Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890)

There’s a sequence in one of the Doctor Who episodes where Vincent van Gogh gets to see a modern gallery exhibition of his work, and hear a description of his excellence from an expert art curator. It showed up in my YouTube feed, today.

Yes, it’s emotional. Imagine seeing how your work has impacted the world in the future. It’s also great theatre. But what about the man, himself?

This time was supposedly on his birth certificate. It’s close enough for jazz, in my opinion. That one inconjunct may tell the tale of his insanity, and the painful conflicts he endured, during his life.

Moon Inconjunct Ascendant

This aspect ties together in you a Moon sign and a rising sign that are very different. This indicates that the image you project to other people does not reveal very much about your real feelings. When you are upset, you surprise people by showing a totally different side of your personality.

It is very likely that while you are young you will attract people who are emotionally difficult to handle. This will continue until you learn to show your emotional side as well as the surface personality that you allow others to see. It is all right for people to see all the energies that make up your personality. Only by accepting yourself completely can you overcome this conflict.

Planets in Youth (page 139) by Robert Hand (1977)

The Starry Night (June 18, 1889)

In the aftermath of the 23 December 1888 breakdown that resulted in the self-mutilation of his left ear, Van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole lunatic asylum on 8 May 1889. Housed in a former monastery, Saint-Paul-de-Mausole catered to the wealthy and was less than half full when Van Gogh arrived, allowing him to occupy not only a second-story bedroom but also a ground-floor room for use as a painting studio.

During the year Van Gogh stayed at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, the prolific output of paintings he had begun in Arles continued. During this period, he produced some of the best-known works of his career, including the Irises from May 1889, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the blue self-portrait from September 1889, in the Musée d’Orsay. The Starry Night was painted mid-June by around 18 June, the date he wrote to his brother Theo to say he had a new study of a starry sky.

Wikipedia

Using the information provided, and a pinch of my own intuition, I would say that this is the ‘exact’ time that Vincent saw the image of the starry sky out of his hospital window. Everything is where it should be. The Jupiter inconjunct the Neptune/Pluto conjunction also fits the ‘madness’ of his personality.

But out of that madness came a painting of great beauty and wonderment. Thank you, Vincent.