Creative Voices of the Outer Planets by Daniel Heydon (Published in Dell Horoscope, August 1991)

Bob Dylan and F. Scott Fitzgerald

   It seems to make sense at least on paper that the link between personal creativity and culture—the effect of personal creativity on the world at large—can some­times be explained by aspects between the outer planets and personal planets in a person's chart. I think everyone would agree that Bob Dylan's The Times Are A-Changin' awakened his whole generation to that fact, and that his contribution to cul­ture is indeed a reflection of his natal Saturn-Uranus conjunction in Taurus, for he does speak out against "those who are nothing more than what they invest in." 1. His indictment of material values and the need for changes are indeed reflective of this outer planet combination; and yes, his Sun is conjunct Uranus.

 But Dylan (May 24,1941—Gemini) is not our only representative of a spokesperson for a generation. Take the example of F. Scott Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896— Libra). Any critical work you read on him will tell you that he was "the voice of the postwar generation" and "the chronicler of the jazz age" (indeed, he coined the phrase "the jazz age"). 2. Fortunately, he kept a diary, and we have the dates associated with the important events in his life on record. His first book, This Side of Paradise, which spoke to the people of the '20s, was accepted on September 18, 1919. On that day Fitzgerald received a telegram that the book had been accepted. The first thing he did was quit his job repairing the roofs of railroad cars. This seems consistent with the fact that transit­ing Uranus in Aquarius at 28° 45' Aquarius was 0 degrees and 11 minutes from an exact square to his midheaven at 28° 56' Scorpio on September 18, 1919. Six days later, on September 24, Jupiter and Nep­tune met by conjunction in Leo, the first of the three conjunctions between these planets to occur between September 24, 1919, and April 24, 1920. No wonder that this decade—which began with a Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Leo—would be called the Roaring (Leo the Lion) Twenties. Symbolically speaking, it might be said that Fitzgerald quit his job for the larger purpose of being the spokesperson of the JazzAge and the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction of 1919-20

 During the span between the first and last Jupite Neptune conjunctions,Fitz gerald's This Side of Paradise was accepted September 18, 1919, published March 26, 1920, and, by April 3, was already in its second printing. On April 3, 1920, he married Zelda, and together they achieved notoriety that same year as uninhibited partygoers, whose escapades included riding taxitops down NewYork's Fifth Avenue and diving into fountains at  Union Square and in front of the Plaza hotel.Though the Jupiter -Neptune conjunction did not hit a personal point in Fitzgerald's chart, all three of these con - junctions were to fall on Zelda's ascendant 9 44' Leo. She as much as her husband came to symbolize the age of the Flapper. As Fitzgerald said of 1920, America stood on the verge of "the greatest, gaudiest spree in history"—and Fitzgerald was there to live it and to write about it.

Henry Ford and the Model-T Ford

Let’s talk about the chart of Henry Ford (July 30,1863—Leo) for the purpose of getting a better understanding of the link between personal creativity and culture. If we look at the influences affecting Ford's chart on June 16,1903, the day Ford Motor Company came into existence, we'll find Uranus retrograde at 23° 37' Sagittarius within 0 degrees 03 minutes of an exact opposition to his natal Uranus at 23° 34' Gemini. Actually, this should come as no surprise, as the notable astrologers Grant Lewi and Evangeline Adams have written of the importance of Uranus in opposition to its natal place. And we should note how Ford's Sun is closely semisquare his Uranus in Gemini.

Of course, one of the many impacts that Henry Ford made on modern culture was his introduction of the Model-T Ford, which made the automobile an affordable reality for the masses. On March 19, 1908, brochures were sent out announcing that there would soon be a Model-T Ford, and on August 12, 1908, the first Model-T was manufactured; the car hit the U.S. market on October 1,1908. On May 15,1908, three month's prior to the day the Model-T Ford first came into production, we find Pluto in Gemini conjunct his Uranus, where it had been transiting since June 30,1907. Is it too farfetched to say that humankind benefited from Ford's personal ingenuity— his Uranus in Gemini—when Pluto tran­sited this position?

From the. day Ford began Ford Motor Co., his dream was of a nation of automobile owners driving a single stand­ardized, inexpensive, and durable "univer­sal car" (Ford's words, not mine). Eight different models preceded the Model-T, the car he finally decided to concentrate on exclusively in 1909. As he told his chief executives: "I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the in­dividual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men that can be hired, after the simplest design that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to buy one—and enjoy with his family the blessings of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces." I think the above visionary remarks by Ford reflect his natal Uranus in Gemini; that he achieved his end of making a car for "the great mul­titude" is a reflection of Pluto's transit of Gemini.

Gorbachev and Tom Wolfe

Are Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost reflections of his natal Neptune in Virgo in opposition to his Sun, or are they reflective of Neptune's position in Capricorn at the time he introduced these concepts to the world? That an idealistic government leader (Neptune in Capricorn) should appear on the scene when Neptune, the planet of idealism, was in the sign of government is consistent with the mean­ings of Neptune in Capricorn. (Remember, we also had Ronald Reagan then.) From Gorbachev, we have heard no stirring speeches about how he was going to change the status of the Virgo working man; rather we heard about how he was going to change the workings of government itself.

At the same time that Gorbachev was writing of glasnost and perestroika, in America, the social critic and novelist Tom Wolfe was writing and publishing his Bon­fire of the Vanities in serial form for the magazine Rolling Stone. How does Gor­bachev relate to Tom Wolfe?—They were both born on March 2,1931. (Unfortunate­ly, I don't have their birthtimes, as more interesting parallels could then be drawn between them.)

On the surface, Tom Wolfe has nothing in common with Gorbachev, unless we want to note that they are both critics of the societies in which they live and they both share many natal chart placements. But I ask the same question about Tom Wolfe as I did about Gorbachev. The film version of Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff, which came out in October 1983, three months before Neptune's entrance into Capricorn, was a factor in the rebirth of patriotism in the U.S.A. Again, it appears that this film is not reflective of the Uranus in Virgo he shares with Gorbachev, but rather the emerging theme of patriotism that mush­roomed Jn the United States with Lee lacocca's autobiography and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA. Also, in 1984, Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities was published, a book that spoke both of the Capricorn city and the themes of greed, corruption, and materialism that became so dominant in the '80s. His, indeed, was an early voice on the subject. But these themes are just as reflective of the transit of Nep­tune in Capricorn as they are of Wolfe's Neptune in Virgo, with that Neptune in ] Virgo aspecting his Sun.

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen was already a big star before his Born in the USA album came out in June 1984. In October 1985, he had the distinction of being on the covers of  Newsweek and Time in the very same week. I am not concerned with Bruce Springsteen's rise to stardom here, but rather I want to discuss the impact his Born In The USA had on the American consciousness. That album was released on Monday, June 4,1984, and before June was over it became number one on Billboard's Top 200 album list. On the day of the release of the album, transiting Neptune was retrograde at 0° 35' Capricorn just past the exact square to Springsteen's natal Sun at 0° 48' Libra. Before the record stores had closed on June 4, 900,000 copies of this record had been sold on the first day of its release, with another 250,000 records being sold by June 11.⁸ For more than two years Born in the USA was on Billboard's Top 200 album list. And during that two year period the title song, "Born in the USA," had become the anthem for the rebirth of patriotism that occurred then and which was still going strong as of this writing in 1991.

I think it is especially significant that his album reached number one on the Billboard charts for the week ending June 23. 1984, for on that day transiting Nep­tune was retrograde at 0° 0° Capricorn. Whenever an outer planet is at the first degree of a sign, themes are set in motion that will color the rest of the transit. Though normally we think of a transit as releasing a birth-chart potentiality, Born in the USA did not have its phenomenal success due to Libran themes. Rather, songs like "Born in the USA" and "My Hometown" reflected the Cancer/Capricorn polarity that was being activated with Neptune in Capricorn. And this album's concern with the plight of the workingman and the Vietnam veteran in the U.S.A. actually echoes Springsteen's natal Saturn in Virgo. The fact is that these songs were written in 1982-83 before Nep­tune in Capricorn's transit of Springsteen's Sun in Libra. What does coincide with the Neptune square to Springsteen's Sun in Libra is the release of the album.

I don't think we can call Springsteen a spokesperson for his generation in the way we speak of Bob Dylan. There was no patriotic youth movement that sprung up with Springsteen as leader in the aftermath this album. What did in fact occur was that Lee lacocca in his role as Chrysler's chairman offered Springsteen 15 million dollars for the rights of the title song to be used by Chrysler corporation, which Springsteen turned down. And three months after the album was released, in September 1984, Ronald Reagan was to declare: "America's future rests in 100 dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about."⁷ Though Reagan and Bruce Springsteen have very significant political differences, both of them were, in the 1980s, symbols of the rebirth of patriotism that emerged in 1984, the year of Neptune's entrance into Capricorn.

Neptune can confuse and deceive as well as inspire. If you'll listen to the lyrics of the song "Born in the USA," you'll find that it is actually a soulful, sometimes bitter la­ment about some of the things that Bruce Springsteen finds wrong with this country. As rock critic M. Gilmore has underscored in an article for Rolling Stone, people at large did not pick up on this song's mean­ing—all they heard was the hypnotic and stirring refrain of "born in the USA."⁸ Of course, Springsteen's genius here is that the words reflect his discontent with the status quo, but the way he sings those words reflects his genuine concern and love for his country.

Coinciding with the release of this album, Springsteen began his Born In the USA tour, with various stops throughout the country promoting this album. With Neptune squaring his Sun, the ruler of his third house of travel, this is appropriate astrologically. Neptune returned to square Springsteen's Sun again five months later in November 1984, with him still on tour. So we could bracket the period June to November 1984 as one in which Springsteen toured the country singing the song of Neptune in Capricorn. In this in­stance, the creative artist becomes the medium for the message of the outer planets.