Pleased that the U.K.'s Urania Trust asked permission to reprint my article "Sylvia Plath's Fixed Stars" from Plath Profiles, and you can read it on their webpage here. But at holiday time let's talk generally about Sylvia Plath's birth horoscope. Birth horoscopes, basic to astrology, are literal sky maps unique to each person and through symbolism show talents and tendencies.
- Sylvia Plath, like most Americans of her time, knew her Sun sign, Scorpio, but astrology was not pop-culture until around 1970, and it's the 1990s before the mainstream knows their Moon sign.
- Astrologers say a person's Sun sign reveals what they want, the Moon sign what they need, and the "rising sign" (a.k.a. "ascendant") how they go about getting it. Sylvia took pride in her Sun sign, Scorpio: intense, including a Scorpio's always Tragic Backstory.™
- Sylvia's Libra Moon made her artistic, dextrous, and judgy. Her rising sign was Aquarius, so she was brilliant, eager for acclaim, socially awkward, and emotionally fragile as a teacup.
- Re "Venus in the Seventh": Sylvia had the planet Venus in the astrological seventh house (or sector), which represents marriage and partnership, so she wanted and loved the security and intimacy of marriage. Neptune also in the seventh house inflated her expectations.
- Sylvia and her mother Aurelia, a Taurus, were exact astrological opposites.
- Assia Wevill was a Taurus.
- Otto Plath was a Mason, but Masons are not astrologers and never were.
- Otto's and Aurelia's wedding horoscope (4 January 1932, Carson City, Nevada, 1:20 p.m.) is the most threatening wedding horoscope I have ever seen.
- Plath's Hollywood counterpart is Audrey Hepburn. They share the fixed star Regulus, the "royal star," on their charts' western horizon, so have some interesting biographical parallels.
- There's a crater on the planet Mercury named "Plath."
- Shura Wevill's birth horoscope is the most angular I have ever seen.
- Astrology is metaphor. It has no scientific basis, yet is said to augur the future. Freudianism is metaphor. It has no scientific basis. Yet it's said to augur the future.
- Sylvia's heliacal fixed star is Spica, astrological granter of glittering talent, often world-class.
Sylvia Plath's birth horoscope chart [above], like her life, is a popular case study. If the chart looks technical, that's because all horoscopes are. Learning to interpret horoscope charts takes years, but it's fun, and there's always more to learn.
