Character Development and Astrology

I'm fascinated by personality constructs, all personality constructs. I'm particularly interested in the enneagram and Myers-Briggs, and my diaries are full of lengthy analyses of my characters' types. However, I don't like using them to determine my characters' personalities beforehand. Rather, I write the character and after the fact, I mull over what type they might be.

Astrology is another matter entirely.

I find it very useful to come up with a character's chart in advance of writing them. When I wrote Collywobbles, I had a sun sign in mind for Aletheia's character, but didn't immediately create an astrological chart. However, in subsequent books, I've found myself increasingly creating charts in advance of writing a character. I use Astrolabe's free chart generator. Sometimes, I'll have a specific sign in mind for a character, but other times, I'll use a random generator app to determine their sign, as well as where and when they were born. Once I generate the chart, I'll study up on the character implications. Sue Tompkins' book, The Contemporary Astrologer's Handbook, is an invaluable resource for me, and I rely heavily on Howard Sasportas' The Twelve Houses as well.

Astrology gets a bad rap, largely due to people voicing opinions about it who have never delved any deeper than their daily horoscope. I find it to be especially ill-informed when proponents of the Myers-Briggs bash on astrology, since Jung embraced astrology and vice-versa. The truth is, psychoanalysis is a big part of chart interpretation. Authors like Tompkins speak to the underlying motives indicated by a chart, and certain positions, like the moon sign and the fourth house, delve deeply into the early childhood experience. The usefulness in thinking about these things in character development should be obvious. If you know that an Aquarius Moon predicts a detached mother, and your character has a particularly emotional placement (e.g. a Scorpio sun), then already you're getting into some of the underlying conflicts in the character's psyche. Other placements, such as which sun the house falls in or what sort of aspects to Neptune a character has, are equally informative.

I don't adhere religiously to charts. Usually, I'll go through a chart and look for any placements that are particularly interesting and use that as a starting point. I also find it helpful to cross-reference with other characters. I've occasionally had character dynamics leap out at me by glancing at a newly created chart.

In subsequent posts, I'll be going through the planets, explaining what they say about the personality as it can be applied to character creation. I'll get into the houses somewhat too. I'll start with the big ones (the sun, the moon and ascendant) and take it from there. Stay tuned!

 

Aletheia's Chart

Aletheia's full name is Aletheia Nous O'Fallon, showing her mother's fondness for the Ancient Greeks, as well as her mother's interest in philosophy.

Aletheia is an Aries, so she has quite a bit of fire in her. Edgar could no doubt attest to this, given the coffee incident. Her Pisces ascendant causes her to present herself as sensitive and vulnerable, and she often flip-flops between her highly emotional presentation and her feisty Aries sun.

Her moon is in Virgo, which tends to give a critical undercurrent to the personality. In her case, it's more self-critical than critical of others. Virgo moon can also indicate a critical mother, and her own mother was indeed critical. Although Aletheia tells Thalia that her mother didn't expect much of her, a very different picture is painted in her memories. Her mother's criticality is indirect and, at times, dismissive. She was fond of assuming that Aletheia should be able to understand highly complex and abstract texts at a relatively young age, offering very little by way of guidance. Her mother's criticism of the education Aletheia receives in high school also has the implicit message that somehow Aletheia has erred by not having complete mastery of Heidegger by the time she's a teenager. That her mother was experienced as critical is shown by the negative self-image Aletheia has of her own mental processes, namely that she has "a broken brain." The inaccuracy of this self-perception is shown through her memory of Thalia, who thinks that Aletheia's only problem with thinking is that she does it far too much.

Another aspect of her moon is that of worry. Moon in Virgo people are often prone to worrying. This is shown in her character but, of course, Aletheia has a lot to worry about!

Aletheia's moon is in the seventh house, which has interesting repercussions, given the direction her love life goes in throughout Collywobbles.  A seventh house moon is often found among those that have mentally ill partners.

Lastly, her Venus in Aries in the first house lends itself to attracting suitors, and in some cases, men competing over her. Certainly, she isn't lacking for suitors. She dates two different men in the first year that she's in New Orleans. She has certain men hit on her even when it's wildly inappropriate to do so, and of course her greatest suitor--and the most determined one--is Edgar.