Paul Auster, author of The New York Trilogy and The Music of Chance has died. He acquired a cult-life following from his Kafkaesque novels in which ‘his protagonists would battle their way through surreal events to be confronted by the realisation that life is meaningless, motivation impossible to fathom and human beings’ sense of their own identity a fragile illusion’, according to one review.
His main thesis was of how chance events can derail or rehabilitate a life. Which is not so surprising since he escaped death by inches in his teens when the boy in front of him was killed by a lightning strike; wrote his first successful novel on the basis of a wrong number phone call which sparked a plot – and later discovered his paternal grandmother had shot his grandfather, with his six year old father within earshot. Auster’s own drug addict estranged son died of an overdose while awaiting trial for the manslaughter through negligence of his 10 month old baby, Auster’s granddaughter.
At which point an astrologer heads for his chart to extract clues as to why his life was so knife-edge, high-stress and catastrophe-prone.
He was born 3 February 1947 12.20am Newark, New Jersey, with his Sun in Aquarius conjunct his IC conjunct Mars and opposition Pluto Saturn in Leo. Sun Mars and Saturn Pluto is heavy-duty, a walk on the dark side, deprived, challenging but giving him grit and perseverance. His Mars Saturn may be an echo of the father who was a bystander at his own father’s death. Luckily Paul Auster had his Mercury square Jupiter in Scorpio in his 1st to give him a streak of optimism.
What intrigued me was his son Daniel, 12 June 1977, who had his Sun Jupiter in Gemini conjunct father Paul Auster’s 8th house Uranus – the drug addict son connected back into his father’s generational trauma of the murdered grandfather with the grandmother later being acquitted on a plea of insanity.
Paul Auster did have Neptune ruling his 5th house of children, with Pisces on the cusp with one drug addict son and a daughter who is musician.
His life may have seemed arbitrary, a series of surreal coincidences but his chart does have crucial clues as to a life pattern that did give even the extreme events which befell and surrounded him a meaningful context. He would not have appreciated astrology.
ADD ON: When Paul Auster had his lucky escape from a lightning strike at 14, Jupiter was highlighted – tr Jupiter conjunct his Sun Mars; SA Jupiter conjunct his South Node; and SA Pluto square his Jupiter. His first breakout publishing success came in the early 1980s on his Jupiter return and perhaps more significantly with his Solar Arc Pluto square SA Sun square his 8th house Uranus – the curse and the blessing of his intergenerational legacy.
Paul Auster appeared to have been obsessed by dead children who appeared in several novels: see https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/daniel-auster-death-paul-auster-novels/
And his own son Daniel walked on the dark side, being a witness to a brutal drug killing involving his associates in the 1990s. He had Mars Venus Chiron Moon in Taurus opposition Uranus square Saturn in Leo – which collided unhappily with his father’s Saturn Pluto opposition Mars Sun. The sins of the past generations all piling up to implode in this one.
Looking at the 5th house for clues on children is interesting, Marjorie. Would you consider doing a write up on how it might play out through the signs?
Thank you. I enjoyed reading Moon Palace. Long time ago. A very hungry book. His life sounds lonely doesn’t it? I imagine it to be dark like an Edward Hopper painting. Unreal but very human all the same.