Plagiariasm is defined as passing someone else’s words or ideas off as one’s own. Effectively stealing. It has long been known in academia and in journalism though there are grey areas in music and the creative arts with arguments over whether ideas or tunes can be copyrightable.
On a quick skip through some high profile examples, what is at first sight counter-intuitive are frequent aspects between Mercury and Saturn in the individual charts. Saturn has a reputation for rigour and sticking to the straight and narrow. But here it might have more to do with a lack of confidence or low self esteem in words/ideas/writing so other authors’ work seem a tempting way of appearing brighter and better.
Journalist Johann Hari, 21 January 1979 was one and he has a Sun Mars in Aquarius opposition Jupiter in Leo so will be temperamentally keen to make a splash – Mars Jupiter can also be opportunistic. His Mercury in Capricorn is trine Saturn North Node in Virgo.
Jayson Blair, 23 March 1976, a NY Times journalist, a desperately ambitious Aries Sun opposition Pluto square Mars; also has Mercury (in Pisces) trine Saturn in Cancer.
Jonah Lehner, 25 June 1981, author/blogger, has his Cancer Sun conjunct Mercury in late Gemini with both square Jupiter Saturn in Libra.
Stephen Glass, 15 September 1972, a former journalist, has a Virgo Sun, Mars, Mercury square Jupiter on one side and Saturn in Gemini on the other.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, 4 January 1943, author, is a Sun Capricorn with her Mercury in Aquarius opposition Pluto and trine Saturn and Uranus as well as Neptune.
Claudine Gay, 4 August 1970, academic, has a Sun Mars in Leo with her Mercury in a squine (105 degree) aspect to Saturn – not really instructive.
My slight impression – in addition to a fair amount of Fire in several charts – is a mix of super-charged ambition combined with worry about weak communication skills is what does the damage. And Saturn as ever always claims its pound of flesh in exposing transgressions.
This is a problem that’s just getting worse and worse, with even small-time creatives getting hit. More so, arguably, than their well-known peers since they have more to lose.
Thanks for the comments, Marjorie and All.
I also wonder if an emphasis on Jupiter (Sagittarius or 9th House) may play a role when we choose to relax or ignore ethics that support Saturn standards and social expectations.
I work as an legal academic and an increasing problem at undergraduate level is plagiarism, or students using AI or ChatGPT to write their text for them.
I have caught lots of plagiarisers in my time, and every time I ask them why they do it. When this involved copying from a friend, most admitted they did it because the assignment was beyond them, and they couldn’t think of any other way to get the assignment done. They usually agree it wasn’t clever.
Then we get those who copy off the internet. They take stuff off the internet without noting where it came from. They later paste it (unreferenced) into their essays, commonly, I suspect, having forgotten that it wasn’t their work to begin with. I usually detect it because it is better written than the rest of their weak essay. Sometimes I can even find on the internet where it came from. When challenged, they say that they didn’t deliberately mean to cheat, and that it seemed a good passage to put in at the time they were writing the essay. Leaving aside whether that it is true, what catches them out is when I ask them, “So you would have been quite happy to take the credit for using other people’s work if I hadn’t spotted you doing so, and thereby potentially getting a mark that doesn’t reflect your true abilities, wouldn’t you?” The only answer to this is “Yes, I suppose so” because that is what has happened. “So why should I give you marks for work you didn’t write?” There’s no answer to that. They don’t want to admit to themselves that they were cheating, even though they also know they were.
But overall, my experience of plagiarising students is that they are or were generally mad, bad or sad. They were mad (or very stupid) to think I wouldn’t notice, and sometimes they genuinely have mental health problems which affect their judgement. They were bad, because they were chancers and knew they were cheating. These are the ones who pay people to write their essays for them. They just don’t get the whole “integrity” thing. They would pay someone to sit their driving test for them. It’s like Trump paying someone to sit his entrance exam at college for him, something Trump has never denied. Trump just didn’t get the idea that he might genuinely need to pass the exam himself and didn’t care about the deceit. The same goes for these cheats. Boris Johnson and Johan Hari made up quotes in their time. That’s why they were both sacked. They knew what they were doing. They thought they’d get away with it.
Then there are the sad, because they were just not up to the job, knew they were not much good and cheated out of desperation. This is often because they are not really cut out for university anyway, or for the degree they are doing. Sometimes they are studying law because their parents are forcing them to study it, and they know they mustn’t let their parents down, even though the task is beyond them. Sometimes it is the parents who need educating, not their children.
I did once have a student who was completely unable to admit that she had cheated. It was absolutely clear how she had cheated and where the plagiarised material came from. She stubbornly refused to admit her guilt. It was like catching the culprit red-handed with the weapon, the dead victim in front of her, witnesses, fingerprints, the lot. No, she didn’t do it. Everyone was wrong but her. I don’t know why she couldn’t admit it. An excess of fixed signs in her chart perhaps. Anyway, we still failed her. But then prisons are full of people who can’t admit their crimes.
I would draw a sharp distinction between plagiarism in an academic thesis – and books. Academics know full well the rigour expected when citing other people’s work.
Politicians and busy people writing a book I’d be more inclined to forgive – writing a full length book is time- consuming and if it has to be fitted into a jam-packed schedule and most likely delegated to researchers and ghost writers all under time pressure the temptation to pack out length will be considerable. Plus mistakes with drafts, source notes etc.
The thing is, that all books unless self published have to go through a very thorough vetting and signing off from Legal in a publishing house, including ghost writers and research contributions and translators. I accept mistakes still slip through but with the availability of plagiarism AI, plus legal it should be very rare.
A while ago Prince Harry had a book out and one of the translations happened to have in additional paragraphs that were negative about the Royal Family. Of course there is no way these additional words would normally make it through the process, it’s just a way to leak ‘information’ you legally could not in your own country, not plagiarism but another way to create a certain narrative through sleight of hand.
I see Tara’s comment on cryptomnesia, and I suspect astrologically a Mercury/Neptune, 12th house Mercury, strong Pisces placements could link to unintentional plagiarism due to an issue with less boundaries in communication but there are intentional plagiarists out there, intent on creating a narrative to their advantage – surprised that Saturn is showing up though, I would have thought Jupiter because you need swagger to try and pass off deliberate plagiarism, or prominant Gemini or Libra in the relevant houses. Kamala Harris who had that recent accusation has Saturn trine Sun and Mercury.
Saturn likes things to be black and white, good or bad and is not so keen on the shades of grey in between. However, human brains are not like this. Mercury/Saturn I think could push a simplistic idea without any of the nuance. Plagiarism accusations, like the one against Kamala Harris, can seem straightforward, but it’s often more complicated than deliberate copying. Sometimes, what looks like plagiarism is actually cryptomnesia – a psychological slip where someone unknowingly reproduces information they’ve come across before, thinking it’s their own.
Cryptomnesia happens when our brain stores information but fails to register where it came from. Later, when we recall it, we mistakenly believe we’ve come up with it ourselves. This can lead to unintentional plagiarism, even in high stakes environments. A public figure like Harris, who handles a lot of material and probably relies on large teams, are especially prone to this sort of memory error. Research has shown that people with a high cognitive load are also especially prone to this type of error.
The similarities between parts of Harris’s book and other sources could be down to cryptomnesia – she may have unintentionally reused content without realising it. This doesn’t excuse the oversight, but it’s worth noting that it might not have been deliberate.
it’s also worth considering the point that as a woman of mixed race, Harris is more likely to face extra scrutiny than many of her male or white peers. Studies show women’s ideas are more often ignored, taken, or repeated by men who then get the credit – what’s been popularised in recent years online as “hepeating”. In fact, Harris is probably more likely to have her own ideas lifted by others, making the situation even more ironic.
These dynamics don’t let her off the hook if mistakes were made, but they do remind us that women of colour often face harsher criticism when things go wrong, even when it’s an honest mistake like cryptomnesia.
Ultimately, plagiarism is a serious issue, but it’s not always intentional. Cryptomnesia shows how easy it is to reproduce someone else’s words without realising. When you throw in the added pressures and biases of being a high profile woman of colour, it’s clear that there may be more to this than simple, intentional intellectual theft. Harris and her team should address the issue, but we should also acknowledge that these situations are rarely as black and white as they first appear.
Unfortunately this makes it challenging to come up with a short, snappy astro signature that covers all examples as they are unlikely to share all of the same factors. But this attempt to police and categorise the pure origin of ideas does seem very Mercury/Saturn
Addendum: Having found Rufo’s original blog it’s worth noting that he is accusing Kamala Harris of lifting whole sections verbatim from other sources. This kind of copying is harder to explain as cryptomnesia. However, when public figures like Harris rely on teams – editors, researchers, or ghostwriters – to pull together content, there’s always a risk of things getting mixed up. Sometimes it’s a matter of sloppily handled notes or drafts getting confused, especially when multiple hands are involved in the process. It shows how crucial it is for public figures to have oversight of their material or anything in their name, even when working with a team. Having said that, I don’t think it will be as bad in most people’s estimation as dodgy past tweets etc., but I can see how it would further fuel a mistrust of “elites” for those already of that mind.
But it almost feels being sold without one receiving a penny…all work usurped by someone else yet facing humiliation for being loser by society instead of justice , of sympathy n remuneration…Saturn, God of Time also seems to do injustice because those whose work gets stolen ,never get their due..neither recognition nor money..even after death..Godless World
Johan Han has Lie sextile Moon. Gauquelin gives Moon for writers.
Mercury is also prominet for writers.
Writers have a prominent Moon, unfortunately we don’t have birth times
for most of these people. However, johan Han has sextile his Moon.
Jaydon Blair has Hades sextile his Mercury, suggesting cheating.
Johan Lehrer has Hades trine his Jupiter-Saturn conjunction.
Stephen Glass has Hades trine Mercury. Doris Goodwin has Mercury trine
Neptune. Claudine Gay has Lie trine Mercury and Hades conj Saturn.
So we came up with Hades and Lie as possible plagiarizers since
they overwhelmingly aspected Mercury and possible Moon.