These two planets are of supreme importance in the affairs of the spirit. (For example, they were conjoined at the birth of the poet Baudelaire, and when in exact opposition announce the birth of a Master of the Temple. Events such as these are cosmically more important than the fall of empires.) Their natures being so potent and opposite, they refuse to harmonise; every aspect that they make is the signal for battle in the wars of the world-soul and, the Universe being in motion toward Absolute Truth and Beauty, every such battle is a victory for love.
In otherwise unimportant nativities, the friendship of these planets implies a struggle of the soul, a self-analysis probably long and bitter, but almost certainly ending in victory for the higher. This may manifest itself in the outer in strange ways, not indicative to the thoughtless of what is really taking place. We may find a recluse, an amiable crank, a fanatic, a self-torturing saint.
In those horoscopes which are
otherwise important, and give more or less immediate fame to the native, we expect a friendship of Neptune and Uranus to make him principally a reconciler of certain deep antimonies. They were within 3° at the birth of J Herbert Spencer, who reconciled the warring tendencies of religion and science with his doctrine of the Unknowable; and exactly conjoined in the horoscope of Baudelaire, who united good and evil in his moral infinite. The same is true of Pasteur, who revolutionised medical science; and of Copernicus, who founded modern astronomy by his extraordinary and world·upheaving discoveries. Also of General Grant, who reunited America, and of Paul Kruger29 who broke the British Empire. Neptune and Uranus were sextile for Cecil Rhodes and near trine for Napoleon.
Of those who attempted similar or lesser problems, we may quote Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence I the Shakespeare-Bacon crank, who had these planets semi-sextile; Dr Orville Owen,J2 nearly sextile; ‘George Eliot’ had them within 4° of conjunction. They are also close to semi-sextile in the nativity of Joseph Smith/1
As previously observed, there is not so great a difference between the friendly and unfriendly aspects or these planets. The conflict is perhaps more terrible in the latter case and may rage unabated throughout the life. But in such contests, the battle is more important than its results. Luther, who split Christianity in half, had these planets in a fiery sign within 10° excited by the violence of passion implied in a close conjunction or Mars and Venus. They are united in the horoscope of Ruskin, whose radical criticism of art and life made so famous a fiasco, and semi-sextile in that of Swinburne, whose Muse petered out before he had written six years, as also in that of Tennyson, who strove to make merchandise of poetry. Tennyson had also Mars conjoined with Uranus, making him a toady and selfish scoundrel. Savonarola had them sextile and perished in the flames which he himself kindled. Dante, who had them quartile, made of his own heart, hell, purgatory and heaven. Sir Richard Burton, England’s greatest linguist and explorer, a magnificent poet, a most original thinker, had them in exact conjunction in the third house.
On the whole, then, one may consider aspects of these planets as ‘on the dangerous edge of things’ where, as Browning says, our interest lies. The bigger and more threatening the aspect, the better for the world at large, if not for the peace and comfort of the native. The minor key of strife, the lesser phases of the soul, often mean mere eccentricity.
Beware of people born on 4 November 1880, or thereabouts and on or near 3 December 1900.