John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674)

By now, I should know better. But, honestly, the highlights of history are sometimes too much to experience firsthand. So, intervening years and lives make the connections more real.

John Milton is a towering intellect from the Reformation in England. I’ve imitated his writing in one poem and I’ve tried to emulate “Paradise Lost” in another. So, who’s the missing link between us?

William Blake considered Milton the major English poet. Blake placed Edmund Spenser as Milton’s precursor, and saw himself as Milton’s poetical son. In his Milton: A Poem in Two Books, Blake uses Milton as a character.

Wikipedia

“To Justify the Ways of God to Men” is the subtitle. This is something I’ve been trying to do my whole life. I haven’t yet succeeded.

John Milton’s birth chart was already on my Kepler 7.0 computer program, so I haven’t changed a thing. There are three inconjuncts, two of which form a Yod, directly pointing at Jupiter in the 5th House.

Sun Inconjunct Moon

This aspect suggests that there is a subtle conflict going on inside you that may sometimes create emotional problems. It is as if you are divided in two, so that whenever you have to make an important decision, especially one that involves your feelings, the different sides of your personality want to go in opposite directions.

But a much more difficult problem arises if you decide that one of these personalities is good and the other bad, so that you try to repress and hold down any behavior from the “bad” side. Unfortunately, that only makes it more difficult to handle that side, so that you have intense urges to do things that you think you should not do. You begin to act in ways that betray the image of yourself that you are trying to build up.

The only solution is to accept both sides of your personality, for they are both you, and it is important to express them both. It is only your attitude of rejection that makes one side good and the other side bad.

Jupiter Inconjunct Ascendant

Probably you will accomplish the most if you direct your energies to tasks that benefit others as well as yourself. It may be that much of your work will not benefit you directly, but in the long run you will gain from it. Even while you are young you need to make a useful contribution to society, and in doing this you will learn and grow as an individual. This is not merely a plea for you to be unselfish, but an assertion that you will achieve your own goals most quickly by doing work that helps others.

Jupiter Inconjunct Midheaven

The problem with this aspect is to find a balance between, on the one hand, expressing yourself creatively, perhaps artistically, and having a good time and, on the other hand, getting ahead in life, learning the ways of the world and finding an acceptable role in society. You know you will have to make sacrifices in order to accomplish anything of value.

Jupiter in the Fifth House

You may be quite creative in many ways, although this placement does not necessarily denote artistic creativity, and you will benefit from what you create. Whatever you do or create for amusement, you will do on a grand scale. You don’t like to do anything halfway, and you may become well known for your habit of getting carried away by your current enthusiasm. But don’t let people talk you out of this, for you will gain more through pursuing your amusements than others will through hard work. Every activity you get into expands your world and gives you valuable experiences and knowledge. It is quite possible that what most people consider play will have a more important role in your life than conventional kinds of work. Certainly your hobbies and other recreations will be very important all of your life.

Milton and Blake

As you know, I have previously discussed my connection to William Blake. Now I’m going to show you how Blake and John Milton are connected:

The North and South Nodes being lined up identically in their birth charts is the biggest clue. Milton’s ‘fatal’ Neptune is exactly conjunct Blake’s South Nodes @ 7° Aquarius 19′. Could it be any clearer? There are other connections, but I don’t need to point them out, do I?

Hmm.