Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known as the author of the books about the sharp-witted detective on Baker Street in London - Sherlock Holmes. Yet he wrote several other books. However, they all ended up in the shadow of the Sherlock Holmes books. Actually, he was trained as a physician, but the writing took over. In his later years, Doyle came to be more and more interested in spiritualism and spirituality.

He was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His parents were of Irish descent. His father had a drinking problem. The young Arthur was sent at the age of nine to a Jesuit school with the result that, after completing his school he rejected Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular and rather called himself an agnostic. He then came to study medicine at the Edinburgh University. Even as a student, he began writing fiction. He was also an active sportsman and athlete. After the medical studies and a voyage as a ship's doctor along the western coast of Africa, he opened a practice first in Plymouth and then in Southsea. Since the practice was not very successful, he began to use his idle hours to write. Soon, he had not only created the novel figure Sherlock Holmes, but also an entirely new literary genre - the modern detective novel.

Doyle was married twice. His first wife, Louise Hawkins, died early of tuberculosis. He was the father of five children, two with the first and three with the second wife, Jean Leckie.

All in all Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr.. Watson. Well known titles are A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles. The two characters - Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson – certainly borrowed many features from the author himself. Watson was a doctor, like Doyle. And Doyle himself got involved - like his literary creation, Sherlock Holmes - in several court cases in real life, where he seems to have actually managed to get mistakenly convicted persons cleared.

In 1900 Doyle participated as a volunteer in the Boer War and later he also wrote a book about the war. In his senior years he directed his interest more towards life's hidden sides and wrote several books on spiritualism and nature spirits, engaging in spiritualist societies and holding a series of lectures on the subject.

Arthur Conan Doyle died after a heart attack July 7, 1930, 71 years old.

His horoscope:

Arthur Conan Doyle, 22 May 1859, 04:55, Edinburgh, Scotland

(Source: Astro DataBank)

Dominant signs are Gemini (with the Sun, Ascendant, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus) and Aquarius (with the Moon, Midheaven, Chiron, the North Lunar node and Pars Fortunae). The Air element is most prominent. Of the houses dominates the Twelfth. We already are our detective novelist (and his novel figure) on the tracks! Sherlock Holmes is famous for his astuteness and remarkable powers of observation and we have reason to believe that the famous detective has borrowed a trait or two from his author. Yes, indeed - in Arthur Conan Doyle's horoscope we find an unusually strong emphasis on Mercury-ruled Gemini - the most astute and sharp-witted sign of all!

We can actually see more of the character Sherlock Holmes in Doyle's horoscope. The Uranus-disposed Moon in Aquarius in the conjunction with the Midheaven suggests - along with all the Gemini energies of the Twelfth and First Houses - a sharp intellect and a certain emotional distance. The Moon's placement in the Ninth House shows the joy of discovery and an attraction for the adventurous. The trine to Uranus reinforces the impression of eccentricity and aloofness that we associate with Sherlock Holmes, which is further reinforced by the Sun in Gemini forming a conjunction with Uranus in the Twelfth House.

It is not surprising that Doyle with all his Gemini energies created the duo and collaborative pair of Sherlock Holmes and Dr.. Watson. Introducing the ever present and maybe a little sluggish Dr. Watson is a smart move by the author to make the hero, the detective Sherlock Holmes, appear even more ingenious in his astonishing conclusions.

Jupiter in Gemini in the First House in conjunction with the Ascendant fits well with the jovial and benevolent impression that Arthur Conan Doyle gives in the photographs of him. The generosity and good-natured self-confidence is reinforced by the conjunction with Mars in the same communicative sign. It also demonstrates his strength and courage and a willingness or readiness to face life with a healthy appetite whatever it may bring. Mars forming a trine to Chiron in the Tenth House, partly alludes to his profession as a doctor, and partly reflects a courage to confront and resolve difficult issues, a willingness to defend vulnerable people. It happened that Doyle got involved, as I mentioned before, in actual court cases and managed to get erroneously convicted people freed.

If we consider the horoscope as a whole, we see that the eastern and southern hemispheres (left and top parts) have a strong dominance. We are dealing with a self-motivated person who wants to map out his own life, who wants to follow his own path and put his own stamp on the world. There are strong ideals associated with a fighting spirit and the quest for success in the world. The waning Moon phase reinforces the desire to share his insights and opinions.

With the Ascendant in Gemini, greatly enhanced by the conjunction with Mars and Jupiter in the same sign, Doyle was obviously a very communicative, curious and knowledge seeking person. The Ascendant and chart ruler Mercury – planet of writing and writers - is in the emphasized Twelfth House in the Venus-sign Taurus in conjunction with both Pluto and Venus and squaring both Saturn in Leo on the IC and the Moon and Midheaven in Aquarius. We see how in Mercury a rich imagination (the emphasized Twelfth House) is combined with a methodical and reliable approach (Taurus), which is also probing and penetrating (the conjunction with Pluto) and take on a creative and literary expression (the conjunction with Venus), culminating in a successful writer's career which replaces his medical profession (the square with the Moon/Midheaven in Aquarius) and thus dissolving the tension of the opposition between the Moon in Aquarius and Saturn in Leo. It describes how his writing, the successful authorship (based on chart ruler Mercury in the Mars-ruled Twelfth House) both gave him the status and success in society (Midheaven in Aquarius) that he could enjoy and at the same time strengthened and promoted his self-esteem and inner satisfaction (Saturn in Leo in the depths of the chart on the Fourth House cusp). The risk of being a social failure and having a blow to the internal self-esteem (the less successful medical career) - in the horoscope reflected by Saturn on the Fourth House cusp in opposition to the Midheaven (career) and the Moon (emotions) - is solved by the flourishing and successful authorship (Mercury as focal planet of the T-cross).

Mercury in conjunction with Pluto in the Twelfth House shows the fascination with the mysteries of the "underworld" of the detective's work to track criminals and solve crime mysteries. The Twelfth House in energetic Aries with all its planets in Aries, Taurus and Gemini represents a rich and fruitful imagination and creativeness but can also be associated to Arthur Conan Doyle's active interest in the existence of the occult and spiritual sides of life, the contact with the "other side". The Neptune-ruled Eleventh House with Neptune itself in its own sign Pisces, also reflects this interest and the spiritualist circles he joined. Even Chiron in Aquarius seem to play into this pattern as well, but it also has to do with the uncertainty surrounding his medical practice and career focus.

Remarkable is the placement of his Lunar nodes in Leo and Aquarius which forms a T-cross formation with the two nodal rulers, the Sun and Uranus, in conjunction with each other. It seems to somehow set the theme for his entire life story.

Pars Fortunae is also in Aquarius in the Tenth House, in conjunction with the North Lunar node and Chiron and in trine with Mars and Jupiter on the Ascendant. It appears that Arthur Conan Doyle's joy and fulfillment (as reflected in the point Pars Fortunae) is associated with his freedom at work (Aquarius, Tenth House) in association with his joy of discovery and the ability to communicate and write (the Ascendant and the planets in Gemini). Pars Fortunae also shows his joy and satisfaction in being able to bring out the message of spiritualism, which became his passion during the last years of his life. The Aquarius-Moon in the Ninth House rules via Cancer his Second House of resources and talents, as well as his Third House of communication and authorship. And the Fifth House of creativity and self-expression is ruled by the Ascendant and horoscope ruler Mercury in the Twelfth House.