The New Astrology (1987)

“East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.”

(from ‘The Ballad of East and West’ by Rudyard Kipling)

It’s a truism that has stood the test of time. But that doesn’t stop someone like Suzanne White from attempting the impossible. Her book, shown above, is an interesting hybrid (like a car that runs of two different energies, gasoline and electricity). To demonstrate, I shall quote from the book re: myself.

Aquarius/Ox

“I know” (Air, Saturn/Uranus, Fixed) — “I preserve” (Negative, Water, Yin)

A strong-minded and loving bully, the Aquarian born in Ox years is destined to a lifetime of slog and struggle uphill against his own unwillingness to conform. Oxen, as you know, always think that the road to happiness is through retirement from the hub of popular activity. Oxen want to be left alone in the country somewhere. Aquarius is more affable, outgoing, flexible, less tundralike than the Ox. Their marriage can be a rocky one.

Basically, the Ox does not agree with his flighty Aquarian side. And the Aquarian? Well, he sort of doesn’t give a damn. Aquarius is the out-of-this-world fantasy person whose spirit is almost as monumentally elastic as the Ox’s is rigid. The cool-headed Aquarian who never gets lost in trivial emotion is here suddenly confronted by his own tendency toward bigotry and stick-in-the-mudness. The result? Grumpiness. Moods. Suppressed anger. Bitterness. Feigned apathy about almost everything and everybody. The image, then, of one of a fiercely productive person who appears not to give two hoots. His “like it or lump it” attitude lives very close to the feisty surface. This person cannot hide his belligerence.

What saves our character from stewing for too long in his own acrid juice is a razor-sharp sense of humor. The Aquarius/Ox is a great story-teller, a stunning performer, and a laugh-a-minute companion. He benefits from an excellent memory for detail, and can grip your attention for hours with just one anecdote about his cousin from Tours who rides a unicycle. Ordinarily boring stories become jewel-studded tales from the Arabian Nights. When the eloquence of the Ox meets with Aquarius’s originality of thought, the result is Scheherazade.

Too, the Aquarian profits from being brought to earth by his Ox side. Oxen of no matter what profession know how to apply the work ethic. Aquarians long to be free and roam about dreaming up the undreamed-of. This person will never stop working until he or she drops. Work, for the Aquarius/Ox, no matter how thankless or routine, represents salvation. Work keeps one from flying too close to the sun.

The Aquarius/Ox doesn’t bother with social approval. He cares not for judgments coming from people he considers beneath him anyway. This character blazes his own trails in life by slow and sure methods, keeping the zippy Aquarian mind operating at full tilt and never letting up on the elbow grease for a second. Of course, people become inflamed at this creature’s brutish determination. But as they are almost never as dutiful and laborious as he, they must concede Aquarius/Ox the victor, hands down all around.

Despite the Aquarius/Ox’s uncanny talent for work, he or she will surprise you by exhibiting a silly side. The Aquarius/Ox loves to have fun. He or she will cook and decorate and stay up trimming trees till four A.M. for the sake of communal joy. The self-sacrificing person he or she is, although it doesn’t carry overmuch into the world at large, will animate many a soiree and fill many little hearts with delight. The Aquarius/Ox’s imagination for surprises and goodies is enormous, and it is generous, too.

(Pages 592-3)