We watched this film last night. It seemed appropriate, somehow, after writing about Crossing Over with John Edward. The misadventures of Sam, Molly and Oda Mae were a revelation to us 40-somethings when it came out. Love really is the connection to those on the other side.
Sam Wheat is a banker, Molly Jensen is an artist, and the two are madly in love. However, when Sam is murdered by friend and corrupt business partner Carl Bruner over a shady business deal, he is left to roam the Earth as a powerless spirit. When he learns of Carl’s betrayal, Sam must seek the help of psychic Oda Mae Brown to set things right and protect Molly from Carl and his goons.
Storyline
Even re-watching this trailer sends shivers up my spine.
My title today is the echo of significance that comes when one address is repeated several times in the film. We need a different perspective if our prospects are to improve in this place. But all we have is the 4th Dimension, Time.
Some Random Quotes
When Sam is wounded and dying, and he sees the ‘heavenly host’ coming for him, Molly says, “Sam, don’t leave me.” He turns around to look at his death scene and the host disappears.
Oda Mae, saying goodbye to Sam and Molly, for the first time, says to Sam, “Have a good life,” and to Molly, “Have a good death.” (Most people presume the opposite…)
Sam, following Carl out of 303 Prospect Place, says, “How dare you? I had a life.”
The Whole Point of the Film in One Final Scene
It’s amazing, Molly — the love inside — you take it with you… See you…
I’ve been a fan of John Edward from 2000 (and, yes, we got to watch this TV program in England). The delivery is rapid-fire, with seemingly impossible hits, and some delayed misses, and plenty of awkward pauses when the information doesn’t seem to apply to anyone in the audience, until some timid soul puts up their hand and say, “It’s me…” It was riveting ‘reality’ television, but was it real?
Unitel Studios, New York City, June 14, 2000
I’m standing in shadows, waiting to walk out in front of a hundred people and explain that I’m about to connect some of them with their departed relatives. To your side means husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, above you parents, grandparents…appreciate the messages…just answer yes or no… I’ve given this litany a thousand times before, in living rooms and offices and Holiday Inns in states I can’t even locate on a map. But this is different. This is like nothing I’ve ever done before. It’s not something I’ve ever aspired to. But here I am.
Across the dimly lit set, I see Doug Fogel watching me. He’s the stage manager, a Martin Shortish man with a twinkle in his eyes who’s done Cats and The Lion King, Radio City and the Metropolitan Opera. Now he’s working on a TV show about a guy who talks to dead people. He’s in control of what’s happening, unlike the person he’s looking at, the person whose name is in the title of the show. I’m told that this studio was the original home of Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch. They shot Sesame Street right where I’m standing. And right beside me, Chris Rock did his HBO show here. So I guess I fit right in. I like to think that this show is going to be educational. I won’t break the news to the network just yet. I’m sure they think it’s entertainment.
Doug hears the cue from the control room over his headset and begins counting me down with one hand. Five, four, three two… He points to the irregularly shaped white screen that plays the opening montage of the show. He looks at the audience, extends his hands, and begins clapping with a purpose, turning himself into a human APPLAUSE sign. Then he points to me. It’s showtime. Time for me to walk out from side-stage, make a quick left as I reach the middle of the screen, and bound onto the illuminated disk that will be my new home.
Something tells me we’re not in the Holiday Inn anymore, Toto.
I scan the audience — the gallery, as it’s being called — and try to smile the way I think a TV host is supposed to smile. Regis? Jerry? Oprah? I’m not comfortable. I am extremely uncomfortable. I’m not wearing clothes, I’m wearing wardrobe. I have makeup on. There’s all this stuff around me. Up there, a constellation of lights. Over here, a contraption that looks vaguely like a camera. Back over there, a rolling screen that feeds me little bits of monologue to wrap around the taped segments.
And there’s, like an entire industry of people laboring over a cosmic version of something I’ve been doing for years by myself. Up until now, I’ve been pretty much okay with just God’s help. Now I’m relying on Doug. Everywhere I look there are people in headsets staring at fifty-two TV screens with my face on more of them than really seems necessary. It’s called the control room, and that makes me nervous. I’m a control freak — ask anybody. And I don’t like surrendering so much control that they need an entire room to hold it.
Will I be able to do what I do under these conditions? Will I get swallowed up like that mad-as-hell-and-not-gonna-take-it-anymore guy in that movie that came out when I was in, like second grade? Was this really such a good idea?
How the hell did I get here?
Prologue (pages xix-xx)
Meet John Edward
This is considered the correct timing for John Edward’s birth. Notice the Neptune/Ascendant conjunction in Scorpio (again). There must have been something in the water in New York in the late 60s.
This time there is one double inconjunct involving Saturn (Dad), and there is one single inconjunct involving the Moon (Mom). The South Node in Virgo is (widely) conjunct the Midheaven, while the North Node in Pisces is (widely) conjunct his Part of Fortune. Hmm.
Moon Inconjunct Midheaven
You need to feel that your family, especially your parents, give you consistent and reliable emotional guidance and support. Without it, you may easily feel that you are being pulled in two directions, which can only result in going nowhere.
Work very hard to develop an objective awareness of what you are doing and where you are going. You will need this understanding to guide your emotions, which might otherwise lead you astray and make it difficult for you to focus on your goals. Even though you won’t have to choose a career or a purpose in life for many years, you can learn now to have good perception, which will make it easier to choose later on. Learn to see others’ points of view, even if you cannot accept them. Learn to make logical decision, and do not let passing moods color your attitudes about yourself and you life too much.
Mercury Inconjunct Saturn
This aspect can have several different meanings. First of all, you may have hidden fears that are difficult to express, but they cause you to do things that others can’t understand. These may include fear of the dark or of certain places or people. Or this aspect can mean that you often feel depressed and sad for no apparent reason. You tend to see the serious side of life, and it weighs on you more than on most people.
On the plus side, this aspect can make you a very careful thinker. You may not attempt anything beyond your abilities as you see them, but whatever you do attempt will be done very well. You are a neat and careful worker.
Saturn Inconjunct Uranus
Your parents should understand that sometimes you have to let go and act in an undisciplined manner. Otherwise you will go through periods of great turmoil when you become extremely nervous and tense, so that you have to suddenly release all the built-up emotional tension. This can be quite a difficult experience. And if this pattern of sudden disruptive emotional release continues into adulthood, it could be very disruptive in your career as well as in your personal life. If you have a problem, try to express it and talk to others about it instead of being stoical and keeping it to yourself. You can do this very well, but there are times when you need other people. Learning to handle people and the tensions that arise in relationships is important.
(Is this where the ‘control freak’ energy comes from?)
Conclusion
I’d decided many years ago, now, that John Edward was the real deal. However, he has priced himself out of the range of my financial abilities to get a reading: US$750 per session. That’s a shame. Mom would have liked his energy. I wonder what Mrs Green is doing these days?
This is the story of a girl from Hicksville who makes good in the reality TV world of American mediums. Like Dolly Parton, Theresa Caputo is no dumb blonde. It’s an instantly recognizable look.
Although very popular on her TLC TV program, Caputo has her (unfair) share of critics:
A newspaper review of Caputo’s performances at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury in late 2017 concluded, “For me, this unbelievable experience was simply that: not to be believed. In my humble opinion, Caputo is a damn good performer, and she’s got undeniably likable sass and charisma. I just don’t think she speaks with the dead. Or she didn’t the night that I saw her. But my father probably could have told you that.”
Could it be true that she’s just a good performer?
Before you decide, consider her birth chart…
One of the symbols for an actor or actress is the Neptune/Ascendant conjunction. Here it is in Scorpio. That combination muddies the water as far as I am concerned. It could be the sign of a true medium.
Her Part of Fortune is @ 19° Sagittarius 41′, almost perfectly opposed to her Sun @ 19° Gemini 19′. Hmm.
There is one double inconjunct involving the Sun and the Neptune/Ascendant conjunction.
Sun Inconjunct Neptune
You are very sensitive to your environment and to the people around you. On one level of your being, you feel what is going on very acutely. Unfortunately your understanding often comes in terms that are very difficult to communicate to others, because their meaning is not clear in your own mind. Your greatest danger is in being exposed to negative people who are full of anger or depression or who act very harshly toward you and undermine your self-confidence. Your self-confidence has to be boosted at every conceivable opportunity, and it would be very destructive for you to be criticized sharply, unless the person has made it very clear that he or she loves you.
On the other hand, you can develop into a compassionate and understanding person who instinctively knows what others need and how to serve them. True selfless service to others, giving of yourself voluntarily rather than because you feel there is no choice, will make you feel good, just as the negative behavior described above will make you and everyone else feel bad.
Sun Inconjunct Ascendant
Your relationships with other people can be very intense. While you are young, they may be quite difficult, because you feel that others will accept you only if you deny yourself in some way. Or you may constantly feel you should put off doing what you want in order to do what you have to do. Usually your ideas about what you have to do come from the people around you. Also, contacts with other people will frequently force you to make serious, major psychological changes. Difficulties in your relationships with friends and family are signs of profound internal changes.
You may find that no matter how hard you try to show others who you really are, they misunderstand you somehow. This is because the angular relationship between your rising sign and Sun sign indicates that your internal energies are quite different from the energies that you show to the world, You are not intentionally dishonest with the world, you simply present a confusing complex of energies. As you get older, you will learn more about your effect on people, which will enable you to put the two sides of your personality together so that they work smoothly. Be patient and do not hurry. Look at each relationship as an opportunity to learn more about yourself through your effects upon others. You will know you have learned this when you no longer attract people who are psychologically difficult to deal with.
Sesame Street is an American educational children’s television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children’s Television Workshop [CTW] until June 2000) and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. It is known for its images communicated through the use of Jim Henson’s Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. It premiered on November 10, 1969 to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership. It has aired on the US’s national public television provider PBS since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO on January 16, 2016, then its sister streaming service HBO Max in 2020.
The show’s format consists of a combination of commercial television production elements and techniques which have evolved to reflect changes in American culture and audiences’ viewing habits. It was the first children’s TV show to use educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content, and the first show whose educational effects were formally studied. Its format and content have undergone significant changes to reflect changes to its curriculum.
Because Malcolm Gladwell references Sesame Street in his chapter on ‘The Stickiness Factor’ in his book “The Tipping Point”, I thought it might be interesting to look at the children’s TV show phenomenon from a different perspective, astrology.
Interesting. That Scorpio setup, starting with Mercury on the 11th House cusp (of groups and associations) seems to demonstrate clearly that this television program had a built-in secret agenda. The Ascendant @ 27° Sagittarius 17′ hints at the star Acumen which is just 18′ later.
Definition of acumen
: keenness and depth of perception, discernment, or discrimination especially in practical matters
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Ah, so. They say that watching too much television may cause blindness, which is the direct contradiction of the intent of the creators of Sesame Street. Maybe, knowing that children will watch just about anything on TV, they thought that teaching them at the same time would benefit the country.
The enduring cast of Muppet characters
There is one inconjunct:
Saturn Inconjunct Uranus
If either of these planets is near conjunction or opposition with the Ascendant or Midheaven, this aspect indicates a serious tension in your life between freedom and restriction. Many people have this conflict, but in your case the tensions may be so severe that you express them physically as muscle tension and possibly nervousness. You feel that somehow you must keep everything in your life under tight control, that if you let go, the whole structure will fall apart. In a very real and direct sense, even while you are young, you must learn to relax.
On the positive side, if you can learn to live with this tension a bit and express your feelings and emotions before they reach the breaking point, you can be extremely patient and persistent. You will be able to accomplish many tasks that others would give up on, if you do not hold in all your feelings and desires for freedom.
So, the question is: was this aspect about the producers of the TV show or their audience of children?
Sesame Street is best known for the creative geniuses it attracted, people like Jim Henson and Joe Raposo and Frank Oz, who intuitively grasped what it takes to get through to children. They were television’s answer to Beatrix Potter or L. Frank Baum or Dr. Seuss. But it is a mistake to think of Sesame Street as a project conceived in a flash of insight. What made the show unusual, in fact, was the extent to which it was the opposite of that — the extent to which the final product was deliberately and painstakingly engineered. Sesame Street was built about a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them.
Have you ever wanted to be read by a medium clairvoyant? It’s not as hard as you think: just sign up here, and Tyler Henry will (eventually) come to your place (of choosing) and read you. Would you do it, though? As his latest show on Netflix demonstrates again and again, it’s a very emotional process.
Whether you are a true believer or not, life does continue after death, so the controversy that rages on social media as to whether Tyler Henry is a fake (or not) rests with the results of his readings. Most are shocked that he picks up references to things that no one else supposedly knows. In this series, he is never told beforehand whom he is going to read so that he cannot look them up on the internet. But it doesn’t stop his psychic ability from picking up clues before he even gets to his destination, while in the car. Some are associated with famous people, most are just ordinary folk, trying to make sense of the passing of someone they love. The nastiest comment for Tyler and his work is that he is a ‘grief vampire’. Now, in my opinion, that’s not fair, but with our fear of the transition to the afterlife we call ‘death’, we label stuff associated with it, negatively, just to keep death at arm’s length.
This timing is genuine. Tyler quoted it on his Twitter account. After watching most of his sixth episode, last night, I was prompted to do my usual research and then erect his birth chart. I’ve mentioned before that I trust the randomization of the timing, but I got ‘proof’ of its correctness when I went to plug in his birth details: the timing was exactly 8:27:54 pm. His birth time is quoted as 8:28 pm. How’s that for ‘close enough for jazz’?
He claims that his first ‘event’ of being psychic was when he was ten years old. That would be represented in his birth chart as the conjunction between the Sun and Neptune in Capricorn. Normally, the Sun in Capricorn is far more ‘down-to-earth’ but Neptune may have been a prompt from a grandparent (and not the killer adoptive mother who raised his mom, but the real ancestor). In his teens he considered ending his life (Mercury/Mars conjunct) but somehow the moment passed. Later he fell in love with his present boyfriend (Venus). So I think the chart is accurate. Notice how everything seems to pivot around his mom, Theresa (Moon). There are three inconjuncts.
Mercury Inconjunct Ascendant
You are likely to have some problems, but not serious ones, in communicating with others. The problem is that people’s first impression of you may not fit in with what you say or your manner of thinking and speaking. People tend to hear what they expect to hear, and they may not listen to you as carefully as they should. So you will have to be as clear as possible and insist that others listen to what you are really saying. If others do not understand you, it is up to you to set them straight.
This pattern also works in reverse in that what you say may make people respond in ways that you can’t accept. For example, you may be outspoken and frank but dislike it when others are, preferring to be treated gently and sensitively.
Mars Inconjunct Ascendant
This aspect can mean that you have mixed feelings about all authority figures, including your parents. You may feel that you have to violate the rules laid down by your parents in order to get your way. This is a significant problems, because if it continues into adulthood, you will have great difficulties with employers. Therefore it is very important that your parents teach you how to express your self-assertive drives without going against their teachings. Unfortunately it is impossible to state how that should be done, because the conflict between self-will, on one hand, and self-denial and work, on the other, is different for each person.
Another was to solve this kind of conflict is to learn that you can say what needs to be said and not be forced to remain quiet. You can’t expect your elders to always go along with your ideas, but you should be able to feel confident of your right to say it. The exception to this, of course, is that you do not have any right to say anything just to hurt others.
Mercury Conjunct Mars
You don’t follow anyone else in your opinions, being quite happy to be the only one to hold a particular belief, You have no wish to control what others think, but you will not be controlled by anyone else, either. While you are young, adults may resent you for being so independent and for seeming to disobey them. But they can reason with you, for you are not a very impulsive person. If you know you will feel defeated if you agree with someone, you won’t budge. You have to be free to choose the better alternative and know that your choice will be respected. You cannot bear not to be taken seriously in this regard.
Jupiter Inconjunct Midheaven
This aspect can mean that you have mixed feelings toward adults and persons in authority over you. Although you know that they have your best interests at heart and that they want you to succeed at your own objectives, it often seems as if their demands are keeping you from doing what you want. When you want to go off and have fun, for example, you are told to finish your work first. At times you want to break free of this restricting influence and go off by yourself. 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.
(I guess we could call him a ‘rebel with a cause’.)
This insurance company used to be part of Manulife Canada. It is now a Foresters Financial Company.
I am going to use its advertising as an example of ‘stickiness’, as defined by Malcolm Gladwell in his book. Here’s a sample TV ad, from January 2018:
Note that Toll-free number. It’s a clue as to how they can gauge the stickiness of its effect on the viewing and responding audience. The proper number is 1-877-851-9090, as seen on their website. The number on their ad is a variation of that telephone number. Over the last year, I noticed that different ads on different stations have other variations:
1-877-312-9090
1-844-646-9090
1-877-328-9090 Jeopardy! on YES TV
1-855-241-9090 Wheel of Fortune on YES TV
In essence, the numbers end in 9090, but then I started to notice some of the ads featured Toll-free numbers ending in 6060. So, either they were running out of numbers, or they were expanding their television market and needed a different set to see how well it was doing.
Consider the field of direct marketing. A company buys an ad in a magazine or sends out a direct mailing with a coupon attached that they want the reader to clip and mail back to them with a check for their product. Reaching the consumer with the message is not the hard part of direct marketing. What is difficult is getting consumers to stop, read the advertisement, remember it, and then act on it. To figure out which ads work the best, direct marketers do extensive testing. They might create a dozen different versions of the same ad and run them simultaneously in a dozen different cities and compare the response rates to each. Conventional advertisers have preconceived ideas about what makes an advertisement work: humor, splashy graphics, a celebrity endorser. Direct marketers, by contrast, have few such preconceptions, because the number of coupons that are mailed back or the number of people who call in on an 800 number in response to a television commercial gives them an objective, iron-clad measure of effectiveness. In the advertising world, direct marketers are the real students of stickiness, and some of the most intriguing conclusions about how to reach consumers have come from their work.
The Tipping Point: The Stickiness Factor (page 91)
The text goes on to then discuss Sesame Street, but I will return to that story at a later date.
There, do you feel any better now that you’ve been invited to join their band of fellow insured individuals? Of course, you do. How could you resist their happy, smiling faces? Bless.
Samoset Greets the Pilgrim in English (March 16, 1621)
This event was ‘only’ 401 years ago. Look at what’s happened since then. This description says it all.
Friday the 16th a fair warm day towards; this morning we determined to conclude of the military orders, which we had begun to consider of before but were interrupted by the savages, as we mentioned formerly; and whilst we were busied hereabout, we were interrupted again, for there presented himself a savage, which caused an alarm. He very boldly came all alone and along the houses straight to the rendezvous, where we intercepted him, not suffering him to go in, as undoubtedly he would, out of his boldness. He saluted us in English, and bade us welcome, for he had learned some broken English among the Englishmen that came to fish at Monchiggon, and knew by name the most of the captains, commanders, and masters that usually come. He was a man free in speech, so far as he could express his mind, and of a seemly carriage. We questioned him of many things; he was the first savage we could meet withal. He said he was not of these parts, but of Morattiggon, and one of the sagamores or lords thereof, and had been eight months in these parts, it lying hence a day’s sail with a great wind, and five days by land. He discoursed of the whole country, and of every province, and of their sagamores, and their number of men, and strength. The wind being to rise a little, we cast a horseman’s coat about him, for he was stark naked, only a leather about his waist, with a fringe about a span long, or little more; he had a bow and two arrows, the one headed, and the other unheaded. He was a tall straight man, the hair of his head black, long behind, only short before, none on his face at all; he asked some beer, but we gave him strong water and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a piece of mallard, all which he liked well, and had been acquainted with such amongst the English. He told us the place where we now live is called Patuxet, and that about four years ago all the inhabitants died of an extraordinary plague, and there is neither man, woman, nor child remaining, as indeed we have found none, so as there is none to hinder our possession, or to lay claim unto it. All the afternoon we spent in communication with him; we would gladly have been rid of him at night, but he was not willing to go this night. Then we thought to carry him on shipboard, wherewith he was well content, and went into the shallop, but the wind was high and the water scant, that it could not return back. We lodged him that night at Stephen Hopkins‘ house, and watched him.
The next day he went away back to the Massasoits, from whence he said he came, who are our next bordering neighbors. They are sixty strong, as he saith. The Nausets are as near southeast of them, and are a hundred strong, and those were they of whom our people were encountered, as before related. They are much incensed and provoked against the English, and about eight months ago slew three Englishmen, and two more hardly escaped by flight to Monchiggon; they were Sir Ferdinando Gorges his men, as this savage told us, as he did likewise of the huggery, that is, fight, that our discoverers had with the Nausets, and of our tools that were taken out of the woods, which we willed him should be brought again, otherwise, we would right ourselves. These people are ill affected towards the English, by reason of one Hunt, a master of a ship, who deceived the people, and got them under color of trucking with them, twenty out of this very place where we inhabit, and seven men from Nauset, and carried them away, and sold them for slaves like a wretched man (for twenty pound a man) that cares not what mischief he doth for his profit.
Saturday, in the morning we dismissed the savage, and gave him a knife, a bracelet, and a ring; he promised within a night or two to come again, and to bring with him some of the Massasoits, our neighbors, with such beavers’ skins as they had to truck with us.
The Uranus conjunct Ascendant (in Cancer) would definitely convey a sense of surprise! Twenty minutes earlier, there were two inconjuncts both involving Neptune, but by this time, only one is still in play. I do not have a description for Neptune Inconjunct Pluto, so I will revert to the ‘missing’ one to help make sense of this event.
Moon Inconjunct Neptune
People with this aspect often hide their real feelings and make sacrifices for others that they do not really want to make. Then they resent the person who asked for the sacrifice. You must learn to tell people how you really feel; if you do not, you have only yourself to blame for what happens. You must learn to accept that you are responsible for your own life. Do not act as if you are the victim of strong forces that you can’t control, because you can control them.
He styles himself ‘the English Channel’. That’s an interesting body of water. He has a couple of YouTube channels, one of which I’ve shown on previous posts, Soul Crossings with Cash Peters. It’s a unique take on what happens to famous celebrities after they die. And, since he says he’s rubbish at drawing, his ‘stars’ are stick people. Seemingly, eventually, everyone gets reabsorbed by the spiritual matrix. Hmm.
.
This is now a corrected birth chart, based on his own statement on video, today, April 20, 2024.. There are just two inconjuncts.
Mercury Inconjunct Neptune
The challenge of this aspect is to make your thinking and communication with others more clear. Your rational mind is strongly influenced by your sensitivity, imagination and ideals, although you aren’t always sure how this happens. You tend to spend too much time in your own imaginary world that no one else can share, and this confuses your dealings with others. You will have to learn to face reality, so that you can at least communicate with people. Otherwise you will have a very lonely life.
Mars Inconjunct Uranus
Sometimes you may make sudden moves that startle people. You may make a decision very quickly and start to act on it immediately, but that is not such a good idea. Make up your mind more slowly, or at least wait for a while until you start to act. If your idea still looks good a couple of days later, it is probably all right to go ahead with it.
This is the last live shot I have of this member of our rat pack. We started setting traps last week, and so far we’ve killed at least three. I say ‘at least three’ because one of the traps has disappeared and that usually is an indication that a rat was caught in the trap and managed to get away, perhaps to die elsewhere. I hate having to kill any creature, great or small, but we’ve got to dissuade them from living in or around our property. Bless.
It probably doesn’t often happen, but there are two men named Thomas B Gau in the United States. This one has a Facebook account which lists his birth as June 11, 1961. However, the daughter of the other one asked (on Facebook): “Who is this person?” Her father’s birthday is July 24, 1957, but both are now located in Boyton Beach, Florida. Very confusing. Maybe he is her father, since she hails from Ashland, Oregon, too.
I believe the man featured in this photograph is the one I wanted look at, as he is discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “The Tipping Point”.
Tom Gau is a financial planner in Torrance, California [in 2000], just south of Los Angeles. His firm — Kavesh and Gau — is the biggest in its field in south California and one of the top financial planning firms in the country. He makes millions of dollars a year. Donald Moine, a behavioral psychologist who has written widely on the subject of persuasion, told me to look up Gau because Gau was “mesmerizing.” And so he is. Tom Gau happens to sell financial planning services. But he could, if he wanted to, sell absolutely anything. If we want to understand the persuasive personality type, Gau seems a good place to start.
Gau is in his forties. He is good-looking, without being pretty at all. He is of medium height, lean, with slightly shaggy dark hair, a mustache, and a little bit of a hangdog expression. Give him a horse and a hat and he’s make an excellent cowboy. He looks like the actor Sam Elliot. When we met, Gau shook my hand. But as he told me later, usually when he meets someone he gives him a hug or — if it is a woman — a big kiss. As you would expect from a great salesman, he has a kind of natural exuberance.
“I love my clients, okay? I’ll bend over backwards for them,” Gau said. I call my clients my family. I tell my clients, I’ve got two families. I’ve got my wife and my kinds and I’ve got you.” Gau talks quickly, but in fits and starts. He’s always revving up and gearing down. Sometimes when he is making an aside he will rev up even further, as if to put in his own verbal parentheses. He asks lots of rhetorical questions. “I love my job. I love my job. I’m a workaholic. I get here at six and seven in the morning. I get out at nine at night. I manage a lot of money. I’m one of the top producers in the nation. But I don’t tell my clients that. I’m not here because of that. I’m here to help people. I love helping people. I don’t have to work anymore. I’m financially independent. So why am I here working these long hours? Because I love helping people. I love people. It’s called a relationship.”
The Tipping Point (pages 70-1)
Meet Tom Gau
EVERYTHING about this chart is speculative! I was even considering not erecting one at all, but, when I saw how this one turned out, I knew I had to go with it, as is.
I chose Ashland, Oregon as his birth place because it didn’t make sense his moving there with his wife, unless it’s his home town. The timing is randomized, and the date may not be the only thing I can rely upon.
There are only two inconjuncts, only one dependent on a correct timing. Jupiter is the pivotal planet.
Jupiter in the Fifth House
This is a sign of an optimistic and cheerful temperament. You like to play and have good times in ways that are good for others as well as for yourself. You feel that by giving of yourself you have more than you would otherwise. You are cheerful with people, and you like to be with others who are the same way.
Jupiter Inconjunct Pluto (definitely)
You have a great deal of creative power, and the major challenger of your life will be learning how to handle it. First of all, you must realize that you will get the most out of life if you direct your energies toward helping the people around you and those you love. You will want to change many conditions in the world, which is fine as long as your reasons are not purely selfish ones.
Jupiter Inconjunct Ascendant (perhaps)
With this aspect, you may discover that in order to grow and get ahead in life, you will have to put aside your own needs and do whatever the situation or other people require. At times you will go through tremendous and possibly painful creative changes in your life, in which everything that you are is replaced by a new order. Your environment may change radically, or you may lose all your old friends and fins a whole set of new ones. During these times you will arrive at new understandings and realizations that make it impossible for your life to continue as before. You must always be open to new ideas and be willing to change your outlook on life.
Conclusion
I know Tom Gau seems a salesman who is too good to be true, and that is usually a warning sign to me. And because ALL the images of him are this same one (in various sizes and places, including Facebook), I thought he might be a caricature. But then I found this gem:
