SYLVIA PLATH   (1932 - 1963)

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts.  She was a brilliant student, poet and author, who contemplated life and death with passionate intensity, so typical of an individual with an eighth house Sun in Scorpio.  The death of Sylvia's father at eight years old was a traumatic blow that cast a shadow on her for the rest of her short life.  Her talent in writing became obvious from an early age and she won several prizes for her poems.  She later had a nervous breakdown at Smith College and attempted suicide, for which she was given shock treatments.  In 1956, Sylvia met and married Ted Hughes and later had two children.  Sylvia's most infamous book, The Bell Jar (1963), is an autobiographical account of her mental breakdown.  She succeeded in her final suicide attempt only one month after its publication.

The first thing we note in Sylvia's natal birthchart is a northwest hemisphere planetary emphasis (directions are reversed in astrology), suggesting that she would be either be victimized or swept up by circumstances in her early life development.  The Western emphasis is the signature of an individual who somehow gives herself away and projects her ego onto others.

Her Moon in Libra and Sun in Scorpio blend suggests her need to please and be appreciated is fueled by intensity and strong personal convictions.  Libra-Scorpio is cardinal air and fixed water, fostering a love of debate, shrewd and passionate instincts, an analytical mind and a sensual intellect.  Sylvia's devotion to her ideals will be expressed through the intellectual and progressive guise of Aquarius (Aquarius rising on first house of public persona), as well as through the poetic, dreamy and martyristic lens of Pisces (intercepted in her first house). Neptune, the co-ruler of her first house, opposes her ascendant, linking the ethereal dreamer and poet archetype to her identity and relationship dynamics.

Her fierce independence is powerfully suggested and publicly expressed with her natal Uranus =Sun/Moon and Uranus = ascendant/midheaven.  These midpoint pictures alone  are the signature of intense independence in relationships, uniqueness and sudden new developments.  When we add her Aries Point = Uranus/Neptune (AP suggests accentuated public projection in terms of the planet, point or midpoint configured with it), we know immediately that Sylvia's marked independence will be linked publicly to great imagination, creativity, and spirituality OR instability, amorphous states and loss of ego focus (or all of the above)!

Looking further, note that Sylvia's Uranus (her chart ruler) makes a quindecile aspect to her Sun in the eighth house (house of ego death and rebirth, crises, psychology, joint resources and healing).  This intensely erratic aspect links being driven, obsession and upheaval to individuation needs, as well as sudden breaks with males during her lifetime (father, relationships). Perhaps the early loss of her father fueled her need to express her pain and anger through her poetry. Certainly, her desire to obtain solace and comfort through her writing was also poignantly evident.  Ricki Reeves, in her book called The Quindecile, states the following about this aspect..."...may be driven by a need for constant excitement and stimulation.  May be a rebel. May have a sense of mission in needing to be different. May live on the edge.  May take up a cause and work for humankind in some significant way."

Sylvia's Uranus is also in challenging aspect to her natal Pluto and Mercury.  In addition, it is found in her second house of self worth, suggesting intensification of the nervous system is linked to identity and self worth concerns.  Uranus square Pluto is a generational aspect of revolutionary and irrevocable change, often through sudden and drastic means.  Sylvia's natal Pluto rules her ninth house of the higher mind, education and publishing.  It is found in the fifth house of creative actualization, love affairs and children, and trines her Scorpio Mercury in the ninth house.  Mercury in Scorpio is suggestive of a deep and penetrating mindset...a mind that will plumb the depths and reach the heights.  This mindset is linked to teaching, publishing and travel (ninth house).  Sylvia needs a public projection of her literary talents (natal Moon in seventh house).

Sylvia's Libran Moon is peregrine in the seventh house of the public and partnerships (a peregrine planet makes no traditional aspects...has no recourse or tie-in...makes a lot of noise to attract attention).  When you combine the Libran need to please and gain appreciation with the seventh house need to meet public expectations, there is the strong suggestion of overcompensation in the partnership arena.  In addition, a peregrine moon indicates a powerful maternal influence, as well as unfinished business from early homelife (Moon) becoming linked to a partner (seventh house).  Significant partnerships may bring a parental dimension into the relationship dynamic.

It has been documented that Sylvia Plath was extremely hard on herself and lived in constant fear that others (seventh house) would find out that she wasn't the perfectly happy person she tried to project herself as.  For example, in the summer of 1953, she desperately wanted to be accepted to a creative writing course at Harvard.  When she wasn't accepted, she put on a brave front.  However, weeks later, very distraught and suffering from insomnia, Sylvia attempted suicide.  This was just the beginning of her periodic bouts of depression.  Even though Sylvia was a talented and successful writer, those periodic rejection slips would send her spiraling down into her own private hell.  Her thoughts of suicide are evidenced in her journals...."To annihilate the world by annihilation of one's self is the deluded height of desperate egoism.  The simple way out of all the brick dead ends we scratch our nails against...I want to kill myself, to escape from responsibility, to crawl back abjectly into the womb."

A quick study of Sylvia's natal midpoint pictures is revealing...Pluto =Mercury/Venus... the sense of mission, highly focused aesthetics, Venus =Moon/Neptune...highly romanticized feelings of love, art and appreciation...being deceived through the emotions, Neptune =Saturn/Uranus...break down under emotional pressure, Midheaven =Jupiter/Neptune...KEEPING UP A GOOD FRONT, Midheaven =Sun/Pluto...striving for power and control...vocational upset...powerful new perspectives, Midheaven =Neptune/Node...taking a position off the mainstream of life, Mars=Jupiter/Saturn...ambitious energies out of discontent...feeling unrewarded and Mercury=Juptier/Saturn...studying very hard...studying one's philosophy of life...(midpoint descriptions excerpted from Noel Tyl's book on Solar Arc progressions).  When we add her natal Uranus =Sun/Moon and Ascendant/Midheaven and Aries point =Uranus/Neptune, we can confidently assume that this individual will be daring, independent, avant-garde,  seeking validation through her philosophy or art, a philosophy with an unusual, otherworldly or spiritual intensity. Her need to put up a good front will be challenged, leading to a breakdown and powerful new perspective.

A deeper look at Sylvia's natal aspects reveals a sharp, angry, relentless, probing and ingenious mind, seeking expression and public acceptance through teaching, writing and publishing (ninth house Mercury square Mars, inconjunct Uranus, and sextile Pluto).  The creative, otherworldly dimension is there (Mercury quintile Neptune), as well as the critical, wounded mindset (Mercury oppose Chiron in 3rd house, with ruler Venus, in Virgo) is also powerfully suggested.  Chiron in the third house of mindset in aspect to Mercury (reasoning mind) is suggestive of childhood wounds and possible depression, as well as healing through the spoken or written word.  Author Melanie Reinhart describes Mercury-Chiron aspects in her book called Chiron and the Healing Journey..."We can be powerful and sometimes compulsive communicators either through nonverbal means such as music or mime, or through the traditional Mercurial pursuits such as writing, speaking, journalism or teaching.  Perhaps we want to challenge people into awareness and self reflection, or feel we have important things to say."  With Mars in Leo in her sixth house forming a challenging T square configuration to this Mercury-Chiron aspect, her drive (Mars) to be recognized (Leo) for her Mercurial work (sixth house) was fuel for her intensified self worth (Mars rules second house of self worth).

Sylvia's writing and teaching career is echoed throughout her natal birthchart.  With Sylvia's natal Moon in oriental position, the role of teacher, instructor or even prophet is linked to her vocation. Sagittarius on her tenth house cusp (destiny, career, calling) is the archetype of the teacher or heroine on a quest.  Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, conjoins dreamy or confused Neptune, the archetype of the mystic and the poet.  The more challenging polarity of an impressionable Neptunian personality is hypersensitive, escapist, aimless and obscure.

Sylvia's natal Saturn in Capricorn (authority, responsibility, prestige) is found in her twelfth house of self undoing, sorrow, karma, past lives and seclusion.  Furthermore, it is in challenging aspect to her midheaven (career, parent), Sun (ego, identity) and Pluto (personal empowerment), all suggesting that Sylvia had deeply rooted (past lives)? and long-standing insecurities around social standing and public recognition, which ultimately became the source of her undoing and downfall. In fact, Sylvia had a marked fear of social judgment and failure.  Saturn in the twelfth house often brings tests of character through periodic restrictions and denials.  However, it is through these very restrictions that the facilitation of spiritual knowledge and psychological awareness emerges (twelfth house).  Many individuals with this placement of Saturn feel driven to understand the mysteries of consciousness itself. 

Sylvia's North Node in Pisces in her first house of identity (higher destiny), guided her to rise above the illusions of the material plane and view her life from a higher perspective.  Sylvia was destined to pursue her creative ideals and inspirations (Pisces), as well as nurture her own ego, personality, ambitions and independence.  South Node in the seventh house of partnerships suggest habitual patterns of losing herself in others and giving herself away. In addition, South Node in Virgo is suggestive of an innately critical and intelligent nature.  Our North Node calling is often difficult to achieve, as we are most comfortable falling back into our past patterns (South Node). 

Tragically, Sylvia Plath eventually succeeded at committing suicide on February 11, 1963.  Her dark and despondent mindset was evident six months before she died, when she wrote the following words..."...outcast on a cold star, unable to feel anything but an awful helpless numbness.  I look down into the warm, earthy world.  Into a nest of lovers' beds, baby cribs, meal tables, all the solid commerce of life in this earth, and feel apart, enclosed in a wall of glass."

Ted Hughes, Sylvia's ex-husband, released Sylvia's "Collected Poems" in 1981.  In 1982, they won the Pulitzer Prize.  It is ironic that Sylvia became more famous after her death, but then again, she was born during a Balsamic Moon phase.  Those individuals born during the dark of the Moon are often prophetic and way ahead of their time.  The rest of humanity takes a while to catch up and realize the significance of their deeply inspired contributions to society. 

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