Monday, April 18th, 1983

Gandhi's Natal Chart

by Student

Paper V09P

3-LETTER CODE: HOR

TOPIC: Astrology

SUBJECT: Horoscope-Gandhi

SUBSUBJECT: Gandhi natal chart

ORIGINAL LOCATION & FILE NAME (of PDF used for typing): 1983 0418 ASL Gandhi 10P.PDF

CONTENTS:

Gandhi's Sun degree, Libra 9

Gandhi's Saturn degree, Sagittarius 13

Gandhi's Mercury degree and its opposite, Scorpio 4-Taurus 4

Gandhi's Venus degree and its opposite, Scorpio 17-Taurus 17

Gandhi's Mars degree and its opposite, Scorpio 19-Taurus 19

BOOKS QUOTED FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Marc Edmund Jones, The Astrology of Concepts

• Marc Edmund Jones, The Sabian Symbols in Astrology

• Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi

SABIAN SYMBOLS: Taurus 4, 17, 19, Libra 9, Scorpio 4, 17, 19, Sagittarius 13

CHARTS appended to this paper:

• FIGURE 1983 0418c-1. Gandhi Natal Chart (astro.com).

• FIGURE 1983 0418c-2. Gandhi Natal Chart (WG version).

AD HANDWRITING: Typewriter typed, no AD edits

COMPLETENESS: Fragmentary Paper

PUBLISHABILITY: Yes

DATE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PAPER: 1983 0418

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2023

NOTES:

• RETYPED STUDENT PAPER (V09P).

• This is 1983 04/18c, a paper on Gandhi's Natal Chart, and the third entry associated with this date. 1983 04/18a = Astrology; Horoscope-Gandhi evening class. 1983 04/18b = afternoon Gandhi seminar, for which we have no audio, just JF notes.

• The author of this paper is unknown, possibly written by LR.

• The last three pages of the Scan File contain the WG version of Gandhi's natal chart, which is appended, and his degrees handwritten by a student, which is not included as part of this paper.

• All quotes from The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer and The Sabian Symbols in Astrology by Marc Edmund Jones have been made to conform to the published version.

• All spelling, punctuation, and capitalization corrected, some numbers and all astrological glyphs spelled out, all missing terms filled in.

• This paper was scanned for WG as Scan File 1983 0418 ASL Gandhi 10P.PDF.

Gandhi's natal chart

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Paper on Gandhi, 19830418 P1-7P [Note: Handwritten by student in upper left-hand corner.]

The Sun in Gandhi's chart, at 9 degrees Libra, the degree of three old masters hanging together in an art gallery, announces the potential for an integrated cohesion of excellence which can be effected in one man's being as grounds for a wholly universal self-expression. Man is not strictly limited to an individual egotistical perspective; but rather, by seeking his place within a larger system of intelligence and wisdom, say for example, the intelligence of the World Idea, and through acknowledgement of a power greater than and yet within reach of his own individuality, he is able to attain to a significance within the world, which purports super worldly boundaries of significance. In other words, if we are to see the Sun as both the central radiating substance of the individual imagination, and the purpose of life to be attained, we might say that for Gandhi, possession of an individual imagination was only sufficient if it incorporated within the life the greatest achievements of all of mankind's ideals; and further, that in the harmonizing of these ideals, no barriers of race, wealth, religion, reference to time or place, etc., would or could ultimately remain. But this did not mean for him that all differences between men should be dissolved. It was of dire importance to Gandhi that each man retain and display his own uniqueness while in the act of dedication to the Truth, just as the three masters are nothing together if not absolutely dignified in themselves. The tripartite nature of thought, devotion and action is perhaps here symbolized by the three masters. The ego has its place in the World Idea and must be seen as nothing, if not a virtuous enactment of it. In his own words:

"The first duty of the God-worshipper is truth: for truth is God . . . 'There should be Truth in thought, Truth in speech, and Truth in action . . . Devotion to Truth is the sole justification of our existence.'" (Louis Fischer, Vol. II, pp. 53-54.) [Note: See Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 331.]

Here is the integration of all the elements of selfhood which is the key to Gandhi's greatness: no knowledge could have significance without action, no action without prayer or devotion, and ultimately no achievement without a debasement of egoity.

It is not surprising that with this Sun in the twelfth house, Gandhi spent approximately 2100 days of his life in jail, primarily reading the words of the great thinkers both of contemporary and historical times. Only in confinement could these ideas enter his innermost consciousness. His days of freedom were spent in action.

If the Sun must be the innermost [Note: word missing, too faded to read] which would permeate the life, the other Chaldean planets must act as the functioning revelation of the solar Apollonic consciousness, the outer concretion of its form being revealed by Saturn which bounds and defines the structure of that psyche.

Gandhi's Saturn l3 degrees Sagittarius, "A wistful young woman dressed in black is surprised into a warm companionship to which she has felt alien," represents the mode or manner of his self reflection as well as the structural backbone of the ego. This symbol is most appropriate for the accomplishment of Gandhi's task. He viewed his own ego as an ultimate failure, the cause of the soul's agony; however, in acknowledgement of its defeat a great doorway to a larger subjectivity, or, the balanced Being of the Sun. In other words, to Gandhi the great contribution of the ego was in the public announcement of its own lack or failure, the failures or agonies of the past pointing to future direction as well as providing the soul with necessary patience and tolerance. The widow, while suffering a great loss in physical form, is yet brought to great gain in psychic replenishment. This was to be the motto of Gandhi's proclamations: humiliate the body, the ego, and glorify the Self. Because Saturn is in the second house, his form of self-apperception, which in this case stood for self-denial, took first of all a bodily form; i.e. fasting, strict restriction of any substance entering the body, simplicity in dress, and restraint of sexual passion. It seems to be in utter harmony with this symbol that Gandhi declared: "It is impossible for us to realize perfect Truth so long as we are imprisoned in this mortal frame . . . if we shatter the chains of egotism, and melt into the ocean of humanity, we share its dignity." [Note: See Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 331.] Here in self-reflection on the ego is the echo of the Sun's message.

It was perhaps with Mercury that Gandhi's intuitive outlook was most aligned and shaped. Mercury is outstanding in his chart not only because it is close to the ascendant, but because, apart from a quintile to the Moon, it has no aspects at all. Therefore its functioning or influence could remain unimpeded by the other voices of his psyche. (In fact, no sooner would a thought arise, than it would be recorded in ink and printed for the masses.) The symbol is the candle-lighting service where a youth gains a sense of the great other world. [Note: Scorpio 4, "In an old-fashioned candle-lighting service a youth gains for the first time a sense of the great other world."] Gandhi's outlook was positive, steeped in faith throughout all his suffering.

"'There is an indefinable mysterious Power . . . which pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen Power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses.'" . . .

"'I literally believe,' he said, 'that not a blade of grass grows or moves without His will . . . God is nearer to us than fingernails to the flesh . . . I can tell you this, that I am surer of His existence than of the fact that you and I are sitting in this room . . . You may pluck out my eyes, but that cannot kill me. You may chop off my nose, but that will not kill me. But blast my belief in God, and I am dead." (Louis Fischer, Vol. II, p. 52.) [Note: See Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, pp. 328, 329.]

The awestruck attitude of the youth is immanent in every fleeting instant of life, and as Jones says of this degree, "There are always evidences of higher meaning and immortal value in each moment's detail of everyday living, and there is an enthusiasm which arises from an ever clear vision to bring every possible sustainment to man in his outer and practical world." An utter unconditional faith in the goodness of all events and all people was the given natal attitude of Gandhi's thinking, and it took a real subjugation of the Mercury to bring about the shrewd political acumen he was to display in his later life. Louis Fischer describes Gandhi's faith as a powerful tool: "He refused to see the bad in people. He often changed human beings by regarding them not as what they were but as though they were what they wished to be, and as though the good in them was all of them." (Louis Fischer, Vol. II, p. 217) [Note: See Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 336.] Herein we see the manifestation of Mercury in its opposite house and symbol; i.e. in the seventh as his relationships to others, and in the opposite degree -- the rainbow's pot of gold -- as unshakeable faith "which enables man to hold steady in every course of his choosing . . . an eternal covenant between the least of individuality and the universal matrix of life itself." [Note: Taurus 4, "The rainbow's pot of gold is revealed in the midst of a shower of sparkling and flashing colors."] So in Mercury, another echoing glorification of the Sun's purpose.

With Venus in dignity at 17 Scorpio, we hear described Gandhi's felt identity with an inner sanctuary containing inherently all things, all resources, all attainments: "A woman pregnant by her own aspiration." [Note: Scorpio 17, "A woman is great with child; the remarkable thing is that she was impregnated by her own spirit or aspiration."] The paradoxy of the symbolism points out a common theme in Gandhi's life-long struggle for the attainment of harmony among men; a conflict between, as Jones says, "practical involvements and ideal potentialities of human nature…" Although the fulfillment of the symbol is achieved through an inward turning for all gratification and understanding, the inner nature must first be purified of the passions of earthly man. With Venus and Mars in the first house, no one knew better than Gandhi himself the conflicts that desire could create, and that ultimate reward could come only through transformation of that passion into divine mania. Inner purification was Gandhi's unceasing supplication for all of India and mankind. The task he presented before his people was his own task first; but although that demand was the unending source of inner conflict for him, it brought with it the ardent aspiration for which he has been acclaimed. The battle here was between "swords and torches" as revealed in the opposite symbol, the forces of light and the forces of darkness. [Note: Taurus 17, "An imaginative battle is under way between swords, the disciples of might, and torches, the disciples of enlightenment."] His biographers and adversaries alike wrote of him:

"Part of Gandhi's effectiveness lay in evoking the best Gandhian impulses of his adversary. . . Victory came to Gandhi (in South Africa) not when Smuts had no more strength to fight him but when he had no more heart to fight him."

". . . 'Be careful in dealing with a man who cares nothing for sensual pleasures, nothing for comfort or praise or promotion, but is simply determined to do what he believes to be right. He is a dangerous and uncomfortable enemy because his body which you can always conquer gives you so little purchase over his soul.'" [Note: See Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 136.]

Gandhi valued this struggle. Not only himself but his enemies were the laboratory to effect the ultimate transformation for the good, to bring about the virgin birth.

Mars in rulership provided Gandhi with the substance of this tremendous inner transformation. "The parrot listening and then speaking" [Note: Scorpio 19, "A wise old parrot has been listening attentively to the conversation and preening himself; now he begins to talk."] suggests that his courageous attitude was disposed towards adjustment, self sculpture, purification; that the tenor of his will was shaped about the inner aspiration of Venus and the ultimate harmony of the Sun. Jones says "Inherent in the symbolism is a sensitiveness to the continual reworking of reality on the ideal or imaginative side, and to the opportunity the individual may have for selecting or rejecting every essential element in his make-up." Gandhi was not adverse to any experiment in Truth; in fact, his impulse drove him to scrub latrines, shave the heads of women, deprive his own family of clothing, live among and as the most distasteful outcastes of India, and shut down the functioning of an entire nation overnight. The raw courage of Mars allowed him to openly break any and every unjust law, without regard for the consequences to himself of his action. The parrot within him was trained to speak only to an inner voice, the inner compulsion of destiny; and of this fearlessness was born "a new continent", 19 Taurus, the man who "re-establishes himself continuously within the lineaments of each new realization of his powers and the opportunities of his world." [Note: Taurus 19, "A newly formed continent is seen, fresh and green within its setting of interminable ocean."] In other words, the fearless and open courage with which Gandhi identified in the Mars, was to effect a power which could not be conquered by even the gravest of his enemies and which was often likened to the power of the Gods. Of the opposite symbol Jones sees "revolutionary potentiality by which each individual is enabled to remodel the entire face of the earth [universe]…"

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