Page 1 of 1

The Gorgon's Head (Millard example)

Posted: Sun May 21, 2023 3:31 pm
by Jim Eshelman
Flo, May 19, 1912, 11:38 AM EST, Portland, ME

Dr. Millard named this case "The Gorgon's Head" because natal Sun is conjunct Algol - except, the conjunction is really more than 3° wide. That's way too wide. We could, of course, count the partile Saturn-Algol conjunction, and Sun is conjunct Algol in the foreground - and maybe there is something to do that, although a lot of people had Saturn conjunct Algol. I only give it credence at all because it was the week Sun conjoined the Saturn, and at the time they were angular. (Neither Sun nor Saturn was in partile paran to Algol.)

Regardless of the Algol effect or whatever Millard named the chapter, I'm interested in the medical circumstances. The description of these begins with a clear description of the foreground Sun-Saturn conjunction!
She is probably the most selfish person I have ever met and lives only to exploit others. The only thing Flo ever feared was her mother. Iti s certain that she was suppressed in her childhood and could never show her feelings for fear of punishment. The stage was set for cancer, if we can believe those who claim that it is a psychosomatic disease.

Her father shot himself. Her brother died of hemophilia. Her sister outwardly assented to all the rules and regulations of the household but quietly went her own way. The influence of her mother on Flo was to abolish completely all tender feelings [Sun-Saturn conj in Taurus!], and she is quite asexual and sternly religious in the worst possible way.

In 1962, this woman had carcinoma of the ovaries, uterus, and Fallopian tubes. It is interesting and significant that the denial of love and sexuality should have taken revenge in this way. An imbalance in the normal ratio of the female hormones has been thought to be the probable cause of malignant disease of the sex organs, although this is not certain, and indeed there was a serious imbalance in this patient.

...Flo was married at the age of twenty, because she had become pregnant. She had a daughter, whom she refused to bring up, and she even refused to bring her home from the hospital. Her sister looked after the baby, and later, after her sister had married and left home, her mother adopted the child. Between her aunt and her grandmother, the poor child had such an oppressive time that she ran away from home at the age of fifteen, and was self-supporting thereafter. The patient's marriage was dissolved after only a few months. After that, she never had any interest whatsoever in any man, and the great mystery for all who knew her was how she got herself impregnated at all. There were, apparently, homosexual tendencies as she lived with a young woman for several years and became very upset and resentful when this friend moved out and married.

...The hormone imbalance is responsible for her bizarre medical history. She had severe bleeding for about ten years from fibroids and a hysterectomy was performed, but the surgeon saw cancer in the tubes and ovaries as soon as she was opened up. During the freeing of the enlarged tubes, one of them ruptured and seeded cancer cells throughout the pelvic cavity. A course of cobalt treatment was given, and there was been no recurrence in fifteen years.

...Before her serious illness, she used to despite people who were ill. Now she has become quite neurotic about her health. She is always the first in line whenever any free public health services are offered. She thinks that any bruise, any stiffness, any thickening of the skin, any feeling of fatigue, is due to the return of her cancer.

However, she has not learned to live life. She has no interests except her narrow and rigid Christianity, which could not be further from what Jesus taught. She delights in getting something for nothing and is extraordinarily lucky. Her main talent is in getting other people to help her... She... has never known the joy of helping someone less fortunate...
I have quoted this so extensively not so much because of the medical details (though I think everything I quoted in part of documenting medical details) but because it is so extraordinary a profile of the classic Saturn personality (especially reinforced by Mars-Neptune conjunction)! Millard ended by concluding that the real effect of Algol had been to turn this woman to stone. - One can also read the 9th House emphasis as overdone and narrow.

But let's get back to the medical stuff in particular...

Re: The Gorgon's Head (Millard example)

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 7:53 am
by Jim Eshelman
My analysis Character and events are so intertwined in this chart that it is hard to know where to draw the line; and perhaps there is no line to draw.

In any case, every symptom listed - from Venus functions in general, talk of hormone imbalances, the location of the cancer (but perhaps not the cancer itself) - seem symptomatic of Venus in particular and - in this chart - Venus in Aries, which corresponds to all those body parts. And yet (at a first look, anyway), there is no affliction to her background Venus in Aries - nothing that would draw it into the health profile.

What we do have, though - in the strongest, most obvious detail of the chart - is a foreground Sun-Saturn conjunction in Taurus. Sun is precisely foreground. Not everyone with a Class 2 (4°08') Sun-Saturn conjunction (even this angular) will be this narrow, but Flo had much "help" in this from her environment, particularly her mother.

That the Sun-Saturn struck her so unmistakably strongly, it is no surprise (it's the most common way this works in a chart) that the suppression was in Taurus functions in particular, as if Saturn were at once conjunct Venus and Moon as well as Sun. This explains the character well by itself.

But... what are the health markers in this chart?
  • Moon in Gemini shows vulnerability especially to the legs, unless it is to the nervous system (the type of thing I've been seeing).
  • Mars in Cancer shows inflammatory vulnerability in the joints (unless it is to the maternal function more broadly).
  • Vitality is high - she survived remarkably well! - but all the burden and weight of how she lived her life is shown by that foreground Sun-Saturn conjunction. Saturn foreground is going to have its own voice on the life feeling burdened and hard.
  • Mercury squares Uranus 0°02', background: A strong, close, deeply background aspect that I would suspect of the primary medical issues.
  • Mars conjoins Neptune 2°03' mundo, also background. It's the only other hard background aspect.
  • Moon conjoins Pluto 3°00' in mundo - because it's Moon, it's important to the topic. - I don't yet know if mundane octiles are significant but, if so, we have Venus-Pluto 1°04'.
Leaving aside the purely psychological matters (which are abundant in this chart and easy to read), we are left with the following medical assessment:
  • Vitality is high, her survival chances and general life force are strong, but life has a deep sense of burden and narrowness. Among other things, no matter how well she is, she doesn't probably have a feeling that she is well.
  • Based on the case history, this narrowness does seem to be affecting the Venus areas (Taurus).
  • Vulnerability in the legs and joints - no evidence of that in this case history. (There may also be psychological interpretations.)
  • Mercury squares Uranus; Electrical processes in the brain and nerves. Nervous excitation or disorder. Spinal neural channels carry conscious perception and awareness of body position and motion (disequilibrium, shaking). Orienting response (acceleration of sensory data processing). Migraine. - None of this is in the case history, though I would expect it to be the most obvious factor. (It may have shown in behavior and not been so suppressed.)
  • Mars conjoins Neptune: Besides the noxious toxicity of her character, this is a severe aspect of Illness in general, especially by toxic or infectious agents, with increased sensitivity to chemicals, allergens, foods, or infection. Many ways this can work out, and probably part of the sickness picture in her case.
  • Moon conjoins Pluto: This is middleground, but important because Moon factors are always suspect on health matters.
Everything around her one pregnancy and her role as a mother is surely in this Moon-Pluto aspect (except where it's already shown by the Taurus afflictions). Her history gives new meaning to the phrase "lost pregnancy (lost child)," and she surely carried forward her mother's treatment of her. This aspect, only visible in the mundoscope, covers much of her history - the main circumstances in her life, including all the loss of family around her and her eventual radical hysterectomy and more. Here is my standard interpretation of Moon-Pluto for medical events: It has psychological implications in her case beyond the literal words here:
Irregular menstruation; conception, lost pregnancy. Anomalous and unlikely medical conditions. Profound psychological impact of events (e.g., PTSD), eruptions or disorders of the psyche, cathartic events (debilitative or healing).
I have suggested that Pluto, due to its connection with cell growth, is a critical component of cancers, though we have nothing concrete established on this.

I do wish there were a direct interaction of her Venus in Aries. There actually is IF mundane octiles are valid, in which case her Venus-Pluto semi-square would have some form of the following interpretation:
Significant changes or shifts in endocrine function. Hormone release into the blood (first menstruation, menopause). Psychological impact (trauma) disturbs body equilibrium... Conception.