Tweeting Bloomsday June 16 1904 – 2011 (Astrology)

Are you one of the participants today who is tweeting from James Joyce’s brilliant stream-of-consciousness novel Ulysses? Mega-kudos to you!

Then perhaps you caught this morning’s NPR interview with Stephen Cole, founder of the Ulysses Meets Twitter project where each tweet represents approximtely 8 pages from the book.

Nearly 800 pages long, Ulysses details a day in the life of Leopold Bloom, an epic novel describing an ‘epic day’ of 24 hours stretched over almost 800 pages – a wild concept for its time. Yes, I did try to plow through it in school and though I usually completed whatever book I began in those days, this one won the battle and was deserted for more interesting novels such as those by Hardy, Dickens, Burroughs, Dreiser, Wharton, Poe, and the like. Sorry Mr. Joyce!

But this Ulysses-Twitter project is a grand idea, isn’t it?

And the date ‘June 16, 1904’ falls within a very interesting historical period which I wrote about for Julie Demboski‘s Fall Issue of her Eclipse e-zine (now a subscription newsletter and worth every penny for Julie’s deep insights and masterful astrological overview!)

My Eclipse article (rather dry unless you appreciate Mundane-Political Astrology mixed with dusty History) is titled, “American Empire: When Jupiter Bowed to the Sun” and relates to the sea change in American government when our ideological (Jupiter) course was expanded and diverted and we ended up – as we now experience – as the world’s police force and imperial (Jupiter) occupier who overspends into oblivion. But I digress…

So what was going on in the heavens on June 16, 1904?

On Earth it was a busy year which began on January 1st with opium production and ended with the first-ever New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square NYC, then known as Longacre Square. Politically of note is November 8, 1904 when Freemason and Jupiterian Teddy Roosevelt won election as US President.

Check out other Events of 1904 as you wish and yes, you’ll find that Bloomsday made the list. And there’s Tennyson’s poem Ulysses about the restless hero.

Astrologically, the 24-hour period of June 16, 1904 began during a Hour of expansive Jupiter trine Uranus posited in Jupiter’s sign of Sagittarius (28:05 Rx); powerful transformer Pluto 20:17 passionately conjoins Venus @ 18Gem31, Sun 24Gem36, and nebulous, creative Neptune 5Can13.

You notice that 1904’s Neptune conjoined US natal Jupiter (‘6 Cancer’ = “Gamebirds Feathering Their Nests” (and they still do.) This transit to US n Jupiter indicates speculation – many get-rich-quick schemes were promoted to the unwary, illusion mixed disastrously with extravagance and exaggeration, and idealism was enhanced. We’re now seeing results from this long-ago influence along with other portents of corruption (Neptune) and bankruptcy and debt default issues.

Benefits came from writing, publishing, advertising, sales, marine pursuits, the justice system, the father, as other Jupiterian-Neptunian themes abounded in 1904 with the two planets being ruler and higher-octave ruler of mystical Pisces.

Jupiter’s position on June 16, 1904 @ ’25 Aries’ gives an interesting Sabian Symbol (word picture): “A Double Promise Reveals Its Inner and Outer Meanings.” (Marc Edmund Jones.)

Now I know not where-of I speak as far as Joyce’s novel goes, I’m only reading the horoscopes for 12:00 am, noon, and 11:59:59 pm EST, with Dublin Ireland as the location – for the 24-hour period detailed in Ulysses.

One factor of note since we may take the Sun as significator for Leopold Bloom, our hero: an opposition between Sun and quirky Uranus which was applying during the 24-hour period.

Sun opposite Uranus indicates a willful, erratic, and restless character, one who is independent, hypersensitive, tense, irritable, and high-strung. (Does this describe Mr. Bloom at all? You tell me, oh readers of Ulysses!)

At times, a Sun/Uranus opposition may deliberately flaunt convention just for the sake of causing controversy and excitement. Perhaps this denotes Mr. Joyce’s innovative writing and personality more than it does Mr. Bloom – or both. Impatience may block sustained effort though that’s hard to imagine with an 800-page novel which had to take a while to think up and write.

Mentally exceptional with unusual talents, a Sun/Uranus opposition shows an original genius but one whose quirky changeableness can be his own worst enemy for he is difficult for others to deal with and insists that all be done ‘his way’…a revolutionary and a rebel!

As TIME’s James Joyce bio states, “Ulysses revolutionized 20th century fiction” with June 16, 1904 Astrology as a testament to the genius of a Sun/Uranus opposition shining through this innovator’s literary tour de force (a forcefull Mars/Pluto conjunction, and Mercury the final dispositor in its own writers’ sign of Gemini; publishing Jupiter is the pioneering sign of Aries. Moon reaches creative, dramatic Leo during the day, too; Joyce’s Syzygy Moon – the last lunation prior to birth – @ 29Cap34 was transited by shaman, priest, and Wounded Healer Chiron (29:09 Rx) on Bloomsday 1904.

During the 24-hour period of Bloomsday 1904, there forms a notable midpoint picture which depends on timing since MC (Career; Aspirations; Public Status) is involved yet it may be significant to our topic:

Saturn/MC = Jupiter: simplicity; modesty; contentment; clinging to hopes. (Ebertin; any, all, or none may apply, as below.)

The study of a 24-hour period always intrigues me and this day no less for a midpoint picture which begins with Venus at its apex (focus) has sexy, psychological Pluto joining it prior to day’s end. Here are the word pictures they form…

Mercury/Neptune = Venus: rapturous imaginings; expecting too much from love.

Mercury/Neptune = Pluto: unusual actions originate in the subconscious mind (a stream of consciousness novel!); drawing highly upon nervous energy.

Bloom, Joyce, or both?

June 16, 1904’s Solar Eclipse Saros Series (14 South) provides an undertone of influences and it’s one I dread in 2011 because it manifests again on *May 20, 2012 @ ’00Gem’ (conjunct Fixed Star, Alcyone: ‘something to cry about‘); the initial eclipse in the Series on August 29, 984 OS has a load of Mercury-Pluto content which indicates obsession, spying, and propaganda:

Paraphrasing Brady’s Predictive Astrology, 14S = ‘long periods of hard work (writing Ulysses? jc) bring long-awaited breakthroughs and success; an obsessive idea is finally accepted (NWO in 2012? jc) which brings the promised success of Jupiter’.

James Joyce, the Man

Mr. Joyce was born near Dublin, Ireland on February 2, 1882 during the Great Conjunction/s of Neptune and Pluto, the Robber Baron duet of resource plunderers everywhere.

Using a ‘noon’ horoscope set for Dublin, we see an applying inconjunct (aka, quincunx) between Uranus and natal Sun 13AQ37 (AQ ruled by Saturn and co-ruled by quirky genius Uranus which makes the Sun/Uranus aspect more significant in his personality and hero’s journey of the Sun, all of which resonates with the Sun/Uranus opposition of June 16, 1904.)

A Sun/Uranus inconjunct gives a tendency toward self-sacrifice and others may impose within one’s career by making one feel guilty. Yet freeing the minds of others is an imperative for this inventor yet the actual aspect – 148 degrees – is second in importance to the fact that Sun and Uranus are in contact at all in both charts(Transpersonal meets Personal, an echo of the Ulysses Meets Twitter’s tweeters 2011.)

Of interest is that his natal Neptune 13Tau48 and Pluto 27Tau21 Rx have an idealistic Jupiter/Chiron conjunction snugged between them. Jupiter conjunct Chiron denotes a ‘rainbow chaser’ so his novel Finnegan’s Rainbow naturally comes to mind, another groundbreaking literary effort by Mr. Joyce.

His writers’ planet Mercury @ 00Pis51 is now – June 16, 2011 – being transited by creative if confusing Neptune (‘1 Pisces’ = “A Public Market”…Twitter?) Plus, Neptune rules nets, webs, and networks, so we see that in 2011, there’s a vibe of the Internet ‘web’ touching Joyce’s natal planet of writing and communication as his method of self-expression is spotlighted yet magically changed by the catalyst of watery Neptune.

Well, I suggest you take a peek at the charts for June 16, 1904 and at Joyce’s natal horoscope for more details since my blogging time this morning is at an end.

There’s a lot of obsession (Venus-Pluto-Mars trio) in the Bloomsday horoscope (plus, the 14S Solar Eclipse vibes) along with a very creative Sun/Neptune conjunction though it is out-of-sign (Gemini-Cancer); this planetary contact in 1904 focuses on Joyce’s natal Sun/Neptune square which indicates one who spins castles in the air, a perfectly desireable trait and aspect for an inventive genius of a writer who manages to control and use its creative energies productively in the real world.

~:~

*Solar Eclipses in the 14S Series also occurred in the years 1922, 1940, 1958, and last time in 1994; similar themes may be revealed by checking historical events of those years. jc