Ever wonder about the Astro profiles of the characters in the books you read?

I’m a shocker for it. I am a voracious reader of new stuff, but I also find myself going back to old favourites as well- especially if something new is due out in a series I love. It is generally on the 2^nd reading that the characters Astro profile might grab me.

Some are easy. JK Rowling gave us a birth date for Harry Potter. Google it. Most resources have his birth details at 31/7/80, 3.25pm- this gives him a Scorpio Ascendant with Uranus on the Ascendant. And he has that lightning bolt on it forehead. Clever. As you read the books, Harry is very definitely his birth chart- and grows accordingly.

Stephenie Meyer isn’t quite as clever with the character of Bella in the Twilight series. And before you write to me, I should clarify…I love the books and absolutely applaud the way they are planned and written. It is just that Bella is supposed to be a Virgo, yet is, in many ways, so not a Virgo. I blogged this one a couple of years ago- the link is here (if you are at all interested).

Aside from the rather obvious lay down your life thing for a “vegetarian” vampire, the reason I have never found Bella believable, has been that I haven’t been able to envision her as the Virgo Stephenie Meyer tells us she is. The disconnect between her character traits and her Astro “label” is just too gaping for me to get my head around.

I recently re-read Claudia’s Big Break by one of my favourite Aussie authors, Lisa Heidke. Her lead character, Claudia, is in Greece with her friends celebrating a birthday. The month isn’t detailed, but I would put decent money on her having a March date. Why?

• She has this thing about impractical shoes
• Things happen around her that she simply doesn’t notice
• She has a habit of deluding herself when it comes to men
• She has a history of sexually transmitted debt
• Consequences simply don’t occur to her
• She has a very fluid attitude towards money
• She is not at all suspicious about the catches that may be involved with large gifts of money or holidays
• I’m not even going to talk about the escapism and partying

Sure, the whole point of characters in chick lit novels is to exaggerate a particular characteristic- that is part of what we find entertaining. Even romantic leads have a hero’s (or heroines) journey to follow, but as I’m reading this I’m thinking Venus in Pisces at the very least.

Kerry Greenwood in her fabulous Phryne Fisher series gives us a hand-drawn horoscope– as it would have been done in 1928. Pluto is conspicuous by its absence- given that it hadn’t yet been discovered.

With an Aries Ascendant (just) trining a Sag Jupiter, Phryne is fearless and wilful. Her Capricorn Sun/Mars conjunction has her absolutely aware of her status (which was substantially altered when the Great War killed off a number of young men and raised her father from poverty in Melbourne to a great estate in England) and incredibly resourceful.

For me, though, it is the Aquarius Venus and Gemini Moon that is most obvious.

Phryne loves a puzzle, she enjoys her lovers immensely, but is rarely distracted emotionally:

“She did not want to get involved in an emotional relationship. She had no patience for dependence and no understanding of jealousy.”

“Lindsay was ardent…but Phryne’s mind, which was seldom involved with her body at all, was ticking over nicely, and she was extracting much interesting information from Lindsay in between embraces.”

“Phryne told herself that she should have known better than to say things like that. Jane began to weep…’Never mind…All this emotion is wearying, isn’t it?’”

…that is, until she allows herself to become attached to Lin Chung. Again, though, she is not only prepared to share him, but happy to do so. Phryne never loses ownership of herself.

At the time of the first book, Phryne is 28 and approaching her first Saturn return. This is, as we know, a time where we look at what has been achieved & what is yet to be achieved. It is often when we make career changes or settle down. For Phryne it is also a time of deliberation- should she stay at home in England and do Good Works and Flower Arranging or will she go to Australia and become a Lady Detective?

When I was drafting my characters for the manuscript that time once forgot (but that is now looking for a home), I seriously considered giving my leads birth charts. As it is, they have sort of grown into different signs.

My heroine seems very much like an Aries Sun to me. Venus or the Ascendant (or both) is in Pisces, and I think she has a Scorpio Moon. My male lead is definitely a Sagittarius, and whilst he has a Scorpio Ascendant, I’m not really sure about the Moon. It would be an interesting exercise as part of the revision process to give them a birth chart- would help to verify I have them filled out properly as characters, and to make sure that the relationship I am giving them could actually work outside of my imagination.

In my female leads’ immediate past is definitely a Uranian transit of some description and an awakening- like you have at the end of a Neptune transit. My hero’s back story isn’t as well defined.  Maybe it needs to be? At least in my head, or on my ideas board- if I don’t know exactly who he is, how does she? And if she doesn’t know who he is, how can the relationship be believable?