Sir Thomas More (February 7, 1478 – July 6, 1535)

I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, here. I’m about to start Peter Ackroyd’s book “Tudors” but I got prompted by a suggested YouTube video of More and Wolsey discussing Henry VIII’s lack of a male heir from the 1966 film “A Man for All Seasons“.

This Orson Wells/Paul Scofield exchange is one of the most incisive bits of dialog in any historical movie for showing the intricacies of political maneuvering in Tudor times. I feel sorry for them: Henry didn’t make it easy for anyone during his reign and if you disagreed with him or stood in his way, it would end up with the courts saying, “Off with his head!” (It wasn’t just the Red Queen who said that.)

Most astrology sites give his birth time as 2:30 am, mainly because his father noted the time as ‘between 2 and 3 in the morning’. One person suggested 2:51 am, so I’m going with that time. Nine degrees Sagittarius as the Ascendant seems a very reasonable result. Besides Uranus/Neptune conjunct in Scorpio in his 12th House gives a flavour that would otherwise be missing. There are two inconjuncts.

Sun Inconjunct Pluto

There will be many changes in your life, and you will be affected by deep psychological forces that may be difficult to understand at times, as well as confusing to the people around you. You approach people with great intensity, and your emotional involvements are seldom casual. Either you like people very much or you dislike them intensely. Possibly your attitudes on other matters will be extreme also. One of the most important lessons that you will have to learn is to be more moderate.

You have a very strong will and can be quite stubborn, even when you don’t have any particular reason to be. It is as if you automatically resist any pressure to act in a particular way, even if you know it is good for you. This may arise from a fear of being controlled, helpless or manipulated by anyone else. As you get older, this fear may lead you to manipulate others so that they cannot manipulate you. It is very important to develop confidence in yourself, so that you will not behave this way very frequently. Your relationship with your father will be particularly important, for his actions and his opinions of you will strongly affect your sense of well-being.

You are very serious for your age, perhaps too much so, for taking everything very seriously can destroy much of the joy in life. Not all encounters are important and require you to put yourself on the line, although you may try to live that way.

Moon Inconjunct Saturn

This aspect usually means that your need for emotional security conflicts with your need to live with the world’s demands. Each of us needs to be accepted and loved for what we are, in order to have enough self-confidence to deal with the world. But we also have to learn to live with our own life situations in order to survive. In other words, we have to realize that we can’t have everything we want. With this aspect, these two needs are working against each other. Probably you will satisfy one of them at the expense of the other.

If the Moon, because of environmental conditions, becomes the stronger energy, you may be afraid that you will never get enough love or support from other people, especially your mother. Because of this fear you may become too dependent on your mother. It is important that she or someone else give you plenty of emotional support and at the same time encourage you to go out on your own.

If the Saturn energy becomes stronger, you may learn to distrust your emotions and become rather cold and unfeeling. You may also be suspicious of anyone who tries to touch you emotionally, especially your mother. But when you are emotionally upset, you may get out of control and act in ways that you usually would consider wrong. This problem would be at its worst when you are older. Later in life you might feel that you have no roots, that no one cares for you and that you don’t belong anywhere. This is called alienation, and you are likely to feel that way if you do not learn to balance the needs of both planets.

If you are able to balance the two, this aspect can have a positive effect. You will be able to keep a lid on your feelings and control yourself in difficult situations, but at the same time feel and express your emotions when you should.

Is It Any Wonder More Wrote “Utopia” (meaning Nowhere)?