I have read several of James Hillman’s books, and considering his substantial influence on my thinking, he was one of the first subjects I considered for my ongoing series of case studies. His natal chart displays a wedge pattern, with Jupiter and Neptune closely opposed, the Sun trining Neptune and sextiling Jupiter. I was interested in finding another notable nativity, from a different decade or century, where the same planets are making the same coinciding aspects.
I find that comparing births that are distant in time is often more interesting than studying time or date twins. And even though this is not intended as a search for literal past lives, it still holds a certain intrigue. There is one 3-day period that caught my eye when I went looking for charts from the late 1800s, and that is 24-26 Sep 1888, when the same configuration of Sun, Jupiter, and Neptune that I just described is repeated. The poet T. S. Eliot was born on 26 Sep and his name certainly stood out; Eliot is Hillman’s first kindred spirit that I found.
The coinciding of the above three aspect events within such a brief period is unique to late Sep 1888, within the 600-year range I’m studying (1500-2100). This method is guided by rarity as one principle of selection and prominence as another. In view of this, T. S. Eliot was chosen from a list of about twenty persons with Wikipedia pages who were born within those few days.
Hillman was the first director of the Jung Institute; his training was in depth psychology and his interest in dreams was both therapeutic and theoretical, as evidenced in his archetypal psychology. Eliot was an alchemist with images and words, turning dreams and visions into poetry; Neptune is the planet most akin to dream life and poetry. Theirs is a kinship that feels pretty natural. They both loved writing and lived as American expats for a long time. They explored the pinnacles and depths of human experience; they shared a rare awareness. These quotations reveal closely related themes:
Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves. (Eliot, 1964)
The truer you are to your daimon, the closer you are to the death that belongs to your destiny… Perhaps this intimacy between calling and fate is why we avoid the daimon and the theory that upholds its importance. (Hillman, 1996)
If we may use dramatic metaphors to describe planetary events, we could say that an aspect is like a dialogue, or that a station is like a soliloquy. What then is being said between Jupiter and Neptune in opposition? It surely touches on those deep aversions to facing the daimon, the unknown and unnamed. Jupiter’s mission is to recognize and to name, to translate a mysterious sighting into familiar terms. Neptune, mother of mystery and symbol of the unknown, speaks in vague images and atmospherics. The Sun, as Nous, witnesses this exchange with its own aspect events and makes of this a guiding light.
Applying Hillman’s ideas on images from my earlier post about context, mood, and scene, this description begins to capture a facet of the defining image that is present at each of these births.
Another remarkable person born during a recurrence of the same aspect pair is Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), “an Indian Hindu sage and jivanmukta (liberated being). He attracted devotees that regarded him as an avatar and came to him for darshan (‘the sight of God’). In later years, an ashram grew up around him, where visitors received spiritual instruction by sitting silently in his company asking questions. Since the 1930s his teachings have been popularized in the West, resulting in his worldwide recognition as an enlightened being” (Wikipedia, 2020).
I also am reminded of James Hillman’s long-term fascination with India and its polytheistic spirituality.
The theme developed above with quotes from Hillman and Eliot is plainly related to fear of death. The following quote from Maharshi makes clear how he related with death. In his chart Jupiter sextiles Neptune rather than opposing it. It sets a different tone from the other two:
Who am I? Not the body, because it is decaying; not the mind, because the brain will decay with the body; not the personality, nor the emotions, for these also will vanish with death. (Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Dr. Patricia Berry, Hillman’s former wife and co-founder of Archetypal Psychology, as it turns out, also has something in common with Sri Ramana Maharshi, sharing with him a Grand Trine at her birth between Sun, Uranus, and Neptune. Hillman’s connection to Maharshi was formed by the Sun’s aspects to Jupiter and Neptune, so he and Berry share only the Sun’s trine with Neptune. They were born with two distinct figures and Maharshi was born with both.
There’s more, though, besides the symbols. The events that make up each figure coincide so closely that it is a real rarity to find people who share them. For instance, Berry’s birth in 1943 was the first recurrence of the figure she shares with Maharshi since his birth in 1879. Hillman’s birth in 1926 was the second recurrence of his figure since Maharshi’s birth. Each recurrence yields a list of ten or so names to consider, on average. So, these are unusual coincidings.
I have no real knowledge of Hillman and Berry as a couple, but they seem to have made a prodigious team, while being very distinct individuals. The symbolism of their planets suggests the capacity for a high degree of mutual attunement. I hope to read about Berry in Vol. 2 of his biography.
This planetary commentary is essentially a gift from the cosmic artist/poet. If this is evidence of the working of imagination in the world, not just in my head, then what more could I ask for? To learn more about what it’s evidence of? This symbolic image communicates a quality that has its own aesthetic value; even its own rarity contributes to that value. What does it stand for, if not its own eternal validity? These are not just rhetorical questions for me; I often argue with myself about such things.
Symbolistics 