The movie season is experiencing extremes of reaction with the eighth film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women getting unanimous plaudits and five-star rave reviews – in contrast to the furry disaster of Cats. The story of four sisters coming of age during and after the US Civil War opens in this movie version with Alcott’s own words “I have had lots of troubles, so I write jolly tales.” Her jolly tales were to prove a lodestar for many 20th century women inspired to mark out an independent path for themselves.
She was born 29 November 1832 12.30am Germantown, Pennsylvania, with a maverick, experimental educator for a father who was domineering, overbearing and a failure, so much of her childhood was spent on the move with the family. She was forced to go out to work young as a companion, seamstress, teacher and then volunteered as a nurse to Civil War soldiers. She wrote constantly throughout and gradually started to make sufficient money to support her family and pay off their debts. Little Women was a huge success in her mid 30s onwards. She was a trenchant abolitionist and feminist and was still an ‘irrepressible’ spinster when she died at 55, within days of her father, perhaps from an auto-immune disease but also debilitated by mercury poisoning from a typhoid fever cure years earlier.
She had a quick-witted and communicative 3rd house Sagittarius Sun; with an emphasised Mercury in Sagittarius in the domestic 4th square both Saturn and Jupiter, so no surprises she wrote about family life. Her stalwart Mars in Taurus in the 9th, oddly enough conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol, would also contribute to her ability to publish successfully. But for all that she had a tough chart with an Earth Grand Trine of Mars trine Saturn in Virgo trine Neptune in Capricorn in the performing 5th house. It would give her a good business head and practical skills, as well as a knack for attracting publicity, but it would also make for a life strewn with setbacks and obstacles. That Grand Trine is formed into an even more talented Kite by Neptune opposition a Cancer Node, which latter would propel her towards becoming the feeding hands for her family.
Her creative 5th Harmonic was very marked; as was her writers’ 21H.
Greta Gerwig, the director, who is attracting top marks for this effort, was born 4 August 1983 in Sacramento, CA, and also has a peculiarly heavy chart with Saturn Pluto in Libra square Mars in Cancer. She is a Leo Sun trine Uranus and Jupiter in Sagittarius with fits well with Alcott’s; and her Venus Mercury in Virgo also chimes with Alcott’s Venus in Capricorn.
Gerwig looks to have several mountain ranges to climb ahead with tr Pluto opposing her Mars in 2020/21 and then squaring her Pluto Saturn till 2023 Sagittarius Sun so her next project, an improbable Barbie film may prove more of a chore than this one.
Add On:
Louisa’s father Amos Bronson Alcott, born 29 November 1799, was a visionary, philosopher, reformer and cultured man of letters who exercised a profound influence over his friends Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was also an abolitionist and an advocate for women’s rights, though his wife evidently thought he didn’t appreciate her contribution to keeping the family ship afloat.
He was born the same day as Louisa so was a Sun Sagittarius in a controlling square to Pluto on the cusp of his 5th house and trine Saturn in Leo on his Midheaven. He would be attention-demanding, controlling of his children with Pluto in the 5th; a proud man, driven to be thought of as someone of substance. His Saturn squared onto a less than wholesome Mars Neptune in Scorpio so he’d certainly be stubborn. He also had a T Square of Jupiter in Virgo in the educational and philosophical/spiritual 9th house opposition a 3rd house Mercury in Sagittarius squaring a revolutionary Uranus. He wouldn’t be steady but he would always be trying to forge new paths.
He shared Louisa’s Mercury in Sag as well as her Sun; and his Jupiter fell in her 10th so he would be instrumental in making her successful. His Moon was conjunct her Venus which would give a good emotional connection. Despite his temperamental failings they were relatively similar and would have moments where they felt in tune.
Loved the add-on. Thank you!
As a reader who loves your columns and has studied the Alcotts, Bronson Alcott, Louisa’s father, was indeed a financial failure…but I’ve always thought that probably contributed to Louisa’s pragmatism and her determination to be a breadwinner when that was a virtual impossibility for women. Bronson held his own with Emerson and Thoreau, was an important member of the Transcendentalist movement, believed in the Oversoul which foreshadowed modern-day quantum interpretations of Consciousness, and was indeed a visionary educator, far ahead of his time. So…perhaps a failure, but another way of looking at it is that we wouldn’t have Louisa’s books, if her father hadn’t provided such a rich intellectual atmosphere in their home, and the worrying but formative tension between the life of the mind and the realities of the pocketbook that so beautifully informed Little Women. Would love to know a bit about his aspects; his life has always, to me, seemed to have an Aquarian cast.