The Carpenters

[Jim Eshelman]

Fifty years ago, every astrology magazine on the racks had - at one time or another - an article with the (timed or untimed) horoscopes of the Carpenters, brother and sister team Richard and Karen. Their birth data are well documented now: I want to add them to this list of interesting synastry examples of the famous.

Carpenter, Richard. Oct 15, 1946, 12:53 AM EST, New Haven, CT (AA).
Carpenter, Karen. Mar 2, 1950, 11:45 AM EST, New Haven, CT (AA).

There aren't a lot of individual close aspects, but you will probably quickly note Richard's Jupiter square Karen's Venus (0°44'), Karen's Moon conjunct Richard's Ascendant (1°15') with her Jupiter (and Mercury) on his Descendant (1°06'), the complex conjunction of her Mars with his Neptune (0°02').

Since The Carpenters seemed to exist as a thing unto itself, beyond the two of them, I thought the composite might be worth a look. I wasn't overly impressed. However, it wasn't without virtue altogether: The sheer easy enjoyment of shown by a triple Sun-Mercury-Venus conjunction, all within 1° from beginning to end, about 4° from a Jupiter-Uranus opposition.

[SteveS]

A most interesting synastry! If I had to guess through someone close to this family couple, we may discover Karen's (Mars) somehow tortured Richard's (Neptune) with her work ethics. I will try to remember later to analyze Karen's Midpoint structures with her Natal Mars.

[Jim Eshelman]

Progressing Richard's chart to his sister's little birth (which was an event on its own in his life), there are no angular contacts, but some progressed Moon aspects that seem less representative of that event as it was of their eventual relationship:

13°42' Can - r Saturn
13°54' Can - p Saturn
14°16' Can - p Moon

That's all, though. Not a lot. Perhaps being siblings, they didn't need the universe to isolate them to each other so tightly.


More theoretically interesting, though, is Karen's chart regressed to her brother's birth. Presuming her quarter-hour birth time is quite accurate, there isn't anything to show, though, of angles or Moon. The only relevant contact seems to be p Mercury op. r Pluto 0°14', which appears in similar musical colleagues but doesn't seem vividly expressive of their relationship.

It's a poor showing of this technique.