Feb 3: Gesenius, Stein, Anger, Fairchild

[Jim Eshelman]

Gesenius, Wilhelm. Feb 3, 1786, 3:00 PM LAT, Nordhausen, Germany (AA).
Stein, Gertrude. Feb 3, 1874, 7:55 AM LMT, Allegheny, PA (A).
Anger, Kenneth. Feb 3, 1927, 1:55 AM PST, Santa Monica, CA (AA).
Fairchild, Morgan. Feb 3, 1950, 6:59 PM CST, Dallas, TX (AA).

Gertrude Stein's mundoscope has a Sun-Venus conjunction closely opposite Uranus - a priceless description.

If there would ever be a chart to make me reconsider my near-dismissal of the importance of signs on the angles, it would be Kenneth Anger's, with Leo on MC and Scorpio rising.

[Jim Eshelman]

Anger, Kenneth. Feb 3, 1927, 1:55 AM PST, Santa Monica, CA (AA).

If there would ever be a chart to make me reconsider my near-dismissal of the importance of signs on the angles, it would be Kenneth Anger's, with Leo on MC and Scorpio rising.

Kenneth died May 11, 2023, in Yucca Valley, CA. The news just broke this morning. On FB, I wrote:

RIP Kenneth Anger, impactful counterculture filmmaker and author with a large, remarkable, influential body of work. In person, he was a hybrid of curious elf and bigger-than-life roaring, idiosyncratic fabulousness.

I knew him for a time when he lived in LA (at the level of he was at my house, I was at his, I gave him a really bad cold one time). Every room of his house (painted in a different color and with its own "old movie scene" flavor) had an altar to Rudolph Valentino, who was the object of his deep devotion - except one small space that, instead, was devoted to Marlene Dietrich. (He would rapidly correct anyone who pronounced it "Mar-leen": "It's Mar-LAY-nuh, darling, get it right."

His films were visually stunning, ground-breaking, and cultural affronts which, however, would today seem less extreme to a first-time viewer. (His three-minute fetish film Kustom Kar Kommandos would today seem a little hot and very stylized, but it's still a beautiful piece of work.) This makes clear how much has shifted in our culture and in filmmaking. He had a hand in permanently shifting the art world.

Having not seen him in years, I can't say I'll miss him (though it would have been nice to see him again). His body of work is his voice, and that still sings proudly.

His final SSR in February had Pluto on WPa 0°33' opposed by Moon on EPa. His April 15 SLR had mostly natal Venus and Neptune foreground, but transiting Saturn in the mix so that a Venus-Saturn conjunction was foreground. Foreground transits were mixed. His April 29 Demi was primarily Mars conjunct natal Pluto on Ascendant.