Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

Heisenberg, Werner. Dec 5, 1901, 4:45 PM CET, Wurzburg, Germany (AA).
Cho, Margaret. Dec 5, 1968, 6:29 AM PST, San Francisco, CA (AA).

Heisenberg has a mundane Neptune-Pluto conjunction - half a sign wide ecliptically. This is important since the whole essence of Neptune conjunct Pluto is pretty much summarized in him and his work. In the mundoscope, Cho has Moon exactly square her Jupiter-Uranus conjunction.


BONUS:
Lang, Fritz. Dec 5, 1890, 4:45 PM LMT, Wien, Austria (A).
Disney, Walt. Dec 5, 1901, 12:35 AM CST, Chicago, IL (A).

Notice that Disney and Heisenberg were born the exact same day. Fritz Lang was born on the same day of a different year and has important chart similarities to Disney's; and Otto Preminger also shared their birthday.

Heisenberg, Werner. Dec 5, 1901, 4:45 PM CET, Wurzburg, Germany (AA).

Today would have been Werner Heisenberg's 120th birthday. His is clearly one of the most interesting charts I've studied in recent years.

Heisenberg, a theoretical physicist, was one of the primary pioneers of quantum physics overall, and is surely best known for his "uncertainty principle." Though the principle is far more complex than the usual popular discussions, it asserts a fundamental uncertainty - an innate limit in accuracy - for measurements of some characteristics (such as position and mass) of subatomic particles. This has quite concrete meaning in theoretical physics and some of its implications have become popularized, such as the (somewhat casually stated) idea that whether a photon behaves as a particle or a wave depends on the observer's expectation when observing it. I think we can accurately say that his uncertainty principle has both a rigorous use in physics AND has become something of a mass-mind phenomenon representing more broadly some types of fundamental uncertainty in the nature of reality. Heisenberg himself was a proud "anti-realist," insisting (contrary to the conventions of his day, and mostly even of today) that direct knowledge of reality is not possible within the scope of science.

His wife (a few years after his death) characterized him as "first and foremost, a spontaneous person, thereafter a brilliant scientist, next a highly talented artist, and only in the fourth place, from a sense of duty, homo politicus."

Concerning Heisenberg personally: He was born in Germany at the turn of the last century. His father was a significant scholar and educator of classical languages, which tells us something about the intellectual atmosphere of the home (echoed in reports of his own later scholarly leanings, especially philosophical inquiries). He claimed his mind "was formed by studying philosophy" such as the writings of Plato, which set him up later to observe, "Modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato... the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language." (Later in life he affirmed similarities between Eastern philosophy and what otherwise seemed "crazy" conclusion of quantum physics.) He began to study mathematics and physics. He also enjoyed classical music and "was an accomplished pianist."

Bullet points on his bio are a long, happy marriage and (at the nomination of Einstein) the Nobel Prize in physics for the creation of quantum mechanics. Hitler's SS investigated him under various premises, slowing his professional advancement, and setting a path that pulled him (along with many other noted German scientists) into Hitler's nuclear weapons program (he wanted to create an energy source, not a bomb) and his later consequent abduction by the British late in WW II. After the war, he returned to significant German academic positions. He died at age 74 of kidney cancer.

Most of the basics are reflected in his Scorpio Sun and Virgo Moon - though to understand Heisenberg deeply, we must traipse through one of the most fascinating collages of outer planet activity I know.

His Virgo Moon is most immediately evident to me because of his strong relationship to language, classics, and thought in general. He was clearly not merely an intellectual but a scholar and deep thinker. But we can't overlook the Scorpio Sun: Not only did it cast him as a typical Hub personality, a thought-leader around whom others concentrated, but show his spontaneous, courageous character that would think outside the box. Additionally, Scorpio (I suppose originally in the sense of iron-working, but gone long past that) gives us engineers and people mindful of the functioning mechanics of things. Indeed, his Scorpio-Virgo luminaries - call it a Mercury-Mars bent - is particularly characteristic of one who has a mechanically oriented intellect.

BTW, he was born the exact same day as Walt Disney, their Moons 5° apart. Disney, a great innovator and masterful reality-molder on his own, also had the outer planets prominent at birth. Their charts and lives would make a wonderful side-by-side study if anyone is so inclined.

At first glance, Heisenberg's chart is marked by an obvious partile Uranus-Pluto opposition across the horizon. Uranus is, indeed, closely angular, 2°36' below Descendant and 2° from conjunct Sun; but Pluto's southern latitude forces it further from the angle, giving us the other great gift of his chart: mundanely, Pluto conjoins Neptune, even closer than Uranus-Pluto. This is of singular importance, because, though there had been a generation of Neptune-Pluto conjunctions not long before Heisenberg's time, he wasn't one of them - he didn't get the conjunction just because he was born in the near-decade that everybody got one just for showing up. His Neptune-Pluto conjunction came as a consequence of the exact orientation of the sky when he was born. Ecliptically, the planets were half a sign apart.

From these aspects, we learn fundamental things about our Scorpio-Virgo: Sun conjunct Uranus is progressive, future-oriented, innovative and inventive, "goes its own way," unapologetically following its own paths (as Heisenberg often did), also displaying a love of freedom, resistance to authority but themselves. (He actually challenged the "authority" of the world's view on reality itself.) Uranus opposite Pluto feels unbound by (and willing to challenge or reject) precedent, custom, or authority, opening wider horizons. Physically restless, impatient (possibly frustrated, angry). Neptune conjunct Pluto begin with a fundamental uncertainty about the world, an instinct that reality isn't invariable (one might even call it the "Heisenberg aspect"): Those who become leaders of their era display capacity and desire to impose a new scientific, political, or literary worldview on the world.

Notice how these few features speak mountains about the man. One doesn't need much (if any) more to have a clear sense what kind of person he was and where he would fit in the world. Nonetheless, there are a few things we can wrap up:

I didn't mention his angular Sun which, like its Hub constellation, made him something of a center of gravity for the world around him and, even more, a natural leader. Besides Sun, the three foreground planets are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which just drew my attention above.

He also has an important partile Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, intensified by close squares from Moon. Jupiter-Saturn folks are generally practical, sensible, and conscientious, capable of patient hard work to produce reliable results. Perhaps most distinctly, though, they are attuned to legacy, heritage, and tradition. Orthodoxies draw their strong allegiance - notice Heisenberg's effective balancing of his moral and political duties - and the most creative of them actually become baselines of new orthodoxies. Heisenberg honored institutions until he eventually became an institution. This is common for high-achievement Jupiter-Saturn types.

His Mercury is fairly uninvolved. It's middleground, in Scorpio, with appropriate but not terribly consequential aspects. Were it not for the Virgo Moon, the obvious Mercury traits would not be pronounced in his chart. This makes him an excellent example for exploring Virgo Moon traits.

Dignities and debilities play little hand in his chart, the one example being Jupiter in Sagittarius. Jupiter's two strongest aspects were discussed above.