Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

McClellan, Gen. George B. Dec 3, 1826, 12:15 AM LMT, Philadelphia, PA (AA).
Freud, Anna. Dec 3, 1895, 3:15 PM CET, Vienna, Austria (A).

Make sure you check Freud's mundoscope also. It's interesting in many ways and, more broadly, the layers of impact of phallicism on her life are fascinating.

Freud, Anna. Dec 3, 1895, 3:15 PM CET, Vienna, Austria (A).

In observation of Anna Freud's birthday today, here are a few observations on her chart as an example of how to dig into the chart. First, though - to dispense with a matter of possible interest on which I don't want to dwell - she has some very strong expressions of Sedna and Eris worth observing. Among other aspects, Eris conjoins Moon while Sedna opposes Venus. Both are mundane aspects within about half a degree. The Eris conjunction particularly has the potential to be important because it's tied to her important Moon-Neptune mundane conjunction:

13°03' 1H Neptune
13°45' 1H Eris
14°23' 1H Moon

In her complex psychodyamics, this could be worth somebody analyzing at some point. For today, I'll mention it and then move on.

Anna Freud was the youngest child of her famous father and the one who embraced and carried forth his work with important original contributions. She was a founder of psychanalytic child psychology - a choice perhaps originating in her Gemini Moon. She was powerfully bonded with her father but had no close bond or relationship (she was 'mothered' primarily by a hired nurse). We can expect the usual behaviors from a youngest child of a large Austrian family, materially comfortable, and with a commanding and famous father.

Anna was born with Sun in Scorpio and Moon in Gemini. This Scorpio Sun compares and contrasts with her father's Aries Sun (and is opposite his Taurus Moon-sign). One can expect she had great strength and budding passion that would start to push boundaries and need greater expression from puberty onward. I've not ready any of the (likely copious) library of psychoanalytic biographies dwelling on her and her relationship with Sigmund, but, as a competitive, passionate, and intellectual young woman, one would expect what the Freuds themselves would call an Elektra complex to be well established. Her father may have made the psychoanalytic concept of the phallus famous, but his daughter was its embodiment!

Her luminaries and angular planets give similar messages. With Sun in Scorpio and Moon Gemini (Mars and Mercury themes), her three closest angular planets, hovered near Descendant, are Mars (1°53'), Mercury (2°03'), and Uranus (2°48'). (Sun and Saturn were more widely foreground, cementing the father-attachment.) It seems clear that her power and mental needs were strongest, with her needs for freedom and renewal were not far behind.

While young, she suffered mental anguish, possible depression, and consequent eating disorders. In fact, despite her materially comfortable conditions, her childhood is described as quite difficult for her. All of these consequences seem, to me, to arise from repression of her natural instincts and needs, i.e., I suspect even enlightened, comfortable 19th century parents would have strict expectations of a young Austrian girl.

But her intellect, and the scope of her mind, showed: She took early interest in Sigmund's work, sitting in on professional meetings of the new Vienna Psychoanalytical Society held in their home. She was exposed to many international visitors and became skilled in many languages. In many respects, it seems, along with all of her other studies and explorations, she was Sigmund Freud's apprentice in nearly the classic sense. She wrote her first work in child analysis in her early 30s, and it became the center of her work.

A simple bit of astrological symbolism: She was a Scorpio-Gemini. Her earliest clinical and published work dealt with children and beatings (and fantasies beatings) and how imagination and fantasy arise out of infantile masturbation urges and co-developed with them in complex relationship. Her later writings on death and our relationship to the deceased, intertwining loyalty and loss, is considered perhaps her finest work. Her important work on defense mechanisms is a classic Scorpio theme.


So, with some biography behind us: What else is there about the chart?

As mentioned above, I find the Scorpio-Gemini luminaries (and Scorpio Mars) and the Mars-Mercury-Uranus angularities to give a strong, central message that describes her character well. We can say this in several ways. She was clearly a great, powerful mind who made original contributions. This same sense of power and self-direction is what we might also call "boyish" n the context of her upbringing: She was the smart one, the "brains" in contrast to her elder sister's "beauty," keenly taken with her father's work and striking out to be both true to it and independently originating new work. Her strengths and accomplishments all seem to arise out of these traits flourishing; her roadblocks and difficulties all seem to have come from these being blocked or repressed.

She had a Moon-Neptune conjunction only evident in the mundoscope. Both her father and Carl Jung had strong Sun-Neptune aspects, but Sigmund also had a mundane Moon-Neptune square (not as close as Anna's). This seems linked to her work, her insights and empathic observations (put simply: Moon-Neptune people have a knack for understanding how other people feel), but also to her depression, strong psychological response to early conditions, and her period of depression.

Does her Moon show the general sense of a difficult childhood? Moon is middleground in Gemini, closely conjunct Neptune (mundo), with a fairly close Moon-Saturn octile. (She then has wider Moon aspects to Venus and Pluto.) So, yes, the distance from her mother is reflected in this and a general sense of malaise. Neptune's conjunction with a Gemini Moon is quite complicated (look up Mercury-Neptune aspects for an insight into this).

Her Sun, in contrast, was widely foreground and had her single closest aspect: Sun opposite Pluto 0°34'. Her biography sounds to me like she was more alone than not, with one close companionship yet not pursuing social mingling (I didn't find a single reference to it). This is also an aspect of great independence and deep, penetrating pursuits. The one thing that seems not to fit is the professional and personal loyalty to her father her entire career - clearly not a "breaking away" activity - which, therefore, was probably a result of their unique synastry, which I have not yet explored. Her Sun also trined Jupiter - the paternal loyalty, sense of professional community, and generous character are shown - and, more widely, aspected Mercury, Venus, and Neptune (the latter matching Sigmund), which fill in the gaps of her complex unfolding life direction.

With her Gemini Moon, we should make a note of what is happening with Mercury. It's closely foreground in Scorpio with its closest aspects being Class 2 aspects to Mars, Saturn, and Uranus. This match her acute mind and her general tenor of scientist.

With her Scorpio Sun, we should make a note of how her Mars energies expressed. These are quite powerful: It is her most angular planet, in its own sign of Scorpio, and has some bombastic (even tough) aspects, including an exact conjunction with Uranus and close conjunction with Saturn. She was tough and probably more combative than her bio reports.

Her Venus gets little attention. As a Scorpio, it was not her strongest energy. I'm certain her physical passions were enormous, and her need for companionship and communication was keen, but I don't know that romantic love in the emotional, surrendering sense was mattered so much to her. Astonishingly few references to her sexuality are made in the literature I've seen (considering how much psychoanalysis concentrates on that), but occasionally a suggestion is made that her close relationship with a female friend, with whom she lived for many years, was a lesbian pairing. I think we don't know for sure and it probably doesn't matter for understanding her chart (though the maid did admit that they had separate bedrooms and were flexible about where they slept, while the Freud Archives have sealed any correspondence between them). In any case, Venus is at home in Libra and middleground. Its only aspect is a 3°05' trine with Moon. The simplest thing to say is that it isn't of particular note in her life - which does match her biography.

Here are the chart elements from TMSA:

I should take a moment and see if anything loudly asserts itself in the synastry between Sigmund and Anna Freud.

As mentioned, his Aries Sun and her Scorpio Sun have similarities (especially contra-Venus similarities) and have contrasts. His Taurus Moon opposes her Scorpio Sun (by sign and degree). This is an excellent sign basis for strong connection.

The contrast between these two signs can be studied as one wishes. Their Mercuries were in opposite signs and opposite by aspect (his Mercury also being exactly on her Ascendant): This shows a strong mental connection with the capacity for energetic exchanges and perhaps polarized disagreements. (I wonder if a study of their extensive preserved correspondence would show contrasts of his Taurus Mercury vs. her Scorpio Mercury.) Their Venuses are opposite by sign and degree; their Mars-signs have little relationship.

Moving to aspects, there is one severe mark: Sigmund's Saturn conjoins Anna's Moon 0°31'. This can be quite severe from parent to child. However, while one might suspect he was emotionally austere, he was the parent to whom she was more connected. Neither of the two primary Moon-Saturn interchange characteristics seems true of them - he was neither removed and unavailable nor resistant to her emotional content. This is unquestionably one of the most important aspects between them, yet I'm at a loss to explain it.

More generally, his Sun opposed her Saturn - across Sigmund's horizon - which seems consistent with the father-daughter and mentor relationship they had. His Moon (besides being opposite her Sun) is conjunct her Neptune and Pluto, consistent with the intensity and empathy of their connection. Their Venuses are mutually opposed. Her Mars precisely squares his MC.

The Mercury-Mercury opposition is across both of their angles, so probably emerges as the one most important aspect, which is fitting.

My only final conclusion, at this point, is that this is a powerful, complex relationship. It's complexities could well be explored in a book dedicated to the single subject, perhaps by comparison of their long correspondence and other biographies devoted to their relationship.

If Anna was indeed lesbian, and the devoted daughter of a man who was outspoken about the pathology of homosexuality, this may have been where the Saturn-Moon interchange emerged (and also explain why we don't know anything about it). I now find several authors dealing with the topic. (And Anna, herself, became an advocate for gay "conversion therapies" to "cure" homosexuality.) This could be a fundamental suppression expressing the aspect.

I don't know that the underlying facts are true. I just give a possible interpretation of the aspect.

Sigmund Freud held that homosexuality in men, while neurotic, is not a serious problem, but that in women it was a "gateway to mental illness." This is the man who spent five nights a week psychoanalyzing Anna for many years.