Cleaver Greene is the ultimate Neptunian- addicted to anything and everything- he has no boundaries and can resist everything but temptation itself.
Cleaver Greene is also the ultimate Jupiterian- a win on the bookies is always just a good tip away, there is always a silver lining and, whilst he doesn’t necessarily believe in justice, he does believe whole heartedly in the law. Which is why in a recent episode he boasted that while his success rate is just 51%, given that 99% of his clients are guilty, that’s actually pretty damned good.
Cleaver Greene is a TV barrister- from the Australian series Rake.
If I were to make a guess at his chart, I would say probably Sagittarius Rising- he says what he wants to say regardless of the consequences or the company and frequently jumps on the soapbox to wax lyrical about things like people who use the word “correct” and shop-keepers who place signs on the door saying “back in 20minutes”. As an aside, I agree with him on both of those points…
Sag Rising would also fit with his residence which is above a bottle shop and chaos incarnate…Pisces on the cusp of the 4th would do that, as would a Pisces Moon in that part of the chart.
Venus is either in Pisces or aspecting Neptune in some rather difficult way. He loves all the women in his life with an absolute depth of feeling, yet continues to let them down, or allow himself to “come undone” as a result of a woman.
I’m guessing an Aries Sun conjunct Jupiter and probably Mercury in the 5th. There is something so undeniably addictive about him- the type that you can’t help but love despite their flaws and frustrations. Aries men tend to do that well. I know one who’s a master at it. And Cleaver’s self absorbed- Aries men do that well as well…
I find myself doing this a lot, trying to work out the astrology of characters in books, on TV. I find a well-written character does tend to have a chart I can guess and will behave accordingly. I’ve written about that here before.
Last week I read a couple of books by Marian Keyes involving the subjects of addiction and depression. She wrote her characters experience so vividly I had to google her Wikipedia page- and discovered that Ms Keyes had a well publicised history with both addictions (alcoholism) and depression.
Yet neither of the characters (Rachel in Rachel’s Holiday and Helen in The Mystery on Mercy Close) felt Neptunian to me. I expected to find those traits especially in Rachel, the addicts, story. Instead, both characters felt more Plutonian, as if both the addiction and the depression were the product of a Pluto personality and difficult aspects therein.
In the case of the character Helen, her depression appeared to be a descent into chaos as a result of an inability to control or organise her own darkness. It felt as though she wanted to let go, but couldn’t, and the more details she juggled, the more out of control she felt.
So I checked out the authors chart- whilst the birth time is unknown, her birth details are 10 September, 1963 in Limerick, Ireland. The chart is below.
She has a very Plutonian chart. The Sun is conjunct Pluto in Virgo and her Gemini Moon squares Pluto.
Virgo in shadow can be similar to Pisces- that’s the way it is with the opposites. An attempt to control the detail can lead to a complete loss of control and Pisces chaos. Wherever Pluto is concerned, power struggles and compulsion follow. I know that one only too well myself. In my case in my efforts to control the uncontrollable I go so far across to Virgo that I wind right back in deepest darkest Neptune.
The character Helen, therefore, reads very similar to Ms Keyes own birth chart (such as we know of it)- although I would pop Scorpio on the Ascendant of Helen’s chart- it goes nicely with her home decorating.
It made me wonder though, just how often we as writers allow parts of ourselves into our characters. I get that when we’re starting (such as I am) there will always be a little of ourselves in the book- after all, we’re told to write what we know. It’s also one of the reasons why pushing for publication is so scary- to me anyway.
But Marian Keyes has been in this game for a long time- and is justifiably successful. I can’t help but wonder if this time (unconsciously or otherwise) she is drawing on her own chart to tell this particular story. After all, her Sun and Moon are both ruled by an un-aspected Mercury. And the Pluto gift is to come out of the Underworld to heal others…
Perhaps this is also why this character, in particular, is so well drawn. Helen is a character who boldly and unapologetically tells us her flaws- all of them. We shouldn’t like her- she tells us so, yet we care about her …we can’t not…even as she is methodically planning and researching…I’ll say no more for fear of spoiling the story.
What about you, have you got a favourite author or character that you think you know the astrology of? Who is it? Does knowing the birth date allow you to care more about that character?