Let’s generate the 7th harmonic chart of Lewis Carroll to look at his fantasies and more specifically, his sexual fantasies.
For a heterosexual man, his sexual urge would most probably be signified by Mars. Mars conjunct Saturn and Pluto. Taboo thoughts that are kept within him or restraint. Or compulsive thoughts of sex cloaked in the vein of social respectability.
What about Venus for a straight man? Venus conjunct Uranus for Carroll. Unconventional relationships. Venus is a natural significator for young women. Hmmm, he might have gotten from images of young women that excited and stimulated him, sexually or otherwise.
I just read for the first time that Carroll had a great interest in young girls. Mercury is the significator for a young person. Mercury squares Moon that conjunct Neptune. Moon represents the femininity. So, combing Mercury and Moon suggests young girls. The inclusion of Neptune can indicate fantasies of them. Or that things are not what they when it came to young girls for Carroll. Also, the Mercury-Neptune aspect suggests that his communication can be extremely imaginative which is indeed the case or that there’s an element of suggestion or even deception when it comes to his communication with young girls or their mothers. Most interestingly, it can suggest the photographing (NE) young people (ME) at home (MO) which was obviously a hobby of his.
Just Good Friends
I was rather excited when I read Just Good Friends on The Guardian and the symbolism of the 7th harmonic chart just shone through:
It is true that the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll, author of the inimitable classics Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, liked little girls. Or, as he once wrote: “I am fond of children (except boys).” He took exquisite, melancholy photographs of little girls.
He’s a Reverend! This reminds me of Neptune conjunct his Ascendant. According to Wiki, he was groomed from an early age (MO conjunct ASC and NE) to become a priest in the Church of England. I wonder whether little girls (ME) satisfies him emotional yearnings (MO conjunct ASC and NE). Surely the NE-ASC-MO squares ME symbolises “exquisite (NE), melancholy (NE and MO) photographs (NE and ME) of little girls (ME and MO)” to a T!
When one thinks of a paedophile, one thinks of a lustful, over-the-top, drooling Nabokovian love, but that is not Lewis Carroll. His love was more delicate and tortured and elusive; his warmth, his strange, terrified passion, more intricate and complicated than anything encompassed by a single word.
Terrified passion reminds me of the MA-SA-PL conjunction. Both Saturn and Pluto can indicate fear or terror of something. Strange passion brings to mind the Moon-Neptune conjunction.
Dodgson’s affection for what he called his “child friends” was always mingled with a vague yearning.
Vague yearning goes back to the Moon-Neptune conjunction again.
He wrote to one 10-year-old girl, “Extra thanks and kisses for the lock of hair. I have kissed it several times – for want of having you to kiss, you know, even hair is better than nothing.” This is typical of his correspondence. He converted whatever his feelings were into the whimsical, quasi-romantic banter that eventually made its way into the Alice books
His style of writing which certainly seemed inspired and highly creative is reflected in the Mercury square Neptune.
There was a romantic intensity to the friendships that Dodgson struck up with children, a hint of hunger, of never quite getting enough.
His insatiable hunger for relationships with children points to the Moon conjunct Neptune again. Hmmm, we are starting to appreciate Carroll’s inner reality more and more, aren’t we?
He wrote to Gertrude Thomson, an artist who was sketching girlish fairies and nymphs, “I confess I do not admire naked boys in pictures. They always seem… to need clothes, whereas one hardly sees why the lovely forms of girls should ever be covered up.”
This reasonates with the Venus conjunct Uranus. Uranus suggests directness when it comes to physical beauty of girls (Venus).
There is no doubt that he was tormented by what he called “the inclinations of my sinful heart”.
Surely the Mars-Pluto-Saturn conjunction speaks of the torments that he experienced with his carnal desires?
Repressed Paedophile?
And here are some choice quotations from BBC investigates whether Lewis Carroll was ‘repressed paedophile’ after nude photo discovery that I found insightful.
Vanessa Tait, the great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell and spokesman for the family, said she had grown up knowing about the “strange” elements of Carroll’s relationship with her ancestors, but that she had not been aware of the photograph in question until now.
“My understanding is that he was in love with Alice, but he was so repressed that he never would have transgressed any boundaries,” she said.
“I do think he was a strange man, and people who say he wasn’t and are totally whitewashing him are wrong.”
I was laughing when I saw “strange man” and thought of the Moon-ASC-Neptune conjunction in the 7th harmonic chart. Equally, the bit on Carroll being so repressed that he would never have transgressed any boundaries. This brings to mind the Mars-Pluto-Saturn conjunction again. Deep, morbid, taboo sexual urge that was repressed.
Fascinating stuff, isn’t it, the 7th harmonic chart?
P.S. I have NOT studied Carroll’s natal chart which is extremely poor form of me. The birth chart should always be studied before the 7th harmonic chart.