#zanoni

2: The Origins of Dracula

Stoker's time of birth is unknown, but speculation has it that he must have been Pisces rising as he martyred his own life to Irving's. If he felt beaten down by a more dominant personality is not revealed in any diary. But Stoker's revenge was perhaps to use Irving as the model for Dracula.  Irving excelled at dark, intense roles like Mephistopheles in Faust and playing Macbeth. He physically matched the description of Stoker's Count Dracula. There may be something to this Pisces Ascendant theory as that would not only place Stoker's Sun and Moon in Scorpio but in the 8th House too. That underscores the Scorpionic energy and the themes of passion, emotional depth, of shared resources, whether emotional or monetary. Other pointers to a victim-like personality would be difficult aspects to Neptune in the chart. Stoker's Neptune has a sextile to Pluto and a trine to Chiron, two of the easier aspects, but both transformational planets, yet nebulous Neptune is still the best metaphor for how Dracula was such a shapeshifter who frazzles in the light of day.

Dracula is ridden with these Scorpionic and 8th House themes- psychology, hypnotism, mind control, ruthless domination, sexual allure, death, and transformation. All these seem to excite each new generation who discovers vampire lore afresh. The Mind Control element shows up in the character of Renfield whose behaviour is controlled at a distance by Dracula. That Chiron was in Scorpio too hints at Stoker's point of vulnerability in the area of life, death and transformation. It could be that there was a difficult birth- he was sick for seven years with blood letting as the treatment. It also suggests very deep healing needed where sensitivities were profound. He was eager to learn these mysteries. He was probably a Mason though of course discreetly; and though not as famous as the other members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, poet W.B. Yeats and magician, Aleister Crowley, must have been familiar with the Dawn's rites and practices.  He would also have read Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni (1842) laden with Masonic references. Irving was also well known as a Mason. The character of Van Helsing, the vampire slayer, was based on Max Muller, a Sagittarian, who was the man who challenged Madame Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society and declared her a fraud. These were 'secret' enclaves that would have appealed to Stoker's Scorpio sun. He saw the absolute sense in keeping a public and private self completely separate.  

Chiron is the acute sensitive point and in Scorpio it would never allow the native to skim the surface of the wounding. There could be turbulence here in all profound relationships and Melanie Reinhart says of this position that it could lead to "unconscious emotional destructiveness projected on to others"; and that it could suggest love triangles.  Stoker was involved with Florence Balcombe, who happened to have been the previous fiancé of his friend Oscar Wilde who had given her a ring before ending their relationship.  Also, Stoker mediated between Sir Henry Irving and famed actress Ellen Terry, his lover out of wedlock. Stoker managed their hotel meetings and kept the affair discreetly away from prying eyes of the public and the newspapers.  Yet of Irving, Stoker said it was a relationship "as profound, as lasting as can be between two men." Stoker puts a love triangle of sorts - more of a quadrangle -into the novel Dracula where the character of Lucy has to make a choice between three suitors before she is finally seduced by Count Dracula. 

3: The Forensic Astrology of Dracula (1897)

The birth chart of Dracula has some layers of meaning for a fictional character on his way out into the world : Jupiter (publishing) is in Virgo which is ruled by Mercury (writing) and Mercury/Venus are in Taurus which is ruled by Venus. That is a lovely placement for writers to have their work perceived as well written or even eloquent. Uranus is conjunct Saturn in Scorpio giving constructive inventiveness to to the machinations and manipulations. Pluto and Neptune are 8° apart in Gemini, also ruled by Mercury. These two outer planets are in a 500 year cycle and marked touchpoints in the decade from1890-1900. This was dubbed the 'mauve' or 'decadent' era and which marked an interest in depth psychology and the unconscious and other weird creatures such as Dorian Gray. A certain type of evil mystification reigns when Pluto conjoins with Neptune and impacts the collective mind.

Even before the novel was published, it was turned into a stage show- to ensure Stoker's copyright on the content. Then a few years after Stoker's death the first film Nosferatu appeared in 1922.  Its creepiness is unmistakable. Murnau was a German Expressionist using a strong visual language as it was silent. The image of the long shadow almost independent from the man, has remained a staple dramatic effect of Dracula films ever since. The actor was Max Schrek, a Virgo with a stellium in Taurus.

Such anachronistic interpretation tends to misfire and to sideline the humanness of the authors themselves.  Novels from 124 years ago are scrying stones into the future and can be mirrors of the present age. They often reveal more about the perceiver than the object perceived.  Works of art that are outstanding have that capacity to resist categorical interpretation and remain ambiguous. It's a study of the birth charts of writers and their books that can surface the configurations and connections.

Stoker constructed his fevered concept of the vampire out of bits of legend and history. Vlad's birth  constructed from records of born 1431 in Romania, but then Stoker converted this fragment into a character more like an English Aristocrat. Enter Lord Byron, an Aquarius. One of the first known novellas about a vampire creature was written by Dr Polidori, a Virgo, who called his vampire Lord Ruthven. His model was Lord Byron and it was from Byron that Dracula inherited the suave manners, intelligence, strategy and a deadly reputation for seduction and the ability to hold his admirers in thrall.

The actor who most embodied Dracula in a whole series of films for Hammer House of Horror was Christopher Lee. The choice of casting was inspired, as not only was Lee one of the finest Draculas, tall, imperious, menacing, but also suave and gentlemanly. Lee shares a birthday with Dracula. In my mind, he 'is' Dracula.  The bi-wheel chart of Dracula the novel and Christopher Lee the man, born in 1922 shows just one degree apart. They shared the same sun sign of Gemini. Lee was of course a competent linguist.

If we dig into asteroids it becomes even more interesting. Asteroids add touchpoints and resonances that normally do not make any difference in a chart, but if there is a special significance of a Personal Name asteroid, or the name of a location, as those begin to resonate loudly with the chart and the destiny of the native.  Lee's Moon is conjunct the asteroids Drakonia and Bohemia.  Asteroid Psyche is conjunct Lee's North Node in Libra. Psyche refers to the myth of the curious maiden of Eros, who embodies curiosity to unveil a god. She loses love then finds it again only by performing a series of hard tasks;  Psyche's sisters were like vampires stealing her energy, her gifts of love of which they were jealous.

4: Screen Portrayals of Count Dracula

Many of the actors who have played Dracula are not Geminis -except Denholm Elliot whose birthday is close to Christopher Lee's in the same year of 1922.  But they have just one thing in common that is their height - mostly above 6 feet.

Dracula is steeped in eroticism, no doubt about it. The chart has asteroid Eros conjunct the sun, as prominent as it gets. But that sexuality was filtered through the lens of a Irishman in London in the Victorian era. So he layers the horror genre with the languid call of blood and ecstasy.  Some lines from the book read: "her body shook and quivered  and twisted in wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam."  Not quite purple prose but quite evocative for Victorians - the Venus/Mercury again. But it was clear Stoker wrote to make money, so he was not necessarily aiming to create a work of art, but it is nevertheless now regarded as a classic of its kind. It is firmly lodged in the horror genre, but it is also spookily supernatural - hinting at occult secrets and mysteries. The sinking of fangs into the neck was all but sexual penetration and an exchange of fluids containing the life force. Dracula was then regarded as a cipher for a type of sexuality that was taboo; homosexuality. It could not be named, but only hinted at frequently.

One of the many things Stoker was intensely secret about was his long contact with Oscar Wilde, who was his friend – and as mentioned they had been involved with the same woman Florence Balcome. Yet Stoker's sexuality was not certain. In his early years  while at Trinity, wrote a gushing letter to his hero Walt Whitman, who himself was reputed to be homosexual, or at least open about same-sex relations, But Stoker never ever mentioned this much to anyone, and especially not his closeness to Wilde, when the scandal broke upon Wilde's trial in 1895.

Stoker published several other books but none have the staying power of Dracula. Stoker became even more gnarly and occluded. He ran a public campaign to stop sensationalism and obscenity in fiction which is highly ironic given that he created one of the most sensational of all in Dracula. Dracula outlives his author and his popularity is undiminished 100 or more years on. The appeal of Dracula is palpable yet it is difficult to explain as by rights we should loathe and hate such a predatory figure.

But human psychology is never straightforward and even Oscar Wilde said sex has nothing to do with sex, but Jean Shin Bolen came close to expressing it best: “I am convinced that we enter the world seeking love and when we don’t find love, we settle for power.”  This could have been said by Stoker, the Scorpio Sun and Moon native who gave us one of the most glamorous and deadly creatures in fiction.

Finally, the vampire is a phenomenal archetype that exists the world over in every culture and one final clue is to contemplate the Sabian Symbol for Stoker's Moon which could be a scene from a Dracula film:

A WOMAN DRAWS AWAY TWO DARK CURTAINS

“𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.”

Covers to Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Zanoni—first published 1842 (various artists/designers, 20th century).