Taurus & Naturalists (Garth Allen)

[Jim Eshelman]

Daughter of Earth & Sea
(by Garth Allen from American Astrology 6/63)

We do not know her birth hour, but merely evaluating the celestial layout at noon in Springdale, Pennsylvania, on May 27, 1907, her birthday, is a rewarding intellectual exercise. It is a chart of remarkable spiritual depth as well as lucid attunement with the realities of physical existence. And because of her inner combination of wisdom and knowledge, she represents one of those rare personages who leave an indelible impress on world history. She is truly a scientist, and in our lexicon that one words stands as the highest compliment we can pay to a deserving individual. We refer to Rachel Carson, of course, the scientist-author whose books, The Sea Around Us, Under the Sea Wind, and The Edge of the Sea, have illuminated our minds over the past decade more brightly than any other offering by a contemporary writer.

A few months ago, Miss Carson's fourth literary effort virtually exploded over the social, political and technological scene. Her new book, Silent Spring, represented five years of intense research and was quickly hailed as an epochal, world-jarring work. Justice William O. Douglas, for instance, noted for his concern over conservation of natural resources and abiding love of Nature, called Rachel Carson's new book, "The most important chronicle of this century for the human race." If you've read it you'll concur with this opinion. The message of Silent Spring is a scientific hair-curler. In essence, it proves what folks like our own Charles Hook (of "Farm & Garden" fame in this magazine) have been trying to tell us for years - that chemical pesticides, insecticides and fungicides, are not only deadly to their intended victims but deadly to the whole human race - and it already might be too late to ward off deadly consequences for the whole world.

Naturally, Rachel Carson immediately became the smear target of vested interests, both of the bureaucratic and industrial kind, and the attacks on her have been only too easy to see through. The criticisms and attacks have been reminiscent of the tobacco industry's almost-successful attempts to belittle the lung-cancer finds these past dozen years. In fact, come to think of it, the attacks are reminiscent of those made by die-hard tropicalists against the historical and scientific realities of sidereal astrology - the facts themselves are never openly blasted, the strategy being the piecemeal assault on the fringes of the facts (simple statements, solitary mistakes of judgment, the arguments that the majority must be right, and so on - never the real heart of the issues at stake).

We personally have loved Rachel Carson deeply, through her writings, for they opened up to us such magnificent vistas that we have often gone back to read and reread the same pages, each time with renewed gratitude that Rachel Carson existed. So it was with close to magical delight that we learned she was born under a Full Moon with the Sun in Taurus, with a close conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in opposition to Uranus. Jupiter-Neptune is the signature of the Mystic, and Jupiter-Uranus, the signature of the born Scientist. (One of her commonest disparagements, interestingly enough, is that "she has an almost mystical attachment to the theme of the balance of Nature," and this attachment has been painted as unbecoming to a scientist!)

Her Taurean Sun, though, is what impressed us more, since in our cataloguing of people under their natal constellations, we have made special note of the pre-ponderance of "born naturalists" who were sidereal Taureans. Tropically, Rachel Carson is a Geminian. Regular readers will recall how often in the past we have pointed out the persistent connection of Taureans with things oceanic - a direct reflection of the fact that the Moon is exalted in Taurus. (Even our sexy prexy is probably the only U.S. president who was photographed closeup in a wet bathing suit on a beach - Taurus is the constellation of swimmers.)

Carolus Linneas, the botanist who originated the taxonomic system of Latin names for all forms of life, a system that has become standard in science throughout the world, was a sidereal Taurean. Noted botanists Henry Ravenel and Thomas Moore, likewise, as well as naturalist Louis R. Agassiz of Harvard fame, complete the Taurus quartet of scientists whose life works have done more for Nature lovers than any other factors. The prize example, though, is none other than Carl Akeley, the world's most famous naturalist who invented modern taxidermy. Nowadays every museum has an Akeley room honoring the man who transformed stuffed-and-sewn animal hides (which used to be the fare of every museum) into the wondrous world that now greets every museum-goer's eyes.

And who was the one poet of all time whose writings are identified most closely with the mysticism of natural history? Why Taurean Walt Whitman, naturally, creator of Leaves of Grass. In a sense, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is a kind of scientific, twentieth-century Leaves of Grass. Taureans all. A love of Nature, or soil and plants and creatures of every sort, is the special gift of Taurus in the sky to its offspring on earth. It is only fitting that this great lady, Rachel Carson, daughter of Taurus, should become the conscience of the world with respect to the saving and preservation of the Creator's greatest gift to life on earth - the earth itself!

[Jim Eshelman]

Rachel Carson was born May 27, 1907 in Springdale, PA (the one in Allegheny County). One birth time floating around is 2:00 AM, characterized as a rectification from an approximate time (Rated C).

A biography, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature, lists "early morning hours," apparently based on her mother's diary. Somebody (not clear who) rectified / spectified this as 2:00 AM. The chart has Saturn exactly rising in Pisces, nothing else too distinguishing for the time of day.

As a possible test, I note she died April 14, 1964, in Silver Spring, MD. Here death was rom a whole range of organs collaborating to fail: She had breast cancer, received aggressive treatment, got severe anemia from the treatment, developed a respiratory virus, discovered that the cancer had spread to her liver, and died of a heart attack!

The most marked transit for death was Mars exactly square her natal Jupiter-Uranus opposition (which, by the way, described her life and work quite spectacularly). If the birth time is approximately right, Saturn was square her Moon partile.

For this birth time, her SSR had Neptune on EP (common for cancer and drawn-out radiation or chemical therapy). Then her final SLR had Neptune setting (but, like her SSR, Mercury-Jupiter squared MC). Her Demi-SLR the day of death had Venus as the only angular planet (setting), except it was squared by Pluto. I was about to say it is too weak a case, and then I noticed natal Saturn about 1° from IC. Uranus squared natal Sun in the foreground for the heart attack.

So... it could be right. I'll give it a "not bad." (There was a lot more Venus in other charts, including progressed Moon exactly square progressed Sun-Venus - which were conjoined within a minute - on SNQ angles. Since I don't know the conditions of her death, I can't say if this fit. So I'll leave it at "not bad.")

[SteveS]

Garth Allen wrote:

In fact, come to think of it, the attacks are reminiscent of those made by die-hard tropicalists against the historical and scientific realities of sidereal astrology - the facts themselves are never openly blasted, the strategy being the piecemeal assault on the fringes of the facts (simple statements, solitary mistakes of judgment, the arguments that the majority must be right, and so on - never the real heart of the issues at stake).

Exactly! RIP Donald & Rachel.