Anthony Hopkins – brilliant and flawed * updated

Anthony Hopkins, a towering talent but like many actors not an entirely together human being, has been baldly saying he doesn’t know and doesn’t care if he has a grandchild. When told he sounded rather cold, Hopkins replied: “Well, it is cold. Because life is cold.”

While in the throes of alcoholism, he abandoned his first wife and only daughter Abigail as a toddler, and his fractured relationship with her sent her into a drug spiral and nervous breakdown in her late teens. They got together briefly in the 1990s but he hasn’t had contact with her in almost two decades.

Born 31 December 1937 9.15am (from memory) Port Talbot, Wales, he was hopeless at school and bullied, ending up latterly in boarding school. He says his drive to become successful was to show all those who had poured scorn on him that he had made it.

He has Sun, Mercury, Venus in the reclusive 12^th house trine Uranus, sextile Mars in Pisces – ambitious, private, pro-active, restless and volatile. He also has Jupiter opposition a 7^th house Pluto making him pushily confident, keener on importance than emotional connection; and in the 7^th house a dislike of being dominated.

His outspoken Sagittarius Moon is on the focal point of a T Square to an 8^th house Neptune opposition Saturn, so a confused and suspicious relationship to mother, domestic life, family. A focal point Moon would attract him to a career providing an audience. One relationship would not give him all the nurturing he craves. Neptune in the 8^th is often a super-star placing giving him the ability to project a filmic aura.

His North Node is in his 10^th so career would be key to his development, not a home and family life.

His daughter Abigail, 20 August 1969, had made a career as a singer-songwriter, actress and theatre director, under a different name. She’s a Sun Leo square a Moon Neptune in Scorpio, so both parents would have that Neptunian inaccessibility. Five of her planets are in her father’s 8^th house, so it is a deep though difficult connection. Her Pluto is square his Moon, opposition his Saturn and conjunct his Neptune so she would bring up all the confusion of his childhood and make him feel trapped.  Their relationship chart is understandably tricky. The composite Mars is inconjunct Pluto, and opposition Uranus square Saturn opposition Neptune – which is an unsolvable mess of bad feeling.

Ironically Anthony Hopkins is due to star in the BBC adaptation of King Lear, airing this month. The first trailer shows the aged king cruelly disowning his youngest daughter Cordelia.

What a shame for his daughter. Sagittarian Moons can be crassly direct with never a thought for the effect on others.

Add on: He has recently come out as having Asperger’s.

When his alcoholism threatened to destroy his life he had an epiphany, a voice in his head, which told him to give up drinking which he did overnight. That was December 29 1975 just before his 38^th birthday. This is the start of what Carl Jung talks about as the mid life crisis, stretching from the late 30s through the early 40s, where it is crucial to find the deeper self and ensure the second half of life has meaning and purpose. If the transition is not made, then there’s a slide into stagnation.

Astrologically it coincides first with the Uranus opposition to its natal position, then Pluto square Pluto and Neptune square Neptune.

When his moment of enlightenment came there was a deal of activity around his 3^rd house Uranus. His Progressed Moon was conjunct for a jolting flash of lightning with tr Uranus moving to oppose his Uranus in 1976. Tr Uranus was also opposition his Solar Arc Saturn which itself would conjunct his natal Uranus in 1976/77. Plus tr Saturn was moving conjunct his Pluto and opposition his Jupiter, bringing reality to bear on his delusional sense of invulnerability (rules aren’t made for me.) Plus his Progressed Mars was square his Progressed midheaven for a real jolt; and his Solar Arc Neptune was square his Pluto. When life changing events occur there are always several influences all coming in from different directions, building up a critical mass of pressure for what a major transition.