sensitive boy, at the time of the first world war, hearing and feeling: ‘Don’t be a girl’. ‘Don’t be a sissy’. ‘Boys don’t cry’ ‘Do you have anything in your pants?’ He understands very quickly that he is exactly what he should not be. The ideal of the male warrior was at its peak at the time. He was three years old in 1914.

He would become a decorated war hero, before being assigned to Auschwitz. 

We can then wonder. If the placements suggest psychic openness and the potential for mediumship, once dissociated, what comes in?  

Still, the caring sensitivity of Cancer-Pisces and the Venusian sweetness of Libra showed up. 

A former Auschwitz inmate doctor said of Mengele:

‘He was capable of being so kind to the children, to have them become fond of him, to bring them sugar, to think of small details in their daily lives, and to do things we would genuinely admire ... And then, next to that…’ (Source Wikipedia) 

Does it make him worse? Was it fake? Were these moments of truth? A psychopath playing at acting out what he could have been? 

Let’s have a look at the more obviously dark placements - without forgetting to give astrological placements the benefit of the doubt: free will may exist, and may have led to a different outcome. 

He had a tight Sun-Pluto square. Only this makes the Dark Lord of the Underworld a major player. But it’s just the beginning. 

Pluto is in the 12th house of institutions, prisons, hospitals, laboratories… concentration camps…

This 12th house being in Gemini, it is ruled by Mercury. 

Mercury conjuncts both the Sun and the MC. This makes Mercury a highly dominant energy. 

This emphasises again the importance of the 12th house in the chart. 

He had a special interest for twins. 

Then, look, there is more: Mercury, ruler of the 12th house, squares Pluto in the 12th. 

When the ruler of a house squares a planet in the house, it’s especially tense.

(Same logic in sign, Mercury rules and squares Pluto in Gemini)

He was a doctor. He was conducting scientific experiments. And he enjoyed it. Sometimes he was just being sadistic.  

As if it wasn’t enough, another important placement emphasises the importance of Pluto: the South Node is in Scorpio. Nodes are important, you know. 

Pluto is considered Scorpio’s modern ruler. The traditional one is Mars.

From an evolutionary perspective, both Pluto and Mars tell us more about this Scorpio South Node, and if you believe in past lives, about the energies brought from them into this one. 

With Mars… Here is another difficult one.  Mars squares Saturn, tightly. 

Difficult Mars Saturn contacts have been associated with sadism. 

If you have them in your chart, it doesn’t necessarily imply cruelty. It may also lead to a great mastery of one’s power.

Not well mastered but somehow controlled, Mars-Saturn difficult aspects may turn into auto destructive behaviours. 

Or into not living the energies at all, and meeting them as other people in the outside world. Serious alchemy is needed for sure.

Imagine the energy of an enraged dog on a short leash in human form. It may become cold rage. It may become an ice calm desire to inflict pain. 

I believe this is a way to say: ‘Feel how I feel’. 

Or 

‘Feel how I would feel, if it wasn’t making you feel it for me’. 

(This is not a conscious attitude)

There is more. Mars is conjunct with the explosive Uranus. Gosh. Both in the 8th house. 

(Uranus is tightly conjunct the 8th house cusp, it counts in it)

Which is more dreadful, the 12th or the 8th? 

And behold.

Saturn rules the 8th house and squares the Mars-Uranus conjunction in it. 

Ruler of the house squaring planets in the house. 

Same pattern we’ve just seen with the 12th house. 

And the icing on the cake, if i may: Mercury and Saturn form a semi-square aspect. 

Ruler of 12th square planet in 12th and semi-square ruler of 8th square planets in 8th. Featuring Pluto, Mars, Uranus, Saturn and Mercury. 

Really, that’s gothic architecture at its finest. 

It’s not finished. The Mercury-Sun conjunction in Pisces is ruled by Jupiter (traditional ruler) which takes us back to Scorpio and the South Node. We’ve come full circle. 

Two planets are excluded from this architecture: the Moon and Venus. 

The Moon rules the Ascendant… and squares it. This pattern again. But there is more, and this is fascinating: the Moon is unaspected. 

Unaspected can be understood as ‘no major aspects with personal planets’ or with a more demanding definition ‘no aspects with any of the seven traditional planets’. 

Mengele’s Moon has only a loose semi-sextile with Jupiter. Other than that, the square with Neptune. This is an element of disconnection. 

Liz Greene explains unaspected planets with the metaphor of people living together in a house, with someone they ignore in the basement. Sometimes this unknown stranger comes out and surprises everybody.  

He could be at times kind with the children, and later perform horrible experiments on them.

The other feminine planet, Venus, is also unaspected and squared by Neptune.  

Both Neptune and the 12th house suggest a psychic sensitivity to collective  trends. 

Collective trends find the more suited individuals for their expression.

Pluto knows. 

The lack of empathy and guilt shown in his memoirs are typical of psychopaths. 

Yet according to Helmut Galle, a professor of literature at the University of São Paulo (USP) and author of a study on Mengele’s writings:  

‘At Auschwitz, he was sentimental on the inside and at one point rebelled against his cruel ‘work.’ But this voice was extinguished by the emergence of the cold persona’ *

Interesting, isn’t it?

Jean-Marc Pierson

Homepage

Researching is easy. I’ll suggest only one link:
https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/en/the-sentimental-memoirs-of-the-angel-of-death/

Venus in Aries: Marylin Monroe

Venus is in exile in Aries.

When the goddess of love, beauty and the arts is in exile, we could expect manifestations that are not very feminine.

Will she be the one wearing the trousers? A butch woman, a dominatrix, as a child a tomboy? These interpretations may be relevant in some cases, but…

How about Marilyn Monroe?

Her Venus in Aries is conjunct with her Venus-ruled Taurus MC, for everyone to see.

Of course, there is much more to read in Marilyn’s chart.

Still, if Venus in Aries means something, we need to understand ‘exile’ differently. Her femininity, beauty and love life were not exactly a desert island story.

When I organise classes, sometimes I show charts of famous people to participants and we play at ‘What kind of person could this be?’

With Marilyn’s chart and just a little bit of guidance, it’s possible to guess quickly that it’s her.

Guidance goes as: ‘It’s the chart of a famous woman of the twentieth century. To enter a chart, I alway start looking at the angles. Planets around them are big players. Forget about the rest, forget about the zodiac signs for now, don’t get distracted by the big amount of information, focus on the angles…’

We get Neptune, Venus and the Moon. With these three energies emphasised and amplified we can expect a very feminine, we could even say archetypically feminine woman. With Neptune on the Ascendant, she looks like a dream…

‘Is it Marilyn? - Yes!’

There is no grammar or syntax that could help us understand what planets in signs mean exactly.

Venus in Aries becomes a little bit like Mars, but what does ‘becoming like Mars’ mean?

We need to guess, let our mind wander, let ourselves be influenced by the context, by the present moment… It’s like fishing, it’s divination.

Then we’ll check what we get and sort out what to keep and what to give back to the waters….

Aries gets things started.

Venus in Aries gets herself started. She could claim, boldly:

‘let’s be Venus now!’ and dare.

It takes courage and energy. To cut the story short, Norma Jean Mortenson, a lonely, neglected child, stepped forward and here she was, Marilyn Monroe!

"First, I am trying to prove to myself that I am a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I am an actress"

She was not naturally bold and daring. Her extremely difficult childhood had left her terribly insecure. Another Venus may have wrapped herself in shapeless clothing and disappeared into the wallpaper.

Aries doesn’t back down.

Susan Strasberg was Marilyn’s friend. One day they were walking in New York’s street, unnoticed. Marilyn wore sunglasses, a scarf, a coat, she was at the height of her fame but she was able to blend in. She asked Susan: ‘Do you want to see ‘her’?’ Marilyn made a subtle change, as if switching on a bulb inside. Passersby started to recognise her, there was a commotion and they had to flee in a taxi.

There is Gemini in this double-personality style indeed.

The Aries in this anecdote is in the ability to switch on the energy at will, on a whim, and appear suddenly as Marilyn in the midst of a crowd. Then deal with whatever happens!

Another famous quote from Marilyn is:

‘I don’t mind living in a men’s world as long as I can be a woman in it’

The story of the Nude scandal and how she handled it is also quite Arian.

In 1949 she was still unknown and struggling financially. She accepted to pose naked for fifty dollars. She would feature on this kind of calendar that mechanics hang on the garage’s wall.

In 1952 she had become famous eventually and the pictures leaked into the press. At the time, morality standards weren’t those of onlyfans. Her career was seriously threatened. Her managers advised her to deny. Instead, she admitted that it was her. She told journalists she needed the money…

She won over public opinion and changed perception of sex and nudity.

Aries is a spearhead!

We can also connect her unconventional attitude to her Aquarius Moon and Jupiter. The somewhat innocent and risk taking attitude is Aries’ signature.

This is what it is!

Now, if Venus in Aries can manifest as a powerful assertion of femininity, charm, sensuality and beauty, how could this placement be Venus’ exile?

The thing is… A powerful assertion - or a difficult fight for assertion - is not an efficient ‘me and you together’ catalyst.

Being a sex symbol may not be the quickest way to find harmony. Venus in Aries may be a little bit too strong. The girl becomes a trophy, not a partner. Many men want to go to heaven in bed with her but do they want to know who she is? They would rather abuse her for pleasure whilst she tries to find her Daddy.

Venus in Aries, I am not talking about Marilyn by now, let’s have a look at archetypal images, loves sex, power and rock and roll. She is bold, or pretends to be. She makes the first step and drags the shy one she fancies onto the floor. He can’t dance but she can lead… Let’s go boy!

Maybe she is a feminist. She fights for equality and justice. Venus in Aries is fighting because she wants Libra. Fighting and loving at the same time is not impossible but it’s a special challenge…

Strong independent women may scare men.

Who would approach a sexy female warrior in armour? In what way?

Love would be easier if the overall atmosphere was softer than that.

Venus in Aries is never alone in a chart. Coming back to Marilyn’s, Venus and Neptune are both dominant energies and connected by a trine.

Venus-Neptune together feel like a Pisces Venus. Moreover, her Venus is ruled by a Pisces Mars. Mars is in Venus’ sign of exaltation, in the eighth house…

I talked about mermaids in a post about Venus in Pisces. This doesn’t cancel the Aries vibe of course, placements are like striped shirts, you can have many colours together. Some mermaids are more assertive than others.

In Marilyn’s chart the Sun is in Gemini, the Ascendant in Leo and the Moon is with Jupiter in Aquarius. These three signs, like Aries, belong to the Masculine-Yang polarity. Air and Fire together stoke the flames!

I still feel the need to repeat again and again the importance of looking at the whole picture!

And again, I feel the need to repeat that every placement is a diamond with many facets, and a diamond is a girl’s best friend.

I have not said the last word about Venus in Aries. Symbols don’t allow last words about them. I hope the diamond shines anyway.

Mata Hari and the firing squad

When Mata Hari faced the firing squad, on the 17th of October 1917, Mars was transiting over her natal Uranus and transiting Uranus was opposing it. She was 41. 

It would be her last performance, and it would be a good one. She refused to be blindfolded. To the man who wanted to tie up her at the stake, she said: ‘This will not be necessary’. Impressed, the soldier said to his comrades: ‘The Lady knows how to die!’ 

She had dressed up for the occasion. She wore a pear grey dress and fancy buttoned shoes…  When the guns were raised, she blew a kiss, smiled… One of the soldiers fainted. She got 11 bullets instead of 12.  

You’ve noticed the Leo stellium and Scorpio Rising indeed. What a stellium! Featuring the Sun, king in all charts, Mars, ruler of her Ascendant, Mercury ruler of her South Node, and, last but not least, Uranus, big transpersonal weight. All that in Leo. 

Uranus becomes a major player thanks to this conjunction with the personal energies. It’s a generational planet: she becomes a channel for collective energies. She expressed what her time was brewing, leading an outrageous lifestyle and an artistic revolution. 

Her Leo stellium is squarely squared by, on our right hand side, Pluto, the infamous God of the Underworld, and on our left hand side, the Master of making everything bigger, Jupiter. And it is in Scorpio and the first house.

No need to be a very subtle astrologer to expect drama. 

Neptune is also important, mostly because it conjuncts an angle of the chart, and her Moon is in Pisces. She does more than shattering conventions. She brought something the collective sensitivity was willing to adore. 

She was an exotic dancer and a courtesan. She invented strip-tease. She loved sex. She got a lot of money from men and spent it lavishly. She was an international star. It was the ‘Belle Epoque’. Paris was all art and decadence. 

Then came the war and she dabbled in espionage. A free and famous woman, native of a country that was neutral, she was able to keep travelling. She had many connections everywhere. She could only attract the attention of the secret services of all the warring countries. 

The Germans approached her first. She took money from them, because taking money from men was what she did for a living, but she had no intention to feed them anything more than gossip in return. Still, for them she was agent H21. 

She forgot to mention this when she met the French head of secret services. She was offered to spy for the French. It may have been a trap.  She was promised a lot of money. She accepted. She was sent on a mission. But for all her skill at seducing men, she was a terrible spy and playing a very dangerous game.  

Spy hunting was witch hunting at the time. She would end up facing the firing squad, at dawn, as is customary. ‘Mata Hari’ means ‘The eye of dawn’ in Malay by the way. She was the Sun. 

She was a legend and would remain one. All the details about her life may not be true. Some are. Historians can keep debating. 

Other than Mars and Uranus transiting, you may notice Saturn squaring the Ascendant on the fatal day. It was 5: 47am, the Moon was very old. Libra was Rising. 

There should be something interesting happening around the time of the previous eclipse season. Let’s check. 

There had been two solar eclipses and a lunar one at the beginning of summer. 

The first solar eclipse happened on the 19th of June 1917, at 28 degree Gemini. At the time, Uranus was squaring her natal Pluto. 

(The whole spying business had started when transiting Uranus opposed her natal Sun, the first in line in the Leo stellium.) 

Two days after this eclipse, on the 21st of June, Mata Hari admitted to her interrogators that she had received money from the Germans. 

This confession was the fatal mistake that led to her execution. Since her arrest in February (the 13th), she had denied it - and they had no formal proof. 

The Lunar eclipse of the 4th of July 1917 was the highlight of this eclipse season: it was a total lunar eclipse and visible from Paris. It fell exactly on her natal Venus-Black Moon Lilith opposition. 

I’ve made a legitimate big fuss of her Leo Stellium, but we can notice how her natal Venus and Moon tightly trine her Ascendant. 

Trines are powerful aspects, second only to conjunctions in bringing energies together. The Venus-Black Moon Lilith - Moon - Ascendant connection certainly describes her very much as well. 

She was a detonating mix of Fire and Water. 

——

Homepage