Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl is known worldwide for his adventurous Kon-Tiki journey in 1947 and his other remarkable and spectacular sea voyages.

He was born on October 6, 1914 in Larvik on the western side of the Oslo Fjord. Young Thor's interest in nature was early awakened and he was later to study zoology and geography at the University of Oslo. Parallel to this, he became especially interested Polynesian culture and history. At the age of 22, he participated together with his young wife, Liv, in an expedition to Polynesia, where he learned about - and even practiced himself - traditional Polynesian life, described in the book Fatuhiva - Back to Nature.

It was during this time that Thor Heyerdahl got the idea for his hypothesis that the South Pacific peoples, as well as the islands' flora and fauna would have come with the natural eastern winds and currents from America instead of from East Asia.

His theory met compact resistance in the academic world, where it was argued that America's indigenous population would not have been able to construct any ocean-going vessels. It was to prove the contrary that Heyerdahl in Peru in South America built a traditional raft of balsa wood. With five assistants, four Norwegians and a Swede, he began on 28 April 1947 the precarious voyage in the little sailing raft across the Pacific waters. The whole adventure was documented by the crew with a simple movie camera equipment.

After a nearly 7000 kilometers journey in 101 days the raft finally beached on the coral reefs off a small uninhabited island in the Raroia atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago, where the crew was well received by the surrounding islands' population. Thus Heyerdahl and his crew had proved that it was possible to travel by a traditional craft from South America to the Polynesian islands.

Later he came to make several other voyages with traditionally built craft. In 1969 in Egypt he built a papyrus craft, named after the ancient Egyptian sun god Ra, in order to prove that in ancient times, travelers had been able to travel across the Atlantic from Africa to America. Deliberately, he chose this time a crew from seven different countries with different religions and political views - all to show that it would be possible to cooperate and coexist aboard a small craft.

The first journey across the Atlantic failed, however. After a 56 days and a 5000 kilometers travel they were forced to cancel the trip because of storms and deficiencies in the ship's structure. A new attempt was made after he had built a new papyrus craft, this time with the help of Native South Americans. With Ra II Heyerdahl and his crew succeeded to get from the old Phoenician port of Safi in Morocco across the Atlantic to Barbados in the Caribbean. During the journey, they collected samples that showed how badly polluted the sea was. A report on this was submitted to the UN. Again Heyerdahl had proved that modern science had underestimated the capacity of the traditional crafts and that voyages across wide oceans may well have been made in ancient times.

Another voyage was made in 1978. This time Heyerdahl let build in Iraq a traditional reed boat, called the Tigris, in order to show how in the old days traveling was possible between Mesopotamia and India. From the Tigris River Heyerdahl and his crew journeyed through the Persian Gulf and eastward to the Indus delta in present Pakistan. After a full five months at sea the return journey that would have passed through the Red Sea was interrupted as a result of the war that was going on there. In a silent protest against the war Heyerdahl decided to set fire to reed boat Tigris after it had arrived in the port of the small neutral African country of Djibouti, between Somalia and Ethiopia, the only port during the ongoing wars where they were allowed to go in. The reed boat Tigris had yet proven that ancient maritime links between Mesopotamia and India would have been perfectly possible.

Journey of the reed boat Tigris

Thor Heyerdahl's ideas and hypotheses, however, were met with great resistance from the established science. Not the least his last major project, called "The Search for Odin", where he, now in his upper eighties, argued that the ancient Scandinavians descended from places in Azerbaijan and Russia near the Caspian Sea. His methods and reasoning were not accepted by the academic community, but was regarded as sheer pseudoscience.

Thor Heyerdahl has to be seen as a stand-alone explorer and adventurer outside the established research and science. His ideas and findings, which he presented in a series of acclaimed and popular books, he has stubbornly held on to despite the fact that the established science generally has proved the contrary. The value of his explorations is still large. By challenging the scientific community he has been able to show other, alternative options than those generally accepted. And there is certainly some kernel of truth in many of his hypotheses. Without a doubt, ancient cultural contacts were possible between America and Oceania, as well as between North Africa and America and between Mesopotamia/Egypt and India. As for the capacity and seaworthiness of the traditional crafts, he has definitely proven science to be wrong.

Heyerdahl was married several times and had several children in different marriages. He died in Italy in 2002 at the age of 87.

His birth chart looks like this:

Thor Heyerdahl, 6 October 1914, 16:40, Larvik, Norway

(Source: Astro DataBank)

Prominent signs are Aquarius (with the Ascendant along with Jupiter and Uranus in the Twelfth House), Scorpio (with Mercury and Mars near the Eighth House cusp and Venus in the Eighth House), Libra (with the Sun in the Seventh House), Taurus (with the Moon on the Second House cusp) and Sagittarius (with MC and the Ninth/Tenth Houses).

At once we have the image of the unconventional (Aquarius) discoverer (Sagittarius) with a probing mind (Scorpio) and convinced ideas (Taurus). Sagittarius is about exploration and a widening of horizons and appropriately enough Thor Heyerdahl's Midheaven (life goals, aspirations, career) and Ninth House (studies, long journeys) are both in this adventurous and expansive sign.

Optimistic and successful Jupiter, who rules over Sagittarius, is in the Twelfth House in a very broad conjunction with the Ascendant in Aquarius and is also in conjunction with the Ascendant ruler Uranus, likewise in Aquarius in the Twelfth House. Jupiter also forms a trine to the Sun in Libra.

Of the houses dominate the First and the Seventh, of the quadrants and hemispheres, the Third Quadrant (Houses 7-9) and the Western Hemisphere. The Moon is in its full phase and beginning to wane. We have a person for whom interacting and collaborating with others has an important place, and for whom participation in public life and society is of great importance.

The Ascendant in Aquarius shows original thinking and a strong need for freedom. There is a large degree of open-mindedness and openness to new thinking and ideas and a basic humanistic approach. What above all else characterized Thor Heyerdahl was his desire to experiment and his different and challenging ideas. These sides are greatly enhanced by the Ascendant ruler Uranus' conjunction with expansive Jupiter in Aquarius. The conjunction between Jupiter and Uranus joins together the Ascendant and Midheaven in this great explorer and adventurer's horoscope. Uranus/Jupiter also reflects Heyerdahl's areas of study and interests - zoology, geography and ethnography. Jupiter rules the Ninth House of study and travel. At the same time the conjunction of the two planets in the Twelfth House demonstrates his independence and separateness from the academic community. Jupiter in the Twelfth House also suggests access to a deep inner optimism and an ability to pick up ideas from the inner depths.

Uranus is also the focal planet of a T-cross formation squaring Mercury and Mars in Scorpio near the Eighth House cusp and the Moon in Taurus on the Second House cusp. Meanwhile, Uranus is in opposition to Neptune in Leo in the Sixth House. The opposition to Neptune suggests that there may be a tendency to exalt his own convictions to be the only correct ones and which therefore should be encompassed by the whole world. Something of the same problem is reflected by the T-Cross. There is a stubborn assertion of one's own point of view with endless conflicts as a result. The Moon's opposition to Mars shows a strong competitive spirit and a desire to overcome all resistance. A realization is perhaps needed that everyone can be wrong, even oneself. Also the Moon's opposition to Mercury suggests that there may be an imbalance between logical and emotive thinking. The square between the Moon and Uranus/Jupiter reflects the kind of nervous restlessness which was quite typical of Thor Heyerdahl, a constant need to prove something, a need to always be right at all times and all costs. At the same time the square mirrors his need for freedom and love for various adventures.

This T-junction is a difficult aspect and the solution to the problems and the conflicts that it expresses is perhaps in this case a willingness to listen to other views and the realization and recognition that he himself also may be wrong despite his beliefs. The question is whether Heyerdahl reached such an insight, or if he took his unwavering beliefs with him as he passed away. The Moon in Taurus on the Second House cusp expresses stubbornness, strong and firm conviction and a tireless will to fight for his own ideals and values. On the other hand it also stands for his feeling for and attraction to nature and the natural world.

Another T-cross is formed by Mercury and Mars in Scorpio squaring the opposition between Uranus and Neptune. Now, if the first T-cross was difficult to handle, it becomes even worse, of course, with two such aspect patterns. Mars in conjunction with Mercury in Scorpio near the Eighth House cusp indicates a sharp intelligence but also a verbal militancy and obstinacy. It brings large amounts of courage, independence of thought and action and and a lot of energy to succeed, but the square to Uranus is a major challenge not to let the verbal militancy and restlessness get out of control. There is a kind of rebellious unwillingness to stay within the limits of established thinking. The freedom to think and act according to his own head becomes very important. At the same time the square to Neptune in Leo in the Sixth House is a challenge to be able to manage his own failures. It also means to forfeit one's credibility, something Heyerdahl came to experience in relation to the established science, which stamped his research as pseudoscience.

So his Mars/Mercury in strong-willed and intense Scorpio is in a T-cross formation with the opposition between Uranus in Aquarius in the Twelfth House and Neptune in Leo in the Sixth House. This opposition mirrors, as I have already mentioned, a tendency towards fanaticism and "proselytizing". There is such a strong desire to explain things according to one's own ideas that you can easily become deaf and blind to other possibilities.

The horoscope seems to show that Heyerdahl's exterior explorations and adventures at the same time reflected an interior - and perhaps equally adventurous - journey towards deeper self-understanding. The two T-crosses indicate the need to drop the conviction of his own infallibility and achieve a realization that life is a constant search with many questions but very few definite answers.

Thor Heyerdahl's internal ocean proves to be a magnificent large Water Trine that harmoniously combines Mercury/Mars in Scorpio with the North Lunar node in Pisces in the First House with Saturn and Pluto in an exact conjunction in Cancer in the Fourth House. Also, Venus is sailing on this internal ocean in trine to Neptune, ruler of the seas, reflecting Heyerdahl great idealism and compassion.

If the two T-crosses meant external challenges and internal lessons to learn, then the Water Trine demonstrates Thor Heyerdahl's great intuitive talent. It reflects a great depth within him which was also expressed through his entire life's work, indicated by the North Lunar node in Pisces in the First House in trine to both Mercury/Mars in Scorpio and to Saturn/Pluto in Cancer.

The trine between Mercury/Mars and Saturn/Pluto all in Water signs reflects a great depth in thought and intuitive sense coupled with courage, independence and ability to accomplish great things. It shows a willingness to work diligently and methodically and with full concentration, as well as accountability, dedication and commitment.

The Water Trine with the North Lunar node in Pisces in the First House of course also reflects that Heyerdahl's life work primarily concerned wide voyages across the great oceans. It was in this area that he reached undeniable results and although his speculative theories were never accepted by established science he still was able to prove the the seaworthiness of traditional types of craft. Thor Heyerdahl showed through his adventurous expeditions at sea that human intercommunication across the seas have been perfectly possible way before the Western world's "discovery era" and that the ancient great civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China, as well as the peoples of the American continent may well have had extensive contacts over the "seven seas".

Chiron, the "wounded healer", is in the Water sign Pisces in Heyerdahl's First House in a quincunx aspect to the Sun in Libra in the Seventh House and a sesquisquare to Neptune in Leo in the Sixth House. The Sun forms trines with Uranus and Jupiter in Aquarius in the Twelfth House. Without fully understanding the depth and breadth of this pattern it still gives me a feeling that something grand and healing is expressed in Thor Heyerdahl's life, something that touched him, his person and identity as well as his relationship to others and to the great universe to which we all belong.

© Mats Bergman 2013