William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564 – April 23, 1616)

Another WordPress blogger posted an interesting question today: was Shakespeare a Mason? I’d never considered that before. But it begs the question: how did he know so much of the ‘hidden’ history of world events? Was he spiritually guided?

Previously, I had written a post about Shakespeare’s birth chart. The Yod that was featured there is significant to my way of thinking: it was pointing at the Moon.

Even though I have set his time of death a 12:00 noon, another Yod featuring the Moon is revealed, this time involving inconjuncts to Uranus and Pluto. That may be significant to our inquiry. At the same time, there is an inconjunct between Saturn and Neptune.

Moon Inconjunct Uranus

With this aspect you must learn to control sudden outbursts of emotion that occur at difficult times when you least expect it. Also your present home life may not be a stable situation in which you can grow up emotionally secure and confident. A particular incident when you were very young may have given you the feeling that you can’t count on anything or anyone for support. Later in life, you may try very hard to get away from anything that reminds you of your earliest childhood, even if your childhood had not been difficult. You just feel that you have to get away and go somewhere else.

Moon Inconjunct Pluto

This aspect means that your emotions are very intense and not always easy to deal with. Often your feelings make you want to do or say something without knowing why. Also you may have very intense moods in which you withdraw from those around you into a world of your own. This should not be a very serious problem unless you have been brought up to have all sorts of fears and worries. In that case your actions will be driven by your fears, and you may behave quite strangely. If you do not feel accepted and emotionally supported at home, you may constantly feel guilty for what you think you have done to others, or jealous that people aren’t paying enough attention to you, or generally possessive of those around you.

You probably enjoy exploring the mysterious and probing hidden secrets. Even while you are young, you will understand human nature better than most people, but to use this ability positively, you must be reasonably calm about your feelings.

Saturn Inconjunct Neptune

This aspect can have a variety of effects, one of which may be difficulty in relating fantasy and imagination, on one hand, to reality, duty, obligation and work, on the other. Usually the reality, duty and work aspect of the combination is dominant, at least at first. Your imaginative side tends to be transformed into nervousness, fear and irrational anxieties. The most negative manifestation of this aspect is a feeling that you have to keep a tight lid on yourself and that if you look inside yourself too closely, you will find only emptiness and disintegration. It is difficult for you to realize that this is not the truth about your inner self.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in “perfect health”. No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died. Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: “Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted”, not an impossible scenario since Shakespeare knew Jonson and Drayton. Of the tributes from fellow authors, one refers to his relatively sudden death: “We wondered, Shakespeare, that thou went’st so soon / From the world’s stage to the grave’s tiring room.”

Later Years and Death (from Wikipedia)

We can see by the combined birth and death charts above, that it looks as if the tumblers of a lock moved into alignment and the man was released from prison.

But we have not proven if he was a Mason or not. Looks like I need to read this:

To be continued…