I have long had a fascination with Emily Dickinson, partly because of our shared birthday. Emily was born December 10, 1830 and I was born December 10th exactly 150 years later. From a young age I also enjoyed writing poetry and I encountered Dickinson's poetry for the first time when I was in middle school--it was the poem "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" in a children's book illustrated with frogs. :) I can't remember when it was I realized she and I shared a birthday, but long before I came to study astrology I felt it was symbolic of a connection. I'm probably totally wrong, like when you think you know a celebrity when you really don't, but I've always felt I understood Dickinson. Her poems make sense to me--there *is* a "certain slant of light." There is a need, as she does, to morbidly prepare oneself for the death scene, to glamorize it even. Even her constant use of dashes (--) in her poetry makes sense to me. They create pauses that she uses to construct melody.

                I have the feeling that to some people Dickinson comes across as a boring spinster. I think she was probably deeply emotional, connecting to others in ways that would have been and still would be beyond the understanding of most people, even from her self-appointed isolation. But if you were to begin to understand Emily Dickinson purely from the point of view of her natal chart, what could it tell you? Well, let's find out!

                We are lucky that because of journal records Dickinson's birth time is known to us, so her full chart is available. If you're interested, check out Astro.com's version of her chart. You can also plug her birth info into an astrology software to view more information about asteroids and other points in her chart. In this blog entry, I talk about Vesta and Black Moon Lillith, for instance. She was born December 10, 1830 at 4:40am in Amherst, Massachusetts.

                In my last blog entry I explored the meaning of my own nodal axis, so let's start there with Ms. Dickinson. Her South Node is in Pisces in the 4th House. In past lifetimes, she experienced the world as an extreme emotional sensitive. Combine the watery sign of Pisces with the watery 4th House and you can see that the skills she brought into the incarnation that made her famous had to do with compassionate emotionalism. She was likely in touch with not only her emotions, but very empathetic to those of others as well. Boundaries would have been a problem for her, not just in previous lifetimes, but also in the one in question because we bring our past-life tendencies and abilities (via the south node) into our present incarnations with us.

                It makes sense that she cocooned herself within the safety of her home (fourth house) because her personal boundaries (Pisces) must have been so nebulous that she needed the added protection of physical walls, just as a crab needs its shell. If she had been born today, and acquainted with modern metaphysicians or intuitives, she would have been advised to practice shielding of her auric field. She probably picked up other people's emotional and psychic "stuff" very easily. I can see that she would have been easily hurt, again, making her eventual retreat and isolation into her father's home understandable.

                The classical and modern rulers of Dickinson's south node (Jupiter and Neptune) are conjunct in Capricorn in the 3rd House (they also square her Moon in Libra on the 12th House cusp). This shows someone who has an ambitious intellect and who has a strong need to communicate spiritual/philosophical insights and the emotional/personal impact these ideas have. She needed to connect with others intellectually (Moon in Libra)--to understand herself more fully through her understanding of others' ideas. Jupiter and Neptune combine to create a sense of wonder at the world, and of spirit. Surely someone with this combo ruling their south node has been a wisdom-seeker and will bring that same urge for spiritual questing into this lifetime.

                Dickinson's north node is in Virgo in the 10th House. In the lifetime of hers that we are addressing, her soul had chosen to pursue more concrete ambitions than she had in past lifetimes. North Node is also conjunct taskmaster Saturn and inconjunct her Mars/Pluto conjunction in Aries. This was a very difficult set of energies to take on--Virgo/10thHouse/Saturn combine to create a person who sets very high, maybe impossibly high standards, for themselves. She lived in a world in which women really could not achieve the worldly ambitions that she likely wanted to pursue. Interestingly, though Dickinson did not make a substantial literary impact in her lifetime (satisfying those 10th House NN ambitions), she did of course go down in history as rivalling only Walt Whitman as the most important and influential of the modern American poets following the publication of her poems after her death. In a way, this does satisfy the Saturn/NN conjunction: Saturn is the master of time. In its own time, her soul made its north node contribution to the world.

                With Mars/Pluto influencing the North Node by inconjunction, along with Saturn's influence, which can make a person have harsh expectations for themselves, and with NN in the sign of Virgo which also highlights a very self-critical nature, I wonder if she may have had a lot of anger. This isn't something we really know about Dickinson, but Mars/Pluto anger would be very explosive. When frustrated at the difficulty in meeting her own ambitious goals for herself, she probably experienced a lot of strong anger and even sexual energy. We know that she came from a prominent family, and that her father had connections with noted intellectuals of the time--her known biography does not show her taking advantage of these connections, but her chart shows that she likely would have wanted to. Perhaps the intensity of her emotions, and her high expectations for herself made her retreat from contact? She may also have channeled the intensity of the Mars/Pluto conjunction into her work, releasing anger in that manner.

                The ruler of the North Node is Mercury in Sagittarius conjunct Sun and Venus in the 1st House (also sextile the Moon in Libra on 12th House cusp that her South Node rulers aspected as well). Here is someone who needs to communicate, who wants to share her ideas and truths and experiences with others even as she is drawn to isolate herself (Moon in 12th). And of course, we know that this is exactly what she did. She had several very intense correspondences in which she delighted in baring her soul, and she also communicated herself through the almost 2,000 poems that have been found to have been written by her.

                The rulers of Dickinson’s Scorpio rising chart are Mars/Pluto conjunct, as mentioned before. These are in the forceful sign of Aries, Mars’ own sign, and in the playful, romantic, creative 5th House. These elements in a chart show someone whose energy is so strong that she could not have been ignored. A strong personality! Passionate is the first word that comes to mind here, and though we can’t know for sure if Dickinson ever had an explicitly sexual relationship with anyone, if I were just looking at this chart I would assume a strong sexual nature. The only exception here is that Mars and Pluto are also conjunct the asteroid Vesta. Read HERE and HERE for more information on Vesta. The sexual passion of Mars and Pluto could be influenced by the devotion-nature of Vesta, so perhaps she expressed her strong DESIRE nature through sexual DEVOTION rather than through explicitly sexual acts? I mean, who knows what she did with all that time to herself. She certainly wrote letters with passion and devotion to many people, including some letters called the “Master letters,” whose recipient is anonymous. They certainly do fit the bill for the theme of passionate devotion, as the person to whom they were written is elevated to an almost god-like status. The Mars/Pluto/Vesta conjunction also makes a sextile to Uranus in Aquarius in the third. I would assume sudden attractions, sudden endings, and non-mainstream expressions of desire.

                So though her north node shows that her path involved a need to be influential in the public sphere, this conflicts (through the awkwardness of the inconjunction) with the 5th House Mars/Pluto/Vesta sextile Uranus energies. She would have been set with the task in this lifetime of adjusting her need to influence the world around her with her need to creatively express her psychological depth, her devotion to her passions, and her non-conformist approach to life. I would say she surely managed to achieve all of this, and what a feat!

                Also notable is Black Moon Lillith conjunct Dickinson’s ascendant, within one degree, and in the 12th House. Twelfth house conjunctions to the ascendant do not express openly as easily as those on the first house side of the ascendant, but they’re still there just right beneath the surface. With a highlighted Lillith, Dickinson definitely would have felt defiant of prevailing ideas about what a woman’s “place” should be. In a nutshell, I suspect she would have felt it was her right to choose her life for herself, outside of gender expectations.

                There is so much more that can be said about Dickinson’s chart, and I will go into further details in a later entry (including the Moon, Sun, Mercury and Venus, which I’ve so neglected here!), but on the note of what I’ve expressed so far concerning her astrology, let’s leave off with the most Lillithian, Mars/Plutonic-raging poem she’s known to have written.

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -

And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master's Head -
'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's
Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live
He longer must - than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without--the power to die--

--Emily Dickinson