Ernest Hemingway

The American Ernest Hemingway was undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park outside Chicago in Illinois and grew up in a middle class family in the conservative Midwest, where his father was a physician and his mother an opera singer and music teacher.

Hemingway later described his conflictual relationship with his mother, who wanted to raise the children to learn good manners while the young Ernest was more attracted to the outdoors and sports activities. At school, he distinguished himself by literary talent and later came to work as an apprentice reporter at the Kansas City Star. He soon learned his characteristic way of writing, with short sentences, and a powerful language.

During World War I the young Hemingway - just 18 years - served as a volunteer ambulance driver at the front in Italy. He was almost immediately badly damaged by shrapnel and had both legs operated on. But this apparently did not prevent him from later in life venture out as a war reporter, notably in the Spanish Civil War.

After returning from Italy, Hemingway began working as a journalist for the Toronto Star Weekly. Having met his future wife, Hadley Richardson, he got a job as a European correspondent for the magazine and the newly married couple settled in Paris, where Hemingway got in touch with the era's most influential writers and artists, such as Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. During this time he also reported, among other things from the Greek-Turkish War and the Spanish bullfights.

During the years 1925-29 Hemingway wrote some of his major works, with titles like "The Sun Also Rises", "To have and Have Not" and "A Farewell to Arms". During the same time he divorced his first wife and married instead fashion journalist Pauline Pfeiffer from Arkansas. Prior to the marriage Hemingway converted to Catholicism. In 1928 the couple left Europe and settled in Key West, Florida. In 1933 they were offered to join a safari in Africa, which inspired the book "Green Hills of Africa".

In 1937 Hemingway went to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War. Here he met the female war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, who would later become his third wife. The novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was inspired by his time as war correspondent in Spain.

During World War II, Hemingway reported on the war from London. After the war, he came to reside in Cuba, where he wrote his masterpiece "The Old Man and the Sea" which appeared in 1952. Two years later he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The prize money he donated to the people of Cuba.

Ernest Hemingway with his strong personality and his powerful outward appearance was certainly a macho icon. He had a conspicuously large scar on his forehead, which he reportedly was very unwilling to talk about. It had in fact occurred under less macho conditions - he is said to have fumbled with a bathroom window that he accidentally tore down hitting his head.

In 1954 the scarred adventurer survived two (!) airplane crashes, but was injured so badly in the kidneys and liver that he had to sustain life with strong medications that made him severely depressed - a condition worsened by alcohol abuse. One morning - July 2, 1961 - he took his gun and shot himself in the head.

Ernest Hemingway's chart looks like this:

Ernest Hemingway, July 21, 1899, 08:00, Oak Park, Illinois, USA

(Source: Astro DataBank)

Mercury (writing) is in Leo in the Twelfth House and rules both the Ascendant and the Midheaven. Moreover, it forms a sextile to Neptune in Gemini in the Tenth House and a trine to the North Lunar node in Sagittarius in the Fourth House. All this reflects, of course, his great talent for writing. Mercury also disposes Mars in the First House, which in turn rules the Eighth and Ninth houses, forming stressful squares to both Neptune and Pluto in the Tenth House and Saturn in Sagittarius in the Fourth House. This demonstrates the adventurous war correspondent in foreign counties.

This is further enhanced by Jupiter in Scorpio on the Third House cusp, which rules the North Lunar node in Sagittarius and also disposes wayward and revolutionary Uranus on the IC - which in turn rules the Sixth House of work, daily routines and health. We get the image of the adventurer and war reporter, constantly involved in turbulent and maverick activities of all kinds.

The prominent Mars in Mercury-ruled Virgo in the First House also demonstrates the war correspondent and adventurer, as well as the eye-catching scar on his forehead. Mars ruling the Ninth House through Aries reflects how Hemingway preferred to learn about life (Ninth House) through direct experience (Aries) rather than literary studies. Mars also governs the Eighth House of death and shows the tragic suicide as he ended his life with a gunshot to the forehead (Mars in the First House).

The Ascendant in Mercury-ruled Virgo reflects his linguistic accuracy and frugality with words. Leo-Mercury in the Twelfth House I think describes Hemingway very well - strong imagination and creative thinking, the ability to "feel into" the environment as well as the paradoxical nature of his being-in-the-center-personality (Leo) and his authorship in seclusion and solitude (Twelfth House).

The horoscope ruler Mercury is disposed - through Leo - by the Sun in sensitive Cancer in the Moon-ruled Eleventh House (friends, groups, but also interests and visions). There is also Venus which through Libra rules the Second and Third Houses. Friends (Eleventh House) apparently played a large role in the author's life and perhaps he experienced the writers' and artists' circle in Paris in the 1920s as his extended family (Cancer). He was often called Papa Hemingway.

The Moon in Capricorn suggests his conflicts with the mother but also indicates a hard working person with a certain emotional distance. On the Fifth House cusp it reflects his strong urge to be creative. The Moon is in its waxing phase, moving towards Full Moon, suggesting resources, targeting, and a desire to make life worthwhile, to find out the meaning of it all.

The spread of planets throughout the horoscope - with a preponderance of the fourth quadrant and the eastern hemisphere - demonstrates a self-motivated person who wants to stake out his own course, who needs freedom and who wants to leave his mark on the world.

Some questions to ponder:

What might the opposition between Saturn in Sagittarius in the Fourth House and Pluto in Gemini in the Tenth House mean?

What about Uranus position on the IC in conjunction with Chiron?

Some thoughts on the placement of his Lunar nodes?

A quote from Hemingway: "In order to write about life, first you must live it!"