Saint Nicholas (March 15, 220 AD – December 6, 343 AD)

I knew I would probably look at this ‘original’ Santa Claus, after posting the birth chart of the modern one. The birth and death dates are the traditional ones for Saint Nicholas.

The timing is randomized, so it surprised me to see Mars @ 1° Capricorn conjunct the Descendant @ 4° Capricorn and the Moon @ 28° Sagittarius. Is this suggestive of a connection to the modern Santa Claus? (And, truly, can it even be suggested?) There is one inconjunct.

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.

Comparing the Original with the Modern

I know it’s a nonsense, but I can’t help feeling that the connection between the past and the present is ‘real’. Jupiter in Saint Nicholas’ birth chart is conjunct Santa’s natal Pluto; Santa’s natal Jupiter is conjunct Nicholas’ natal Ascendant. Santa’s Moon is (almost) exactly conjunct Nicholas’ ‘fatal’ Jupiter. Do you see what I mean?

Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus. It is often claimed that during the American War of Independence, the inhabitants of New York City, a former Dutch colonial town (New Amsterdam), reinvented their Sinterklaas tradition, as Saint Nicholas was a symbol of the city’s non-English past. In the 1770s the New York Gazetteer noted that the feast day of “St. a Claus” was celebrated “by the descendants of the ancient Dutch families, with their usual festivities.” In a study of the “children’s books, periodicals and journals” of New Amsterdam, the scholar Charles Jones did not find references to Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas. Not all scholars agree with Jones’ findings, which he reiterated in a book in 1978. Howard G. Hageman, of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, maintains that the tradition of celebrating Sinterklaas in New York existed in the early settlement of the Hudson Valley. He agrees that “there can be no question that by the time the revival of St. Nicholas came with Washington Irving, the traditional New Netherlands observance had completely disappeared.” However, Irving’s stories prominently featured legends of the early Dutch settlers, so while the traditional practice may have died out, Irving’s St. Nicholas may have been a revival of that dormant Dutch strand of folklore. In his 1812 revisions to A History of New York, Irving inserted a dream sequence featuring St. Nicholas soaring over treetops in a flying wagon – a creation others would later dress up as Santa Claus.

Wikipedia