I’ve been looking at the chart of the English poet and mystic William Blake. For those of you who would like to check out this chart further, his birthday is November 28th, 1757, at 7:45 PM in London, England.
The planet with the largest amount of empty space around it is the Moon, in the Twelfth House, in Cancer. I refer to the planet in any chart with the most amount of space around it as the “space ruler,” and consider it the most important planet in the chart.
Moon as space ruler signifies a great intensity of feeling, which Blake had, and in Cancer the strong desire to nourish and nurture. He tried his whole life to uplift humanity, to point out the myriad ways of wrong thinking and lies perpetrated by the church. This attempt to uncover the truth is Twelfth House in nature, which is the house of all that is hidden. It is also the house of the deep subconscious, and our intuitive connection to spiritual forces and guiding beings. Blake felt that much of his work was channeled.
The Moon is in the 13th degree of Cancer, the 13th degree of any and every sign always carrying the vibration of renewal and revival. He was trying to renew the human being’s relationship to spirit.
The Omega symbol for the 13th degree of Cancer is, “Wind blowing through an old Pan’s pipe.” A spontaneous song, created by nature manifesting as the wind. This is certainly the mood (Moon) of Blake’s poetry. The Chandra symbol for tht same degree is, “Many voices singing different songs at the same time.” This mirrors the multileveled nature of his work.
Sun is in the 5th house of creative self-expression in the sign Sagittarius, and in the 7th degree, which in all signs is a Sagittarian degree. The fifth house is also the house of play, and Blake wrote much of joy and delight in play, and about the play of cosmic (Sagittarian) energies.
Mars conjunct Neptune in Leo means he was a warrior (Mars) who fought for his ideals (Neptune). This conjunction is in Leo, so he did this in a dramatic way.
The closest-to-exact square in his chart is between Uranus and Pluto, and I want to say something about that which I feel is very important for the astrology student. Normally if one sees a square between Uranus and Pluto one would not give it so much attention, for that square lasts for quite awhile — months, maybe — and so MILLIONS OF PEOPLE born during that time will have it in their chart. BUT: When that is the CLOSEST SQUARE IN THE CHART, THEN it becomes very important, for it is being allowed to assume the place of the greatest challenge in that chart.
Uranus/Pluto as a pair signifies revolution, complete transformation. Blake believed in expressing sexuality with total freedom. He was against many restrictions that the church placed on humanity. He believed in a coming Utopia, and was trying to help create that on earth. Also he is VERY (remember that Pluto has no energy of its own, but intensifies anything it comes in contact with) STRANGE (Uranus). There is no one like the poet William Blake. He had his own mythology, he made up his own gods with their own names. He was a radical innovator.
His Mercury was in Scorpio. Here is one of his poems:
Oh rose thou art sick
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm
Has found out they bed
Of crimson joy
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy
Is that Scorpionic enough for you?
When looking at the chart of any artist it’s very revealing to look at the placement of Venus, for Venus is the planet of aesthetics, what one LOVES. Blake’s is in Capricorn, the sign governing economy. His poems often are striking for their economy of words, that is, with very few of them he creates extremely vivid pictures, as in:
My mother groaned! my father wept
Into the dangerous world I lept:
Helpless, naked, piping loud;
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.
The long visionary poems are similar in tone and feeling to the writing of the Old Testament. This is also a manifestation of Venus in Capricorn, as Capricorn has to do with anything old. And of course writing in this style gives the work an authoritative (Capricorn) feel. The Omega symbol for his Venus, which is in 20 Capricorn is “A host of angels in conference.” The whole of his work is, in essence, a dialog of spiritual forces, as portrayed by this degree.
Having such radical ideas in 18th Century England one wonders why he didn’t get put in prison. He has no planets in the 10th house, which rules one’s public image, and people who may have authority and power over one. But if we look at the ruler of that house, which is Mars (Aries being on the Tenth House cusp), we see that Mars, as I stated before, is conjunct Neptune. I think what protected Blake from the authorities is that they were confused (Neptune) by him, didn’t know what to make of him. His own visionary cloud provided him with a cloak of protection.