The Horoscope of the Magician

What do the boldest public people of magic have in common? I have selected a group of men and one woman, who dared to be different and embrace the occult, magical and supernatural as part of their public persona. I have looked at their birth charts for similarities, which is of course interesting from a biographical perspective, but perhaps even more so for what it illuminates about magical consciousness in general.

John Dee

First, I'll look at a character from history who received validation from the (second) highest authority: John Dee, advisor of Queen Elizabeth I. He was a respected astronomer, mathematician and astrologer whose occult interests increased with age, as did his notoriety. His eerie magical mirror, or ‘scrying glass’, is still on display in The British Museum. His precise birth time is known because his own calculation of his chart was found in a library. 

John Dee was heavy on 8th house Cancer placements, including his Sun and a beautiful Mercury-Jupiter-Hekate trine to Neptune in Pisces. Here is a natural talent that is easily accessible, and it shows endless joy and inspiration in the investigation of that which lies in the shadows.

“His mind was tuned into a different consciousness for sure, and with the Moon in the outsider-sign Aquarius, he had no choice but to find his own place, even if it meant some social ostracising.”

With Pluto opposite the Sun and within reach of his Moon, he was acutely aware of the dangers surrounding him, and while this could mean some heavy anxiety, it probably also kept him alive at the cut-throat Elizabethan court. With his North Node in philosophical Sagittarius, which represents his life's mission and legacy, it is apt that he is known to history as The Queen's Philosopher.

William Butler Yeats

Next magician is the poet William Butler Yeats, who lived at a time where intellectuals were challenging and questioning the concept of spirituality. Yeats was committed to the occult as part of the group The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was a contemporary of Aleister Crowley, whom he allegedly performed a magical duel with (more on this later). Yeats was a lover of folk tales, fairies and was in a life-long search of the words to describe that which is indescribable: 

“I know now that revelation is from the self, but from that age-long memoried self, that shapes the elaborate shell of the mollusc and the child in the womb, that teaches the birds to make their nest; and that genius is a crisis that joins that buried self for certain moments to our trivial daily mind.”

- W.B. Yeats, "The Trembling of the Veil" (1922)

This attempt to bring the instinctual into the logical is illustrated in Yeats' chart which is heavily dominated by air signs. His Sun was in Gemini next to Uranus, forming a grand trine to Saturn in Libra and the Moon in Aquarius - John Dee's moon. Again this shows a non-negotiable dedication to freedom and authenticity, but also a sometimes painful feeling of being on the outside. This is the moon of the "weird kid", who is well acquainted with loneliness, and often only find their people when they grow up and refine their niche interests. 

While John Dee was at one with his instincts through his many water sign placements, Yeats has no planets at all in water, revealing him to be a person searching and longing for that which comes natural to others. With Neptune in Aries trine Mars in Leo, he was a gifted dramatist. Here is flair for performance, romance and quite a bit of ego related to his status as occultist.

Aleister Crowley

This ego was obviously challenged by Aleister Crowley, who was briefly also a member of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Their charts in synastry show, hilariously, the classic marker of either "open enemies" or "hot lovers" (flipped ascendant-descendants). These two had definite chemistry and important Venus-Moon-Saturn aspects to each other, which means that their meeting would have immediately sparked a strong response in both of them. Yeats and his friends won the conflict, and Crowley was literally kicked out of the club after failing to curse them with his magical incantations.

Aleister Crowley's chart is also dominated by air sign placements, and he too was an avid author and poet. His world-wide search for ancient magical texts shows this dedication to words. To air signs words are magic, as is sharing them with others. Crowley was also notoriously lusty, worshipping the Pan archetype of wild nature and unbridled sexuality. He searched for the divine in the animal and instinctual - much like Yeats actually, but with a much more physical approach.

As a Libra Sun, Crowley saw magic in the meeting of bodies, souls, minds. Libra is often associated with long-term relationships, but at the basis of this lies the need simply for coupling, whether for a long or short time, because it is in the moment of meeting that Libra finds the Self. The drive in his chart comes from his Libra Sun-Venus romantic sensibility square Mars in the horned, horny Capricorn (a sign associated with Pan in ancient astrology). This is a challenging aspect, and he would have had a life-long struggle to balance the two. His search for the freedom to express his wild nature, his Pan nature, does not show peace with it; rather he is a cultured Libran desperately looking for intellectual and social validation to embrace the wild instinct:

"Into my loneliness comes —
The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.
Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.
And I behold Pan."

- Aleister Crowley, "Liber VII" (1907)

Mars square his Sun would also have increased Libra's shadow side of casual cruelty in the name of principles and fairness. Libra can go to war, make no mistake, and is less of a peace-lover than a brilliant social strategist powered by what they believe is right. 

The Moon in Pisces shows deep affinity with spirituality, with transcendence and the use of drugs to find it. As the others, he is strongly Uranian, with Uranus in his 1st house sextile the Sun and opposite Saturn: and it is clear that he experienced some deeply stifling situations early in life, but he used his anger very effectively. He was an open provocateur, bold and performative in his otherness and thereby good at finding his likeminded people.

Doreen Valiente

And now I will have a look at the voice which personally spoke to me the most when I was finding the magic way: Doreen Valiente. She was a collaborator of Gerald Gardner, founder of Wicca, and is described by many as the mother of modern witchcraft. Her exact birth time is not known, and she is a much less showy character than any of the men described here. The first thing I noticed in her chart is that her soul mission, represented by the North Node, is in Libra very close to the degree of Aleister Crowley's Sun. This is interestingly also the case for Gerald Gardner's chart, so it is clear - both in their charts and their writing - that Crowley's self-expression inspired them deeply.

Valiente's chart has a grand square in the cardinal signs, which is not easy. It means a strong will and vision, but blockages through lack of validation. With the Sun in Capricorn square Saturn in Libra, she lacked acceptance early in life, and would have felt wrong and out of place. Her liberation from this feeling was through her grand trine in water signs, and - unsurprisingly - this features an extremely strong Uranus - as every other chart, I have looked at here. Her Uranus is trine Pluto in Cancer and Mars in Scorpio making her comfortable with deep transformation and psychology. She knew the dark side of life for sure and took mature responsibility for her self-healing: 

"For if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.” 

- Doreen Valiente, "Charge of the Goddess", mid-1950s 

Her words are her legacy, much more than her person, and Mercury near her Sun in Capricorn shows a disciplined mind - that she was very proud of! Her Moon was in Pisces, like Crowley's, and it sextiles Mercury. This gives a talent for conveying emotion and spirituality through words, and shows an ability to channel something collective - a higher inspiration and message. Her's are the iconic words that remain, the loving version of Crowley's "Do what thou wilt":

“An it harm none, do what ye will.”