Famous (and infamous) people have fascinating astrological charts. Planetary forces line up in such a way to make them strong, for good or for ill. But even though these charts often lack the ambiguity sometimes seen in the charts of ordinary people, they too are not without nuance. Jyotish, which looks deeply at human character, is a complex science. Good and evil do not come in neatly wrapped packages, making some people heroes and others villains.
It is worth remembering that fact, particularly in these hot political times, with so much extreme polarization going on in the world today.
Even Adolf Hitler has features in his chart that appear “good”. Actually, I never use that kind of language in reading a chart. Good or bad “for what” is the question. Clearly though, a lot of evil deeds were perpetrated through the vehicle that was Adolf Hitler. How and why did it happen? What does Jyotish have to say about the man? Read on, my friends, for a look at some extraordinary celestial configurations.
Venus is lord of Hitler’s chart. (So right away things seem odd. The planet of love and beauty ruling Hitler???) But in his chart, the power of Venus is greatly diminished. Venus resides in Mars’ sign, Aries, not a congenial place for Venus. Moreover, Mars is there too, along with the Sun, both of them very strong in this placement: two strong hot pitta planets in a pitta sign. They overwhelm Venus, essentially burning him up, so the Martian qualities of desire, impetuosity, contention, aggression and power dominate. The Venetian qualities recede.
Yet Venus (a wounded planet for Hitler) still represents his deepest layer of self-identity. Mars and Sun (because this happens to be the Seventh House) represent other people for him, those he admires and endeavours to emulate. The difference between what Hitler would like to be (an Aryan warrior like Mars) and what he is (a broken Venus) manifests as envy, role-modelling and weak self-esteem. It creates bitterness, and an abiding sense of inferiority that fuels his cruelty, particularly because Saturn aspects Mars too.
Hitler began life in his Venus cycle, which lasted for seventeen years. During this early period the karmas of Venus started to manifest. So Hitler studied art and attempted to establish himself as a painter. But he failed as an artist, and that chapter of his life came to an abrupt close as he entered the cycle of his Sun.
However, during the long Venus cycle, the seeds of bitterness and cruelty most likely were planted during certain sub-cycles. Around the age of five, Hitler experienced the sub-cycle of Mars. Since Mars combusts Venus, it is quite likely that something damaged his self-esteem at this time. It is known that he had a troubled relationship with an abusive father. Also later around the age of eleven, he experienced the sub-cycle of Saturn, which probably added another dose of bitterness and resentment to his formative years.
Cruelty dominated Hitler’s character and his painting career never amounted to anything. But a certain taste for aesthetics never left him. Not only did he cloak the ideology of the Third Reich in powerful visual symbolism, but he also raided museums as he conquered, stealing the artistic treasures of a vanquished France. He took by force that which he was not destined to develop naturally.
This same potent configuration in Hitler’s Seventh House also gives him the qualities necessary for military leadership. He has the mentality of a conqueror and the organizational skill of a great statesman. With Venus overshadowed by Mars, his love turns towards the things of Mars, war being one of them.
Mars gives him the strength to compensate (or over-compensate) for his poor self- image. Mars is the warrior planet–a potent force for assertion, aggression, and power. He is goal-oriented: totally invested in what he wants and prepared to confront all opposition and utilize violence–if need be–to realize his goals. Hitler has a doubly strong Mars: strong in his birth chart and strong in the chart that indicates the fruit of his karma.
Sun too is particularly strong, exalted as he is in Aries. This indicates leadership ability, and with it sometimes arrogance and egocentricity, which is the case for Hitler. Sun compounded by Mars here creates myopic self-interest. Also, by overwhelming Venus (and Mercury too), Sun and Mars totally eclipse any potential for beneficence coming from these usually uplifting planets. Mercury is too close to the Sun, so also combust. This overheats the nervous system, and Hitler did suffer from a nervous disorder. He was impetuous, agitated, and over-wrought to the point of breakdown.
It is interesting that all this occurs in the Seventh House, where these warrior qualities apply in particular to Hitler’s associates. It is a well-known fact that in his person Hitler lacked the virile and robust Aryan features he so admired. But he surrounded himself with those kinds of people. His inner circle was comprised of Aryan warriors, a fact that fed his personal insecurity and for which he needed to compensate so ruthlessly.
Saturn enters into the picture too, casting his aspect upon this Seventh House. Saturn’s influence adds the dimension of military statesmanship. He transforms raw warrior energy into a highly organized military machine. In fact, Hitler revolutionized warfare through the development of blitzkrieg: an incisive method of warfare that decimated the enemy in record time.
Saturn loves control. He sets up hierarchies and gives excellent organizational ability. He also creates incredible tenacity. Clearly, Hitler was relentless in his determination. The planet of time and history, Saturn helps develop the mythic elements of Hitler’s political ideology, so that he rose before the public with his mesmerizing vision of deliverance.
One of Hitler’s greatest strengths was his oratory skill, that galvanizing rhetoric which could inspire a crowd. The Second House governs speech, and for Hitler it is Scorpio, owned by Mars. All of the power of Mars delineated above also fuels Hitler’s speech, which is dynamic, fiery, impassioned, incisive and angry. Though his message was perverse, he delivered it with great dramatic effect, successfully igniting the hearts of millions of followers.
Even so, “How did he get so many people to buy into his demented ideology?” This is the question that always puzzles the student of history. But the division between good and evil does not always line up neatly. Hitler also has a powerful configuration for spirituality, perception and inspiration in his chart, albeit distorted for sinister purposes.
But it did not look that way at first, particularly to the German public, broken after a humiliating defeat in World War I and suffering from economic chaos. Hitler presented a political ideology with messianic overtones. He would purify and elevate the German people, leading them as the Third Reich to a salvation of mythic proportions. Cloaked in this sense of greater purpose and believing in their quasi-religious righteousness, the public followed Hitler down the flaming path towards annihilation.
In Hitler’s chart, the Moon, which is the mind, resides in the fire sign, Sagittarius. Moon here is inspirational; it is spiritually and psychologically oriented. The mind heats quickly and displays itself with flaming brilliance. Jupiter conjunct the Moon augments these features, orienting the mind towards philosophy, ideas and religion. He also gives teaching aptitude, the ability to deliver a compelling message and cultivate followers. If this sounds to you like what it takes to be a great priest, you are right. The qualities themselves can serve either good or evil. It all depends upon the chart as a whole.
Hitler delivered his theories of purification and historical entitlement with the charisma of a messianic priest. So what oriented his mind, his Sagittarius Moon, towards the sinister? Both Rahu and Ketu, the Nodes of the Moon, are involved, along with Jupiter. The Nodes derange the mind, and Jupiter expands it.
Ketu, the South Node, resides in Sagittarius with Jupiter and Moon; Rahu, the North Node, is directly opposite in Gemini, which happens to be the Ninth House of Spirituality. Ketu is the planet of perception, intuition, enlightenment, and madness. Ketu makes the Moon visionary, “good” in the chart of Ramana Maharshi where it brings spiritual genius, “bad” in the chart of Adolf Hitler where it brings derangement. A powerful force for psychic destabilization, the Nodes bring breakthrough or breakdown, and which way it goes lies often on a razor’s edge.
It is very interesting indeed how often the Moon is with the Nodes in the charts both of sadgurus like Ramana Maharshi and Bepin Behari and charismatic cult leaders. Charles Manson (the Sharon Tate murders) and Jim Jones (mass suicide in Guyana) both had their Moons with Rahu. Rahu-Moon makes for a magnetic personality. But it often disturbs the mind, creating the lethal mental cocktail of brilliance, charisma and lunacy.
Rahu is the psychologist, a master of manipulation and seduction. Rahu is about engulfing things, bringing them into materiality. It takes a sharp intellect to manipulate; and in Hitler’s chart Rahu is in Gemini, sign of discriminating intelligence, a congenial ground for his psychological shrewdness. Through Rahu, Hitler is intoxicated with power, obsessed with realizing his vision of self-aggrandizing dominance and control.
Jupiter is also very strong in Hitler’s chart. (You know by now that strong does not necessarily mean good.) Jupiter makes things bigger, which is also not necessarily a good thing. Jupiter conjunct Moon inflates Hitler’s mind, obscuring his fundamental insecurities with an exaggerated confidence and creating pathological narcissism. With a sense of self so inflated that other people and their needs no longer register, the makings of a sociopath are in place.
Jupiter casts his gaze wide in the chart, in Hitler’s case, linking up all the fire signs. The connection between Sagittarius and Aries is particularly significant, as it links the fiery configuration in Aries (war machine) to the fiery configuration in Sagittarius (visionary lunacy). Moreover, in the chart that represents the fruit of his karma, the fire element repeats in three ways. It all gets a bit technical, so just remember the main point: an extraordinary amount of fire rages from all directions in Hitler’s chart. Fire gave him charisma. It gave him cruelty. And eventually, it destroyed him.
Hitler’s rhetoric had to have a veneer of truth, however. If his ranting were totally nonsensical no one would have paid attention to him. He took the theme of purification, for instance, which rightly belongs to the process of spiritual transformation, and twisted it into his theory of racial purification. The vulnerability of Germany at the time contributes as well. Individual karma is not separate from universal karma. It manifests according to kala (time) and deepa (place). Hitler’s powerful karma coincided with certain historical and geographical facts (karmas) that galvanized others behind him. Otherwise he might just have been a petty criminal. His cycles of life came to fruition in just the right order as well (Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu) for the creation, expansion and destruction of the Third Reich.
The configuration in Sagittarius that shapes his mentality falls in the Third House of the Arts, and Venus, though hurt, rules him. Hitler drew heavily upon theatrical elements to dramatize his ideology. He created a powerful mythology of the Third Reich, drawing elements from various sources, such as the runes from Nordic and Germanic traditions and the swastika from India.
He gave people a sense of belonging to and striving for something larger. With military parades, mesmerizing rallies, flaming torches, symbolic flags, and impassioned, ranting rhetoric, he swayed the public to envisage along with him the thousand years of salvation the Third Reich was meant to usher in. Hitler the failed artist went from painting pictures on canvas to painting images in people’s minds.
Without the charisma of his fiery person, without his theatrical delivery, without his compelling mythology (with just enough truth in it to stir the public to a sense of greater destiny), without his vision of deliverance that came at such a timely moment, Hitler might not have succeeded in rousing the public behind him. Yet all the karma was in place for it to happen, and happen it did!
My Jyotish mentor likes to say, “History does not repeat itself, but very often it rhymes.” In all its flamboyant and horrific details, we won’t see the Third Reich again. But dressed up differently??? Now more than ever, it is time to pay attention.
