I haven’t read all the Harry Potter books nor have I seen all the movies. But I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. It has all the ingredients that make for a riveting movie: the fight of good against bad, humor, young love. All set against the backdrop of a boarding school located in a brooding castle. And not just any old boarding school, but one where the students are taught magic!
Outer planets like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are associated with magic and the Harry Potter series makes an excellent subject for astrological correlations. Take Harry, for instance. He’s the hero and so you’d be tempted to ascribe the sign Leo to him. I just checked: J.K. Rowling has given 31-July has his birth date (same as hers), so they’re both Leos. A funny little coincidence that, but why not? It makes sense to see him as a Sun-ruled hero, fighting the dark forces, being marked as the “chosen one.” The untimely death of his parents and the constant threat to his life make me think that either he has Pluto oppositions in his birth chart, or that he is going through some very difficult Pluto transits. But this is just idle speculation. And though it’s good fun, I’m going to stop. Because this post is not about the likeable, albeit simple, character of Harry Potter but about his darker and more complex teacher, Severus Snape.
Now, I’ll confess I find Severus Snape the most attractive man in the movie. It may have to do with the fact that the younger guys are still in their teens and the older guys are well past the age of 60, leaving him as the only man one would focus on. But I don’t think so. Although I’ve never seen him smile or try and make an effort to charm, Mr. Snape does charm one. Admittedly, it is a rather dark appeal what with his chequered past; but it isn’t his bad boy aura that has me hooked. There is something about him that inspires trust and confidence. He seems like a good person to have on your side when the chips are down. When he enters a situation and takes charge, you know he’ll take care of things.
So, Mr. Snape naturally ensnared my interest and I wondered about his chart. He’s always dressed in black, has lanky black hair and has a perpetually unsmiling visage. The black clothes tempted me to ascribe a Scorpio ascendant to him. That would also explain his expressionless face. But I felt that he was more Saturn/Capricorn than anything else. Wikipedia describes him as “…a thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose, and yellow, uneven teeth. He has shoulder-length, greasy black hair which frames his face, and cold, black eyes.” And if that isn’t Saturn, then I don’t know what is.
Just for fun, I looked up the character’s birth data on http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Severus_Snape. It is listed as 9-Jan-1960. You can imagine my delighted surprise when I saw that he was born with a conjunction of the Sun and Saturn in Capricorn. There is no birth time listed and I don’t have the skill for chart rectification yet. But since he is decidedly Saturnine in appearance, I modified the birth time so that the chart would have Saturn conjunct the ASC.
Saturn is also conjunct both Mercury and the Sun. This fits in with what I know about Snape: Saturn conjunct the Sun is his disapproving father; and the conjunction of the twelfth house Mercury with Saturn hints strongly at information that he forced to withhold, keep secret, thus making him an object of suspicion for Harry. Snape’s Venus squares Pluto and perhaps that explains his great unrequited love for Lily, Harry’s mother. His moon squares both Chiron and Pluto making him an emotionally tortured man. The Neptune conjunct his Scorpio MC makes his an excellent teacher of magic.
There is so much more that can be gleaned from his chart, but I don’t know enough about his timeline in the series to do so. Even though all of this was done using fictional data and is nothing more than an exercise in astrological speculation, it was great fun. If you find out more or write about it, do let me know.
P.S. Enjoy the magic!
I give kudos to the casting director of the film for choosing Alan Rickman for the part. Rickman does a fine job of mirroring the character’s chart. His posture, gait, unfluctuating expression is very Saturn conjunct Sun — with the Sun imparting a certain dignity as well. Congratulations on an entertaining study Neeti. Enjoyed this very much.
Check out Geoffrey Cornelius’ A Moment in Astrology sometime, a book that completely undoes our manner of approaching (and reading) any astrological chart. And you’ll see your adventure is not so far-fetched.
Frederick
Thank you, Frederick! I also took a quick look at Rickman’s chart. He has three planets in Pisces and a heavily aspected Saturn. But the complexity of weaving his chart into this post daunted me and I kept it simple.
I’ve just added Geoffrey Cornelius’ A Moment in Astrology to my wish list!
I can’t help but wonder if Severus Snape would be the same if the actor first invited for the part said yes. Tim Roth turned it down to be into Planet of the Apes. I think Rickman is a fine actor. His Snape is delightful. A Snape made by Roth would probably be more aggressive. Would Mars aspects in your speculative chart be consistent with that?
Great job, by the way!
Hi Ludsouza, thank you! Your question made me take another look at the chart: Mars is in the 12th conjuncting Jupiter and trining Uranus (in Leo). Both Mars and Jupite are in Sagittarius. Speaking purely as an amateur, I’d say this is the signature of a “noble” warrior. The conjuction to Jupiter make it very strong indeed. But Mars is in the 12th, and therefore it’s expression is hidden or restricted.
I looked up Mars in the 12th and found some useful info on this site
http://www.myastrologybook.com/Mars-in-the-twelfth-house-12th-house.htm:
“With Mars (your energy, libido, and assertive principle) in your twelfth house of containment and self-undoing, you need to release your energy and not let it remain blocked or bottled up. Your energy tends to work against you when its repressed, inhibited, or even combative. Learning to express your feelings in a non-combative manner, and developing more forms of creative self-expression would be helpful. You may have secret or hidden enemies that accuse you falsely. Since your own plans or motivations are often hidden, you’d make a good strategist. You may have to depend a lot on yourself. If you have any old resentments, let them go.”
This is so apt for Snape: “Since your own plans or motivations are often hidden, you’d make a good strategist.”
I’m not a believer in astrology, but I do find it fascinating and this is quite cool what you did with Snape’s chart.
I have to agree with what you say about Snape’s attraction. It’s just not a simple thing and it’s wonderfully complex. I have long since completely divorced Alan Rickman from Severus Snape. Rickman is such a good actor, that he truly breathes life into the characters he plays.
Here’s just an interesting tidbit: Alan Rickman (who generally wears glasses for his vision) has to squint when he’s not wearing them. As Snape, his eyes are wide open, alive, and nothing misses the Potions Master’s dark gaze.
hi, i just wanted to say thanks for stopping by! i deleted the obsession posts, there was a sudden turn of events and i lost my bottle on it, so to speak…maybe i’ll write about it in the future. anyway, nice to see you:)
My Scorpio Moon understands!
*Hug*
Hi everybody,
that was indeed very interesting! thanks for posting this !!!
It`s very funny, because a few weeks ago (maybe at the same time as you), I also made the birth-chart of Snape but I didn`t really have time to look at it.
I too by the way, I find Snape in the movie extremely fascinating, which he isn`t that much (I find) in the book.
I actually came to the same conclusion about his birth time – but by intuition. It just seems somehow clear to me, that he is born at dawn. (I remember being disappointed, that he wasn`t a scorpio AC.)
But look at his Pluto in 8 (going into 10th house, sorry I don`t know how to properly express that) – I thought: Wow! that fits… you know how you have a tendency to go penetrate other people well into and beyond their core, by mostly, well those Plutonic means that Snape likes to use: power, manipulation, mind reading, psychic invasions, terror, magic, (and most possibly sex, hehe — oh yea, which beautiful which would say no to some Tantra Yoga with him…)
(ok there`s much more to say about that, but you`ll get the picture)
I actually believe, that everything (absolutely EVERYTHING ! ok, thrash me, if you like) is subject to its horoscope. Even an idea. And so is a fictional character.
And like it is possible to put life into a sum of atoms to incarnate a soul, it is also possible to put life into an idea or into a fictional character and incarnate it through a medium (Alan Rickman) onto the screen. (It works of course much better if the idea is very definite, as in this case it certainly was).
Since the mental image or idea of a character has a horoscope and thus to some extent an energy (a strong mental energy of life) of its own, it can only incarnate with a being, that corresponds to it. Obviously Alan Rickman as Snape does very well correspond to the mental picture (or horoscope) we have of Snape – like a dream come true. What type of Snape would Tim Roth have created. Perhaps not the type that the imaginary Snape would have liked to see. We`ll never know. But probably it was not in his horoscope to get close to Snape. Or both their horoscopes were not compatible enough to merge as one.
Sorry for the long post… I hope I could get the point across nonetheless. Please tell me what you think.
thanks again and wishing you well,
i loved Snape too 😉 You heard, that he died didn`t you? Shall we try and calculate his day of death? 😉
VAU
I hadn’t read this post yet. This is such an interesting write-up. I don’t like Snape so much in the book but I love Alan Rickman’s portrayal of him. He’s such an awesome actor.
I’m assuming the birth info of the characters, where given, was actually written by J.K. Rowling. Luna Lovegood is another interesting character. That wiki site only gives the year of her birth and nothing else, but I’m willing to bet she’s got a very strong Moon and Neptune. 🙂
She caught my attention, too. I thought she was Aquarius-Pisces. I agree with you about the Neptune. I thought she and Harry would hit it off.
🙂 Yep, I definitely thought Pisces. I could see the Aquarius as well. I like her character in both the book and the movie, and the actress that they cast is perfect – she’s got he perfect look, aura, everything.
You haven’t read all the books or seen all the movies, yet you have ANYTHING to say about him? Fail.