Hans Christian Andersen (April 2, 1805 – August 4, 1875)

Today is his 217th birthday. And I never thought to do his birth and death charts before. Silly me.

This time is based on his birth certificate, so it is considered ‘excellent’. When I initially raised his birth chart, the randomization showed a Yod pointing at Saturn from Pluto and the Moon. At 1 am, the inconjunct to the Moon is missing, but only by a very short measure (1°). Perhaps a slightly later time would have yielded the same thing. However, I am not going to contradict the Danish authorities, am I?

Venus Inconjunct Midheaven

You have a strong need to be loved and to love others as well, but this may create some problems in your life. You are afraid that if you appear to others as you really are, they won’t accept you. This problem can be corrected only by the most careful upbringing, such that your parents correct your behavior in ways that help you feel self-confident rather than undeserving and unworthy.

Saturn Inconjunct Pluto

Even under favorable circumstances, this aspect usually means that you are resistant to change, that you hold on to any situation, no matter how bad, until it is totally intolerable. Then when change does take place, it has to create a revolution and a total breakdown of everything that came before it. You must learn to adapt to circumstances a bit more gracefully and not be afraid of occasional compromise.

This aspect usually does mean that you are tough and can contend with a great deal of adversity, but don’t develop an attitude that makes adversity inevitable.

You may find it difficult to get along with others, because you are unnecessarily afraid of what they want from you. Learn to associate only with people whom you can trust.

The Ugly Duckling (a self-portrait)

When the story begins, a mother duck’s eggs hatch. One of the little birds is perceived by the other birds and animals on the farm as an ugly little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse from them. He wanders sadly from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks. He finds a home with an old woman, but her cat and hen tease and taunt him mercilessly, and once again he sets off alone.

The duckling sees a flock of migrating wild swans. He is delighted and excited, but he cannot join them, for he is too young, too ugly, and he cannot fly. Winter arrives. A farmer finds and carries the freezing little duckling home, but the foundling is frightened by the farmer’s noisy children and flees the house. He spends a miserable winter alone in the outdoors, mostly hiding in a cave on the lake that partly freezes over. When spring arrives, a flock of swans descends on the lake.

The ugly duckling, now having fully grown and matured, is unable to endure a life of solitude and hardship any more and decides to throw himself at the flock of swans deciding that it is better to be killed by such beautiful birds than to live a life of ugliness and misery. He is shocked when the swans welcome and accept him, only to realize by looking at his reflection in the water that he had been not a duckling, but a swan all this time. The flock takes to the air, and the now beautiful swan spreads his gorgeous large wings and takes flight with the rest of his new family.

Plot

This is the first time in many a year that I’ve seen a triple interactive Yod in a chart. Starting with Saturn (what else?) the inconjuncts point to Mercury, back to Mars, over to Pluto and then back to Jupiter (conjunct the Ascendant @ 28° Libra). That’s the full journey of Ugly Duckling to Literary Swan…