I have often remarked, while driving in our car, that most other drivers seem to consider the speed limit a ‘minimum’, always traveling at least 10 kilometers per hour over it.
In fact, there seems to be an ‘unwritten’ law that the lane you are in dictates how slow you can go. On a three-lane highway like the 400, the right hand lane should be at least the posted speed limit of 100 km/h. The middle lane should be 5-10 kilometers per hour faster than that. And the left hand “passing” lane should be about 20 kilometers per hour over the limit.
And nothing irritates a left-lane driver more than a right-lane driver trying to pass a slow middle-lane driver, while still maintaining the speed limit. In their eyes, that is criminal behaviour.
Speed Kills
There are good reasons for speed limits.
For example, your reaction time is better at slower speeds, especially in treacherous weather conditions.
And your fuel consumption decreases when you drive slower. This point may have been the original reason why speeds were kept artificially low, even after cars became more fuel efficient.
But the most obvious reason is the most important: Speed Kills.
Emily Brontë was a very complicated woman. Whatever was going on inside her head and her heart drove her to write fiction. And, as a result, her characters in Wuthering Heightsseem to be full of passion, while full of revenge at the same time. Why?
Courtesy of Wikipedia
An Astrological Explanation
I recently had a discussion with a friend after I gave her a birth chart and analyses. She said that she couldn’t understand why it was so contradictory. Without going into details, her issue was the fact that it said she was empathetic, on one hand, and unable to see another’s point of view, on the other.
Because we have been ‘programmed’ to assume that the Sun sign is the only indicator of our personality, we forget (or simply don’t know) that there are actually energies of eight planets, one sun and one moon acting upon us at any given moment. And planets in aspect to each other give us a very definite flavour in how we react to daily life.
Add to that mix the star patterns in the sky which serve as the background to those planets, sun and moon, and you begin to understand how complicated a birth chart can be to explain.
Finally, the art of Astrology depends on having an accurate time of birth, which allows the astrologer to ‘place’ the energies into a form of natal positions called “Houses”, with two anchors, the Ascendant and the Midheaven. So, not so simple after all…
Brontë’s Birth Chart
The birth time is the generally accepted one, but it might not be correct. At this point, there is no useful purpose in rectifying the chart, because that is not my intention here. We are looking for the reasons for Emily’s love and hate dynamic. I can assure you that we really need go no further than the Venus/Mars conjunction in Virgo in the 9th House.
From my Kepler 7.0 program, we learn these things:
Venus in Virgo
You are quietly devoted and faithful to your loved ones, and often become a kind of servant to your love partner. You are more comfortable showing love for someone by doing something for them, making something for them, or simply being there for them — rather than telling them so in a romantic, soul-stirring sort of way. You are timid about expressing too much sentiment or emotion. You also underestimate your attractiveness and lovability and doubt your own worthiness to receive love and appreciation.
Venus in 9th House
You are attracted to foreigners, exotic places, traveling, and to people who can expand your horizons, teach you something, or show you places and worlds you have never experienced before. Sharing a philosophy or ideal with your love partner is important to you.
Also, you feel a love and kinship for people everywhere, not only with your own family, nationality, or group. Finding similarities and making links between people from differing backgrounds or with different perspectives is a gift of yours.
Venus Conjunct Mars
You are extremely amorous and it is difficult for you to go without a romantic involvement for very long. When you are attracted to someone, you pursue them very ardently and sometimes come on too strong. Doing creative work or artistic work can also satisfy the very strong desire for love and beauty that you feel.
Venus Square Uranus
Your love feelings are easily aroused and your romantic relationships begin with a sudden electric attraction, but they often end abruptly, and you may be in and out of love frequently — especially in your younger years. You crave emotional excitement and need to feel spontaneous and free, so you may avoid making firm personal commitments. Unusual or nontraditional forms of love and relationships appeal to you, and you are attracted to unique, creative, or unstable people.
Mars in Virgo
You are a perfectionist and have high standards for your own work. You often feel that if you want something done right you must do it yourself, for others do not do as thorough a job as you do. Doing a task well is very important to you, and you must labor over minute details that others wouldn’t bother with. You strive for accuracy, efficiency, and precision, and you become very irritable when things are not done “right”.
On the other hand, you can become so much of a perfectionist and so self-critical that you will not even attempt many activities and projects, feeling that your efforts simply won’t be good enough. You are usually modest and realistic in assessing what you can accomplish and, if anything, you underestimate yourself. Of course, practice makes perfect, and if you do apply yourself diligently in some area, you gradually gain self-confidence as you master skills and develop expertise.
You conserve your energy and pace yourself so that you do not waste or diffuse your efforts. An unwillingness to take risks or venture from the beaten track can sometimes limit your opportunities. In short, you may not aim high enough and settle for too little in life.
Mars in 9th House
You have passionate convictions and will fight for them when challenged. You are willing to dedicate a great deal of your energy and force to an important cause, and you’ll act decisively on your beliefs, rather than simply espousing them.
Sometimes you get so involved and identified with your ideas that you cannot really be receptive to anyone who opposes you philosophically.
Mars Square Uranus
Intensely restless, dynamic, and energetic, you are always on the go. When you want something, you want it NOW, and you act decisively, impulsively, sometimes hastily and prematurely. Impatient, high-strung, and often nervous and tense, you find it difficult to slow down, pace yourself, or relax. You are fiercely individualistic and independent, self-willed and intolerant of restraints and restrictions imposed by others. You have a reckless disregard for authority and can be extremely rebellious. Cooperating with others is not your strong point! You are often brutally frank and abrupt with people, and can be quite impersonal when you are pursuing a desired goal. You may have an explosive temper when your will is blocked. You have a superabundance of energy and need much personal freedom to do things in your own style and at your own pace.
Other Influences
As I have stated before, it is impossible to completely understand another person until you have ‘walked a mile in their moccasins’. Looking back on Emily’s life and her work, we can see that there were great forces of influence working through her. A couple of entries will demonstrate this:
Pluto in 4th House
There was much that was hidden or secret in your childhood home, and you absorbed a sense of shame or a feeling that you need to hide and protect who you are from others. One of your parents had an especially intense bond to you and profoundly influenced you, perhaps dominated or controlled you in subtle ways. Unlocking the secrets of the past, and learning to be intimate and close to others without controlling or being controlled are issues for you.
Scorpio Rising
You are very strong-willed and proud, but intensely private and not easy to know well. Behind your quiet exterior lies a great deal of emotional depth, sensitivity, complexity, and also fierce determination. When you want something you go after it rather quietly but insistently and wholeheartedly — and you usually get it.
You are not a person who lives lightly or superficially. You want to live passionately and intensely and are not adverse to challenge, danger, or to facing the darker side of life — human pain and struggle. You function well in crisis situations and often seek them out, for you enjoy the feeling of living at full capacity.
[…]
Because of your natural reserve, others may see you as something of an enigma, You are quite self-protective and often defensive. You are also very magnetic, specially to members of the opposite sex.
Conclusion
Emily Brontë was a social recluse, but her spirit wanted to be free to roam the Yorkshire Moors. The tensions between these two extremes pushed her to be creative, using her writing as a way to channel this need. She died young. One can only imagine what else she might have written had she lived longer.
Tom Hardy, who played Heathcliff, was at his most voluptuous in this TV mini-series. Compared with others who have played this role, he did not need to overact to suggest malicious intent: he just stood there and smouldered.
Charlotte Riley, who played Cathy, must have enjoyed kissing his lips, because she married him in 2014.
Heathcliff and Cathy
As the star-crossed and fated lovers in this story, Heathcliff and Cathy represent darkness and light. The two became obsessed with each other, to the point of distraction.
Cathy tried her best to remain a respectable woman of class, but her love for Heathcliff seemed to make her throw caution to the windy moors.
Heathcliff, on the other hand, found his Gypsy status very difficult to overcome, especially in the eyes of the rest of the family.
Wuthering Heights Family Tree courtesy of Wikipedia
The Family Dynamics
Hindley, Cathy’s brother, was especially nasty to Heathcliff, essentially trying to show him what his station in life really was, and keeping him under Hindley’s boot. Hindley is the true villain of the piece, representing the British class system of the 18th Century.
Edgar Linton, Cathy’s husband, was a gentleman, but seemed a bit too effeminate for Cathy. He made an interesting diversion for her, keeping her company and eventually marrying her, after Heathcliff went away for three years. But then Heathcliff came back on the scene, after making his fortune “taking advantage of other men’s weaknesses.”
So, to spite Cathy, Heathcliff marries Isabella, Edgar’s sister. Two children are born later that same year, Catherine (Edgar and Cathy’s daughter) and Linton (Heathcliff and Isabella’s son).
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange
Wuthering Heights courtesy of Pinterest
The interplay of darkness and light is the most evident when comparing the Earnshaw residence (Wuthering Heights) with the Linton home (Thrushcross Grange): the first is gloomy and stuffy; the second is bright and airy.
Because of this, you always know where you are, as it were. Atmosphere is a word that evokes an interesting thought: atom and sphere (‘s fear). It’s in the very fabric of these properties, and as such makes the story much easier to comprehend. This goes back to the ‘nature versus nurture’ argument. You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy (and girl).
Resolution
There are several themes that come to completion in the story of Heathcliff and Cathy’s love. The most obvious is about family. Catherine and Hareton are the new Cathy and Heathcliff. The scene of them sharing the book Ivanhoe may have been the reason Heathcliff finally ends it all.
The less obvious, but more important, is the fact that Love survives Death, and the lovers are reunited at Wuthering Heights.
Seeing we went backwards rather then forwards, we thought ourselves uterly lost. That rogue that was with me sayd, “See thy God that thou sayest he is above. Will you make me believe now that he is good, as the black-coats [the ffather Jesuits] say? They doe lie, and you see the contrary; ffor first you see that the sun burns us often, the raine wetts us, the wind makes us have shipwrake, the thundering, the lightnings burns and kills, and all come from above, and you say that it’s good to be there. For my part I will not goe there. Contrary they say that the reprobats and guilty goeth downe & burne. They are mistaken; all is goode heare. Doe not you see the earth that nourishes all living creatures, the water the fishes, and the yus, and that corne and all other seasonable fruits for our foode, which things are not soe contrary to us as that from above?” As he said so he coursed vehemently after his owne maner. He tooke his instruments & shewed them to the heavens, saying, “I will not be above; here will [I] stay on earth, where all my friends are, and not with the french, that are to be burned above with torments.” How should one think to escape this torments and storms, but God who through his tender mercy ceas’d the tempest and gave us strength to row till we came to the side of the water? I may call it a mighty storme by reason of the litlenesse of the boat, that are all in watter to the breadth of 5 fingers or lesse. I thought uppon it, and out of distress made a vertue to seeke the means to save ourselves.
Radisson, Pierre Esprit. Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson (pp. 47-48). . Kindle Edition.
